Download The Aeneid

The Aeneid.
a. Vergil devoted his last ten years to the composition of the Aeneid,
i. a mythological epic in 12 books
ii. describing the 7-year wanderings of the hero Aeneas
1. from the fall of Troy to his military victory in Italy.
b. Aeneas escaped from Troy
i. carrying his aged father on his shoulders
ii. and leading his young son Ascanius by the hand.
c. He assembled a fleet and sailed with the surviving Trojans to
i. Thrace, Crete, Epirus, and Sicily
ii. before being shipwrecked on the coast of Africa.
1. Here Dido, queen of Carthage,
a. fell in love with Aeneas
b. and was driven to suicide on his subsequent
departure.
d. After landing at the mouth of the Tiber River in Italy,
i. Aeneas killed Turnus, king of the Rutulians, in a war for the hand
of Lavinia,
1. princess of Latium.
ii. According to Vergil, the Romans were directly descended from
Ascanius,
1. the founder of Alba Longa, mother city of Rome.
e. The Aeneid is a deliberate attempt by Vergil,
i. at the request of Augustus,
ii. to glorify Rome
1. by celebrating the supposed Trojan origin of its people
and,
2. the achievements and ideals of Rome under its new ruler
f. Timeline of Events Before the Founding of Rome
i. c. 1184 - Fall of Troy
ii. c. 1176 - Aeneas founds Lavinium
iii. c. 1152 - Ascanius founds Alba Longa
iv. c. 1152-753 - Kings of Alba Longa
Alba Longa
Romulus and Remus
I.
According to the Roman legend, Romulus was the founder of Rome and
Remus was his twin brother.
a. Their story begins with their grandfather Numitor, king of the ancient
Italian city of Alba Longa, was deposed by his brother Amulius.
b. Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, was made a Vestal Virgin by Amulius
i. - this means that she was made a priestess of the godess Vesta
ii. and forbidden to marry.
iii. Nevertheless, Mars, the god of war, fell in love with her and she
gave birth to twin sons.
c. Amulius, fearing that the boys would grow up to overthrow him,
i. had them placed in a trough
ii. and thrown into the River Tiber.
II.
At that time the river was in flood,
a. and when the waters fell, the trough, still containing the two boys,
came ashore.
b. They were found by a she-wolf who,
i. instead of killing them,
ii. looked after them and fed them with her milk.
1. for the wolf was sacred to Mars.
c. Later the twins where found by Faustulus,
i. the king's shepherd.
ii. He took them home to his wife and the two adopted them,
1. calling them Romulus and Remus.
iii. They grew up as bold and strong young men,
1. leading a warlike band of shephards.
III.
One day Remus was captured and brought before Numitor for punishment.
a. Numitor noticing how unlike a shepherd's son he was,
i. questioned him
ii. and before long realized who he was.
b. Romulus and Remus than rose against Amulius,
i. killed him
ii. and restored the kingdom to their grandfather.
IV.
Deciding to found a town of their own,
a. Romulus and Remus chose the place where the she-wolf had nursed
them.
b. Romulus began to build walls on the Palatine Hill,
i. but Remus jeered at them because they were so low.
V.
1. He leaped over them to prove this,
2. and Romulus in anger killed him.
c. Romulus continued the building of the new city,
i. naming it Roma (Rome) after his own name.
ii. For the rest of his life Romulus ruled alone,
1. proving himself a great leader in peace and war.
iii. He did not die but disappeared one day in a violent storm.
1. The Romans believing he had been taken up to heaven
worshipped him under the name of Quirinus.
Real Rome
a. It seems unlkely that any part of this legend is true.
i. Almost certainly it is a copy of a Greek tale, invented to explain
the name of Rome and certain customs.
b. Rome is an ideal place for a city.
i. It is located along the banks of the Tiber River.
1. The river made it easy to travel to and from the sea.
2. The Tiber is very shallow near Rome.
a. A shallow portion of a river is called a ford.
b. The ford made it easier for people to cross the
river.
ii. Seven hills surround Rome.
1. The hills make it harder for invaders to approach the
city
2. and served as lookout areas for the Romans.
iii. Rome is also close to
1. excellent farmland
2. and an abundance of wood and stone.
iv. Civilizations have grown and prospered in Rome for thousands
of years, which is why Rome is nicknamed “the Eternal City.”
c. The early Romans lived in small communities that grew into citystates,
i. often ruled by kings from wealthy families.
d. About fifty years after Romulus founded the city,
i. the legends say the Etruscans conquered the Romans.
ii. The Etruscans were brutal rulers who rained terror on the
Roman people.
iii. They were eventually ousted by a group of Roman aristocrats
who founded the Roman Republic.