The Aeneid tells the story of how Troy is destroyed by a Greek army and what happens to the Trojan inhabitants after the city’s fall. Virgil’s hero, Aeneas, is one of the Trojans who manages to escape. Although Virgil’s story is based mainly on legends, the ruins of a city believed to be Troy were discovered in the late 1800s and are still being excavated today. These ruins are located in the northwest corner of modern Turkey (ancient Asia Minor), across the Aegean Sea from Greece. Since the traditional date of the Trojan War is 1184 B.C., it is interesting that one layer of the stacked ruins shows evidence of a war around 1200 B.C.

According to the legends, the Greeks had journeyed to Troy to take back Helen, the wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Helen had been kidnapped by the Trojan prince Paris, who was a guest at Menelaus’s wedding. Assembling the largest army ever seen, the Greeks attacked Troy. The Trojan defenders, led by the great warrior Hector, kept the invaders outside the walls of Troy for ten long years. The Trojan defense was aided by bickering among the opposing Greeks. In spite of their internal problems, the Greeks did not relent in their assault. Unable to pierce Troy’s defenses, the frustrated Greek army finally decided to use guile instead of brute force to infiltrate the city’s defensive walls.

They constructed a massive wooden horse and wheeled it up to the gates of Troy. At the same time, the entire Greek fleet cast off, apparently to return to their homeland. The people of Troy believed that they had finally won. The jubilant Trojans assumed the horse was an offering to the goddess Minerva to atone for the Greeks’ desecration of her temple in their raids. They opened the gates and took the horse inside the city walls. But hidden in the wooden belly were fifty of the Greeks’ best fighters. At night, after the Trojans had finished their victory celebration, the Greeks snuck out of the horse and cut down the few guards on duty. They opened Troy’s gates from within and allowed the rest of the Greek troops, who had sailed secretly back into the harbor, to march in without resistance. Troy was then sacked mercilessly. Led by Aeneas, the remnants of the Trojan forces fled into exile.

While there is no historical proof of the existence of a Trojan named Aeneas, Page 9  |  Top of Articlethere are mythical references to a Prince Aeneas in Greek literature. One such reference occurs in the epic poem the Iliad (also covered in Literature and Its Times). Probably composed in the eighth century B.C. by the poet Homer, the Iliad centers on the tenth year of the Trojan War. Though a Greek work, the tale spends a significant amount of time portraying the Trojan defenders. One of the Trojans depicted in the Iliad is a prince called Aeneas, son of Anchises and Aphrodite, the goddess of love. He is a wise counselor and a strong fighter. In one particular episode, Aeneas meets the fearsome Achilles in combat. Achilles is by far the strongest of all soldiers in the war, and Aeneas has little chance of defeating him. The gods intervene to save Aeneas, however, because he has been chosen to carry on the Trojan line. Poseidon, the god of the sea, explains:

It is for this reason, then, that in the Aeneid Jupiter (the Roman name for Zeus) continually supports the efforts of Aeneas and appears to favor him. As the chief god, Jupiter is obligated to see that the decrees of Fate are carried out. Furthermore, Zeus/Jupiter is one of the ancient ancestors of the house of Troy, and some of his favoritism may stem from this connection.

The Trojans, the Greeks, and the Romans inhabited lands in the region known as the Mediterranean Sea area. While the legendary Troy and Greece were located in the eastern Mediterranean, Italy (home of the Romans) was located further to the west. Not much is known about Italy during the period in which the Trojan War took place. The mainland inhabitants appear to have been primitive tribes with simple cultures. During the early Iron Age (c. 1000-700 B.C.), however, the various groups developed separate languages and identities. The Etruscans were by far the most powerful of these groups. Their advanced culture and superior technology were adopted by nearly all of the Italian tribes. Other tribes included the Sabines, Latins, Volscians, Oscans, Messapians, Auruncans, and Umbrians. The various societies interacted through trade, conquest, and alliances. This complicated state of affairs was utilized by Virgil as the backdrop for the second half of the Aeneid.

In the eighth century B.C. Italy became an even busier region, as merchants from the Greek city-states and the Phoenician empire founded westem colonies to carry out trade there. In fact, one

of Phoenicia’s colonies in North Africa—Carthage—would later become a major rival of the Trojans,

Rome at this time consisted of seven villages linked together for mutual defense. Its early inhabitants were part of the Latin tribe. It was not until 550 B.C. that the seven villages were united to form a recognizable city. The powerful Etruscans took control of the Latins and placed one of their own kings on the throne. Thereafter, Etruscans helped build Rome into a true city. They also reorganized the Latin military structure to make it more efficient, but the knowledge that the Latin Romans gained helped them to drive out the Etruscans four decades later. In 509 B.C. a military expedition led by the last Etruscan king, Tarquin the Proud, was routed by a combined force of Latin Romans and Greeks. The defeat plunged the Etruscans into a state of disarray. The Romans saw their opportunity and overthrew the Etruscan king. The Etruscan monarchy was replaced with a republic that would last until 44 B.C.

The poem begins with a description of the wrath of Juno, goddess of marriage and wife of Jupiter, the father of the gods. Page 10  |  Top of ArticleJuno becomes angered after hearing a prophecy that Aeneas and his descendants will be the founders of a great city. The prophecy conflicts with her own goal, which is to have the inhabitants of her favorite city, Carthage, become the rulers of the world. She sends a furious storm to wreck the fleet of Trojan survivors, who are led

by Aeneas. Ironically, the storm shipwrecks the fleet on the shores of northern Africa near the city of Carthage. Aeneas, who was separated from the rest of the Trojans in the storm, is aided by his mother, Venus (the Roman name for Aphrodite), who is the goddess of love. Aeneas and Venus enter Carthage hidden in a cloud. In this manner, no one notices the two of them or questions their presence. Once inside Carthage, Aeneas encounters Dido, the queen of the Carthaginians, who has already met and welcomed the other Trojans from whom Aeneas had become separated. The cloud that is covering Aeneas melts away. Dido welcomes him and holds a feast for the Trojans, during which she falls in love with Aeneas. Ignorant of her love for him, Aeneas relates the story of the fall of Troy and the Trojans adventures before reaching the shores of Carthage.

He recounts how a Greek named Sinon deceived the Trojans into taking the wooden “Trojan horse” inside the city walls. Aeneas tells of the final battle and how the gods themselves participated in the destruction of Troy. He describes his escape, explaining how he carried his father Anchises on his shoulders and took his son Ascanius by the hand. Ghosts and divinities subsequently directed Aeneas to establish a new Troy. Acting on those prophesies, he collected the survivors from the fallen city and escaped in a fleet of ships.

Aeneas notes that, after leaving Troy, the Trojans stopped many times and attempted to found new cities. But each time the gods drove him onward, instructing him to return to his forefathers’ homeland. On occasion Aeneas and his people encountered monsters in their travels. Ferocious beasts such as the Harpies—creatures that are half-woman and half-bird—and the Cyclops—one-eyed giants who eat men—threatened Aeneas and his followers on their voyage.

After the feast, Dido invites Aeneas and his people to stay and help build Carthage. Aeneas agrees and settles down for a year. He even marries Dido secretly. Jupiter, however, sends down a messenger to spur Aeneas on again. He is thus forced to leave Carthage, even though Dido begs him not to go. After Aeneas’s departure, Dido utters a curse in which she vows that Rome and Carthage will never know peace with each other. She then commits suicide, throwing herself on a burning pyre.

The Trojans proceed to Sicily, where other survivors from Troy have founded a city of their own. Aeneas and his people celebrate their arrival by having many contests: sailing, racing, archery, and boxing. Pressing onward despite further interference from the goddess Juno, Aeneas reaches the shrine of the Sibyl, a prophetess. She warns of the toils that the Trojans will face upon finally reaching mainland Italy. Undaunted, Aeneas declares that he is not afraid and asks if he may descend into the underworld to speak with the spirit of his father, who has died. The Sibyl states that only by finding and claiming a certain golden branch in the forest can Aeneas visit Anchises’ ghost. She cautions him that the branch will only break loose for the one who has been fated to find it. Fortunately, when Aeneas finds the golden bough it yields to him. He then travels through Hades, the underworld. Hades, the Sibyl explains, is divided into two Page 11  |  Top of Articleparts: Tartarus, where wrongdoers are punished, and Elysium, a paradise for heroes, philosophers, and honest men. Aeneas is allowed to visit Elysium, where the ghost of his father resides. Anchises shows Aeneas all of the future generations that will spring from Ascanius, Aeneas’s son. Among them are Romulus, founder of the city of Rome; Julius Caesar, famous general and leader; and Octavius Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome.

Aeneas then leaves Hades, embarks on his ship, and finally arrives in Italy. The Trojans set up a fortified camp and prepare a treaty with the Latins, the local tribe. The treaty is to be sealed by the marriage of Aeneas to Lavinia, the Latin king’s daughter. But again Juno intervenes. She summons Allecto (one of the Furies, or avenging goddesses) to sow discord between the Trojans and Latins, a gambit that results in war.

The combined might of Italy’s tribes, including Latins, Rutulians, Volscians, Auruncans, Sabines, and others, is thrown against the Trojans. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, the Trojans fare badly. At one point, Aeneas leaves with most of the soldiers to form another alliance with the Arcadians and Etruscans. The remaining Trojans stay inside their fortified encampment, refusing to leave its safety even though they consider such behavior dishonorable. This tactic buys them enough time for Aeneas to bring back reinforcements. When Aeneas does return, the tide turns against the enemy army. The Trojans then march on to the home city of the Latins and lay siege to it.

Determined to end the bloodshed, Aeneas challenges an enemy prince, Turnus, to a duel to decide which side shall be victorious. But Juno again intercedes, this time using her divine powers to stir up the Latins so that they will break the agreement to abide by the results of the duel. Her strategy works. The Latins attack without warning, and the duel does not take place.

During the ensuing battle, the goddess Juno keeps Turnus out of Aeneas’s reach. But she protects Turnus only until she has gained an important concession from Jupiter: his decree that, although victorious in the battle with their enemies, the Trojans will lose their identity and be known forever after as Latins. Turnus is then slain in a duel with Aeneas after a mighty battle. The poem abruptly ends at that point.

An outstanding feature of Virgil’s characterization of Aeneas is the hero’s ability to feel sympathy for others, even his most dire enemy. When Queen Dido begs Aeneas not to leave, Virgil allows his readers a glimpse into his hero’s heart, showing the burden that destiny has placed on his shoulders:

The fact that Aeneas forges ahead makes him a hero, especially because the reader has seen the force of the love that he must overcome. Later in the poem, Virgil again gives us insight into Aeneas’s psyche. In the final scene, Aeneas has at last bested his rival Turnus, who kneels at Aeneas’s feet. Turnus asks for Aeneas’s compassion, although he admits he has earned his fate:

Aeneas is nearly swayed:

In the end, Aeneas does kill Turnus. Nevertheless, the fact that Aeneas hesitates from striking down his worst enemy is a strong example of the hero’s moral character. Indeed, it seems that Virgil believes the ability to have compassion is important, a message that he perhaps wanted to share with the society of his time. The narrative of the Aeneid indicates that Aeneas’s beliefs in this regard were perhaps influenced by Anchises. In his visit to the underworld, Aeneas was given the following advice by his father: “Roman, remember by your strength to rule/Earth’s peoples—for your arts are to be these: /to pacify, to impose the rule of law,/to spare the conquered, battle down the proud” (The Aeneid, bk. 6, lines 1151-54).

One of Virgil’s objectives in writing the Aeneid was to combine the myth of Aeneas and the history of Rome. Virgil, however, was not the first Roman writer to connect Aeneas to the history of Rome. The tale of Aeneas was actually well known by the time Virgil began writing. One of the first written forms of the myth of Aeneas was authored by the poet and soldier Naevius in the third century B.C. His epic about Rome’s history began with the story of Aeneas and culminated in battle between Rome and Carthage. Scholars believe that Virgil held Naevius in high regard and that he probably derived some of his ideas from Naevius’s work. Another important source for Virgil was the Roman poet Ennius (239-169 B.C.), who wrote a versified chronicle of Roman history from its Trojan beginnings.

Naevius lived to see only the First Punic (Carthaginian) War; two even more devastating wars between Rome and Carthage followed. The Romans were disturbed that the resilient Carthaginians seemed only to grow stronger after their first defeat. This concern spurred the decision by the Roman Senate to completely destroy the city of Carthage. In 146 B.C. the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus razed the city and sowed the ground with salt. Virgil attempts to explain the roots of the bitter rivalry between the cities in his poem.

The character of Dido was based on the legendary founder of Carthage, Queen Elissa. In reality, however, the lovers Aeneas and Dido could never have met—Aeneas was a contemporary of the Trojan War, which probably took place in the twelfth century B.C., while Carthage was founded much later, in 814 B.C.

Virgil includes references to real-life people and events in a more limited way as well. In the Second Punic War, the Carthaginians were led by Hannibal, a brilliant general who, in fifteen years, was never defeated on the battlefield. The cond Punic W beat the Carthaginians were way by avoiding a direct confrontation with Hannibal. The Roman soldiers, concerned that they could not defeat him in battle, remained in their fortified towns and awaited the return of their finest general, Scipio Africanus (grandfather of Scipio Aemilianus), from Spain. Hannibal could not storm the towns because he lacked the appropriate equipment. Virgil could very well have drawn on that episode in Roman history, for a similar situation unfolds in his poem when the Trojans face the tribes of Italy. When Virgil’s Trojans refuse to give battle to the Rutulians:

Just as the Trojans awaited Aeneas’s return, the real-life Romans held out until their best general could return from Spain.

Rome had formed a republic in 509 B.C. after driving out the Etruscan kings. Though it lasted until 44 B.C., the final fifty years of the republic were full of chaos. In 90 B.C. Roman subjects throughout Italy revolted, and the next two decades featured seven major slave rebellions. In addition, Rome experienced a civil war in 82 B.C. that caused significant bloodshed. Adding to the carnage of that conflict was the revenge that individuals such as the general Lucius Cornelius Sulla took on their opponents in the war. Sulla, the victor of the civil war, made a list of all his enemies and decreed that anyone whose name was on the list could be killed; those who murdered his foes would receive a reward. Following Sulla’s dictatorship, Rome was subjected to still more internal struggles. Julius Caesar eventually emerged triumphant. Conquering his opponents, he was named dictator for life, though his reign lasted only until March 15, 44 B.C., when he was murdered by a group of senators. Virgil, a twenty-six-year-old student in Rome at the time, witnessed these events. Virgil subsequently retreated Page 13  |  Top of Articleto his home in northern Italy, away from all of the turmoil in Rome.

Before his death, Julius Caesar had named his great-nephew Octavian (Octavius Caesar) as his successor. Many disputed Octavian’s claim on the throne, however. More wars erupted as Octavian fought a number of foes, including the generals Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus, for control of Rome. In 42 B.C. the three factions reached a truce and divided the rule of Rome equally among themselves.

Octavian needed to pay the troops that had supported him during the war, so he commanded that lands be taken away from others and given to his soldiers. Virgil’s farm in Mantua was confiscated by one of Octavian’s legionnaires as a part of this effort. Legend has it that through the influence of powerful friends, Virgil was given back his farm, but this is probably not true. Despite any conflict over the property, Octavian ultimately became Virgil’s supporter as a patron of the arts and the direct sponsor of the Aeneid.

In the meantime, the truce had broken down. Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian resumed their battle to gain the upper hand. The contest eventually came down to just Antony and Octavian. In 31 B.C., at the battle of Actium, a naval engagement took place that secured Octavian’s place as the sole ruler of Rome. Virgil was a strong supporter of the new ruler, who was granted all the powers of an emperor. Virgil glorified Octavian’s triumph by describing the battle of Actium in the Aeneid in a scene that displays this battle of the future on a shield made for Aeneas by Vulcan, the god of fire. In the poem, the purpose of the shield is to inspire Aeneas by giving him a glimpse of the future glory of Rome. In real life, it reflected Virgil’s high regard for Octavian, which probably stemmed from the fact that the new ruler finally brought peace to Italy after his defeat of Antony.

After Octavian assumed the position of emperor, he set out to consolidate all of Rome’s territory. Rome entered a period of un-equaled prosperity and peace that Virgil describes as “an Age of Gold” (The Aeneid, bk. 6, line 1065), though he only lived to see the beginning of this era. Octavian gained the title pater patriae, “father of the country,” and also became known as the “divine Augustus.” After he died, the Senate enrolled him among the gods of the Roman state.

Octavian also worked to shape the morality of the Roman people. He attempted to bring back previously extinct religious rites from the Roman past such as the worship of ancient deities and the organization of secret brotherhoods. He hoped to set an example for the Romans of his day by referring back to the proud heritage of their ancestors. In the spirit of those reforms, Octavian was in favor of Virgil’s work on the Aeneid since the poem recounted a glorious tale of Rome’s founding.

In 19 B.C. Virgil, still trying to finish revising the Aeneid, was returning from Greece when he suddenly became ill and died. He had given specific instructions to his two closest friends to destroy the manuscript of the poem if anything should happen to him. Octavian forbade it, however, ordering that the work be published as it was. He already knew the caliber of the work since Virgil had read several sections of the poem to him and his wife.