David Bird Founding myths Aeneas Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598. Galleria Borghese, Rome.The national epic of mythical Rome, theAeneid of Virgil, tells the story of how the Trojan prince Aeneas came to Italy. The Aeneid was written under Augustus, who claimed ancestry through Julius Caesar from the hero and his mother Venus. According to the Aeneid, the survivors from the fallen city of Troybanded together under Aeneas, underwent a series of adventures around the Mediterranean Sea, including a stop at newly foundedCarthage under the rule of Queen Dido, and eventually reached the Italian coast. The Trojans were thought to have landed in an area between modernAnzio and Fiumicino, southwest of Rome: probably at Laurentum, or in other versions, at Lavinium, a place named for Lavinia, the daughter of KingLatinus, whom Aeneas married. This started a series of armed conflicts withTurnus over the marriage of Lavinia.[3]Before the arrival of Aeneas, Turnus was engaged to Lavinia who then married Aeneas starting the war.[3]Aeneas won the war and killed Turnus.[3] The Trojans won the right to stay and to assimilate with the local peoples. The young son of Aeneas,Ascanius, also known as Iulus, went on to found Alba Longa and the line of Alban kings who filled the chronological gap between the Trojan saga and the traditional founding of Rome in the 8th century BC.Toward the end of this line, King Procaswas the father of Numitor and Amulius. At Procas death, Numitor became king of Alba Longa, but Amulius captured him and sent him to prison; he also forced the daughter of Numitor, Rhea Silvia, to become a virgin priestess among the Vestals. For many years Amulius was then the king. The tortuous nature of the chronology is indicated by Rhea Silvias ordination among the Vestals, whose order was traditionally said to have been founded by the successor of Romulus, Numa Pompilius.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 11:53:11 +0000