Introduction:

There are three primary sources for Unit 8: selections from Apollodorus’ Library, selections from Virgil’s Aeneid, and selections from Livy’s From the Founding of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita). 

As you read these texts think about the stories we tell about our origins or, more specifically, that you tell about your origins.

Also, consider, why do you think it is common for cities to have two foundations, one foreign and one indigenous?

Apollodorus Bibliotheka on Theban Myths, translated by J. G. Frazer, from website Theoi.com

The Library (Biblioteka in Greek) is a prose text, composed in Greek during the 1st or 2nd century CE. It is essentially a compilation of mythology’s greatest hits. As this is a compendium, the text is written in a very clear and linear form, and it is arranged in three books. The author, a certain Apollodorus, must have had access to a large number of earlier primary sources, as demonstrated by the fact that he references different traditions. You have previously read selections from Apollodorus’ Library for Unit 2: Zeus and His Dysfunctional Family.

Don’t worry about keeping track of all the names! Just try to follow the themes of the story and pay attention to the names and stories that you recognize from the units we have already done this term.

[3.1.1] Having now run over the family of Inachus and described them from Belus down to the Heraclids, we have next to speak of the house of Agenor. For as I have said,¹ Libya had by Poseidon two sons, Belus and Agenor. Now Belus reigned over the Egyptians and begat the aforesaid sons; but Agenor went to Phoenicia, married Telephassa, and begat a daughter Europa and three sons, Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix.² But some say that Europa was a daughter not of Agenor but of Phoenix.³ Zeus loved her, and turning himself into a tame bull, he mounted her on his back and conveyed her through the sea to Crete.⁴ There Zeus bedded with her, and she bore Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys⁵; but according to Homer, Sarpedon was a son of Zeus by Laodamia, daughter of Bellerophon.⁶ On the disappearance of Europa her father Agenor sent out his sons in search of her, telling them not to return until they had found Europa. With them her mother, Telephassa, and Thasus, son of Poseidon, or according to Pherecydes, of Cilix,⁷ went forth in search of her. But when, after diligent search, they could not find Europa, they gave up the thought of returning home, and took up their abode in diverse places; Phoenix settled in Phoenicia; Cilix settled near Phoenicia, and all the country subject to himself near the river Pyramus he called Cilicia; and Cadmus and Telephassa took up their abode in Thrace and in like manner Thasus founded a city Thasus in an island off Thrace and dwelt there.⁸

 [3.4.1] When Telephassa died, Cadmus buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to Delphi to inquire about Europa. The god told him not to trouble about Europa, but to be guided by a cow, and to found a city wherever she should fall down for weariness.³¹ After receiving such an oracle he journeyed through Phocis; then falling in with a cow among the herds of Pelagon, he followed behind it. And after traversing Boeotia, it sank down where is now the city of Thebes. Wishing to sacrifice the cow to Athena, he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of Ares. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of Ares, guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation Cadmus killed the dragon, and by the advice of Athena sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called Sparti.³² These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when Cadmus saw armed men growing up out of the ground, he flung stones at them, and they, supposing that they were being pelted by each other, came to blows. However, five of them survived, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelorus…³³

…Zeus gave him (Cadmus) to wife Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. And all the gods quitted the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns.³⁵ Cadmus gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by Hephaestus, which some say was given to Cadmus by Hephaestus, but Pherecydes says that it was given by Europa, who had received it from Zeus.³⁶ And to Cadmus were born daughters, Autonoe, Ino, Semele, Agave, and a son Polydorus.³⁷ Ino was married to Athamas, Autonoe to Aristaeus, and Agave to Echion.

[3.4.3] But Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her unknown to Hera.³⁸ Now Zeus had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera she asked that he would come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele expired of fright, and Zeus, snatching the sixth-month abortive child³⁹ from the fire, sewed it in his thigh. On the death of Semele the other daughters of Cadmus spread a report that Semele had bedded with a mortal man, and had falsely accused Zeus, and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But at the proper time Zeus undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus, and entrusted him to Hermes. And he conveyed him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to rear him as a girl…⁴⁰ 

[3.4.4] …Autonoe and Aristaeus had a son Actaeon, who was bred by Chiron to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on Cithaeron by his own dogs.⁴⁷ He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus, because Zeus was angry at him for wooing Semele; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw Artemis bathing. And they say that the goddess at once transformed him into a deer, and drove mad the fifty dogs in his pack, which devoured him unwittingly…

[3.5.1] …Dionysus discovered the vine,⁴⁸ and being driven mad by Hera⁴⁹ he roamed about Egypt and Syria…

[3.5.2] …Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there,⁵⁶ he came to Thebes, and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy on Cithaeron. But Pentheus, whom Agave bore to Echion, had succeeded Cadmus in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to these proceedings. And coming to Cithaeron to spy on the Bacchanals, he was torn limb from limb by his mother Agave in a fit of madness; for she thought he was a wild beast.⁵⁷ And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, Dionysus came to Argos, and there again, because they did not honor him, he drove the women mad, and they on the mountains devoured the flesh of the infants whom they carried at their breasts…⁵⁸

[3.5.5] … [Zeus had intercourse with Antiope, the niece of the king of Thebes (Lycus) and] she gave birth to two sons at Eleurethae in Boeotia. The infants were exposed, but a cowherd found and reared them, and he called the one Zethus and the other Amphion. Now Zethus paid attention to cattle-breeding, but Amphion practised minstrelsy, for Hermes had given him a lyre.⁶⁶ But Lycus and his wife Dirce imprisoned Antiope and treated her despitefully. Howbeit, one day her bonds were loosed of themselves, and unknown to her keepers she came to her sons’ cottage, begging that they would take her in. They recognized their mother and slew Lycus, but Dirce they tied to a bull, and flung her dead body into the spring that is called Dirce after her. And having succeeded to the sovereignty they fortified the city, the stones following Amphion’s lyre⁶⁷; and they expelled Laius.⁶⁸ He resided in Peloponnese, being hospitably received by Pelops; and while he taught Chrysippus, the son of Pelops, to drive a chariot, he conceived a passion for the lad and carried him off….⁶⁹

[3.5.7] …After Amphion’s death Laius succeeded to the kingdom. And he married a daughter of Menoeceus; some say that she was Jocasta, and some that she was Epicasta.⁷³ The oracle had warned him not to beget a son, for the son that should be begotten would kill his father; nevertheless, flushed with wine, he had intercourse with his wife. And when the babe was born he pierced the child’s ankles with brooches and gave it to a herdsman to expose. But the herdsman exposed it on Cithaeron; and the cowherds of Polybus, king of Corinth, found the infant and brought it to his wife Periboea.⁷⁴ She adopted him and passed him off as her own, and after she had healed his ankles she called him Oedipus, giving him that name on account of his swollen feet.⁷⁵ When the boy grew up and excelled his fellows in strength, they spitefully twitted him with being supposititious. He inquired of Periboea, but could learn nothing; so he went to Delphi and inquired about his true parents. The god told him not to go to his native land, because he would murder his father and lie with his mother. On hearing that, and believing himself to be the son of his nominal parents, he left Corinth, and riding in a chariot through Phocis he fell in with Laius driving in a chariot in a certain narrow road.⁷⁶ And when Polyphontes, the herald of Laius, ordered him to make way and killed one of his horses because he disobeyed and delayed, Oedipus in a rage killed both Polyphontes and Laius, and arrived in Thebes.

[3.5.8] Laius was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea,⁷⁷ and Creon, son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign a heavy calamity befell Thebes. For Hera sent the Sphinx,⁷⁸ whose mother was Echidna and her father Typhon; and she had the face of a woman, the breast and feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird. And having learned a riddle from the Muses, she sat on Mount Phicium, and propounded it to the Thebans. And the riddle was this: — What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed? Now the Thebans were in possession of an oracle which declared that they should be rid of the Sphinx whenever they had read her riddle; so they often met and discussed the answer, and when they could not find it the Sphinx used to snatch away one of them and gobble him up. When many had perished, and last of all Creon’s son Haemon, Creon made proclamation that to him who should read the riddle he would give both the kingdom and the wife of Laius. On hearing that, Oedipus found the solution, declaring that the riddle of the Sphinx referred to man; for as a babe he is four-footed, going on four limbs, as an adult he is two-footed, and as an old man he gets besides a third support in a staff. So the Sphinx threw herself from the citadel, and Oedipus both succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his mother, and begat sons by her, Polynices and Eteocles, and daughters, Ismene and Antigone.⁷⁹ But some say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas.⁸⁰

[3.5.9] When the secret afterwards came to light, Jocasta hanged herself in a noose,⁸¹ and Oedipus was driven from Thebes, after he had put out his eyes and cursed his sons, who saw him cast out of the city without lifting a hand to help him.⁸² And having come with Antigone to Colonus in Attica, where is the precinct of the Eumenides, he sat down there as a suppliant, was kindly received by Theseus, and died not long afterwards.⁸³

[3.6.1] Now Eteocles and Polynices made a compact with each other concerning the kingdom and resolved that each should rule alternately for a year at a time.⁸⁴ Some say that Polynices was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed over the kingdom to Eteocles; but some say that Eteocles was the first to rule, and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, Polynices came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe.⁸⁵ The king of Argos was Adrastus, son of Talaus; and Polynices went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with Tydeus, son of Oeneus, who had fled from Calydon.⁸⁶ At the sudden outcry Adrastus appeared and parted them, and remembering the words of a certain seer who told him to yoke his daughters in marriage to a boar and a lion,⁸⁷ he accepted them both as bridegrooms, because they had on their shields, the one the forepart of a boar, and the other the forepart of a lion.⁸⁸ And Tydeus married Deipyle, and Polynices married Argia⁸⁹; and Adrastus promised that he would restore them both to their native lands. And first he was eager to march against Thebes, and he mustered the chiefs…

[3.6.3] …Having mustered an army with seven leaders, Adrastus hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these⁹²: Adrastus, son of Talaus; Amphiaraus, son of Oicles; Capaneus, son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but Polynices, son of Oedipus, came from Thebes; Tydeus, son of Oeneus, was an Aetolian; Parthenopaeus, son of Melanion, was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not reckon Tydeus and Polynices among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis,⁹³ and Mecisteus⁹⁴ in the list of the seven…

[3.6.5] …When they came to Cithaeron, they sent Tydeus to tell Eteocles in advance that he must cede the kingdom to Polynices, as they had agreed among themselves. As Eteocles paid no heed to the message, Tydeus, by way of putting the Thebans to the proof, challenged them to single combat and was victorious in every encounter; and though the Thebans set fifty armed men to lie in wait for him as he went away, he slew them all but Maeon, and then came to the camp.⁹⁸

[3.6.6] Having armed themselves, the Argives approached the walls⁹⁹; and as there were seven gates, Adrastus was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, Capaneus at the Ogygian, Amphiaraus at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices at the Hypsistan,¹⁰⁰ Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and Tydeus at the Crenidian.¹⁰¹ Eteocles on his side armed the Thebans, and having appointed leaders to match those of the enemy in number, he put the battle in array, and resorted to divination to learn how they might overcome the foe.

[3.6.7] Now there was among the Thebans a soothsayer, Tiresias, son of Everes and a nymph Chariclo, of the family of Udaeus, the Spartan,¹⁰² and he had lost the sight of his eyes. Different stories are told about his blindness and his power of soothsaying. For some say that he was blinded by the gods because he revealed their secrets to men. But Pherecydes says that he was blinded by Athena¹⁰³; for Chariclo was dear to Athena . . . and Tiresias saw the goddess stark naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, and so rendered him sightless. And when Chariclo asked her to restore his sight, she could not do so, but by cleansing his ears she caused him to understand every note of birds; and she gave him a staff of cornel-wood,¹⁰⁴ wherewith he walked like those who see. But Hesiod says that he beheld snakes copulating on Cyllene, and that having wounded them he was turned from a man into a woman, but that on observing the same snakes copulating again, he became a man.¹⁰⁵ Hence, when Hera and Zeus disputed whether the pleasures of love are felt more by women or by men, they referred to him for a decision. He said that if the pleasures of love be reckoned at ten, men enjoy one and women nine. Wherefore Hera blinded him, but Zeus bestowed on him the art of soothsaying. The saying of Tiresias to Zeus and Hera: “Of ten parts a man enjoys one only; but a woman enjoys the full ten parts in her heart.” ¹⁰⁶ He also lived to a great age…

[3.6.8]  …As many fell [in the battle], Eteocles and Polynices, by the resolution of both armies, fought a single combat for the kingdom, and slew each other…¹⁰⁹ 

[3.7.1] Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes, Creon cast out the Argive dead unburied, issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But Antigone, one of the daughters of Oedipus, stole the body of Polynices, and secretly buried it, and having been detected by Creon himself, she was interred alive in the grave.¹¹⁵ Adrastus fled to Athens¹¹⁶ and took refuge at the altar of Mercy,¹¹⁷ and laying on it the suppliant’s bough¹¹⁸ he prayed that they would bury the dead. And the Athenians marched with Theseus, captured Thebes, and gave the dead to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of Capaneus was burning, his wife Evadne, the daughter of Iphis, thew herself on the pyre, and was burned with him.¹¹⁹

[3.7.2] Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the Epigoni, purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers¹²⁰; and when they consulted the oracle, the god predicted victory under the leadership of Alcmaeon.

 

Excerpts from Virgil Aeneid, translated by A.S. Kline

The Aeneid, an epic poem written by Virgil between 29-19 BCE is probably the most famous work of Latin literature. It tells the story of the hero Aeneas’ escape from Troy after the Trojan War and his perilous journey to Italy where he would found a city that would one day lead to the foundation of Rome. Aeneas, if you recall from Unit 5, was the son of the goddess Venus (Aphrodite) and the Trojan shepherd Anchises. He fought on the side of the Trojans in the Trojan War (recall the vase painting from Unit 6).

In the selections from the poem, we hear about the future that Jupiter prophesies for Aeneas and his descendants, the most famous of whom will be the twins Romulus and Remus, sons of the god Mars (Ares) and Aeneas’ great-great-great-great-great-great (not really sure how many greats) granddaughter, Rhea Silvia.

BOOK 1

BKI:257-296 JUPITER’S PROPHECY TO VENUS

‘Don’t be afraid, Cytherea, your child’s fate remains unaltered:

You’ll see the city of Lavinium, and the walls I promised,

and you’ll raise great-hearted Aeneas high, to the starry sky:

No thought has changed my mind. This son of yours

(since this trouble gnaws at my heart, I’ll speak,

and unroll the secret scroll of destiny)

will wage a mighty war in Italy, destroy proud peoples,

and establish laws, and city walls, for his warriors,

until a third summer sees his reign in Latium, and

three winter camps pass since the Rutulians were beaten.

But the boy Ascanius, surnamed Iulus now (he was Ilus

while the Ilian kingdom was a reality) will imperially

complete thirty great circles of the turning months,

and transfer his throne from its site at Lavinium,

and mighty in power, will build the walls of Alba Longa.

Here kings of Hector’s race will reign now

for three hundred years complete, until a royal priestess,

Ilia, heavy with child, shall bear Mars twins.

Then Romulus will further the race, proud in his nurse

the she-wolf’s tawny pelt, and found the walls of Mars,

and call the people Romans, from his own name.

I’ve fixed no limits or duration to their possessions:

I’ve given them empire without end. Why, harsh Juno

who now torments land, and sea and sky with fear,

will respond to better judgement, and favour the Romans,

masters of the world, and people of the toga, with me.

So it is decreed. A time will come, as the years glide by,

when the Trojan house of Assaracus will force Phthia

into slavery, and be lords of beaten Argos.

From this glorious source a Trojan Caesar will be born,

who will bound the empire with Ocean, his fame with the stars,

Augustus, a Julius, his name descended from the great Iulus.

You, no longer anxious, will receive him one day in heaven,

burdened with Eastern spoils: he’ll be called to in prayer.

Then with wars abandoned, the harsh ages will grow mild:

White haired Trust, and Vesta, Quirinus with his brother Remus

will make the laws: the gates of War, grim with iron,

and narrowed by bars, will be closed: inside impious Rage will roar

frighteningly from blood-stained mouth, seated on savage weapons,

hands tied behind his back, with a hundred knots of bronze.’

BOOK 6

BKVI:752-776 THE FUTURE RACE – THE ALBAN KINGS

Anchises had spoken, and he drew the Sibyl and his son, both

together, into the middle of the gathering and the murmuring crowd,

and chose a hill from which he could see all the long ranks

opposite, and watch their faces as they came by him.

‘Come, I will now explain what glory will pursue the children

of Dardanus, what descendants await you of the Italian race,

illustrious spirits to march onwards in our name, and I will teach

you your destiny. See that boy, who leans on a headless spear,

he is fated to hold a place nearest the light, first to rise

to the upper air, sharing Italian blood, Silvius, of Alban name,

your last-born son, who your wife Lavinia, late in your old age,

will give birth to in the wood, a king and the father of kings,

through whom our race will rule in Alba Longa.

Next to him is Procas, glory of the Trojan people,

and Capys and Numitor, and he who’ll revive your name,

Silvius Aeneas, outstanding like you in virtue and arms,

if he might at last achieve the Alban throne.

What men! See what authority they display,

their foreheads shaded by the civic oak-leaf crown!

They will build Nomentum, Gabii, and Fidenae’s city:

Collatia’s fortress in the hills, Pometii

and the Fort of Inus, and Bola, and Cora.

Those will be names that are now nameless land.

BKVI:777-807 THE FUTURE RACE – ROMULUS AND THE CAESARS

Yes, and a child of Mars will join his grandfather to accompany him,

Romulus, whom his mother Ilia will bear, of Assaracus’s line.

See how Mars’s twin plumes stand on his crest, and his father

marks him out for the world above with his own emblems?

Behold, my son, under his command glorious Rome

will match earth’s power and heaven’s will, and encircle

seven hills with a single wall, happy in her race of men:

as Cybele, the Berecynthian ‘Great Mother’, crowned

with turrets, rides through the Phrygian cities, delighting

in her divine children, clasping a hundred descendants,

all gods, all dwelling in the heights above.

Now direct your eyes here, gaze at this people,

your own Romans. Here is Caesar, and all the offspring

of Iulus destined to live under the pole of heaven.

This is the man, this is him, whom you so often hear

promised you, Augustus Caesar, son of the Deified,

who will make a Golden Age again in the fields

where Saturn once reigned, and extend the empire beyond

the Libyans and the Indians (to a land that lies outside the zodiac’s belt,

beyond the sun’s ecliptic and the year’s, where sky-carrying Atlas

turns the sphere, inset with gleaming stars, on his shoulders):

Even now the Caspian realms, and Maeotian earth,

tremble at divine prophecies of his coming, and

the restless mouths of the seven-branched Nile are troubled.

Truly, Hercules never crossed so much of the earth,

though he shot the bronze-footed Arcadian deer, brought peace

to the woods of Erymanthus, made Lerna tremble at his bow:

nor did Bacchus, who steers his chariot, in triumph, with reins

made of vines, guiding his tigers down from Nysa’s high peak.

Do we really hesitate still to extend our power by our actions,

and does fear prevent us settling the Italian lands?

BKVI:808-853 THE FUTURE RACE – REPUBLIC AND BEYOND

Who is he, though, over there, distinguished by his olive branches,

carrying offerings? I know the hair and the white-bearded chin

of a king of Rome, Numa, called to supreme authority

from little Cures’s poverty-stricken earth, who will secure

our first city under the rule of law. Then Tullus

will succeed him who will shatter the country’s peace,

and call to arms sedentary men, ranks now unused to triumphs.

The over-boastful Ancus follows him closely,

delighting too much even now in the people’s opinion.

Will you look too at Tarquin’s dynasty, and the proud spirit

of Brutus the avenger, the rods of office reclaimed?

He’ll be the first to win a consul’s powers and the savage axes,

and when the sons foment a new civil war, the father

will call them to account, for lovely freedom’s sake:

ah, to be pitied, whatever posterity says of his actions:

his love of country will prevail, and great appetite for glory.

Ah, see over there, the Decii and Drusi, and Torquatus

brutal with the axe, and Camillus rescuing the standards.

But those others, you can discern, shining in matching armour,

souls in harmony now, while they are cloaked in darkness,

ah, if they reach the light of the living, what civil war

what battle and slaughter, they’ll cause, Julius Caesar,

the father-in-law, down from the Alpine ramparts, from the fortress

of Monoecus: Pompey, the son-in-law, opposing with Eastern forces.

My sons, don’t inure your spirits to such wars,

never turn the powerful forces of your country on itself:

You be the first to halt, you, who derive your race from heaven:

hurl the sword from your hand, who are of my blood!

There’s Mummius: triumphing over Corinth, he’ll drive his chariot,

victorious, to the high Capitol, famed for the Greeks he’s killed:

and Aemilius Paulus, who, avenging his Trojan ancestors, and Minerva’s

desecrated shrine, will destroy Agamemnon’s Mycenae, and Argos,

and Perseus the Aeacid himself, descendant of war-mighty Achilles.

Who would pass over you in silence, great Cato, or you Cossus,

or the Gracchus’s race, or the two Scipios, war’s lightning bolts,

the scourges of Libya, or you Fabricius, powerful in poverty,

or you, Regulus Serranus, sowing your furrow with seed?

Fabii, where do you hurry my weary steps? You, Fabius

Maximus, the Delayer, are he who alone renew our State.

Others (I can well believe) will hammer out bronze that breathes

with more delicacy than us, draw out living features

from the marble: plead their causes better, trace with instruments

the movement of the skies, and tell the rising of the constellations:

remember, Roman, it is for you to rule the nations with your power,

(that will be your skill) to crown peace with law,

to spare the conquered, and subdue the proud.’

BOOK 8

Aeneas, the leader, and the young men chosen for war,

arrived, and refreshed their horses and their weary bodies.

Then Venus, bright goddess, came bearing gifts through

the ethereal clouds: and when she saw her son from far away

who had retired in secret to the valley by the cool stream,

she went to him herself, unasked, and spoke these words:

‘See the gifts brought to perfection by my husband’s

skill, as promised. You need not hesitate, my son, to quickly

challenge the proud Laurentines, or fierce Turnus, to battle.’

Cytherea spoke, and invited her son’s embrace, and placed

the shining weapons under an oak tree opposite.

He cannot have enough of turning his gaze over each item,

delighting in the goddess’s gift and so high an honour,

admiring, and turning the helmet over with hands and arms,

with its fearsome crest and spouting flames,

and the fateful sword, the stiff breastplate of bronze,

dark-red and huge, like a bluish cloud when it’s lit

by the rays of the sun, and glows from afar:

then the smooth greaves, of electrum and refined gold,

the spear, and the shield’s indescribable detail.

BKVIII:626-670 VULCAN’S SHIELD: SCENES OF EARLY ROME

There the lord with the power of fire, not unversed

in prophecy, and knowledge of the centuries to come,

had fashioned the history of Italy, and Rome’s triumphs:

there was every future generation of Ascanius’s stock,

and the sequence of battles they were to fight.

He had also shown the she-wolf, having just littered,

lying on the ground, in the green cave of Mars,

the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, playing, hanging

on her teats, and fearlessly sucking at their foster-mother.

Bending her neck back smoothly she caressed them

in turn, and licked their limbs with her tongue.

Not far from that he had placed Rome, the Sabine women,

lawlessly snatched from the seated crowd, when the great games

were held in the Circus: and the sudden surge of fresh warfare

between Romulus’s men, and the aged Tatius and his austere Cures.

Next, the same two kings stood armed in front of Jove’s altar,

holding the wine-cups and joined in league, sacrificing a sow,

the new-built palace bristling with Romulus’s thatch.

Then, not far from that, four-horse chariots driven

in different directions tore Mettus apart (Alban, you should

have kept your word, though!), and Tullus dragged the liar’s

entrails through the woods, the briars wet with sprinkled blood.

There was Porsenna too, ordering Rome to admit the banished

Tarquin, and gripping the city in a mighty siege:

the scions of Aeneas running on the sword for freedom’s sake.

You could see Porsenna in angry, and in threatening, posture,

because Cocles dared to tear down the bridge,

because Cloelia broke her restraints and swam the river.

At the top Manlius, guardian of the Tarpeian Citadel,

stood before the temple, defending the high Capitol.

And there the silvery goose, flying through the gilded

colonnades, cackled that the Gauls were at the gate.

The Gauls were there in the gorse, taking the Citadel,

protected by the dark, the gift of shadowy night.

Their hair was gold, and their clothes were gold,

they shone in striped cloaks, their white necks

torqued with gold, each waving two Alpine javelins

in his hand, long shields defending their bodies.

Here he had beaten out the leaping Salii and naked Luperci,

the woolly priest’s caps, and the oval shields that fell

from heaven, chaste mothers in cushioned carriages

leading sacred images through the city. Far from these

he had added the regions of Tartarus, the high gates of Dis,

the punishment for wickedness, and you Catiline, hanging

from a threatening cliff, trembling at the sight of the Furies:

and the good, at a distance, Cato handing out justice.

BKVIII:671-713 VULCAN’S SHIELD: THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM

The likeness of the swollen sea flowed everywhere among these,

in gold, though the flood foamed with white billows,

and dolphins in bright silver swept the waters

round about with arching tails, and cut through the surge.

In the centre bronze ships could be seen, the Battle of Actium,

and you could make out all Leucate in feverish

preparation for war, the waves gleaming with gold.

On one side Augustus Caesar stands on the high stern,

leading the Italians to the conflict, with him the Senate,

the People, the household gods, the great gods, his happy brow

shoots out twin flames, and his father’s star is shown on his head.

Elsewhere Agrippa, favoured by the winds and the gods

leads his towering column of ships, his brow shines

with the beaks of the naval crown, his proud battle distinction.

On the other side Antony, with barbarous wealth and strange weapons,

conqueror of eastern peoples and the Indian shores, bringing Egypt,

and the might of the Orient, with him, and furthest Bactria:

and his Egyptian consort follows him (the shame).

All press forward together, and the whole sea foams,

churned by the sweeping oars and the trident rams.

They seek deep water: you’d think the Cycladic islands were uprooted

and afloat on the flood, or high mountains clashed with mountains,

so huge the mass with which the men attack the towering sterns.

Blazing tow and missiles of winged steel shower from their hands,

Neptune’s fields grow red with fresh slaughter.

The queen in the centre signals to her columns with the native

sistrum, not yet turning to look at the twin snakes at her back.

Barking Anubis, and monstrous gods of every kind

brandish weapons against Neptune, Venus,

and Minerva. Mars rages in the centre of the contest,

engraved in steel, and the grim Furies in the sky,

and Discord in a torn robe strides joyously, while

Bellona follows with her blood-drenched whip.

Apollo of Actium sees from above and bends his bow: at this

all Egypt, and India, all the Arabs and Sabaeans turn and flee.

The queen herself is seen to call upon the winds,

set sail, and now, even now, spread the slackened canvas.

The lord with the power of fire has fashioned her pallid

with the coming of death, amidst the slaughter,

carried onwards by the waves and wind of Iapyx,

while before her is Nile, mourning with his vast extent,

opening wide his bays, and, with his whole tapestry, calling

the vanquished to his dark green breast, and sheltering streams.

BKVIII:714-731 VULCAN’S SHIELD: AUGUSTUS’S TRIPLE TRIUMPH

Next Augustus, entering the walls of Rome in triple triumph,

is dedicating his immortal offering to Italy’s gods,

three hundred great shrines throughout the city.

The streets are ringing with joy, playfulness, applause:

a band of women in every temple, altars in every one:

before the altars sacrificial steers cover the ground.

He himself sits at the snow-white threshold of shining Apollo,

examines the gifts of nations, and hangs them on the proud gates.

The conquered peoples walk past in a long line, as diverse

in language as in weapons, or the fashion of their clothes.

Here Vulcan has shown the Nomad race and loose-robed Africans,

there the Leleges and Carians and Gelonians with their quivers:

Euphrates runs with quieter waves, and the Morini,

remotest of mankind, the double-horned Rhine,

the untamed Dahae, and Araxes, resenting its restored bridge.

Aeneas marvels at such things on Vulcan’s shield, his mother’s gift,

and delights in the images, not recognising the future events,

lifting to his shoulder the glory and the destiny of his heirs.

Livy From the Foundation of Rome Book 1

Finally, your last text for the unit is From the Foundation of Rome, written in Latin by Livy in the late 1st century BCE. This, like the writing of Diodorus Siculus, which you read in Unit 1, is a history.

In this selection, you will be reading the story that the Romans told themselves about the founding of their city (which supposedly took place in 763 BCE). Because the history is being written more than 700 years after the founding date of this city, it is as much myth as history.

[1.1]     To begin with, it is generally admitted that after the capture of Troy, whilst the rest of the Trojans were massacred, against two of them – Aeneas and Antenor – the Achivi refused to exercise the rights of war, partly owing to old ties of hospitality, and partly because these men had always been in favour of making peace and surrendering Helen. Their subsequent fortunes were different. Antenor sailed into the furthest part of the Adriatic, accompanied by a number of Enetians who had been driven from Paphlagonia by a revolution, and after losing their king Pylaemenes before Troy were looking for a settlement and a leader. The combined force of Enetians and Trojans defeated the Euganei, who dwelt between the sea and the Alps and occupied their land. The place where they disembarked was called Troy, and the name was extended to the surrounding district; the whole nation were called Veneti. Similar misfortunes led to Aeneas becoming a wanderer, but the Fates were preparing a higher destiny for him. He first visited Macedonia, then was carried down to Sicily in quest of a settlement; from Sicily he directed his course to the Laurentian territory. Here, too, the name of Troy is found, and here the Trojans disembarked, and as their almost infinite wanderings had left them nothing but their arms and their ships, they began to plunder the neighbourhood. The Aborigines, who occupied the country, with their king Latinus at their head, came hastily together from the city and the country districts to repel the inroads of the strangers by force of arms.

From this point there is a twofold tradition. According to the one, Latinus was defeated in battle, and made peace with Aeneas, and subsequently a family alliance. According to the other, whilst the two armies were standing ready to engage and waiting for the signal, Latinus advanced in front of his lines and invited the leader of the strangers to a conference. He inquired of him what manner of men they were, whence they came, what had happened to make them leave their homes, what were they in quest of when they landed in Latinus’ territory. When he heard that the men were Trojans, that their leader was Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Venus, that their city had been burnt, and that the homeless exiles were now looking for a place to settle in and build a city, he was so struck with the noble bearing of the men and their leader, and their readiness to accept alike either peace or war, that he gave his right hand as a solemn pledge of friendship for the future. A formal treaty was made between the leaders and mutual greetings exchanged between the armies. Latinus received Aeneas as a guest in his house, and there, in the presence of his tutelary deities, completed the political alliance by a domestic one, and gave his daughter in marriage to Aeneas. This incident confirmed the Trojans in the hope that they had reached the term of their wanderings and won a permanent home. They built a town, which Aeneas called Lavinium after his wife. In a short time a boy was born of the new marriage, to whom his parents gave the name of Ascanius.

[1.2]     In a short time the Aborigines and Trojans became involved in war with Turnus, the king of the Rutulians. Lavinia had been betrothed to him before the arrival of Aeneas, and, furious at finding a stranger preferred to him, he declared war against both Latinus and Aeneas. Neither side could congratulate themselves on the result of the battle; the Rutulians were defeated, but the victorious Aborigines and Trojans lost their leader Latinus. Feeling their need of allies, Turnus and the Rutulians had recourse to the celebrated power of the Etruscans and Mezentius, their king, who was reigning at Caere, a wealthy city in those days. From the first he had felt anything but pleasure at the rise of the new city, and now he regarded the growth of the Trojan state as much too rapid to be safe to its neighbours, so he welcomed the proposal to join forces with the Rutulians. To keep the Aborigines from abandoning him in the face of this strong coalition and to secure their being not only under the same laws, but also the same designation, Aeneas called both nations by the common name of Latins. From that time the Aborigines were not behind the Trojans in their loyal devotion to Aeneas. So great was the power of Etruria that the renown of her people had filled not only the inland parts of Italy but also the coastal districts along the whole length of the land from the Alps to the Straits of Messina. Aeneas, however, trusting to the loyalty of the two nations who were day by day growing into one, led his forces into the field, instead of awaiting the enemy behind his walls. The battle resulted in favour of the Latins, but it was the last mortal act of Aeneas. His tomb – whatever it is lawful and right to call him – is situated on the bank of the Numicius. He is addressed as “Jupiter Indiges.”

[1.3]     His son, Ascanius, was not old enough to assume the government; but his throne remained secure throughout his minority. During that interval – such was Lavinia’s force of character – though a woman was regent, the Latin State, and the kingdom of his father and grandfather, were preserved unimpaired for her son. I will not discuss the question – for who could speak decisively about a matter of such extreme antiquity? – whether the man whom the Julian house claim, under the name of Iulus, as the founder of their name, was this Ascanius or an older one than he, born of Creusa, whilst Ilium was still intact, and after its fall a sharer in his father’s fortunes. This Ascanius, wherever born, or of whatever mother – it is generally agreed in any case that he was the son of Aeneas – left to his mother (or his stepmother) the city of Lavinium, which was for those days a prosperous and wealthy city, with a superabundant population, and built a new city at the foot of the Alban hills, which from its position, stretching along the side of the hill, was called “Alba Longa.” An interval of thirty years elapsed between the foundation of Lavinium and the colonisation of Alba Longa. Such had been the growth of the Latin power, mainly through the defeat of the Etruscans, that neither at the death of Aeneas, nor during the regency of Lavinia, nor during the immature years of the reign of Ascanius, did either Mezentius and the Etruscans or any other of their neighbours venture to attack them. When terms of peace were being arranged, the river Albula, now called the Tiber, had been fixed as the boundary between the Etruscans and the Latins.

Ascanius was succeeded by his son Silvius, who by some chance had been born in the forest. He became the father of Aeneas Silvius, who in his turn had a son, Latinus Silvius. He planted a number of colonies: the colonists were called Prisci Latini. The cognomen of Silvius was common to all the remaining kings of Alba, each of whom succeeded his father. Their names are Alba, Atys, Capys, Capetus, Tiberinus, who was drowned in crossing the Albula, and his name transferred to the river, which became henceforth the famous Tiber. Then came his son Agrippa, after him his son Romulus Silvius. He was struck by lightning and left the crown to his son Aventinus, whose shrine was on the hill which bears his name and is now a part of the city of Rome. He was succeeded by Proca, who had two sons, Numitor and Amulius. To Numitor, the elder, he bequeathed the ancient throne of the Silvian house. Violence, however, proved stronger than either the father’s will or the respect due to the brother’s seniority; for Amulius expelled his brother and seized the crown. Adding crime to crime, he murdered his brother’s sons and made the daughter, Rhea Silvia, a Vestal virgin; thus, under the presence of honouring her, depriving her of all hopes of issue.

[1.4]     But the Fates had, I believe, already decreed the origin of this great city and the foundation of the mightiest empire under heaven. The Vestal was forcibly violated and gave birth to twins. She named Mars as their father, either because she really believed it, or because the fault might appear less heinous if a deity were the cause of it. But neither gods nor men sheltered her or her babes from the king’s cruelty; the priestess was thrown into prison, the boys were ordered to be thrown into the river. By a heaven-sent chance it happened that the Tiber was then overflowing its banks, and stretches of standing water prevented any approach to the main channel. Those who were carrying the children expected that this stagnant water would be sufficient to drown them, so under the impression that they were carrying out the king’s orders they exposed the boys at the nearest point of the overflow, where the Ficus Ruminalis (said to have been formerly called Romularis) now stands. The locality was then a wild solitude. The tradition goes on to say that after the floating cradle in which the boys had been exposed had been left by the retreating water on dry land, a thirsty she-wolf from the surrounding hills, attracted by the crying of the children, came to them, gave them her teats to suck and was so gentle towards them that the king’s flock-master found her licking the boys with her tongue. According to the story, his name was Faustulus. He took the children to his hut and gave them to his wife Larentia to bring up. Some writers think that Larentia, from her unchaste life, had got the nickname of “She-wolf” amongst the shepherds, and that this was the origin of the marvellous story. As soon as the boys, thus born and thus brought up, grew to be young men they did not neglect their pastoral duties, but their special delight was roaming through the woods on hunting expeditions. As their strength and courage were thus developed, they used not only to lie in wait for fierce beasts of prey, but they even attacked brigands when loaded with plunder. They distributed what they took amongst the shepherds, with whom, surrounded by a continually increasing body of young men, they associated themselves in their serious undertakings and in their sports and pastimes.

[1.5]     It is said that the festival of the Lupercalia, which is still observed, was even in those days celebrated on the Palatine hill. This hill was originally called Pallantium from a city of the same name in Arcadia; the name was afterwards changed to Palatium. Evander, an Arcadian, had held that territory many ages before, and had introduced an annual festival from Arcadia in which young men ran about naked for sport and wantonness, in honour of the Lycaean Pan, whom the Romans afterwards called Inuus. The existence of this festival was widely recognised, and it was while the two brothers were engaged in it that the brigands, enraged at losing their plunder, ambushed them. Romulus successfully defended himself, but Remus was taken prisoner and brought before Amulius, his captors impudently accusing him of their own crimes. The principal charge brought against them was that of invading Numitor’s lands with a body of young men whom they had got together, and carrying off plunder as though in regular warfare. Remus accordingly was handed over to Numitor for punishment. Faustulus had from the beginning suspected that it was royal offspring that he was bringing up, for he was aware that the boys had been exposed at the king’s command and the time at which he had taken them away exactly corresponded with that of their exposure. He had, however, refused to divulge the matter prematurely, until either a fitting opportunity occurred or necessity demanded its disclosure. The necessity came first. Alarmed for the safety of Remus he revealed the state of the case to Romulus. It so happened that Numitor also, who had Remus in his custody, on hearing that he and his brother were twins and comparing their ages and the character and bearing so unlike that of one in a servile condition, began to recall the memory of his grandchildren, and further inquiries brought him to the same conclusion as Faustulus; nothing was wanting to the recognition of Remus. So the king Amulius was being enmeshed on all sides by hostile purposes. Romulus shrunk from a direct attack with his body of shepherds, for he was no match for the king in open fight. They were instructed to approach the palace by different routes and meet there at a given time, whilst from Numitor’s house Remus lent his assistance with a second band he had collected. The attack succeeded and the king was killed.

[1.6]     At the beginning of the fray, Numitor gave out that an enemy had entered the City and was attacking the palace, in order to draw off the Alban soldiery to the citadel, to defend it. When he saw the young men coming to congratulate him after the assassination, he at once called a council of his people and explained his brother’s infamous conduct towards him, the story of his grandsons, their parentage and bringing up, and how he recognised them. Then he proceeded to inform them of the tyrant’s death and his responsibility for it. The young men marched in order through the midst of the assembly and saluted their grandfather as king; their action was approved by the whole population, who with one voice ratified the title and sovereignty of the king. After the government of Alba was thus transferred to Numitor, Romulus and Remus were seized with the desire of building a city in the locality where they had been exposed. There was the superfluous population of the Alban and Latin towns, to these were added the shepherds: it was natural to hope that with all these Alba would be small and Lavinium small in comparison with the city which was to be founded. These pleasant anticipations were disturbed by the ancestral curse – ambition – which led to a deplorable quarrel over what was at first a trivial matter. As they were twins and no claim to precedence could be based on seniority, they decided to consult the tutelary deities of the place by means of augury as to who was to give his name to the new city, and who was to rule it after it had been founded. Romulus accordingly selected the Palatine as his station for observation, Remus the Aventine.

[1.7]     Remus is said to have been the first to receive an omen: six vultures appeared to him. The augury had just been announced to Romulus when double the number appeared to him. Each was saluted as king by his own party. The one side based their claim on the priority of the appearance, the other on the number of the birds. Then followed an angry altercation; heated passions led to bloodshed; in the tumult Remus was killed. The more common report is that Remus contemptuously jumped over the newly raised walls and was forthwith killed by the enraged Romulus, who exclaimed, “So shall it be henceforth with everyone who leaps over my walls.” Romulus thus became sole ruler, and the city was called after him, its founder.