Aeneas to Augustus

A Beginning Latin Reader for College Students, Second Edition

Mason Hammond, Anne Amory, Mason; Anne Hammond; Amory

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Year: 1967
• Print ISBN: 9780674006003
• eBook ISBN: 9780674254305
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This reader consists of 90 selections illustrating the history of Rome from the myth of Aeneas to the founding of the Augustan Principate. The selections have been chosen with three aims in mind: gradual increase in length and difficulty, continuity of subject matter, and stylistic variety. Historical background is provided in the prefaces to the selections. The updated letterpress edition is more convenient to use than its predecessor of 1962. The notes have been extensively revised and the vocabulary has been newly compiled.

Aeneas to Augustus

PART I

Selections 1 - 48

Prose

1

The Romans were undoubtedly descended from Indo-European-speaking tribes which occupied Italy during the second millennium B.C. Some, indeed, of their legends emphasized their indigenous, or aboriginal, character. But when, in the third century, they became an important power in the Mediterranean and adopted Greek culture, they found that it was regarded as respectable for a civilized people to have Greek legendary origins. Therefore they (or the Greeks for them) devised stories of Greek heroes who had settled in Italy.

In particular, there was a legend, used by Vergil in the Aeneid, that a certain Evander, from Arcadia in the Peloponnese, had settled on the site of Rome. However, because of the rivalry between Rome and Greece during the second century, a legend that the Romans were descended from the Trojan hero Aeneas likewise became popular. Aeneas was supposed to have been the son of Venus and to have had a son Ascanius, also called Iulus. Since the Julian gens, to which the family of Julius Caesar belonged, claimed descent from Iulus, and since Julius Caesar made much of the worship of Venus, Vergil chose the legend of Aeneas through which to celebrate the culmination of Rome’s rise to world power in Caesar and his adopted son Augustus.

In one of several late Roman summaries of legend and early history, the story of Aeneas is given somewhat differently from the version used by Vergil. The following three passages are summarized and adapted from this fourth-century A.D. account called Origo Gentis Romanae.

Aeneas in Italiam advenit

Aeneas, Ilio Achivis prodito ab Antenore aliisque principibus,¹ deos penates patremque Anchisam umeris gestans et parvulum filium manu trahens,² noctu ab urbe excessit.³ Orta luce Idam petiit.⁴ Deinde, navibus fabricatis, magnis cum opibus pluribusque sociis Troia digressus,⁵ longo mari emenso, per diversas terrarum oras in Italiam advenit.⁶

1. A. Ilio ... prodito: abl. abs.; =“when Ilium had been betrayed to the Greeks”; Ilium was another name for Troy. B. prodito: the verb prodere =“to hand over” is used in a number of literal and metaphorical senses, including “to hand over to the enemy” or “to betray.” C. Achivis: another name for the Greeks, common in Homer. D. ab ... principibus: abls. of agent. E. Antenore: one of the few Trojan heroes spared by the Greeks and perhaps for this reason said in some versions of the fall of Troy to have betrayed the city to them. F. -que =“and”; it is an “enclitic” (Greek;=leaning back on) conjunction, attached to the preceding word. G. principibus: adj. = “first” or “chief,” here, as often, used as a noun = “chiefs” or “leaders.”

2. A. deos penates: gods of the pantry (penus), i.e. household gods. Their statues, which Aeneas was supposed to have brought from Troy, were housed in the temple of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, in the Roman Forum, to represent the household gods of the whole community. B. Anchisam: Greek names taken over by the Romans are not always completely Latinized. Here the name of Aeneas’ father is treated as a 1st decl. noun with a regular acc., but the nom., Anchises, retains its Greek ending, C. umeris ... manu: abls. of means.

3. noctu: loc. of an old u-stem form of nox, used adverbially more often than the regular abl. nocte.

4. A. Idam: a mountain near Troy. B. petiit = petivit: in those verbs which have -v- (consonantal -u-) in the perf. act. system, the -v- was frequently slurred in pronunciation and omitted in writing when -s- or -r- occurred in the ending. Perfs. in -a(v)i, -e(v)i, and -o(v)i then contracted the two vowels into a, e, or o respectively. Perfs. in -i(v)i regularly omit the -v-, but usually leave the vowels uncontracted, as here, except before -st- and -ss- in the ending.

5. A. magnis ... sociis: abls. of accompaniment with cum, which is regularly placed between an adj. and a noun. B. opibus: abl. plur. of ops. c. Troia: abl. of separation (place from which) without a prep. because it is the name of a town; a (ab) if used with a town = “from the vicinity of.”

6. A. longo mari emenso: abl. abs.; = “after a long sea journey,” lit. “a long (space of) sea having been measured out.” B. emenso: past part, from emetior; although deponent verbs are normally act. in meaning, their past parts. often (as here) have pass. meanings.

2

Aeneas proceeded up the west coast of Italy to the mouth of the Tiber. Various omens indicated that here was the site destined by fate for his home. Latinus, the local king, received him hospitably and an alliance was formed between the Trojans and the Latins.

Rex Latinus Aeneam recipit

Latinus, Aboriginum rex,¹ cum ei nuntiatum esset multitudinem advenarum, classe advectam, occupavisse agrum Laurentem,² adversum subitos inopinatosque hostes sine mora suas copias eduxit. Priusquam signum dimicandi daret,³ suspenso certamine, quaesivit qui essent quidve peterent.⁴ Deinde cum cognovisset Aeneam, bello patria pulsum et cum simulacris deorum errantem, sedem quaerere,⁵ amicitiam foedere iniit,⁶ dato invicem iure iurando ut communes hostes amicosve haberent.⁷

1. Aboriginum: gen. plur. Aborigines (=ab+origo) was applied to the supposedly original inhabitants of Italy, before the arrival of Greeks, Trojans, Etruscans, Gauls, and other invaders.

2. A. cum ... occupavisse = “when it had been announced to him that a crowd of strangers ... had occupied.” B. nuntiatum esset: pluperf. subj. in a cum temporal clause of time antecedent to that of the main verb; since it is pass., its subject is the acc. + inf. in indirect discourse, and, since the inf. clause is equivalent to a neut. noun, nuntiatum has a neut. ending. In Eng. such verbs are called “impersonal” and “it” is supplied as the subject. C. agrum Laurentem =“the territory of Laurentum,” a town southwest of Rome near the coast, of which Laurens is the adj.

3. A. dimicandi: gen. (objective) of the gerund; =“for fighting.” The gen. in Lat. may often best be translated in Eng. by “for.” B. daret: subj. with priusquam, to indicate that the main event anticipates or prevents the subordinate one.

4. A. quaesivit ... peterent: essent and peterent are imperf. subjs. in indirect questions introduced by quaesivit (perf. of quaero =“ask”) +the interrog. pronouns qui and quid. Following the regular sequence of tenses, the imperf. subjs. are used to represent actions which are incomplete (i.e. pres. or fut.) in relation to that of the main verb, which is secondary or historical (i.e. past). B. quidve: -ve (= “or”) is an enclitic conjunction like -que (=“and”); see 1 n. 1F.

5. A. cognovisset: introduces the indirect statement Aeneam ... quaerere. B. Aeneam: for the ending see 1 n. 2B. C. patria: abl. of separation without a prep., common in such idiomatic phrases as this. D. quaerere: here =“seek,” and takes an acc. object (sedem); contrast n. 4A above.

6. amicitiam ... iniit: when the intrans. verb eo is compounded with a prep. which would take the acc., the resulting verb may be trans., as here; however, ineo may also be followed by in + acc.

7. A. dato ... iure iurando =“when an oath had been exchanged,” lit. “given in turn.” Ius iurandum may be written as two words, as here, or as one (see 9 n. 17A); in either case both parts are declined. B. ut ... haberent: either a regular purpose ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• Contents
• Part I Selections 1-48: Prose
• Part II Selections 49-90: Prose and Verse
• Metrical Schemes
• List of Sources
• Index of Authors and Works
• Vocabulary