Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79)

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [43] Some say that he also left sons by two women in the region now inhabited by the Romans. One of these sons was Pallas, whom he had by the daughter of Evander, whose name, they say, was Lavinia; the other, Latinus, whose mother was a certain Hyperborean girl whom he brought with him as a hostage given to him by her father and preserved for some time untouched; but while he was on his voyage to Italy, he fell in love with her and got her with child. And when he was preparing to leave for Argos, he married her to Faunus, king of the Aborigines; for which reason Latinus is generally looked upon as the son of Faunus, not of Hercules. [2] Pallas, they say, died before he arrived at puberty; but Latinus, upon reaching man’s estate, succeeded to the kingdom of the Aborigines, and when he was killed in the battle against the neighbouring Rutulians, without leaving any male issue, the kingdom devolved on Aeneas, the son of Anchises, his son-in-law. But these things happened at other times.

  [44.1] After Hercules had settled everything in Italy according to his desire and his naval force had arrived in safety from Spain, he sacrificed to the gods the tithes of his booty and built a small town named after himself in the place where his fleet lay at anchor (it is now occupied by the Romans, and lying as it does between Neapolis and Pompeii, has at all times Etruria havens); and having gained fame and glory and received divine honours from all the inhabitants of Italy, he set sail for Sicily. [2] Those who were left behind by him as a garrison to dwell in Italy and were settled around the Saturnian hill lived for some time under an independent government; but not long afterwards they adapted their manner of life, their laws and their religious ceremonies to those of the Aborigines, even as the Arcadians and, still earlier, the Pelasgians had done, and they shared in the same government with them, so that in time they came to be looked upon as of the same nation with them. But let this suffice concerning the expedition of Hercules and concerning the Peloponnesians who remained behind in Italy.

  [3] In the second generation after the departure of Hercules, and about the fifty-fifth year, according to the Romans’ own account, the king of the Aborigines was Latinus, who passed for the son of Faunus, but was actually the son of Hercules; he was now in the thirty-fifth year of his reign.

  [45.1] At that time the Trojans who had fled with Aeneas from Troy after its capture landed at Laurentum, which is on the coast of the Aborigines facing the Tyrrhenian sea, not far from the mouth of the Tiber. And having received from the Aborigines some land for their habitation and everything else they desired, they built a town on a hill not far from the sea and called it Lavinium. [2] Soon after this they changed their ancient name and, together with the Aborigines, were called Latins, after the king of that country. And leaving Lavinium, they joined with the inhabitants of those parts in building a larger city, surrounded by a wall, which they called Alba; and setting out thence, they built many other cities, the cities of the so-called Prisci Latini, of which the greatest part were inhabited even to my day. [3] Then, sixteen generations after the taking of Troy, sending out a colony to Pallantium and Saturnia, where the Peloponnesians and the Arcadians had made their first settlement and where there were still left some remains of the ancient race, they settled these places and surrounded Pallantium with a wall, so that it then first received the form of a city. This settlement they called Rome, after Romulus, who was the leader of the colony and the seventeenth in descent from Aeneas. [4] But also concerning the arrival of Aeneas in Italy, since some historians have been ignorant of it and others have related it in a different manner, I wish to give more than a cursory account, having compared the histories of those writers, both Greek and Roman, who are the best accredited. The stories concerning him are as follows:

  [46.1] When Troy had been taken by the Achaeans, either by the stratagem of the wooden horse, as Homer represents, or by the treachery of the Antenoridae, or by some other means, the greatest part of the Trojans and of their allies then in the city were surprised and slain in their beds; for it seems that this calamity came upon them in the night, when they were not upon their guard. But Aeneas and his Trojan forces which he had brought from the cities of Dardanus and Ophrynium to the assistance of the people of Ilium, and as many others as had early notice of the calamity, while the Greeks were taking the lower town, fled together to the stronghold of Pergamus, and occupied the citadel, which was fortified with its own wall; here were deposited the holy things of the Trojans inherited from their fathers and their great wealth in valuables, as was to be expected in a stronghold, and here also the flower of their army was stationed. [2] Here they awaited and repulsed the enemy who were endeavouring to gain a foothold on the acropolis, and by making secret sallies they were able, through their familiarity with the narrow streets, to rescue the multitude which was seeking to escape at the taking of the city; and thus a larger number escaped than were taken prisoner. But with respect to the future he reasoned very properly that it would be impossible to save a city the greater part of which was already in possession of the enemy, and he therefore decided to abandon the wall, bare of defenders, to the enemy [3] and to save the inhabitants themselves as well as the holy objects inherited from their fathers and all the valuables he could carry away. Having thus resolved, he first sent out from the city the women and children together with the aged and all others whose condition required much time to make their escape, with orders to take the roads leading to Mount Ida, while the Achaeans, intent on capturing the citadel, were giving no thought to the pursuit of the multitude who were escaping from the city. Of the army, he assigned one part to escort the inhabitants who were departing, in order that their flight might be as safe and free from hardships as the circumstances would permit; and they were ordered to take possession of the strongest parts of Mount Ida. With the rest of the troops, who were the most valiant, he remained upon the wall of the citadel and, by keeping the enemy occupied in assaulting it, he rendered less difficult the flight of those who had gone on ahead. [4] But when Neoptolemus and his men gained a foothold on part of the acropolis and all the Achaeans rallied to their support, Aeneas abandoned the place; and opening the gates, he marched away with the rest of the fugitives in good order, carrying with him in the best chariots his father and the gods of his country, together with his wife and children and whatever else, either person or thing, was most precious.

  [47.1] In the meantime the Achaeans had taken the city by storm, and being intent on plunder, gave those who fled abundant opportunity of making their escape. Aeneas and his band overtook their people while still on the road, and being united now in one body, they seized the strongest parts of Mount Ida. [2] Here they were joined not only by the inhabitants of Dardanus, who, upon seeing a great and unusual fire rising from Ilium, had in the night left their city undefended, — all except the men with Elymus and Aegestus, who had got ready some ships and had departed even earlier, — but also by the whole populace of Ophrynium and by those of the other Trojan cities who clung to their liberty; and in a very short time this force of the Trojans became a very large one. [3] Accordingly, the fugitives who had escaped with Aeneas from the taking of the city and were tarrying on Mount Ida were in hopes of returning home soon, when the enemy should have sailed away; but the Achaeans, having reduced to slavery the people who were left in the city and in the places near by and having demolished the forts, were preparing to subdue those also who were in the mountains. [4] When, however, the Trojans sent heralds to treat for peace and begged them not to reduce them to the necessity of making war, the Achaeans held an assembly and made peace with them upon the following terms: Aeneas and his people were to depart from the Troad with all the valuables they had saved in their flight within a certain fixed time, after first delivering up the forts to the Achaeans; and the Achaeans were to allow them a safe-conduct by land and sea throughout all their dominions when they departed in pursuance of these terms. [5] Aeneas, having accepted these conditions, which he looked upon as the best possible in the circumstances, sent away Ascanius, his eldest son, with some of
the allies, chiefly Phrygians, to the country of Dascylitis, as it is called, in which lies the Ascanian lake, since he had been invited by the inhabitants to reign over them. But Ascanius did not tarry there for any great length of time; for when Scamandrius and the other descendants of Hector who had been permitted by Neoptolemus to return home from Greece, came to him, he went to Troy, in order to restore them to their ancestral kingdom. [6] Regarding Ascanius, then, this is all that is told. As for Aeneas, after his fleet was ready, he embarked with the rest of his sons and his father, taking with him the images of the gods, and crossing the Hellespont, sailed to the nearest peninsula, which lies in front of Europe and is called Pallenê. This country was occupied by a Thracian people called Crusaeans, who were allies of the Trojans and had assisted them during the war with greater zeal than any of the others.

  [48.1] This, then, is the most credible account concerning the flight of Aeneas and is the one which Hellanicus, among the ancient historians, adopts in his Troica. There are different accounts given of the same events by some others, which I look upon as less probable than this. But let every reader judge as he thinks proper. [2] Sophocles, the tragic poet, in his drama Laocoön represents Aeneas, just before the taking of the city, as removing his household to Mount Ida in obedience to the orders of his father Anchises, who recalled the injunctions of Aphroditê and from the omens that had lately happened in the case of Laocoön’s family conjectured the approaching destruction of the city. His iambics, which are spoken by a messenger, are as follows:

  “Now at the gates arrives the goddess’ son,

  Aeneas, his sire upon his shoulders borne

  Aloft, while down that back by thunderbolt

  Of Zeus once smit the linen mantle streams;

  Surrounding them the crowd of household slaves.

  There follows a multitude beyond belief

  Who long to join this Phrygian colony.”

  [3] But Menecrates of Xanthus says that Aeneas betrayed the city to the Achaeans out of hatred for Alexander and that because of this service he was permitted by them to save his household. His account, which begins with the funeral of Achilles, runs on this wise: “The Achaeans were oppressed with grief and felt that the army had had its head lopped off. However, they celebrated his funeral feast and made war with all their might till Ilium was taken by the aid of Aeneas, who delivered it up to them. For Aeneas, being scorned by Alexander and excluded from his prerogatives, overthrew Priam; and having accomplished this, he became one of the Achaeans.” [4] Others say that he chanced to be tarrying at that time at the station where the Trojan ships lay; and others that he had been sent with a force into Phrygia by Priam upon some military expedition. Some give a more fabulous account of his departure. But let the case stand according to each man’s convictions.

  [49.1] What happened after his departure creates still greater difficulty for most historians. For some, after they have brought him as far as Thrace, say he died there; of this number are Cephalon of Gergis and Hegesippus, who wrote concerning Pallenê, both of them ancient and reputable men. Others make him leave Thrace and take him to Arcadia, and say that he lived in the Arcadian Orchomenus, in a place which, though situated inland, yet by reason of marshes and a river, is called Nesos or “Island”; and they add that the town called Capyae was built by Aeneas and the Trojans and took its name from Capys the Troan. [2] This is the account given by various other writers and by Ariaethus, the author of Arcadica. And there are some who have the story that he came, indeed, to Arcadia and yet that his death did not occur there, but in Italy; this is stated by many others and especially by Agathyllus of Arcadia, the poet, who writes thus in an elegy:

  “Then to Arcadia came and in Nesos left his two daughters,

  Fruit of his love for Anthemonê fair and for lovely Codonê;

  Thence made haste to Hesperia’s land and begat there male offspring,

  Romulus named.”

  [3] The arrival of Aeneas and the Trojans in Italy is attested by all the Romans and evidences of it are to be seen in the ceremonies observed by them both in their sacrifices and festivals, as well as in the Sibyl’s utterances, in the Pythian oracles, and in many other things, which none ought to disdain as invented for the sake of embellishment. Among the Greeks, also, many distinct monuments remain to this day on the coasts where they landed and among the people with whom they tarried when detained by unfavourable weather. In mentioning these, though they are numerous, I shall be as brief as possible. [4] They first went to Thrace and landed on the peninsula called Pallenê. It was inhabited, as I have said, by barbarians called Crusaeans, who offered them a safe refuge. There they stayed the winter season and built a temple to Aphroditê on one of the promontories, and also a city called Aeneia, where they left all those who from fatigue were unable to continue the voyage and all who chose to remain there as in a country they were henceforth to look upon as their own. This city existed down to that period of the Macedonian rule which came into being under the successors of Alexander, but it was destroyed in the reign of Cassander, when Thessalonica was being founded; and the inhabitants of Aeneia with many others removed to the newly-built city.

  [50.1] Setting sail from Pallenê, the Trojans came to Delos, of which Anius was king. Here there were many evidences of the presence of Aeneas and the Trojans as long as the island was inhabited and flourished. Then, coming to Cythera, another island, lying off the Peloponnesus, they built a temple there to Aphroditê. [2] And while they were on their voyage from Cythera and not far from the Peloponnesus, one of Aeneas’ companions, named Cinaethus, died and they buried him upon one of the promontories, which is now called Cinaethion after him. And having renewed their kinship with the Arcadians, concerning which I shall speak in a later chapter, and having stayed a short time in those parts, they left some of their number there and came to Zacynthus. [3] The Zacynthians, also, received them in a friendly manner on account of their kinship; for Dardanus, the son of Zeus and Electra, the daughter of Atlas, had, as they say, by Bateia two sons, Zacynthus and Erichthonius of whom the latter was the ancestor of Aeneas, and Zacynthus was the first settler of the island. In memory, therefore, of this kinship and by reason of the kindness of the inhabitants they stayed there some time, being also detained by unfavourable weather; and they offered to Aphroditê at the temple they had built to her a sacrifice which the entire population of Zacynthus performs to this day, and instituted games for young men, consisting among other events of a foot-race in which the one who comes first to the temple gains the prize. This is called the course of Aeneas and Aphroditê, and wooden statues of both are erected there. [4] From there, after a voyage through the open sea, they landed at Leucas, which was still in the possession of the Acarnanians. Here again they built a temple to Aphroditê, which stands to-day on the little island between Dioryctus and the city; it is called the temple of Aphroditê Aeneias. And departing thence, they sailed to Actium and anchored off the promontory of the Ambracian Gulf; and from there they came to the city of Ambracia, which was then ruled by Ambrax, the son of Dexamenus, the son of Heracles. Monuments of their coming are left in both places: at Actium, the temple of Aphroditê Aeneias, and near to it that of the Great Gods, both of which existed even to my time; and in Ambracia, a temple of the same goddess and a hero-shrine of Aeneas near the little theatre. In this shrine there was a small archaic statue of wood, said to be of Aeneas, that was honoured with sacrifices by the priestesses they called amphipoloi or “handmaidens.”

  [51.1] From Ambracia Anchises, sailing with the fleet along the coast, came to Buthrotum, a seaport of Epirus. But Aeneas with the most vigorous men of his army made a march of two days and came to Dodona, in order to consult the oracle; and there they found the Trojans who had come thither with Helenus. Then, after receiving responses concerning their colony and after dedicating to the god various Trojan offerings, including bronze mixing bowls, — some of which are still in existence and by their inscriptions, which are very ancient, sho
w by whom they were given, — they rejoined the fleet after a march of about four days. The presence of the Trojans at Buthrotum is proved by a hill called Troy, where they encamped at that time. [2] From Buthrotum they sailed along the coast and came to a place which was then called the Harbour of Anchises but now has a less significant name; there also they built a temple to Aphroditê, and then crossed the Ionian Gulf, having for guides on the voyage Patron the Thyrian and his men, who accompanied them of their own accord. The greater part of these, after the army had arrived safely in Italy, returned home; but Patron with some of his friends, being prevailed on by Aeneas to join the colony, stayed with the expedition. These, according to some, settled at Aluntium in Sicily. In memory of this service the Romans in the course of time bestowed Leucas and Anactorium, which they had taken from the Corinthians, upon the Acarnanians; when the latter desired to restore the Oeniadae to their old home, they gave them leave to do so, and also to enjoy the produce of the Echinades jointly with the Aetolians. [3] As for Aeneas and his companions, they did not all go ashore at the same place in Italy, but most of the ships came to anchor at the Promontory of Iapygia, which was then called the Salentine Promontory, and the others at a place named after Minerva, where Aeneas himself chanced to set foot first in Italy. This place is a promontory that offers a harbour in the summer, which from that time has been called the Harbour of Venus. After this they sailed along the coast until they reached the strait, having Italy on the right hand, and left in these places also some traces of their arrival, among others a bronze patera in the temple of Juno, on which there is an ancient inscription showing the name of Aeneas as the one who dedicated it to the goddess.