Today I will be answering two question, one from Livy's preface, and another from the second book of the Aeneid.
1) What is the purpose of Livy's History according to his "Preface"?
According to Livy, his history is meant to tell what happened in Rome's past without changes made, he also doesn't want to tell what the gods did, but just what people did. So in essence, he wants to record what people did without divine intervention, and only include true facts rather than distort what happened for the benefit of others.
2) In one to two paragraphs, summarize book 2 of the Aeneid.
In the second book of the Aeneid, Aeneas begins to tell the story of the final hours of Troy. To start, the Greeks pile their best warriors into the horse they build, and convince the Trojans to take it as "a parting gift." This led to the later demise of Troy when the horse was opened and the warriors killed the guards, and let the rest of the Greek forces into the city. While this was happening, Hector comes to Aeneas in a dream, and wakes him to fight the Greek forces. Aeneas wakes his men, and they fight for Troy, but were too outnumbered. Because of this, Priam dies by Achilles's son's hands. Aeneas realizes that it is Helen that the war started, and goes to end her when Venus comes and tells him that is was the gods' fault that the war started, and tells him to run and go found Rome. Reluctantly, Aeneas grabs his father and son, and runs out of the city with his wife behind him. Once after out of the city, Aeneas realizes his wife is still in the city. He runs back in only to be met with her ghost, who tells him to run to Rome. And so Aeneas does this.
Look a little more carefully into Livy's preface and you will see that he sees the historical past as a field of instruction, presenting examples of behaviors to emulate and those to avoid. Livy's explicit statements regarding the purpose of History cause us to consider the role of "purpose in writing" in the writing of the historical past. Surely Livy's purpose for writing, including the moral and instructional component he assigns to history, will impact the ways in which he will represent the History of Rome. --With regard to the Aeneid, consider too how the narrative complexity of the epic poem creates the fast moving pace and action packed feel of the story.
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