Livy and Aeneas

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.

Early Rome

Today I am asked to come up with two questions on early Rome, so here we go.

1) Why did the Romans base so much of their culture from the Etruscans if they came from Troy?

2) WHat on the journey from Troy changed the founders of Rome to become such a different nation?

The Iliad Endings

The Iliad book 24 resolves many issues seen in book 1. Firstly, we no longer see the enraged Achilles, but instead see a nice, and quite hospitable Achilles. Also, we see no anger toward Agamemnon from Achilles as resolved in an earlier book, whereas in book one, we see them quarrel quite a bit. Book 24 seems to completely resolve not only issues from Achilles, but also Achilles himself. Achilles, although he has been through a lot, and his death is drawing near, he is able to find this kind of peace with the "enemy" king Priam, and is contented with giving the body of Hector back. Also, Achilles, rather than letting his anger surge through him and his action, seems to be trying to prevent it, and show Priam hospitality. Also, for a moment, Achilles, the fatherless son, and Priam, the son less father, actually embrace each other as father and son. This shows Achilles' rage almost completely gone, and he is ready to live again. All thogether, this one book resolves not only problems in book 1, but also throughout the story, and resolves Achilles himself.