Aeneid book 1

After Virgil calls upon the muses to write, he begins with Aeneas on the sea, heading from Troy. After that, Juno sends the four winds to hopefully sink Aeneas' ships because she wants Greece to be the largest city, however, the Fates have decided that Aeneas will found Rome, and Rome will be dominant over all other peoples. Neptune fells the waters shaking, and in anger sends the winds away, and guide Aeneas' ship to land on Carthage. Aeneas and his men then make there way to the beginning civilization that Dido started. Dido is hospitable to the Trojans, and throws a banquet in their honor. Venus is paranoid that Dido won't let them leave, and had Cupid make Dido love Aeneas. Dido, unaware of all of this, asks Aeneas to tell everyone the story of the Trojan war.

The Roman Empire

Why was Rome so successful in creating her empire?

There were three main advantages in Rome that aided her rise to an empire. These main advantages were military power, law, and tenacity. Rome mainly hot its army from the large county of Italy, making their army quite large. Rome having a very large army was not easily conquered and was very well protected thus leading to a safer and more successful empire. While Rome had a lot of military strength, what also contributed was its law. The Romans held the law very highly and respected it very much. This made the willingness to uphold the law was very strong. This helped Rome in its conquest, and with everyone cooperating by the law made the Romans very effective. Rome was also successful for its perseverance and tenacity. It never gave up and continued to fight multiple battles in order to reach the prophesied potential of becoming a great Empire, which in the end it did.

Aeneid book 6

Book six starts out with Aeneas and his men landing on the shores of Cumae. Aeneas goes into the cave and talks to the sibyl, then comes out of the cave to see the dead man the sibyl had prophesied would die. Aeneas and his men prepare the funeral pyre and burial, then Aeneas finds the golden bough the sibyl spoke of earlier. he goes back to the sibyl, and she takes him to the underworld. they use the bough to bribe the ferryman to take them across the river Styx. From there they go to the Field of Tears, and make it to the cross roads. One path leads to the Gate of Ivory, which Aeneas and the sibyl by pass, and go on the other path that leads to the Elysian Fields to meet Aeneas' father, Anchises. Anchises then tells Aeneas about the future of Rome, and shows him the line of people about to go into the overworld that are Roman. After talking ot his father, Aeneas goes back to the overworld, and his men and him begin to sail for Italy.

Aeneid book 4

As Aeneas finishes his story, Dido thinks about her love for Aeneas and starting his city, and later talks to Anna about her and Aeneas getting married. Juno sees Dido's love as a means of preventing Aeneas not going to Italy, and offers Venus a peace offering, and suggests that Dido and Aeneas get alone together. Venus sees what Juno is up to, but complies anyway. By means of a storm, Juno gets the two alone in a cave while out on a royal hunt. After spending time together, the two go back to Carthage as lovers, and Dido considers them to already be married. Jupiter learns of the love between them, and sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his goal to found Rome. Aeneas, not knowing how to tell Dido, tries to make ready to leave without her knowing. She finds out, and makes a fire in the courtyard, unlit. Aeneas leaves, and Dido, heart broke, goes onto the pyre built earlier, and kills herself. Juno pities her, and ends Dido's suffering.

Aeneid book 3

This book starts off with Aeneas's continued story of the Trojan war. He escapes Troy and leads the survivors to Antander to build ships. They then use there newly made ships to sail to Thrace, and while making sacrifices, Aeneas meets the spirit of Polydorus who asks him for a funeral so his spirit can rest in peace. After Aeneas does this, he and his crew then sailed to Delos. When Aeneas arrives at Delos, Apollo speaks to Aeneas and tells him to go back to the land of his ancestors, which Anchises believes that to be the island of Crete. They travel to Crete and start building, however, a terrible plague comes to their newly build civilization in Crete, and the gods come to Aeneas in a dream and say that Anchises was mistaken. They also tell Aeneas that he is supposed to start a civilization in Italy, not Crete. The gods also tell prophecy of Roman supremacy, declaring, “You must prepare great walls for a great race” (3.223 ). They then sail for Italy, but a storm comes and they crash onto Strophades. The men kill and eat some of the roaming cows, and that gets the attention of the Harpies, who are birds with female faces. The Harpies then, out of anger, curse the men saying they will not found Rome until they are so hungry that they will eat the tables. Aeneas goes to another island and offers another sacrifice to Apollo, and then they sail for Italy. On the way, Aeneas runs into Andromache and she tells the story of her and Helenus' capture, and she also advises him to go the long way to Italy because it is safer. Again Aeneas and his crew start for Italy, they run into a man from Ulysses's crew and he tells them of the Cyclops that they deceived, shortly after,  the Cyclops in question shows up, and the men escape, and sail for Italy.

The Punic Wars

Were the Punic Wars the most important era of the Republic? Why or why not?

The Punic Wars were very important to the era of the Republic. In the rise of the Roman Republic, the Punic Wars were the largest threat to Romes rule. Also, without the Punic Wars, Rome would not have gotten the experience in fighting needed to keep the Republic under control from outside threats. Without the Punic Wars, Rome would have quickly risen to power, but quickly fallen due to a lack of military strength, preventing it from being a great republic, and later an empire. So, based off of this, I'd say that the Punic Wars were most important in the Era of the Republic.