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.

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.