Excerpt from The History Lover’s Guide to Ancient Rome.
The earliest Mediterranean civilisation is believed to be the Minoans, centred on the island of Crete and revealed to us through the archaeology of Arthur Evans in the early 1900s.
The Minoans flourished in the Bronze Age, exhibiting a developed culture, fine architecture, vibrant art plus their own system of writing and recording. The mythology speaks of Zeus, the Greek king of gods, being captivated by a Phoenician princess (Europa) whom he abducts by transforming into a white bull and swimming to Crete with her. Once in Crete they have a child together who becomes the King of the Minoans, creating an empire in his name and fathering a Minotaur with his wife (Pasiphae).
The story of ancient Rome begins in the late eighth century BC with the works of the Greek poet Homer who wrote two books of poems about the Trojan War, traditionally believed to have ended in 1184 BC. These were The Iliad, followed shortly after by The Odyssey.
The Iliad is an account of the end of the 10-year-long Trojan War between the Greeks (specifically the Achaeans) and the Trojans. The war is triggered when Trojan Prince Paris abducts the beautiful Helen from her husband Menelaus, King of Sparta. As the war progresses, the Trojan Prince Hector (brother of Paris) kills Patroclus, a friend of Achilles and hero of the Achaeans. Achilles pursues Hector and kills him after a vicious duel, brutally mistreating and showing off the corpse. Paris, an expert marksman, then kills Achilles, disabling him with an arrow through his heel. Throughout the work the gods, hungry for honour and victory, inevitably intervene.
The Odyssey charts the seafaring adventures of Odysseus, King of Ithaca – wandering the Mediterranean Sea for 10 years aiming to get home after the Trojan War. The Romans took a deep interest in the works of Homer; the ancient Roman writer Livius Andronicus produced the first translation of The Odyssey in around 250 BC.
The character of Aeneas will play an enormous part in the mythology of Rome. Aeneas is an honourable warrior and a minor character in Homer’s The Iliad. But the gods take kindly to him by ensuring his survival in the Trojan War, seemingly earmarking Aeneas for a yet unknown destiny. Understandably so, since the mythology states that Aeneas is no less than the son of the goddess Venus and, as we shall see, an ancestor of Romulus and Remus.
Virgil wrote The Aeneid between 30 and 19 BC, as a work commissioned by Emperor Augustus. He described Troy as a real place on the west coast of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey); excavations in modern times lead us to believe it is near Hisarlik. In the work, Virgil describes how Aeneas and the survivors of the Trojan War sail for the coastal capital Carthage (in present-day Tunisia). Aeneas has a liaison with the Queen of Carthage, Dido, but spurns her advances for his greater purpose of founding Rome. Dido ends up killing herself and cursing Rome in desperation, setting up the historical antipathy and conflict between Rome and Carthage in future years. Aeneas then travels to Italy and settles on the plains of Latium and so is regarded as the founder of the Roman race. His son Ascanius becomes king of the Latin city of Alba Longa (Apennine Hills) and his descendants rule for many generations.
Later, the Julian clan of Rome will claim that Ascanius is their ancestor, neatly permitting them to claim descendancy from Venus. Something that Julius Caesar milks to full effect.
Through these ancient myths we have a supposed history of the birth of the Roman race – ‘springing from the blood of Troy, but with the language and gods of Italy’, to quote The Aeneid. The myths act as a bookend for the study of the classics in the Roman period and guide future generations to compare themselves against Rome, its foundation, conquests and rule – and as Mary Beard observes legitimising human behaviour in all its brutality and drive for supremacy over others.
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