Sunday, September 23, 2012

Livy 1.1

[Iam] Now first of all, it is generally agreed that, Troy having been captured, rage was vented upon the rest of the Trojans; the Achivi abstained from every right of war for two —Aeneas and Antenor — both by the law of ancient hospitality and because they were always been the supporters of peace and of returning Helen.  [Casibus] Their fortunes (lit. events/misfortunes) then being different, Antenor came into the inmost bay of the Adriatic Sea with a multitude of Enetes, who had been driven from Paphlagonia by a revolution and, having lost their king Pylaemenes before Troy, were looking for a settlement and a leader; the Euganei who used to live between the sea and the Alps having been driven out, the Eneti and Trojans occupied these lands.  [Et] And the place (lit. acc.) into which they first disembarked was called Troy, and thence the name was Troy (lit. dat.) for the district; the whole nation was called Veneti.  [Aeneam] Aeneas, a fugitive from home by a similar misfortune, but, with the Fates leading to greater beginnings of things, came first into Macedonia, then was carried down into Sicily seeking a settlement, from Sicily he held his fleet to the Laurentian territory.  Troy is the name for this place also.  [Ibi] There the Trojans, having disembarked, as for whom by an almost boundless wandering nothing had survived except their arms and their ships, because they were taking plunder from the fields, king Latinus and the local inhabitants, who then were holding these places, gather together from the city and the fields armed to prevent the violence of the strangers.  [Duplex] From this point there is a twofold tradition: some say that Latinus, defeated in battle, joined peace with Aeneas and subsequently a family alliance; others that when the battle lines, having been drawn up, had stopped before they sounded the signals, Latinus had advanced among his front lines and had invited the leader of the strangers to a conference; he inquired then who were the men, whence or by what misfortune set out from their home, or seeking what they had gone out into Laurentine territory; after he heard that the multitude were Trojans, that their leader was Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Venus, that, their native city (lit. fatherland) having been burnt, the fugitives from home were seeking an abode and a place for building a city, having admired both the nobility of the race and the hero, and their spirit prepared for either war or peace, his right hand having been given, he sanctified a pledge of future friendship.  [Inde] Then a treaty was struck between the leaders and greetings made between the armies; Aeneas was entertained (lit. in hospitality) at Latinus’ home.  [Ibi] There Latinus before his household gods had joined domestic treaty to public, his daughter having been given in marriage to Aeneas.  This incident certainly confirms for the Trojans at last the hope of the end of their wandering in a stable and sure home.  [Oppidum] They build a town; Aeneas calls (it) Lavinium from the name of his wife.  In a short time also a boy (a manly shoot) was from the new marriage, for whom his parents said the name of Ascanius.

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