Virgil: a writer poet in the time of Augustus.
Aeneas: leader of the Trojans survivors. Founder of the Roman race, not the city of Rome (Romulus)
Anchises: Aeneas’ father, had an affair with Venus
Venus: Aeneas’ mother, goddess of love/beauty,
Iulus / Ascanius / Ilus: Aeneas’ son
Creusa: Aeneas’ Trojan wife, dies at end Trojan War
Jupiter: king of the gods, husband/brother of Juno
Juno: queen of the gods, goddess of woman/marriage, hated the
Trojans because…
1. The Trojans were destined by Fate to become Romans, eventual conquerors of Carthage (patron goddess)
2. Paris, a Trojan, had judged Venus the winner in a beauty contest over Juno in “The Judgement of Paris”.
3. Ganymede, a Trojan, had been chosen as Jupiter’s cupbearer instead of her own daughter, Hebe
4. Other goddesses had been allowed to punish their enemies
Cupid: Aeneas’ half-brother, son of Venus
Mercury: son of Jupiter, messenger of the gods
Neptune: god of the sea
Aeolus: king of the winds
Dido: queen of Carthage, fugitive from Tyre
Anna: Dido’s sister
Sychaeus: Dido’s husband, now dead
Pygmalion: Dido’s brother
Personnel in the Trojan War – Book 2
Trojans
Priam: king of Troy
Hecuba: queen
Hector: son of king/Trojan warrior, killed and dragged around the walls of the city by the Greek hero Achilles
Laocoon: priest of Neptune
Thymoetes
Coroebus
Deiphobus: second Trojan husband of Helen
Cassandra: Priam’s daughter, priestess/prophetess, destined not to be believed because she had offended Apollo
Polites: son of the king
Greeks
Ulysses (Odysseus)
Diomede
Agamemnon
Menelaus: brother of Agamemnon and husband of Helen
Helen: taken to Troy by Paris
Achilles
Ajax
Pyrrhus
Myrmidons
Dolopians
Androgeus
Sinon: the liar
Palamedes
Calchas: the prophet
(The Trojan War between the Greeks and Trojans had taken place approximately 500 years earlier, around 1250 BC. Aeneas and the defeated Trojans set off for Italy in search of the land where they would find a home for their ancestral gods. Until the foundation of the city of
Rome, descendants of Aeneas ruled Alba Longa in Italy. Aeneas can be
termed the Founder of the Roman nation
.
Century
700 BC
Vital Dates
753 BC
600 BC
500 BC
400 BC
300 BC
200 BC
510 BC
Significant Events and People
Romulus founds the city of Rome in 753BC
Romulus can be termed the
Founder of the Roman city .
Numa – founder of state religion
Tullus Hostilius – warrior king
Ancus Martius – extends Roman power
Tarquinius Priscus – great builder
Servius Tullius – reorganises people
Tarquinius Superbus – tyrant, expelled in 510BC
This group of people are termed the
Seven Kings of Rome
This period is called the Monarchy. The king was called rex, a word from now on hated by the Romans
Romans now under the control of the consuls,
2 men elected to rule for 1 year: the Republic
By the end of this century Rome was mistress of
Italy
100 BC
( Virgil was born in 70 BC)
31 BC
27 BC
( Virgil began writing the
Aeneid in 26BC.
He died in 19
BC)
By the end of this century Rome was mistress of the Mediterranean world
Beginning in the previous century, Rome went through a hundred years of revolution and civil war; men such as Sulla, Marius, Julius Caesar,
Pompey, Octavian and Antony sought more individual powers than the rules of the Republic allowed. Octavian defeated Antony in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and became the sole ruler and first emperor of Rome, receiving the name of Augustus in 27BC
THE EMPIRE
This is the term used from 27 BC onwards, the period when Rome was ruled by emperors