Selections from Virgil Aeneid X : an edition for intermediate students lines 215-50, 260-307, 362-98, 426-542

third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. ## Preface Th is book, and the notes which accompany the text on the internet (at www.bloomsbury.com/bloomsbury-classical-languages ) are intended to assist students of Latin who have mastered the language at beginner's level: the notes at the end of the book help readers to understand how the sentences construe, while the vocabulary glosses every word in the text. Th e online commentary aims to highlight the literary qualities of the verse without presuming to be authoritative or exhaustive: the reader is heartily encouraged to form his or her own views. Th e Introduction includes much background information which, it is hoped, will make useful reference as well as an orientation for those coming to the Aeneid for the fi rst time. My profound thanks are due to Keith Maclennan, who has provided sections for the Introduction on historical background, style and literary sources as well as the synopsis. His unstinting comments have also shaped the rest of this book. I am also deeply grateful to Alice Wright and her colleagues at Bloomsbury for their indispensable guidance and support. Anyone who opens S. J. Harrison's commentary on Book X will immediately realise my huge indebtedness to it, though my emphasis is more on artistic appreciation of the Latin than on its literary models. All in all, I count myself very lucky to have had such mentors, witting or unwitting, and apologise to them and to the readers of this book for any remaining errors, which are mine alone. Christopher Tanfi eld London August 2015 vii viii \*All dates are bce , unless otherwise designated. Th at peace and order is prophesied as a bright hope for Aeneas by Jupiter in Aeneid 1.286-96. Th e period of the civil wars itself is summed up in two lines of Book 6, where the spirits of Caesar and his rival Pompey are seen together in the Underworld, and Caesar is told 'Cast aside those weapons ' (6.836). Th e previous development of the city and empire is given meaning by Jupiter in 1.283-5: the conquest of Greece is Rome rising in triumph from the ashes of Troy's defeat. Th e long centuries since the foundation of the city are represented, also in Book 6, by Aeneas's vision of his own and his people's descendants, as his father's spirit shows them to him in the Underworld. Th e city's fi rst beginnings are hinted at in Book 8, when Aeneas visits Evander, king of the tiny settlement on the Palatine Hill, which Romans recognized (Romulus's hut stood at its north-western corner) as the nucleus of the original city. But the narrative focus of the Aeneid is on Aeneas himself, his fl ight from Troy, his time in Carthage, and his eff orts to establish the Trojan presence in Latium. Here Virgil builds on and makes his own unity out of a large number of stories circulating in his time. Rome had come to power in a Mediterranean civilization which was predominantly Greek. In Greek literature, the single most important text is Homer's epic, the Iliad . It is also the earliest text, probably composed about 750. In the Iliad Aeneas is one of the heroes defending Troy, in fact the second greatest of the Trojans, aft er Hector. In Book 20, the god Poseidon, who has rescued Aeneas from Achilles, prophesies: '. . . mighty Aeneas will reign over the Trojans, he and his children's children ' (20.307-8). Early understanding of this prophecy had Aeneas staying in the vicinity of Troy and ruling over the Trojan remnant. But by the end of the fi ft h century there were stories of Trojan settlers in Sicily (Th ucydides 6.1), and of Aeneas arriving in Latium and founding the city of Lavinium (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 1.72.3). Certain Greek authors of the late fourth century, coming to terms with Rome's importance, attributed the foundation of Rome to 'Th eogony' , on the ancestry of the gods; but in the time of the infl uential third century critic and poet Callimachus of Alexandria, a reaction to Homer set in -Apollo's admonition to Tityrus in the sixth Eclogue (see Virgil's Life and Works above) turns out to be a quotation from Callimachus himself. Th ere was nevertheless large-scale production of Greek epic verse in the three centuries before Virgil's . . . ; utque leo, specula cum vidit ab alta stare procul campis meditantem in proelia taurum, ád volat . . . "This is the first intermediate-student edition of a selection from Virgil's Aeneid X. Lines 215?250, 260?307, 362?398 and 426?542 are included as Latin text with an accompanying commentary and vocabulary. Focusing on a deliberately concise extract from the original, this edition is designed to be manageable for students reading the text for the first time while also perfectly encapsulating the interest of the longer work and inspiring further study of it. A detailed introduction explains points of historical and stylistic interest, encompassing the whole of Book X, including sections omitted here from the Latin. In Book X, the story moves from a council of the gods, via a depiction of Aeneas's return by sea to his beleaguered Trojan camp, to a bloody field of battle. We see Aeneas for the first time as a heroic warrior, but also afflicted by the searing pain of loss as the young son of his new ally, entrusted to him by his father, is killed. Aeneas is for now cheated of his revenge, a revenge which is the preoccupation of the rest of the poem. He does, however, slay the son of a champion of the opposition and then the champion himself, in scenes which re-emphasise that pain. The heart of the book, where Aeneas and his allies join the fray, constitutes the selection presented here. It is an immensely powerful confrontation between violence and compassion, cruelty and nobility."-- Provided by publisher Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Contents Preface Introduction The Aeneid and Roman History Virgil’s life and works Literary sources for the Aeneid Aeneid Book X Metre Further reading Text Commentary Notes Vocabulary