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Afterwards
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The Aeneid for Boys and Girls |
by Alfred J. Church |
Relates in vigorous prose the tale of Aeneas, the legendary ancestor of Romulus, who escaped from the burning city of Troy and wandered the Mediterranean for years before settling in Italy. Patterned after the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Aeneid was composed as an epic poem by Virgil, to glorify the imperial city of Rome. Ages 8-12 | 162 pages |
$9.95 |
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AFTERWARDS
[297] SO Æneas married the fair Lavinia, and built a city
which he called after her name. This city soon grew to
be a great place, for the people in the country round
about heard the fame of the great Æneas, how brave he
was in battle, and how just, and they came in great
numbers to be his subjects. Yet he had enemies, for
those whom he had overcome in war wished to be
revenged, nor did they like that a man from foreign
parts should rule over them. So they gathered a great
army together, and marched against the new city. Æneas
went out to meet them, and put them to flight; but he
never came back to his city. Some said that he was
drowned in a river which runs into the sea not far from
those parts; others, that his mother Venus carried him
away. Certainly he was never seen again by any man.
By this time Lavinia had a little son, and Ascanius
thought that it would be well
[298] to leave the city
Lavinium to his young brother, and to found a new one
for himself. There were, indeed, by this time so many
people, Trojans, and Latins, and Tuscans, and Greeks,
who had come from the city of Evander, that one place
was not big enough to hold them. So Lavina had charge
of the city which had been called after her, till her
son should be old enough to take the kingdom, and
Ascanius built a new town for himself, and called it
Alba Longa—that is, the Long White Town.
Not long after this the old King Evander died, and as
he left no son to succeed him, the little town which he
had built among the seven hills by the Tiber was
deserted, and the people joined themselves either to
Ascanius at Alba, or to Lavinia and her son at the
other city.
For many years the place was without inhabitants. Then
by degrees a little village grew up. For one thing, the
country about Alba was not a little troubled with
earthquakes, but these did not reach as far as the
valley of the Tiber. People, too, who got into trouble
at home, were often glad
[299] to flee to this out-of-the way
place across the river.
Then a wonderful thing happened: just what the Fire-god
had shown on the shield which he made for Æneas. Two
babies, children of a princess descended from Æneas,
were left out to die by a cruel uncle; but a she-wolf
which had lost her own cubs suckled them, and they grew
up to be the strongest men in the country. As time went
on the village was turned into a town, and the town was
made a strong place. The people who lived in it called
themselves Romans. Some of their neighbours they
conquered, and with some they made friends. Little by
little they made wider their boundaries and increased
their power. Many troubles they had, from quarrels
among themselves and from enemies without. More than
once their city was taken. Still, however low it fell,
it rose again stronger than before. It conquered first
all Italy, and then the countries nearest to it, and
then far-away nations in Asia and Africa. Our own island of
Britain was almost the last of its conquests. We may
still see the ruins of the splendid houses which the
Romans built here, and the
[300] camps which their soldiers
made. Most wonderful of all the things which they left
behind them is the great Wall which was made right
across the island to keep out the savages of the North.
"Most wonderful," I say, but still greater than this
was what we have from them of Law and Order. But this
is a matter of which you will hear more when you are
older.
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