Aeneas in
Italy.To begin
with, it is generally admitted that after the capture of Troy, whilst the rest of the Trojans
were massacred, against two of them —Aeneas and Antenor —the Achivi
refused to exercise the rights of war, partly owing to old ties of
hospitality, and partly because these men had always been in favour of
making peace and surrendering Helen.
Their subsequent fortunes were different. Antenor sailed into the
furthest part of the Adriatic, accompanied by a number of Enetians who
had been driven from Paphlagonia by a revolution and after losing their king
Pylaemenes before Troy were looking for a settlement and a leader.
The combined force of Enetians and Trojans defeated the Euganei, who
dwelt between the sea and the Alps and occupied their land. The place where they
disembarked was called Troy,
and the name was extended to the surrounding district; the whole nation
were called Veneti.
Similar misfortunes led to Aeneas becoming a wanderer but the Fates were
preparing a higher destiny for him. He first visited Macedonia, then was carried down to
Sicily in quest of a
settlement; from Sicily he
directed his course to the Laurentian territory.
Here, too, the name of Troy is
found, and here the Trojans disembarked, and as their almost infinite
wanderings had left them nothing but their arms and their ships, they
began to plunder the neighbourhood. The Aborigines, who occupied the
country, with their king Latinus at their head came hastily together
from the city and the country districts to repel the inroads of the
strangers by force of arms. From this point there is a twofold
tradition. According to the one, Latinus was defeated in battle, and
made peace with Aeneas, and subsequently a family alliance.