A Latin Reader

TALES OF EARLY ROME
44. Aeneas comes to Italy

Trōiā cap­tā, Aenēās cum patre et paucīs comitibus fūgērunt, et ali­um locum domi­cil­iō quaerēbant.

Septem annōs errābant. Dēnique ad ōstium Tiberis per­vēnērunt, et cum Latīnō, rēge incolārum illīus regiō­nis, pācem fēcērunt. Latīnus Aenēae fīliam Lāvī­ni­am in mātrimōni­um ded­it. Trōiānī oppidum con­didērunt, quod Aenēās ā nōmine uxōris Lāvīni­um appel­lāvit. Vergilius, poē­ta clāris­simus, mul­ta scrīp­sit dē Trōi­ae exi­tiō et dē eīs rēbus quās Aenēās in Ītal­iā fēcit.

Post Aenēae mortem Ascānius, fīlius Aenēam, reg­nā­bat. Hīc sedem reg­nī in ali­um locum trān­stulit, urbe­mque con­did­it in monte Albānō, eamque Albam Longam appel­lāvit. Haec urbs lon­ga erat et alba, quā dē causā nōmen Alba Lon­ga eī datum est. Mul­tae colō­ni­ae dēduc­tae sunt alia in loca.

Trōiā cap­tā: after the fall of Troy. The Greeks made war upon Troy, and after a siege of ten years cap­tured the city through the strat­a­gem of the wood­en horse. Accord­ing to Roman leg­end, Aeneas, one of the Tro­jan chiefs, was the real founder of the Roman power.

The father, Anchis­es, did not live to reach the shores of Italy.

domi­ciliō: for a home.

The coun­try between Rome and the sea.

Lavini­um remained a long time in exis­tence and its site is still occupied.

Pub­lius Vergilius Marō: author of the Aeneid and oth­er poems.

Noth­ing remains of Alba Lon­ga. The town lay along the shore of beau­ti­ful Lake Alba on the moun­tains, in a much more health­ful loca­tion than the fever-infest­ed low­lands around Lavinium.

quā dē causā: for which reason.

The Romans spread their influ­ence rapid­ly through colonies sent wher­ev­er an open­ing pre­sent­ed itself. Each colony was a minia­ture Rome. These facts account for the extent and the per­ma­nen­cy of Roman occu­pa­tion and civ­i­liza­tion in the ancient world.