From Berlin to Bagdad and Babylon

by J. A. Zahm

Circuit exustæ nomen memorabile Trojae—

but also has him register a solemn vow to restore Priam’s city to its ancient state and honors—

Restituam populos, grata vice mœnia reddent

Ausomidæ Phrygibus, Romanaque Pergama surgent.

So proud, indeed, were the Romans of Ilium and of their descent from Æneas that their countrymen, under the command of Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus, on getting their first view of the home of their forefathers from the Trojan shore, were so moved, Virgil informs us, that they exultingly exclaimed:

O patria, O divom domus Ilium et incluta bello

Mœnia Dardanidum!

“The dignity and power of Ilium being thus prodigiously enhanced we must find it but natural,” observes Grote, “that the Ileans assumed to themselves exaggerated importance as the recognized parents of all conquering Rome.” History of Greece, Vol. I, p. 328.

[72] Purgatorio, XXII, 102.

[73] Troy, Its Legend, History and Literature, p. 122 (by S. G. Benjamin, New York, 1916).