Myths and Legends of the World

Destination: Arrived In the Kingdom of Latium was a king, named Latinus, who name was eponym of the Latins, the language of the Romans. Latinus was a son of Faunus and Marcia. He was also a legacy of Picus and of Saturn (Cronus). Latinus was married to Queen Amata, and he was a father of Princess Lavinia. Latinus ruled in the city of Laurentum. He was destined to not have any son to rule after him, so it was important to find a suitable husband for his daughter. Lavinia has many suitors, including Turnus, a young king from the city of Ardea. Turnus was most likely to have married Lavinia, because he was the strongest and most handsome of Italic suitors. However, Latinus witnessed several miracles, which his prophet said that he must marry his daughter to no Latin prince; Lavinia must marry a foreign prince who was due to arrive soon; it was a divine decree of the Fates. However, with this stranger, war will break out on his land, because of the dispute over his daughter betwe...

In Virgil's poem, The Aeneid, the ideal Roman hero is depicted in the form of Aeneas. Not only does Aeneas represent the Roman hero, but he also represents what every Roman citizen is called to be. Each Roman citizen must posses two major virtues, he must remain pious, and he must remain loyal to the Roman race. In the poem, Virgil says that all Romans ought to have two certain virtues: he must remain a pious Roman citizen, and he must remain loyal to the Roman race. In Virgil's poem, he uses Aeneas as a portrayal of not only a roman hero, but also as the ideal Roman citizen. For a man to be pious, he must do what he is called to do by the Fates and follow his destiny. Aeneas is above all pious. He follows the will of the gods, even when it makes him suffer. Aeneas' destiny is to lead the Trojan people to the new land of Rome. Although this is tough for him to do and he runs into difficulties along the way, he keeps on striving towards his final goal. Along the Greek ...

Some writers speculate that Pompeii was the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, and the destruction of the city was divine and forthcoming. This is due to the fact Rome have sacked  Jerusalem  and destroyed the Temple of Solomon. Some Christian tourists even today often don't visit this wonderful and colorful part of history because of the sexual nature of the ruins. Imagine living in one of the richest city of ancient times. Resources are bountiful and life is grand. Every amenity and luxury surrounds you, and unlike in other cities during this time, simple plumbing, plenty of food and other convenience is everywhere. Such was the life for those who lived in Pompeii, Italy in the late part of 70 AD. There was even ancient pornography and gentlemen entertainment, brothel houses to suit every taste. It was a town full of aristocrats and artisans. Artisans, who were previously slaves, gained freedom in Pompeii and became wealthy merchants. Pompeii was a place for the su...

Mount Vesuvius, a volcano near the Bay of Naples in Italy, is hundreds of thousands of years old and has erupted more than 50 times. It’s most famous eruption took place in August 24 or 25, 79 A.D., when the volcano buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii under a thick carpet of volcanic ash.  The irony thing is that it occur a few day after the Festival of Vulcan, the God of Fire and Volcano. The dust “poured across the land” like a flood, one witness wrote, and shrouded the city in darkness…like the black of closed and unlighted rooms.” Eleven hundred people died, and the city was abandoned for almost as many years. When a group of explorers rediscovered the site in 1748, they were surprised to find that--underneath a thick layer of dust and debris--Pompeii was mostly intact. The buildings, artifacts and skeletons left behind in the buried city have taught us a great deal about everyday life in the ancient world. Pompeii’s patron deity was Venus, the Roman goddess of lov...

I do apologize for my absence and update regularly but my personal life became hectic during this month. Finals and projects are done and I will continue to be more active until this blog is full. Even then I will create a new one. The Robigalia was a festival held April 25. Its main ritual was a dog sacrifice to protect grain fields from disease. Games in the form of "major and minor" races were held. The Robigalia was one of several agricultural festivals in April to celebrate and vitalize the growing season, but the darker sacrificial elements of these occasions are also fraught with anxiety about crop failure and the dependence on divine favor to avert it I try to find a little more information on Robigalia and male slave. I receive an email about some time ago. I know that Pimped-out boys" (pueri lenonii) were celebrated on April 25, the same day as the Robigalia. And young male sex workers may also marked the day as a special occ...

February was considered the final month of the Roman year, and on the 15th, citizens celebrated the festival of Lupercalia. Originally, this week-long party honored the god Faunus, who watched over shepherds in the hills. The festival also marked the coming of spring. Later on, it became a holiday honoring Romulus and Remus, the twins who founded Rome after being raised by a she-wolf in a cave. Eventually, Lupercalia became a multi-purpose event: it celebrated the fertility of not only the livestock but people as well. To kick off the festivities, an order of priests gathered before the Lupercale on the Palatine hill. The rite began in the cave of the She-Wolf in the city of Rome where legend had it that the founders of the city, Romulus and Remus, had been suckled by the wolf before they were found by a shepherd. The priests then sacrificed a dog for purification, and a pair of young male goats for fertility. The hides of the goats were cut into strips, dipped in bloo...

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Sorry about the delay. Due to the LENGTH of biography on Julius Caesar I will present to you Caesar's youth. Gaius Julius Caesar was born around July (originally Quinctilis, but renamed by Caesar in his own calendar reform) 13, 100 BC. Caesar was a member of the deeply patrician Julii family with roots dating to the foundation of the city itself. He later claimed to be a direct descendent of Aenaes, Ancestor of the Roman people and son of Venus, and therefore related to the gods themselves. Still, at his start, the Caesar family was an impoverished line of the noble original clans. No Caesars in recent generations had held the seat of Consul but while still highly respected, they held little political clout. His father, Gaius Julius as well, had served in a respectable capacity within the Senate, but had little notoriety aside from his son's legacy. His mother, Aurelia, of the Aurelii Cotta line, seems to have been both a remarkable woman and a ...