Hans Wrote:
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> Does anyone know of any mentions of Troy (Ilium)
> in Roman literature? A new city of Ilium was
> founded on the site in the reign of the Roman
> Emperor Augustus. I have wondered if any
> discussion of this new city was made in the
> surviving Roman materials?

You should have a look at chapter 7 ("The New City (Levels VIII to IX)") in Trevor Bryce's The Trojans and Their Neighbours (2006, Routledge). There's a discussion about "Troy and Roman Tradition" and "Troy in Roman Propaganda". There's also Erskine's book (see the reference at the bottom of this post).

Here's (slightly more than) a little taster from Bryce's book:

"[...] The Roman dictator Sulla had apparently provided some funds for rebuilding the city after its alleged destruction [in 85 BC] by [the Roman quaestor] Fimbria [as told by Strabo]. But most of the credit for its redevelopment must go to Julius Caesar and his great-nephew Octavian, later to be called Augustus. The prominence Troy achieved in this last phase of its existence is closely connected with the rising fortunes of the Julian clan, of whom Julius Caesar and Augustus were the most illustrious members. The alleged links between Troy and Rome date back at least to the fifth century in Greek tradition and had become embedded in Roman tradition no later than the third century. But the impact that this made on Roman consciousness before the tradition was embraced by the Julian clan in the first century BC was probably very limited, even though a succession of Republican Roman authors like Q. Fabius Pictor, Cato the Elder, Naevius and, as mentioned above, Ennius dealt with or at least referred to it.

"According to Lucan, an epic poet of the first century AD, Julius Caesar visited the site after his victory over Pompey the Great at Pharsalus in Thessaly on 29 June 48 BC [1]. Surprisingly, none of the more historically reliable writers like Plutarch, Strabo or Caesar himself make any mention of such a visit, which must cast considerable doubt on its authenticity [2]. There is, however, no doubt that Caesar became a benefactor of the site, as Strabo tells us, and it was certainly due to him, initially, that Troy rose to high prominence in the Roman world. Indeed, it appears that he even considered re-establishing his capital there, as the Emperor Constantine the Great was to contemplate doing some four centuries later.

"Caesar saw the political benefits of closely identifying himself with Troy - above all by linking his family with the family of Aeneas. Aeneas' son Ascanius, the legendary founder of Alba Longa, was also known as 'Iulus'. We do not know when Ascanius was first called Iulus, but in Virgil's Aeneid, both names are used interchangeably and with approximately the same frequency. As Professor Austin comments: 'Whatever the origin of the equation Ascanius-Iulus, Virgil's use of the name Iulus plainly reflects his wish to connect the gens Iulia and the imperial house of Rome with its Trojan past' [3]. Without doubt, Virgil was also reflecting the wishes of his emperor [4]. For the equation provided the Julian clan with what they saw as sufficient justification for claiming Iulus Ascanius, and therefore Aeneas, as their ancestors. Thus Caesar traced his family roots back to the very founder of the Roman nation, and Troy had been the ancestral home of this founder. For a man whose ambitions went far beyond that of a mere republican magistracy, despite any claims he had made to the contrary, and for a man who but recently had been declared an enemy of the state by the Roman senate, there was obviously political capital to be made out of his alleged descent from his country's founder.

"Yet Caesar had little opportunity to benefit from his supposed ancestral roots before his assassins cut him down. It was left to his great-nephew and de-facto successor Octavian to exploit the full political potential of the link he had claimed with Aeneas and son. Literature provided one of the vehicles for doing this. Hence the commission bestowed, or rather imposed, upon the poet Virgil [...]" (pp. 170-171).

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"Troy is where it all began, and in Augustus' reign the city took on a new significance. The Aeneid's story and potent symbolism no doubt helped ensure that what was now touted as the birthplace of the Roman nation became a popular destination for pilgrims and tourists. Like many other cities of Asia Minor, it derived substantial benefit from the romanization of the region. Some of these cities had, like Troy, a distinguished pedigree extending back to the Bronze Age. Ephesus and Miletus were notable examples [...]. But in the Roman period, Troy, or New Ilium, differed from them in a very important respect. They continued to flourish for a number of important practical reasons, which had to do with their valuable strategic locations and their close involvement in the political and commercial activities of their region. Troy was an artificially propped-up city. It survived and flourished in the present because of what it had been in the past [...].

"In this last phase of its existence, Troy developed into an impressive showplace city [...]. Its walls encompassed, with lower city and citadel combined, an area larger than any of its predecessors, including the great Troy VI. Augustus himself, who visited the site, made provision for major new building works [...]" (pp. 175-176).

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"After the demise of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Ilium continued to enjoy the privileges that the members of this dynasty had conferred or reconferred upon it[5], and to play host to a number of distinguished visitors. In 124, the emperor Hadrian graced it with his presence. And ninety years later, Caracalla stopped at Troy on his expedition to the east against the Parthians. Picturing himself as a latter-day Alexander, Caracalla made sacrifice at Achilles' tomb, erected a statue in his honour and, in imitation of Achilles' burial rites for Patroclus, cremated on a large funeral pyre his favourite but now deceased freedman Festus [6]. Some fifty years later, around 267, the city came close to a violent end when the Goths plundered it during the reign of the emperor Gallienus. But Roman troops stationed at Byzantium succeeded in driving them off before the city was utterly razed. Indeed there were prospects of it entering into a splendid new era when Constantine the Great considered making it or the nearby site of Sigeum his new capital. Apparently, Constantine had actually started building walls and a major new harbour before decided to develop the immensely more suitable site of Byzantium [7]. Had he proceeded with the Troad site, one wonders whether his New Rome would ever have become the capital of an empire that was to last 1,000 years, or whether indeed there would ever have been such an empire. Troy's greatest days had long since gone and would never return. Any attempt to establish a new imperial capital here would almost certainly have ended in failure [...]" (pp. 178-179).



[1] Lucan, De bello civili 9.966-99. Lucan records the anecdote that as Caesar walked through a patch of grass, one of the locals called out to him: 'They buried Hector there. Take care not to offend his ghost!'

[2] Thus Erskine (2001:248-50).

[3] Austin (1964:216).

[4] Virgil's literary patron was Augustus' close confidant Maecenas.

[5] Elder Pliny, Naturalis historia 5.124.

[6] Vermeule (1995:476, with note 100).

[7] See Vermeule (1995:477), Sage (2000:217-18).




References:

Austin, R.G. (1964) P. Vergili Maronis: Aeneidos Liber Secundus, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Erskine, A. (2001) Troy Between Greece and Rome: Local Tradition and Imperial Power, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sage, M. (2000) 'Roman Visitors to Ilium in the Roman Imperial and Late Antique Period: the Symbolic Functions of a Landscape', in Studia Troica X:211-31.

Vermeule III, C.C. (1995) 'Neon Ilion and Ilium Novum: Kings, Soldiers, Citizens and Tourists at Classical Troy', in J.B. Carter and S.P. Morris (eds) The Ages of Homer: A Tribute to Emily Townsend Vermeule, Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, pp. 467-80.

For further information on Ilium during the Byzantine period, see Vermeule (1995:477, with references in notes 115, 116).