85- Aeneid Part V: From Mercy to Fury

Virgil may be slowly unravelling as Augustus forces him to write propaganda into the Aeneid, but Aeneas is charging full steam ahead into his conflict against the Rutulians. Join us for duels, ancient world macchiatos and a boat-based answering machine. Oh, and a tangent exploring who exactly these Etruscans are we will be hearing so much about.

Time period: 1185 BCE

Relevant individuals:

• Aeneas, Trojan refugee and later 1st King of Alba Longa

Sources for this episode:

• Dudley, D. (1978), Roman Society. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
• Evelyn-White, H. G. (1943), Hesiod: The Homeric Hymns and Homerica. London: William Heinemann Ltd.
• Herodotus (1971), The Histories. Translated by A. de Selincourt. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
• Marks, A. and Tingay, G. (date unknown), Romans. London: Usborne Publishing.
• Matyszak, P. (2008), Chronicle of the Roman Republic: The Rulers of Ancient Rome from Romulus to Augustus. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
• Mountford, P. (date unknown), Aeneas: An Etruscan Foundation Legend. ASCS 32 Proceedings.
• Oglivie, R. M. (1976), Early Rome and the Etruscans. Glasgow: William Collins & Sons, Ltd.
• Oltermann, P. (ed.) et al. (date unknown), The Ancient World Day 3: Rome. The Guardian, The Observer and the British Museum.
• Pellecchia, M., Negrini, R., Colli, L., Patrini, M., Milanesi, E., Achilli, A., Bertorelle, G., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., Piazza, A., Torroni, A. and Ajmone-Marsan, P. (2007), The mystery of Etruscan origins: novel clues from Bos taurus mitochondrial DNA. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 274(1614): 1175-1179.
• Suetonius (1983), The Twelve Caesars. Translated by R. Graves. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
• Thucydides (1971), History of the Peloponnesian War. Translated by R. Warner. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
• Woolf, A. (2014), A Short History of the World: The Story of Mankind from Prehistory to the Modern Day. London: Arcturus Publishing Ltd.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Odysseus (online) (Accessed 20/10/2025).