Virgil's Aeneid, pt 4: why did Troy fall?

In the second book of Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas tells Dido and her court the story of the last days of Troy.  It is a fascinating retelling of the end of a great city, a great kingdom, from the viewpoint of one of the vanquished.  Only it may strike modern readers as odd that Aeneas does not play the “victim card” too strongly.  Yes, the Greeks were to blame, and the Trojans were to blame.  Yet in the end, it was the gods who brought down Troy.  The Aeneid weaves this theme together with the birth of a new city:  the same gods who fated Priam’s city for destruction also fated the rise of Rome.

So whom shall we blame for the fall of Troy?  Aeneas tells us that he has no doubt that the Greeks could never have taken Troy by mere military might, and so they turned to cunning:

Knowing their strength broken in warfare, turned
Back by the fates, and years – so many years –
Already slipped away, the Danaan captains
By the divine handicraft of Pallas built
A horse of timber, tall as a hill…
(II.18)

The Greeks left the horse, and sailed their fleet around the island of Tenedos.  The Trojans were not entirely of one mind as to what to do.  Thymoetes shouts that they should bring it into the city;  Capys warns his fellow Trojans against such an action:

Into the sea with it…or burn it
Build up a bonfire under it,
This trick of the Greeks, a gift no one can trust.
(II.50)

The same sentiment is echoed by Laocoon:  “A gift from Danaans, and no ruse? / Is that Ulysses’ way, as you have known him?… Whatever it is, even when Greeks bring gifts/ I fear them, gifts and all!” (II.62,69)  Here at least some of the Trojans are hitting close to the truth.  The Iliad was full of wily Odysseus, crafty Odysseus, cunning Odysseus, and at least some of the Trojans know his character well.  The Greeks could not defeat the Trojans by outright military power, and so they will have to defeat them by another method.  Aeneas highlights what he calls the deception of the Greeks:  an Argive solider had allowed himself to be captured, and he leads on the Trojans with an act and a tale, enticing them to bring the horse inside the citadel.  The disdain for the Greeks is evident:

Be instructed now
In Greek deceptive arts;  one barefaced deed
Can tell you of them all. (II.91)

Aeneas then tells how the Trojans were taken in by Sinon.  He gave such a convincing ‘performance’ that the Trojans were convinced.  Sinon swore that he was telling “the whole truth” (II.106) and the ‘honest’ (or naïve) Trojans were unable to see through the act.  Here Aeneas is contrasting the virtue of the honest Trojans with the deceptive Greeks.  The Trojans, indeed, were so honest (or naïve) a people as to be “unable to conceive such a performance/ the art of the Pelasgian” (II.144)  Twice more Sinon swears oaths by the gods that his tale is true (see II.191, 209). And so they took the horse into the city. 

This fraud of Sinon, his accomplished lying
Won us over, a tall tale and fake tears
Had captured us, whom neither Diomedes
Nor Larisaean Achilles overpowered,
Nor ten long years, nor all their thousand ships.
(II.268)

Once the thing is within the city, and the Greeks begin their attack, Aeneas begins to tell us that there were other, “higher” causes of the city’s fall.  We move from the “human agents” to the “divine agents”.  The pious Trojans call for “votive prayer to the goddess” (II.311);  we are reminded of the prophecies of Cassandra (whose destiny is that Trojans will never believe what she predicts).  Hector himself even visits Aeneas (as in a dream) from beyond the grave (II.387), and warns him to flee the city, and take with him the holy things of Troy.  Aeneas himself tells us that he gathered up “our conquered gods” (II.429), and, impelled “by the powers of heaven” (450) he ran out into the burning city.

The gods of Troy have been defeated: “The gods by whom this kingdom stood are gone” (II.468)  In one particular scene, Aeneas is even given the gift of being able to see the divinities at work, overthrowing the walls of Troy (II.795).  It is by the will of heaven, of Jupiter (Zeus), and of Fate, that Troy and what it stands for should fall to the Greeks. 

What does it mean that “the gods by whom this kingdom stood are gone”?  It means that the founding principles of the society have either been abandoned, or have proven inadequate to sustain that society.  It is the idea of Troy which has proven insufficient – the principles by which Troy existed as a human society.  The ideals of the Greeks proved stronger – cunning and intellect overcame the Asiatic kingdom.  This is the lesson which the new city – Rome – must learn.  For Rome cannot simply be a new Troy, it must be something greater than either the Greeks or the Trojans.  Its “gods”, its founding ideals and the ideals by which it governs, must be greater than that of the cities which went before.  And it must be greater than merely the Asiatic tribalism of Troy and the civic organization of the Greeks.  One must move beyond mere tribe and city in order to be an empire.  And one must learn from one’s mistakes:  Troy offended Juno (Hera) and so Rome must somehow seek to incorporate or appease her - and all she represents.

 

City wall and entrance to one of the ancient cities of Troy (there are many archaeological layers at the site).  The actual gate was just around the curve - a strategic defense against battering rams.

View entire series on the Aeneid here.