AENEAS AND EVANDER

In Virgil’s poem, the gods entrust Aeneas, through his mother Aphrodite, with the task of embarking on a long and difficult journey, in the knowledge that only he, being deeply devoted to the gods and respectful of his family, would be able to defy any adversity to obey the will of fate.

Taking with him his elderly father Anchises, his son Ascanius, and the family divinities (the Penates), the Trojan hero completes his long journey and arrives at the mouth of the Tiber, in Italy: here he meets the king of the Aborigines, Latino, who, prompted by a prophecy, gives him the hand of his daughter Lavinia in marriage, even though she was already betrothed to the king of the Rutuli, Turnus. Turnus, angry at the betrayal of his promise, declares war on the Trojans. Aeneas, in an attempt to respond to Turnus’ attack and inspired by the god Tiber, forms a victorious alliance with Evander, the king of the Arcadians – an ancient Greek people – who had also arrived on the coast of Latium from afar and had founded Pallantium, a city on the Palatine Hill – in the heart of the future Rome.

It was on the Palatine Hill that, according to Virgil, the encounter between Aeneas and Evander takes place: an encounter between men from different peoples, once enemies, but a meeting which would give rise to the virtues and valour of the Romans, also through their alliance.

Aeneas is welcomed by Evander, who recognises the son of Anchises, to whom he is bound by an ancient bond of hospitality and friendship. To seal the alliance against the Latins, Evander invites Aeneas to join him during the rites and banquet in honour of Hercules.

Descending a flight of steps that connected the Palatine Hill with the Forum Boarium (the “Scalae Caci”), the king tells Aeneas about the origin of the devotion to the deity of Hercules: the hero had killed the monster Cacus, who had stolen his cattle, thus freeing the country from his inauspicious presence.

At the end of the tale, since evening has come, Evander invites Aeneas and his men to feast together. On the way back, the king of the Arcadians, accompanied by his son Pallas and by Aeneas, shows his guest places that appear deserted and wild at that time, but which – as he assures them – will become famous in the history of the future city of Rome: the Lupercal, the Argiletus wood, the Tarpeian cliff, the Campidoglio.

Aeneas thus finds himself travelling through the places where the city that will replace the ancient Troy will rise, the great Rome of which he and his descendants will be the progenitors.