Nero’s new Troy: the reception of Virgil and Horace in the Ilias Latina

In recent years increased attention had been focused on the miniature epic known as the ‘Latin Iliad’. Close investigation of its relationship to Virgil’s epic ‘Aeneid’ and to the lyric poetry of Horace will illustrate that the author of the Ilias Latina composed a work reflective of the Neronian Age concern with the relationship between Rome and Troy, and with the problem of showing clemency to a defeated enemy. The second of these topics is of particular relevance in light of Seneca and his De Ira and De Clementia.