Transferring Troy to the Twelfth Century (and Beyond)

In the fourth century A.D. the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople (now Istanbul). Not long after this move, the empire itself split into east and west. The eastern Roman Empire was Greek in language and culture; the western was Latin.

While Homer's Iliad and Odyssey continued to be read, taught and loved in the Greek-speaking eastern Roman Empire, they were increasingly ignored in the west. As knowledge of the Greek language declined in Europe, and Latin became more widespread, the Latin Aeneid became the dominant Troy story in Europe.

Consequently, the Greeks remained heroes in the East, while the Trojans became the heroes in the West.

There were also other, lesser, sources for the Troy story in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, including The Fall of Troy by Quintus Smyrnaeus, a short Latin Iliad, and two supposed "eye witness" accounts of the Trojan War by Dictys and Dares.

These notes are based on and extracted by permission from Dianne Thompson’s pages on the Northern Virginia Community College site TROY - Medieval Trojan Romance - http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/Troy/troysites.html

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