Or so at least runs the Virgilian version followed by Dante.

THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EAGLE:

37-39. Following his victory over Turnus, Aeneas established his seat at Lavinium. His son, Ascanius, moved it from there to Alba Longa, called the Mother of Rome. There the eagle remained until in the seventh century B.C. the Curiatii (the three heroes of Alba) were vanquished by the three Horatii of Rome.

 

40-42. Expelled from Alba, Romulus established a base in Rome on the Palatine and recruited a band of raiders who carried out the raid on the Sabines (the often-painted Rape of the Sabine Women) in order to get wives. From this robber settlement grew the kingdom of Rome. Through a succession of seven kings it raided and looted its neighbors until Sextus, son of Tarquinius Superbus (the last of the Roman kings), violated Lucretia. When she died as a result of his attack, the people rose in anger, overthrew the king, and founded the Republic of Rome, in 510 B.C.

 

43-45. During the Republic, the Eagle was carried to many triumphs by Chosen Romans. Condensing almost three full centuries of history into nine lines, Dante cites the defeat of Brennus and his Gauls (circa 390 B.C.) and of Pyrrhus and his Greek invaders (280 B.C.).

 

46-48. From the Republican victories was born the fame of Torquatus (Titus Manlius Torquatus) who defeated (among others) the Gauls. In these battles one of the Fabii also distinguished himself. As did Lucius Quintius, called Cincinnatus because of an unruly lock of hair (from Latin cincinnus, a curl). The story of how he left the plow to become dictator of Rome and to conquer the Aquians in 485 B.C. is well known to schoolboys. Three generations of the Decii died in battle from 340 to 280 B.C., the last of these engagements being the defeat of the Greeks under Pyrrhus. And in 218 B.C. Quintus Fabius Maximus, the most notable of the Fabii, defeated Hannibal (see below).

Justinian recites these names and says he rejoices in anointing their fame with myrrh. (Myrrh was used by the ancients in embalming, as a means of preserving the body.) Note that Justinian, though on earth he was ambitious for his own glory, now rejoices in citing the glory of others.

 

49-51. It (the Eagle) defeated Hannibal in 218 B.C. Dante follows the custom of his times in referring to all inhabitants of north Africa as Arabs. The Po, here apostrophized, rises from the Alps.

 

52-54. Bracketing Scipio and Pompey, Justinian leaps from 218 to 81 B.C. In 218 Scipio Africanus, then seventeen, saved his father’s life in battle against Hannibal at Ticinus. At twenty he defeated Hannibal’s forces in Spain. And at thirty-three, by his successful invasion of Africa, brought about the destruction of Hannibal and of Carthage.

Pompey’s first great victory (over Marius in 81 B.C.) occurred when he was twenty-five.

“The mountain that overlooked your [Dante’s] birth” is Fiesole, and at Fiesole, according to Roman legend, the Eagle of the Republic overthrew Catiline.

 

55-60. These two tercets refer to the coming of Julius Caesar (born 102 or 100 B.C.; assassinated March 15, 44 B.C.) and to the Gallic Wars. In Dante’s view of the Empire as the seat God had chosen for His church, Caesar was serving Heaven’s plan in laying the foundation of Empire, for the Empire would bring the whole world into the harmony that would arise from unification under a single imperial rule.

Lines 58-60 describe the territory of the Gallic Wars (58-50 B.C.).

 

61-66. The Rubicon flows between Ravenna and Rimini.