on and found in myrtle groves all who had died for love, among them, to
his surprise, poor forsaken Dido. A little further on he found the home
of the warriors, and held converse with his old Trojan friends. He
passed by the place of doom for the wicked, Tartarus; and in the Elysian
fields, full of laurel groves and meads of asphodel, he found the spirit
of his father Anchises, and with him was allowed to see the souls of all
their descendants, as yet unborn, who should raise the glory of their
name. They are described on to the very time when the poet wrote to
whom we owe all the tale of the wanderings of Æneas, namely, Virgil, who
wrote the _Æneid_, whence all these stories are taken. He further tells
us that Æneas landed in Italy just as his old nurse Caiëta died, at the
place which is still called Gaëta. After they had buried her, they found
a grove, where they sat down on the grass to eat, using large round
cakes or biscuits to put their meat on. Presently they came to eating up
the cakes. Little Ascanius cried out, "We are eating our very tables;"
and Æneas, remembering the harpy's words, knew that his wanderings were
over.

[Illustration: ROMAN SOLDIER.]




CHAPTER III.

THE FOUNDING OF ROME.

B.C. 753--713.