Villani's Chronicle: Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni VillaniVillani, Giovanni
History
Villani's Chronicle: Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni Villani
Villani, Giovanni
Florence (Italy) -- History
Now this Dardanus had a son which was called Tritamus, and Tritamus
begat Trojus and Torajus; but Trojus was the wiser and the more
valorous, and because of his excellence he became lord and king of the
said city and of the country round about; and he had great war with
Tantalus, king of Greece, son of Saturn, king of Crete, of whom we
made mention. And then, after the death of the said Trojus, by reason
of the goodness and wisdom and worth which had reigned in him, it
pleased his son and the men of his city that the said city should
always be called Troy after his name; and the chief and principal gate
of the city, in memory of Dardanus, retained the name which the city
had at the first, to wit Dardania.
[Sidenote: Cf. Convivio iv. 14: 131-154. Purg. xii. 61-63. Inf. xxx.
13-15, 98, 113, 114.]
Sec. 12.--_Of the kings which were in Troy; and how Troy was destroyed
the first time in the time of the King Laomedon._ Sec. 13.--_How the good
King Priam rebuilt the city of Troy._ Sec. 14.--_How Troy was destroyed
by the Greeks._ Sec. 15.--_How the Greeks which departed from the siege
of Troy well-nigh all came to ill._ Sec. 16.--_How Helenus, son of King
Priam, with the sons of Hector, departed from Troy._
Sec. 17.--_How Antenor and the young Priam, having departed from Troy,
built the city of Venice, and that of Padua._
[Sidenote: Inf. xxxii. 88. Purg. v. 75.]
[Sidenote: Inf. xxxii. 88.]
[Sidenote: Purg. v. 75.]
Another band departed from the said destruction, to wit Antenor, who
was one of the greatest lords of Troy, and was brother of Priam, and
son of the King Laomedon, who was much accused of betraying Troy, and
Aeneas was privy to it, according to Dares; but Virgil makes him quite
innocent of this. This Antenor, with Priam the younger, son of King
Priam, a little child, escaped from the destruction of Troy with a
great following of people to the number of 12,000, and faring over
the sea with a great fleet arrived in the country where to-day is
Venice, the great city, and they settled themselves in those little
surrounding islands, to the end they might be free and beyond reach of
any other jurisdiction and government, and became the first
inhabitants of those rocks; whence increasing later, the great city of
Venice was founded, which at first was called Antenora, from the said
Antenor. And afterwards the said Antenor departed thence and came to
dwell on the mainland, where to-day is Padua, the great city, and he
was its first inhabitant and builder, and he gave it the name of
Padua, because it was among paduli [marshes], and by reason of the
river Po, which flowed hard by and was called Pado. The said Antenor
remained and died in Padua, and within our own times his body has been
discovered there, and his tomb engraved with letters which bear
witness that it is the body of Antenor, and this his tomb has been
renewed by the Paduans and may be seen to-day in Padua.
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