34

PLATE 2

Vergilius Vaticanus
fol. 19r Sack of Troy

In Books II and III of the Aeneid, Vergil tells the story of the Sack of Troy in

great detail, drawing upon a Greek epic poem of the Trojan cycle recounting

among its episodes the well-known story of the Trojan Horse. The miniature
depicts the moment when the traitor Sinon opens the trap door of the Wooden
Horse and one of the Achaeans, Odysseus, down the lowered rope,"
is "sliding

while other Achaeans are engaged in killing the Trojans who had been feast-
ing, reclining against crescent-shaped bolsters. The scene is enclosed by the wall

of Troy. Outside the wall a ship is visible under the moon and stars, indicating
that the surprise attack took place at night.

Vergil speaks only of attacking the guards, and the killing of the banqueters
is not explained by his text. This and other details indicate that the illustrator
had available another source, most probably an illustrated lliupersis of Stesi-

chorus, illustrations of which are preserved on a plaque of piombino (pulver-

ized marble) from the first century in the Museo Capitol'mo in Rome. Here we
see, in the center, a similar composition of an encompassing city wall and indi-
vidual combat scenes separated more sharply from each other than in the more
unified composition of the Vatican miniature. Most important, in this tablet the

opening of the horse by a trap door and the letting down of Odysseus is so simi-

lar that a common archetype must be assumed, reaching back at least as far as
the first century, the date of the marble plaque, and before the invention of the
codex.
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