Maia 75 (2-3/2023) 324-338 CATO’S ORIGINES AND VIRGIL’S AENEID The War in Latium and the Name of Iulus * Sergio Casali (Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”) In this paper I intend to deal with the role of Cato’s Origines as a precedent for Virgil’s story of the war in Latium. I start by asking myself one question: what has to be changed today in Heinze’s treatment of Aeneas in Latium in the light of the studies on Cato of the last century, particularly Cornell’s important edition of the Fragments of the Roman Historians 1 ? I would therefore like, first, to review one of the most controversial points in the reconstruction of the Aeneas legend in Cato’s Origines, namely the clarification of the sequence of wars fought by the Trojans following their landing in Latium, in order to verify the impact of this re- construction on our reading of the Aeneid. Secondly, I will consider the issue of the assumption of the name “Iulus” by Aeneas’ son, and its etymology – another point of dispute – in Cato, together with the consequences of my analysis for our reading of the Aeneid. 1. Heinze on Cato and the Aeneid In approaching the narrative of the war in Latium in the Aeneid, first of all – Heinze says – «we must briefly remind ourselves of the traditional version, so that we can establish the principles according to which Virgil reshaped, developed and arranged it»: «Of the older versions of the story only that of Cato has survived to any extent. In his ac- count the events unfold as follows: (1) Latinus allots a portion of land to the newcomers (Serv. on Aen. xi 316; fr. 8 Peter). (2) Trojan encroachment leads to war, in which the Rutu- * I would like to thank Francesca Romana Berno for the invitation to participate in the conference Virgilio, Eneide: luoghi, popoli, persone (Roma, 26-28 maggio 2022), and the audience there for their comments, especially Alessandro Barchiesi and Alessandro Schiesaro. Special thanks to Joe Farrell for reading and commenting upon an earlier draft of this paper. 1 R. Heinze, Virgils epische Technik, Leipzig 1915 3 , pp. 171-236 (ch. 5 “Aeneas in Latium”) = Id., Virgil’s Epic Technique, translated by H. and D. Harvey - F. Robertson, Berkeley-Los Angeles 1993, pp. 142-194; T.J. Cornell (ed.), The Fragments of the Roman Historians, 3 vols., Oxford 2013; the parts on Cato are by Cornell himself: vol. i, pp. 191-218; vol. ii, pp. 134-243; vol. iii, pp. 63-159.