What is the Roman version of The Iliad?

Answer 1

Since the stories of The Iliad (the Trojan War) and The Odyssey (the travels of King Odysseus) were written by Homer, a Greek writer, there is no 'roman' version. Odysseus was a Greek hero, so the Romans presumably no interest in hearing about his exploits as such: in other words, they would be more interested in tales of ROMAN heroes.

Another View:

I Disagree with the above but not entirely.

The correct answer to this question would be Virgil's "The Aeneid". Though the above answer is accurate in that there is no Roman Homer's The Illiad. Virgil's first six books of The Aeneid are Rome's attempt at not only revisionist history but their first attempt at the Greek tradition in epic poetic literature. So while it is true that Romans would be much more interested in hearing about Roman heroes they had none with the tradition set forth by the Greeks so Virgil in effect plagiarized the greatest work of literature at the time, arguably of all time, and created Roman heroes within the context of The Aeneid.

Further View:

Aeneid is not a version of the Iliad. It is a sequel to it which tries to portray Rome as being in the lineage of the heroes of a thousand years before. Iliad ws an early written version of the many version which had been sung by the itinerant bards for hundreds of years before cursive writing was invented and the story written down. We don't know if it was the best of these versions, just that it was popular at the time.

The attempt to have a Roman story was late, in Augustus' time, and literature had moved on. Aficionados of this genre may swoon over the epics but later literature, prose, verse and theatre has not only matched but surpassed them in its content, style, art and relevance. Those early works should be given their due as outstanding in their time, but most people would regard later works as surpassing these fascinating relics of an age of early and primitive literature.

There will be hot disagreement on this from the devotees of the classical epics, but this is a legitimate alternative view from the majority who are able to put literary works in their true place and perspective.

Answer 2

There is a Roman sequel to it, though written as Propaganda for the first "Emperor/Imperator" Princeps Augustus Caesar, the Aeneid. It tells of the aftermath, a Trojan Survivor 'Aeneas' who did great deeds and sailed around the Mediterranean until finally settling with his group of fellow Trojans in what would soon be Rome. Written to aggrandize Rome's founding further, as if they had an origin as tragic, divine, and old as the myths of the Greeks.