The Eternal City - Вечный город
In classic literature Rome is often called the Eternal
City, probably because it has played an important part
in human history for more than two thousand years.
It reached its greatest glory in ancient times, when it
became the centre of one of the world’s mightiest empires.
The Romans believed that their State was founded by
the Trojan hero Aeneas, son of Venus, who escaped after
the fall of Troy, and after long wandering reached the
Tiber where he became king of the Latins. In Virgil’s
Aeneid, relating the story of Aeneas, Jupiter tells Venus
that he would give an eternal empire to the Romans.
The phrase in the form of Eternal Rome was first used
in literature by Tibullus, a Roman poet of the 1st century B. C.
1. Вечный город — наименование Рима, часто встречающееся в мировой литературе. 2. Римляне считали, что город их основал троянский герой Эней, сын богини Венеры. 3. Странствия и приключения Энея описаны Виргилием в его поэме «Энеида». 4. Само выражение Вечный город восходит к одной из элегий римского поэта Тибулла. 5. Это название сохранилось за Римом и позднее.