TROJAŃSKI PALIMPSEST. ODNIESIENIA INTERTEKSTUALNE W ZAKOŃCZENIU III KSIĘGI DZIEJÓW TACYTA.

The paper examines one chapter from the end of Tacitus' Histories III (84), which gives an account of the events in Rome on December 20, AD 69 and concentrates, firstly, on the Vitellian soldiers' hopeless resistance against the Flavian army and, secondly, on Emperor Vitellius' pathetic death. The paper's particular focus is on Greek and Roman texts (Euripides' Hecuba, Sallust's Catiline, and especially Vergil's Aeneid) which Tacitus seems to evoke and allude to in his own narrative. Since most of these intertextual references relate to the sacking of Troy, the reader is invited to associate what happened in Rome during the last stage of the Civil War of AD 68/69 with the Trojan War and its aftermath. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]