[Poem] After Troy

Poems: History, Short Stories and Poetry 1 Minute

Trojan defeat, the Greeks returned triumphantly
Etruscans aid Trojan refugees building Rome
Greek democracy plagued by demagoguery
Socrates killed by hemlock in his home

Rome defeats Carthage, Ave Jupiter Maximus
While Greece stagnates, their men of talent drained away, turned null
Phalanx versus legion, sarissa against gladius
What use are your big spears when your commanders are inept?
The neo Trojans return to Rome, their new home, in triumph

Image: Battle of Pydna, artist unknown

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Published by whenmarsmetsaturn

I was born during the Great War between Mars and Saturn. When I was a wee laddie, I had to go wee-wee and landed on the planet Earth. I ate some ice cream that the muses had recommended. The vanilla affected my sense of direction and I haven't been able to find my way to my spaceship ever since. I was stranded on a planet where I didn't belong. To get revenge, I decided to write travesties of literature in order to annoy the muses.

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10 thoughts on “[Poem] After Troy”

    1. Hannibal didn’t help much, with his absurd war strategy. Carthaginian internal politics played a major role in their downfall as well. Rome’s Scipio Africanus was also a damn fine general, credit due to him. Without Carthage to worry about any more, it was only a matter of time before Greece fell too.

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      1. The Phoenicians in turn
        got the Grecian Sack, from
        Alexander the Great, in a
        sneak attack.
        But those Phoenician boat
        builders could not be beat.
        Their skills built Hannibal’s
        fine sailing fleet.

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      2. Their city building skills were pretty neat too…
        Queen Dido, foundress of Carthage did hail from Phoenicia
        Tyre, Sidon, Jerusalem some of their other fine creations
        They did give most of the world a standardised alphabet for which I’m grateful
        If only they’d been as skilled in things that mattered, like good governance

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      4. This poem was more of a critique about democracy than anything else 😛 the populism that destroyed merit and promoted political loyalty… The nepotism, the sheer stupidity. The Phoenicians, in this regard, though not a democracy, were worse than the Greeks, so I’m really glad you brought them up 😀 It got me thinking of the other systems at the time…The benign dictatorship of Octavian seems to have been the best system, though that didn’t last very long…

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      5. A good Emperor is hard to find.
        Interesting that for many years
        Rome had a form of democracy, prior to the ‘Caesars’. It was a kind of
        meritocracy for the ruling class.Quite different from the Greek systems…

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      6. The republic, in its latest days, was sort of bipolar, between Mobocracy and patrician bribery. Tribune of the plebs veto, and consulship for the highest bidder, A single honest plebian tribune could put the entire system to a standstill… Which did happen from time to time.

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