Though the Iliad was likely compiled from oral tradition in the 700s B.C.E., the oldest existing manuscript of the Iliad dates back to the 10th century C.E., which included, in one volume, explanatory comments believed to have originated from a librarian of the famed Library of Alexandria, plus excerpts from a biography of Homer written by Proclus, the Latin tutor to Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. The origins of Homer and the Iliad are murky, which means the Trojan War, believed to have taken place in the 1100s B.C.E., 400 years before Homer, stands on even shakier footing. This is when all the real tragic stuff goes down, including the deaths of Achilles, Paris, Priam and Hector, plus the sack of Troy itself. The most important source material for Troy: Fall of a City, the Iliad, describes events taking place over four days in the 10th year of the siege of Troy. After eight years of naval misadventure, the army finally reached Troy and settled in for a nine-year siege. After Menelaus and his ally Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, fail to secure Helen's return through diplomacy, Menelaus turns to his brother, Agamemnon, who raises an army and a fleet to carry them across the Aegean Sea. A prince of Troy, Paris steals away Helen, the wife of Troy's ally Menelaus, king of Sparta. The basic story of the Trojan War begins with Paris, as does Troy: Fall of a City.
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