Ugolini and Virgil

In many ways Ugolini was to see Butrint through the writings of Virgil. That is, through the prism of its mythological ancestry as a Trojan settlement founded by Helenus and Andromache and visited by Aeneas.

According to Ugolini, he discovered Butrint in 1924 during travels with the precise scope of finding the Trojan ancient city. However, Ugolini’s earliest archaeological explorations were not at Butrint but at nearby Phoenicê. By 1926-27 the Italian government was developing ideals of an extended territorial hegemony, and further, Rome’s own Trojan past was increasingly being promoted in Italy as a symbol of identity and as corroboration for political policy. The Virgilian identification of Butrint suited the regime and Ugolini’s excavations in Albania consequently changed focus and concentrated on Butrint.

One of the first objectives of the archaeological team in Butrint was to survey the wall-circuits and undertake limited excavations to find the gate described by Virgil as the Scaean Gate. Along the eastern circuit they unearthed a gate more than 5 m high, well constructed in fine ashlars – the Lake Gate. Despite a certain cautious tone being evident in a later account – Could this be the gate that Virgil might have seen and tells us about? One thing is certain, of the gates found and excavated at Butrint this is the largest – this gate was named the Scaean Gate immediately.

Ugolini never did find the Tower Gate and never saw what was truly the largest gate at Butrint, but more interesting is how immersed he is in the ancient sources. Beyond the purely academic and historical information the ancient sources may throw on the site, Ugolini is attempting to find archaeological relationships to prove the veracity of the Trojan history.

The story was enthusiastically picked up by the regime in Rome and Mussolini personally requested Ugolini to write a popular book detailing the results from Butrint – Butrinto. Il mito di Enea (Butrint. The Myth of Aeneas) of 1937. Further, in 1929, to celebrate to the bi-millennium of Virgil’s birth, a cruise was organised with a route retracing the journey of Aeneas. This included a visit to Butrint. In a commemorative stamp issued on the occasion the event depicted is the departure of Aeneas from Butrint towards Italy, explained in quotes from Virgil, with Helenus standing in a gate bearing a remarkable similarity to the Lake Gate (or Scaean Gate) at Butrint.

With the large excavations at the theatre myth and reality of the ancient city must have seemed to be brought into alignment. All came to an end, paradoxically as Italy’s hold over Albania was in the ascendant. Falling ill in the summer of 1936, Ugolini died of kidney failure in October that year. The project outlasted him on a much reduced scale until 1940.