cantos 1-5

"Low Italy, as Nisus fought to achieve./ And Turnus, Euryalus, Camilla the maiden-/All dead from wounds in war. He will remove" (Cantos I,82-84)
I don't understand all these names and what they represent. Are they from myths of Roman times? I understand that there was some great war, was it the Trojan War? It seems I will have to look all of these up.
So, after doing some research, I found that Turnus is the chief antagonist in the "Aeneid," which the speaker's guide, Virgil wrote. I was not quite right that the war Turnus died from was the Trojan War, but he died from the hand of a Trojan after the Trojan War. So, the "Aeneid" takes place after the Trojan War, and Turnus is the king of the Rutili in Italy and Aeneas comes to his land. Then, to be brief, Turnus kills the young Prince Pallas, Aeneas swears vengence on whoever killed him, and then there's an Achilles and Hector-esque deul. Aeneas is winning, so Turnus begs to be spared, or at least give his body to his people, but then Aeneas sees Pallas's belt, so he gets really mad and finishes him off.
Euryalus is either another guy from Virgil's the "Aeneid" or is a guy from Greek Mythology. The Euryalus from the "Aeneid" is one of Nisus and Euryalus, a pair that symbolized the ideal friends. They are Trojans and die during a nighttime raid of the Rutulians camp. Euryalus steals a bright helmet from one of the me he kills and so when reinforcements come, they find Euryalus by the brightness of the helmet. Nisus tries to come to his rescue, but kills him, and is overcome by more reinforcements, and he falls dead of Euryalus's corpse. The other Euryalus attacked the city of Thebes as one of the Epigoni, who took the city and avenged the deaths of their fathers...who had also tried to take Thebes. In Homer's the "Iliad," he fought in the Trojan War, where he was one of the Greeks to enter the Trojan Horse. So, the "Iliad's" Euryalus was involved in the Trojan War, so I guess I'm halfway right about the Trojan War...again.
And finally, Camilla the maiden is the daughter of King Metabus and Casmilla, in Roman mythology, but she doesn't die excitingly, so that can't be the Camilla that is being spoken of. The other Camilla, big surprise, is from the "Aeneid," here she helped King Turnus fight the Trojans, but was unfortunately killed by Arruns when she was distracted by her pursuit of Chloreus. But, she was avenved by her attendat, so that's cool. And, apparently, she was super fast, and Virgil said she was so fast she could run across the sea without getting her feet wet and run across a field of grain without bending any of the plants.
And Dante was right, they did all die from wounds of war in Virgil's book. I wonder why he expecteced the average reader to know these names. I doubt everyone read the "Aeneid," especially since it wasn't even done at Virgil's death.

"My parents both were Mantuans from Lombardy,/ And I was born, the latter end./ I lived in good Augutus's Rome, in the day/ Of false gods who lied. A poet, I hymned" (Cantos I, 52-55)
I thought the description of the Romans Gods to be false rather amusing, although it does make a lot of sense since Dante is writing in a powerful time for the Catholic Church, which he feels even more, living in Italy. I don't know what "sub Julio" means, but maybe it has to do with Jesus? I really don't know. I also wish I knew who the Mantuans were and where Lombardy is, although I guess it's part of the Roman Empire.