I was going to mention this in the next Carnival, but folks might want to follow along daily ... Adam McDowell is writing a bloggish thing for the National Post in which he is working through the 'canon' and is currently reading Fagles' translation of the Iliad (today's post was about book II) ... there's nothing Roman on his reading list, alas, but he explains that in one of the posts ... get up to speed here (bottom up). Here's the closing bit of his reading of book II:

Famously, it seems (readers have warned me of this), the second half of Book Two is nothing but a really long list of who’s fighting on each side. The main interest here is in how many great warriors are the sons of gods who just couldn’t resist bedding a human woman.

Look, The Iliad was meant to be recited (possibly after dinner), and any long-form entertainment needs some built-in breaks. So I guess this is the part where you would go to the bathroom or refill your olive bowl or whatever.