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This lecture examines several episodes in the neglected 1500-year afterlife of the forged "De excidio Troiae historia" or "History of the Destruction of Troy" of pseudo-Dares Phrygius. Although the Latin "De excidio" was a late antique fabrication composed most likely in the fifth or sixth century CE, its author claimed to be an eyewitness to the Trojan War, whose account of the conflict openly contradicted such canonical sources as Virgil and Homer. Deemed by many to be the first pagan to write history, Dares infiltrated numerous domains of literary culture in medieval and early modern Europe.