The Aeneid

Its Connections to Roman History

Some background information…

• Written by Virgil between 29 and 19BCE, a time of social and political change.

• The fall of the Roman Republic and the Battle of Actium had shaken Roman faith in Rome.

• Legitimised the reign of Julius Caesar and Augustus by portraying them as the descendants of Aeneas and other Roman founders.

• Aeneas’ son, Ascanius, is often called “Iulus”, to present him as an ancestor of the gens Julia, Julius Caesar’s family.

Book XIIThe Roman-Etruscan Wars (~700-500BCE)• Rome, still a fledgling city state, was expanding further

and further.• The Etruscans, another west Italian coast power, was

also expanding.• Both wanted to expand into and control the Central

Italian peninsula.• This fight for control escalated into out and out

warfare, lasting ~200 years.• In the end, Rome would defeat the Etruscans,

annexing their territory AND Central Italy.

Book VI• Romulus will found Rome on seven hills, and “under his

auspices… our brilliant Rome will extend her empire far and wide as the earth, her spirit as high as Olympus.”

• Paullus will cut down “all Argos and Agamemnon’s Mycenae”, and defeat Perseus of Macedon, who was “born of Achilles’ warrior blood”, avenging the fallen Trojans.

• Julius Caesar will wage a bloody war with Pompey from the Alps, facing his “armies of the East”, emerging victorious.

• Augustus Caesar, the son of a god, will see that Rome enters the Age of Gold, expanding Rome beyond the stars, beyond time, and far beyond even the Sun. “Even now, the Caspian and Maeotic kingdoms quake at his coming, oracles sound the alarm, and the seven mouths of the Nile churn with fear.”

Conclusion

• Augustus and his family really liked the Aeneid, and Virgil himself read each book to them as he completed them.

• Before his death, Virgil asked his closest friends, including Augustus, to burn the Aeneid when he dies.

• His friends refused, and Augustus himself ordered that Virgil’s request be disregarded.