Virgil at Odds
While on the surface the Aeneid could be seen as a Roman epic meant to glorify Rome and rival those of the ancient Greeks, the author was engaged in a struggle. Virgil had to satisfy the cultural demands of his work, the political demands of his time, and his own personal demands as an artist. In tackling his problem, Virgil is revealed to be slightly reluctant of embracing fully the still young regime of Octavian but still proud of Rome and his ancestry, and concerned with the moral issues of civil war. When considering the style with which Virgil composed the Aeneid, it is important to look at the time in which he lived and exactly what was going on around him when it was written. Virgil was born in 70 BC and died in 19 BC. This places him in the very beginning of what was to be a long and relatively stable existence of the Roman Empire. Further, it was during the poet's lifetime that Rome made citizens of all Italians, allowing a huge community to share in Rome's growing heritage. People who formerly may have felt like outcasts under the oppression of Rome could now call Rome their own. This included Virgil because he came from a provincial Italian town far outside Rome. W.A. Camps cites that while Virgil was s
Eventually Caesar's adopted son Octavian defeats Marc Antony and Cleopatra's forces and brings all Rome under his rule, in about 30 BC. Kenneth Quinn points out that they wrote with very high standards of integrity, and wrote not for widespread popularity of their works but for approval of their literary peers (30). " (55) Everyone in Rome knew or at least expected the Aeneid to glorify Augustus, but Virgil will simply not come out and say it. Aeneas is reminded of the glory of the future that is Rome and the role that his son would play. The poet, as earlier mentioned, was not a native of Rome. Virgil fulfills the expectation to produce a patriotic work, and ennobles Augustus and his victory at Actium, but provides a subtle and humane comment on the price paid, the fact that civil war was needed to attain stability, and the blood spilled was that of their own. The hero encounters the slain queen in the Underworld and speaks to her "I swear by heaven's stars, by the high gods, By any certainty below the earth, I left your land against my will, my queen. " A point on Iulius' head seemed to cast light, a tongue of flame that touched but did not burn him, licking his fine hair, playing round his temples. It is known that Virgil came to enjoy first the friendship then the patronage of Octavian and his minister Maecenas, both of whom bestowed a small fortune upon him (Freeman 389). Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1968. That likeness at the same time leads us to frown upon Marc Antony and his failure to abandon the Egyptian queen. Both Augustus and Aeneas were not fighting hated enemies; they were fighting other Italians. Caesar was eventually assassinated and the next twenty years of the poet's life are shaded by bloody struggles for power among heirs and military leaders.
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