Augustan Rome 44 B.C. - A.D. 14
For this week, please read:
- Vergil’s Aeneid 7-12.
We will take another look at some of last week’s questions this week, and ask some new ones:
- How do you read this poem, in respect to Vergil’s own political agenda?
- Is there anything in this half of the book that could suggest a different vision of the Roman world from what is apparently being presented?
- How does the structure of the Aeneid reflect and answer the structure of the Homeric poems? Is this apparently deliberate? What is the point of that?
I certainly hope you have enjoyed the Aeneid; it is one of the great works of the Western tradition. It is not, however, immediately accessible to many, and it is likely that you will have to revisit it several more times in the future before its richness and texture become as clear as they can be. With luck, you can have a go at Vergil in Latin.
Remember Vergil, too, as a model for all the literature that follows him: his influence in the Roman world was like no other. His shadow overhangs every later Roman and Mediaeval poet, and there are those who still find him as a point of reference for literature today.
Contents of this page © Copyright 2001, 2003, 2006 by Bruce A. McMenomy.
Permission to download or print this page is hereby given to members of Scholars Online for purposes of personal study only. All other use constitutes a violation of copyright.