Background on Virgil & The Aeneid

For information about the book we are studying, see Book II.

Summary
The Aeneid an epic peom that is twelve books in length. The first six books of the Aeneid describe the wanderings of Aeneas and his men. Books seven to twelve describe the battles between Aeneas and his men, and the native Italians.

Writing and Motives
Virgil started writing the Aeneid in 30 BC, and wasn't finished when he died, in 19 BC. He was said to be a perfectionist, and his dying wish was that his work be thrown in the fire, but Emperor Augustus saved it.

"The Aeneid is a poem which validates the new emperor and the new political regime."

Emperor Augustus was Virgil's patron. In those times, poets needed the patronage of a wealthy and powerful person, and the fact that Virgil enjoyed Augustus' patronage meant that the Aeneid was highly influenced by the need to validate Augustus. At the time of writing in 30 BC, a civil war had just ended and the republic was dead. Augustus was the new Roman Emperor and a whole new political system had been established.

Themes
On one level, the Aeneid is simply a Roman Iliad and a Roman Odyssey, as it features the themes of journeying, as in the Odyssey, and war, as in the Iliad.

Equally, the epic is an explanation of what Virgil feels the Roman man should be. Aeneas is consistently described as "insignis pietate et armis", or renowned in piety and arms. It reflects the culture of the Golden age Rome, in contrast to a later, more corrupt times that were already casting their shadow on Rome.

However, on another level, the Aeneid is a national epic. It describes the mythical origins of Rome and the growth of the nascent Roman Empire.

Troy has been destroyed, Aeneas leads the Trojan remnant to a new home in Italy. Aeneas' son, Iulus (sometimes Ascanius) is presented as being the ancestor or founder of the Julian family. This is significant because Augustus was the founder of the Imperial Julio-Claudian dynasty. Throughout the epic, the character of Aeneas is presented in a manner in which the Romans could easily identify with Augustus. Therefore, the Aeneid is an epic which presents Roman histiry right from its outset as working towards the rule of Augustus.