Summary: Publius Virgilius Maro s the Aeneid is a tale of arms and a man. Fated to be exile, he was the first to sail from the land of Troy and reach Italy and it s Lavinian shore. Virgil s Aeneid is about the Trojan hero Aeneas and his travelings to eventually start the Roman Empire. The Aeneid was a very subjective poem; the praise of Augustus Caesar and the Roman Empire clearly echoes Virgil s own beliefs. Rome had just finished a bloody civil war a few decades before this writing and needed a strong moral compass, which is what Virgil, hoped to provide. The glory of the war was a main part in the Roman society; it was what made the Roman Empire extend from the northern border of Africa to the cold dark coast of the Atlantic Ocean. To do this they needed the mightiest army on earth, filled with young eager men to make the empire proud of them. Virgil knew this and decided to install that sense of pride in Aeneas, I fixed on a door-frontal a shield of hallowed bronze which had once been carried by the mighty Abas, and under it wrote a memorial, Armor captured from victorious Greeks and dedicated by Aenas. This shows all young Roman men that with war come the spoils of war. To recruit all these young men all they have to do is read that passage and show them what happens when they fight. Virgil wanted to make the citizens of Rome remember all their glorious past accomplishments and remember how great their ruler is. To do this he told of all the past accomplishments on a shield made by Vulcan and given to Aenas, On one side was Augustus Caesar leading Italians into battle, having with him the senate and populace, the little Gods of Home and the Great Gods of the race . When the people see this, they remember their great leader Caeser and all the good he had done for their people.

Response: The events in the Aeneid are not told in chronological order. You will see that books II and III will take you back in time to the fall of Troy, while Book VI will show the future of Rome after Aeneas. The role of fate in men's lives is a crucial theme. As I read, I asked myself what that role is. Is fate a force for good or evil? Or is it neutral? Do men have any free choice? Are they responsible for their actions? Snakes are an important image in this Book. They symbolize evil and deception and whenever they appear, destruction is not far behind. Fire is also a symbol of destruction. Apollo's directions aren't very clear. As you'll see again and again, the gods often intervene in human affairs, but they rarely tell men exactly what to do. For Aeneas, the result is that he must learn to figure things out for himself and must struggle when he makes a mistake. In the end this will make him a better leader. The Trojans and the Romans of Virgil s day often sacrificed animal. Sometimes the gods demanded people as well. In a way I think that Dido was sacrificed to the gods larger plans. You can also think about this incident in another way. You don t have to believe in gods to imagine how this accident could have happened naturally. Palinurus is sitting up all night with no one to talk to. The ship is rocking gently. It s not hard to see why he falls asleep; anyone might. One might begin to suspect that the gods could be seen as forces or tendencies that are part of every person.