THE AENEID by Virgil 70 BCE19 BCE Nov

THE AENEID by Virgil (70 BCE-19 BCE) Nov. 1, 2017 Dr. Ekin Tuşalp Atiyas

“Arma virumque canō” Wars and a man I sing/Arms and the man I sing

Roman Empire From Respublica to Empire • • • Founded in the 8 th century BCE Monarchy until 509 BCE Republic between 509 BCE-27 BCE Punic Wars 264 -146 BCE Julius Caesar (100 BC-44 BC) 43 BCE The Triumvirate (2 nd)- Octavian, Marc Anthony and Lepidus Octavian in the West 31 BCE The Battle of Actium 27 BCE Octavian becomes Augustus The beginning of the Principate era 27 BCE-284 CE

Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus (27 BC-14 AD)

Aeneas • A Trojan • Son of Aphrodites (Venus) and Anchises

The Travels of Aeneas

Creusa to Aeneas: “A long exile is your fate… the vast plains of the sea are yours to plow until you reach Hesperian land, where Lydian Tiber flows with its smooth march through rich and loamy fields, a land of hardy people. There great joy and a kingdom are yours to claim, a queen to make your wife” 2. 966 -972

Aeneas to his mother Aphrodites (Venus) “Goddess, if I’d retrace our story to its start, if you had time to hear the sage of our ordeals, before I finished the Evening Star would close the gates of Olympus, put the day to sleep… From old Troy we come- Troy it’s called, perhaps you have heard the name- sailing over the world’s seas until by chance, some whim of the winds, some tempest drove us onto Libyan shores. I am Aeneas, duty-bound. I carry aboard my ships the gods of house and home we seized from enemy hands. My fame goes past the skies. I seek my homeland- Italy”

Romulus and Remus

Virgil’s previous works • The Eclogues • The Georgis

The Greeks Achilles Odyssseus/ Ulysses Agamemnon Patroclus Nestor Calchas (seer) Pyrrhus The Trojans Hector Priam and Hecuba Andromache Paris Aeneas Laocoon Coroebus Cassandra The Gods Zeus—Jupiter Hera-Juno Pallas Athena. Minerva Poseidon. Neptune Aphrodite. Venus

• • Juno vs. The Trojans vs. The Latins Aeneas vs. Turnus Aeneas and Dido – The Carthaginian Queen

Augustus (r. 27 BC-14 AD)

I. Origins

Venus to Jupiter: “. . . And all because of Italy. Surely from the Romans would arise one day as the years roll on, and leaders would as well, descended from Teucer’s blood brought back to life, to rule all lands and seas with boundless poweryou promised!” 1. 270 -283

Jupiter to Venus: “… Aeneas will wage a long, costly battle in Italy, crush defiant tribes and build high city walls for his people there and found the rule of law. Only three summers will see him govern Latium, three winters pass in barracks after the Latins have been broken. But his son Ascanius, now that he gains the name of Iulus-Ilus he was, while Ilium ruled on highwill fill out with his own reign thirty sovereign years a giant cycle of months revolving round and round, transferring his rule from its old Lavinian home to raise up Alba Longa’s mighty ramparts. ”

…There, in turn, for a full three hundred years the dynasty of Hector will hold sway will Ilia, a royal priestess great with the brood of Mars, will bear the god twin sons. Then one Romulus, reveling in the tawny pelt of a wolf that nursed him, will inherit the line and build the walls of Mars and after his own name, call his people Romans. On them I set no limits, space or time: I have granted them power, empire without end. ” 1. 304 -334.

Ara Pacis Augustae c. 9 BCE

II. Pietas “insignem pietate virum”

Hector speaking to Aeneas: “Escape, son of the goddess, tear yourself from the flames! The enemy holds your walls. Troy is toppling from her heights. You have paid your debt to our king and native land. If one strong arm could have saved Troy, my strong arm would have saved the city. ” 2. 363 -37

• The Aeneid as imperial propaganda? • The pessimistic reading of the Aeneid

Aeneas came to halt and wept, and “Oh, Achates, ” he cried, “is there anywhere, any place on earth not filled with our ordeals? There’s Priam, look! Even here, merit will have its true reward… even here, the world is a world of tears and the burdens of mortality touch the heart. Dismiss your fears. Trust me, this fame of ours will offer us some haven”.

The Farnese Atlas "Mighty Atlas who holds aloft on his shoulders the heavenly firmament. . . Atlas who props the starry sky. "

“There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. ” Walter Benjamin from Theses on the Philosophy of History, 1940. • Why did Virgil pick Aeneas as the hero of his epic? • In what ways Aeneas is different from/similar to the heroes of the Homeric epics? • Why was the memory of the Trojan war so foundational for Roman imperial ideology? Why do you think the Romans picked the Trojans as their ancestors but not Achilles and the “Greeks”?