The Role of Fate, Free Will, and War in Virgil’s Aeneid In Virgil’s Aeneid, both divine fate and human free will are used to promote the idea of Rome and Augustus’s divine authority and beneficial status as well as Virgil’s own views. The exhibition of imperial war as inevitable and a precursor to eventual peace and prosperity justifies Augustus’s military ventures and his reign; furthermore, Aeneas’s sacrifices and commitment to his fate-inspired duty provides Augustus and the Roman Empire great auctoritas. .As Virgil was growing up, he witnessed and was personally affected by many of the internal conflicts that are associated with the First Triumvirate, the Ides of March, the Second Triumvirate, and finally the Battle of Actium followed
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Though Virgil does not favor it, he “seems to regard war as the necessary means to attain the desired end”(Sills 145). The “desired end” for both Aeneas and Augustus in their militarized conflicts is to achieve a period of peace and prosperity. For instance, the prophecy near the beginning of book 1 of The Aeneid states that after the Roman empire is created and Romulus and Remus have made the laws, “the terrible Gates of War will stand bolted shut, and locked inside, the Frenzy of civil strife will crouch down on his savage weapons, hands pinioned behind his back with a hundred brazen shackles, monstrously roaring out from his bloody jaws” (The Aeneid 1.351-355). This powerful metaphor serves as propaganda for the Roman Empire, asserting its superiority as a state that is capable of achieving unprecedented feats of civilization and the significance of the shift from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Vigil’s comparison of Aeneas to Augustus is quite prominent, for they are both successful military leaders, Aeneas begins what becomes Rome and Augustus the Roman Empire; in addition, both changes in states producing more sophisticated societies and new eras of peace. In The Aeneid, “Vergil’s likening of Augustus to Aeneas suggests that Augustus too, can create order out of disorder, with divine support” (Grebe 38). By creating euphemistic theme of ‘creating order out of disorder’ Virgil was able to justify and communicate Augustus’s military actions as necessary, inevitable, and much more beneficial than destructive in the
Though Virgil does not favor it, he “seems to regard war as the necessary means to attain the desired end”(Sills 145). The “desired end” for both Aeneas and Augustus in their militarized conflicts is to achieve a period of peace and prosperity. For instance, the prophecy near the beginning of book 1 of The Aeneid states that after the Roman empire is created and Romulus and Remus have made the laws, “the terrible Gates of War will stand bolted shut, and locked inside, the Frenzy of civil strife will crouch down on his savage weapons, hands pinioned behind his back with a hundred brazen shackles, monstrously roaring out from his bloody jaws” (The Aeneid 1.351-355). This powerful metaphor serves as propaganda for the Roman Empire, asserting its superiority as a state that is capable of achieving unprecedented feats of civilization and the significance of the shift from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Vigil’s comparison of Aeneas to Augustus is quite prominent, for they are both successful military leaders, Aeneas begins what becomes Rome and Augustus the Roman Empire; in addition, both changes in states producing more sophisticated societies and new eras of peace. In The Aeneid, “Vergil’s likening of Augustus to Aeneas suggests that Augustus too, can create order out of disorder, with divine support” (Grebe 38). By creating euphemistic theme of ‘creating order out of disorder’ Virgil was able to justify and communicate Augustus’s military actions as necessary, inevitable, and much more beneficial than destructive in the