The Aeneid: A Classic Epic Poem Or A Piece Of Political Propaganda

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The Aeneid: A Classic Epic Poem or a Piece of Political Propaganda Throughout history, leaders have used tales of the origin and birth of a nation as a means of creating a national identity, stirring patriotism and generating national morale. These stories usually involve a leader with noble characteristics leading his people through a period of great adversity and hardships. Based on the characteristics afore mentioned, Virgil’s The Aeneid seems to fall in this category. At the time that The Aeneid was written, Rome did not have a definitive history and Augustus who had just risen to power was able to identify this void in Roman culture. The Aeneid would be an opportunity for Virgil to create a history and heritage the people of Rome could be proud of and relate to almost in the same way that Homer’s The Illiad and The Odyssey are landmarks of Greek history. In light of this, this essay aims to explore the notion that The Aeneid is merely a piece of political propaganda that was used as a tool by Augustus during his tenure as leader of Rome. Furthermore, it aims to illustrate the extent to which The Aeneid fits this description as a piece of political propaganda. Virgil attempts to create a story that that illustrates the greatness of Rome and there is no better opportunity for doing so than writing about its origins. We can see evidence of this throughout Aeneas’ account of the fall of Troy that begins in book II. He feels obliged to tell Dido the story even though he “may [still] shudder at the memory/And shrink again in grief” (book II, 16). The use of pitiable diction in words such as “shudder”, “shrink” and “grief” create a feeling of pathos which urges Dido as well as the reader, albeit on a more subconscious level, to show a degree of empathy so that Aeneas would have the courage to

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