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Vergil In Ancient Rome

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The Roman foundation stories held many functions for the Roman populous and its later emperors. They gave the Roman’s an identity, a purpose, a place to belong to and made them feel as though they were part of a community. This is evident in the way that the ‘Res Publica’ (Cornell, 1995) was preached which, means that Rome was founded and constructed by many leaders that gave important contributions to the city. However, this idea was frowned upon by the Greeks as Dionysius of Halicarnassus states that Rome was founded in a day (Ibid). In relation to the emperors of Rome, they used the foundation stories as a way to manipulate the population, create and solidify connections with the deities and heroes of the past. The emperor most significantly …show more content…
Therefore, he is giving the Roman people a sense of identity, community and belonging. This passage emphasises the idea of the ‘Res Publica’, that there is more than one contributor to the construction of the city state that came to be. The Aeneid states that they are direct descendants of Aeneas as their grand-father Numitor was later the king of Alba Longa, which Aeneas’ son Ascanius found. In agreement with Livy, it is clear that Vergil sees Romulus as the main founder of Rome. However, it is by the people that his opinion is based upon as the Roman people chose Romulus as their founder, possibly as a result of the meaning of his name. Therefore, we cannot believe that these events are historically true. Further evidence to prove why this foundation story is a fabrication is that there is no archaeological evidence to prove Romulus’ existence (Cornell, 1995). There is the hut of Romulus that was found on the Palatine Hill (Ibid), but as the date of 753 BC is not an accurate date of the founding, it is highly unlikely that the hut belonged to Romulus. What is certain is that Augustus made it known to the Roman populous that the hut belonged to Romulus through means of propaganda. Therefore, the stories cannot be used as historical evidence for Rome’s …show more content…
In passage 756 of book VI, another prophecy is being told. Augustus will come into power and do great things for the Roman Empire, like Aeneas and Ascanius did for their settlements. Here, Vergil is portraying the rebirth of Aeneas through Augustus, ultimately comparing the two figures as being very similar. This is solidified by what we know is fact as Vergil mentions Caesar, who we know was assassinated in 44 BC and was followed on by his chosen successor and stepson, Augustus. According to Vergil, Augustus is going to restore what was great and golden about the past but also expand the empire to become more powerful. This solidifies the line of connection between Augustus and the Julio-Claudians with the mythological founders of Rome, which Augustus

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