Roma before Pax Romana

1490 Words6 Pages
Values a society share with its citizens are not only different from one society to another, but also characterize the society because values mold morality. For example, America shares value of freedom, individuality, and competition among her people, and those values make America and American morals different from morals of other countries, such as Soviet Union. Just like any other societies throughout history, Rome had a set of values that were particular to Romans; of course, some of the values had changed, and others remained in course of Roman history. During the time of Augustus, when bloody civil war finally ended, Augustus decided to focus on three values: patriotism, piety, and family, which all act together to prosper the Roman Empire. Vergil, through his epic, probes beginning of Rome and values of Romans not only of ancient time, but also of contemporary time to Vergil. Through contrast of Aeneas and Dido in patriotism and piety, Vergil takes side of Dido and criticizes Aeneas, who is epitomize values during Roman empire, implying that Vergil himself holds doubts on values set by Augustus. To start, Vergil uses Aeneas, a patriotic hero, to cast doubt on patriotism: is patriotism all that important? Aeneas is without a doubt a patriotic figure: he tries to protect falling Troy, deeply mourns for loss of his home after the fall of Troy, and undertakes the mission to set another great empire (Vergil, Book II). Even though he has taken some break in kingdom of Dido,
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