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Roman Pada And Trageda In Virgil's The Aeneid

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Emperor Caesar Augustus commissioned the Roman poet Virgil to create a Roman epic: The Aeneid (Leeming). The epic was written in mind for a target audience of young educated elite Romans. Virgil seamlessly ties together Aeneas and the founding of Rome with Augustus and the rise of the Roman Empire. Through this connection, Virgil writes The Aeneid as propaganda to please the emperor Augustus by depicting Aeneas founding of Rome as a heroic journey. However, Virgil also criticizes Augustus’s rule through the character Aeneas and his struggle to balance mercy and justice. Virgil turns The Aeneid into propaganda through depicting Aeneas, and consequently Augustus, as a heroic figure. Son of the goddess Venus, Aeneas is described to physically resemble a god when he appears in front of Dido: “Princely Aeneas stood and shone in the brightlight, head and shoulders noble as a god’s” (Virgil 24). Intentionally highlighting the hero’s attractive features and resemblance to a god in turn creates a positive portrayal of Caesar Augustus through association. In addition, Aeneas bears the hero’s call to adventure. Bound by various prophecies and predictions, Aeneas needs to carry out his divine obligation to found Rome. When Aeneas leaves the island of Carthage and Queen Dido, his lover, he claims that “Apollo tells me I must make for: Italy, named by his oracles. There is my love; there is my country” (Virgil 108). Romanticizing the notion of following a higher calling to establish

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