Is Virgil’s Aeneid an Anti-War Poem?
Virgil opens the ‘Aeneid’ with the words ARMA virumque cano ( I sing of arms and of men). The central role that war plays in this Roman epic is made apparent from the very first word of the ‘Aeneid’ by the emphatic placing of the word arma at the very beginning of the poem. A fair chunk of Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’ is set on the battle field but its violent and gory descriptions of death and its frequent battles alone cannot make this poem an anti-war poem. Virgil does not merely use the notion of war to further his plot but deals with many types and aspects of war throughout the entirety of his book; mythological wars; recent wars; their effects; their causes; and often one is able to find Virgil’s own opinion on such a matter, subtly incorporated into the thick of things. What messages does Virgil try to convey to his readers, in what ways does he do this and can we argue that the ‘Aeneid’ is an anti-war poem rather than an epic that simply narrates particularly tragic wars?
The first war in which Virgil goes into detail is the Trojan War which he dedicates an entire book to. Aeneas recounts the fall of Troy whilst in the company of Dido in book two of the ‘Aeneid’ and explains how the Greeks managed to sack Troy and how Aeneas and his men managed to escape to safety. Aeneas describes many horrific deaths in this flashback such as that of Priam’s son, Polites in which we hear that “he finally appeared before his parents’ eyes and fell before their faces and poured out his life with much of his blood” . As opposed to condemning war, this brutal account is more likely to have been described in such a manner as to flaunt Virgil’s literary ability and smooth use of language. Aeneas’ account is for descriptive and informative purposes. Book two is essential in linking the foundation of Rome back to Troy and is also able to link Rome to what much of the Ancient World believed was the greatest war of all time. Virgil’s handling of the Trojan War does create sympathy for his protagonist but is not intended to criticise the act of war in general.
The two opposing attitudes to war in the ‘Aeneid’ are personified in the characters of Aeneas and Turnus. Aeneas symbolises the traditional Roman ideal of virtue and piety which Augustus was trying t...
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...garding war and their empire. Most of the anti-war propaganda in the ‘Aeneid’ is aimed directly at the Roman public and so to its contemporary audience, this epic would have seemed far more critical of war than it might to a foreign audience. The frequent losses of life and bloody descriptions in the poem carry strong connotations of death and disaster throughout most of the story. However such a topic and style of narration was borrowed from Homer and not used solely to deter people from war. But the two words that frame the poem, arma and umbras, adequately outline Virgil’s main point: any story that begins with arma will end in the umbras (the shades).
Bibliography
Virgil, ‘Aeneid’, trans. with intro. D. West (Penguin Classics: London 2003)
‘Collins Latin Dictionary plus Grammar’ (Harper Collins: Glasgow 1997)
Hardie, P. , ‘Greece and Rome – New Surveys in the Classics No.28 : Virgil’ (Oxford University Press: Oxford 1998)
Mackail, J. W. , ‘Virgil and his Meaning to the World of Today’ (The Plimpton Press: Massachusetts 1922)
All Latin original texts from: http://vergil.classics.upenn.edu/workspace/display_frame.html All Latin texts translated by myself
Rengakos, Antonios. Homertext und die Hellenistichen Dichter. Hermes. Einzelschriften, Heft 64. Stuttgart, F. Steiner, 1993.
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Braund, Susanna Morton. “Virgil and the Cosmos: Religious and Philosophical Ideas.” The Cambridge Companion to Virgil. Charles Martindale, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. 204-221.
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Throughout the Iliad the warriors' dream of peace is projected over and over again in elaborate similes developed against a background of violence and death. Homer is able to balance the celebration of war's tragic, heroic values with scenes of battle and those creative values of civilized life that war destroys. The shield of Achilles symbolically represents the two poles of human condition, war and peace, with their corresponding aspects of human nature, the destructive and creative, which are implicit in every situation and statement of the poem and are put before us in something approaching abstract form; its emblem is an image of human life as a whole.
In addition, the overall theme of the poem highlighted morality, which was a definitive tenet of Greco Roman civilization. In many ways, Virgil wrote the poem as a means of lauding the moral virtues of Roman society and as a personal challenge to outdo Homer’s epic compositions, The Illiad and The Odyssey. Virgil was successful because he had incorporated many of the same tales shared in the works of Homer into one epic poem which presented a linear storyline in the books that detailed the life and times of Aeneas and the Trojans. That being said, Virgil did not stray far from the approach that many writers had used before him; his primary focus throughout the Aeneid was placed squarely upon the back of idealized Greek and Roman moral principles, which were the dedication to ones’ honor, family, and country. By no means is there anything wrong with this approach, but in many ways, the entire poem could be viewed as a “propaganda” piece; while it might have served to enlighten, educate, and create a cohesive and uplifting story for the Roman populace, the poem lacked depth and a more profound exploration of human intricacies. While Virgil’s epic poem has stood the test of time and remains one of the greatest pieces