Analysis Of Augustus’ Propaganda In Vergil’s Aeneid
Vergil’s Aeneid is an aetiology. It is the story explaining how something came into existence. It is precisely a ktisis, a story of how a nation ascended. Its story aims at a Roman nation separate from other nations, mostly from the Trojans with whom it instigated, the Greeks whom the Trojans had battled and whom the Romans were to defeat, the Carthaginians who intimidate Roman dominance, and the Italian peoples among whom Rome ascended.
As it is well known, Vergil’s Aeneid has a political message. The political message which Aeneid contains is interpreted by scholars in two opposing ways, either as “anti-Augustan” or as “pro-Augustan”. However, this basic classification would be simplifying Vergil’s work. For a writer like Vergil, the main motive would not be to please the political powers. While there is little doubt that Vergil himself was a “convinced Augustan”, who believed in Augustus, a type of man who can establish a peace out of a bloody civil war. At the same time, Vergil saw the “darkness” of this new era, the Golden Era. So, as mentioned classifying Vergil’s Aeneid either as pro or anti-Augustan would be undermining it. Vergil had cyclist and stoic view, so for him, there was no clear distinction between black and white, instead, grey was the main colour of the universe. Also “fate” was the crucial factor in his world view.
In Aeneid, the wish of the Olympian gods is the culmination of Roman history in Augustus. Thus, Vergil’s epic is a kind of propaganda, which reinforces the divine base of the Emperor’s auctoritas. The Emperor’s auctoritas has two ultimate sources in Aeneid, the mythic origins of Rome and the divine sphere. Accordingly, Vergil traces Augustus’ political location even further back from Romulus, to Aeneas who is the forefather of the Roman people. For Vergil, Augustus is the rightful heir of Aeneas and Romulus. Thus, Vergil presents the principate as a vital part of Roman political culture.
For Vergil, neither history of Rome nor the gods were per se good. Aeneas might have been supported by Jupiter and Venus, yet he is faced with a divine hostility. Venus is aware that the gods’ harshness (2. 602) is the result of the destruction of Troy. Moreover, through all books, June is hostile to Aeneas and the Trojans. In addition to that, Rome’s early history is characterised by the destruction of Troy, fratricide of Romulus, and the rape of the Sabine women. Yet, those darkness culminates in a positive outcome. Without these tragedies, there would be no Rome and no Augustus. So, for Vergil; destruction, death and violence are necessary. These are the unavoidable “fate” which resulted in “Golden Age” of Augustus. These negative connotations do not necessarily mean Aeneid presents a negative perspective of history. As mentioned, these events are destined. Similarly, Augustus had to commit civil wars, first against Caesar’s assassins and then Mark Antony to establish the “Golden Age”. In this sense, both Aeneas and Augustus established order out of disorder.
Vergil predicts the great expansion of the Roman Empire under Augustus, who is going to “mark the boundaries of the empire with Ocean”. In Anchises’ foresight on Aeneas about how far the Roman rule will expand (6. 794-805), Augustus will take Rome’s power beyond the bounds of the world. Augustus’ empire will consist of even more lands than those seen by Bacchus and Hercules. Another depiction of Vergil is the Octavian’s triumph over the Nomads and Africans in South; the Leleges, Geloni, Dahae and Parthians in the East; the Gauls in the West and Germans in the North (8. 724-28). With all these wars Augustus establishes peace and closes the Temple of Janus (1. 291-96). Closure of Temple of Janus only occurred under Numa, in 235 BC and three times under Augustus.
Augustus is the man who is competent to restore the devastated Rome. Vergil glorifies the crucial victory of Octavian against Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium on several occasions in the books. First, Augustus is “spoliis Orientis onustus”, second “septemgemini turban trepida ostia Nili” (6. 800) and third, he describes the Battle of Actium in details (8. 671-728). So, in a way, Vergil glorifies the military successes of Augustus.
Augustus is aware that Caesar’s assassination was deeply rooted in Roman aristocracy. So, rather than turning the res publica into an empire altogether, he turned over the res publica to the “Senatus populusque Romanus” in January 13, 27 BC. Despite the military and political power of Augustus’, his position was insecure and the first crisis occurred between 27 BC and 23 BC. So, Augustus had to eliminate the opposition.
The Aeneid supports the idea that Augustus as the telos of Roman history and authority signifies Jupiter’s will. Even though Augustus is mentioned just three times in the Aeneid, respectively in Jupiter’s divination (1. 286-96), in Anchises’ revelation (6. 791-805) and in the description of Aeneas’ shield (8. 671-728), Augustus’ presence is not confined in these passages. Augustus is visible in many passages as subtext.
In 1. 286-96, Jupiter’s divine prophecy, Augustus is mentioned for the first time and this passage links Augustus with the divine sphere. Vergil presents Augustus as a closely connected person with the gods. Thus, princeps is chosen by the gods. Moreover, Vergil’s Augustus is the zenith of Roman history. Augustus is on the line with Aeneas, Ascanius and Romulus. All three founded a city; Lavinium, Alba Longa and Rome. Correspondingly, Augustus re-founded Rome through establishing the long gone peace. So, Vergil presents Augustus’ monarchy as a natural outcome and Jupiter’s will. Thus, Augustus’ new form of state has a double foundation: history and divine errand. Regarding Julius Caesar, it seems the Vergil’s Aeneid is in line with Augustus’ own attitude towards Caesar. Vergil concludes that Caesar’s assassination was a historical blunder and the violation of Jupiter’s will. Hence, Caesar was moving in the right directions and Augustus is only following the footsteps of his forefather.
In Anchises’ Revelation, Anchises’ order of the heroes is different from the chronological order. Position of Augustus is between Romulus and Numa and this shows that the princeps is both a second Romulus as re-founder of Rome and a second Numa as re-founder of Roman religion. So, Vergil presents Caesar and Augustus as the rightful heirs of the Roman kings. So, two of the most remarkable passages in the Aeneid legitimize Augustus’ authority since they trace him to mythic kings. Monarchy was an integral part of Augustus’ program.
The description of Aeneas’ shield contains a text where Augustus is linked to the gods (8. 671-728). This passage focuses on the Battle of Actium and Triple Triumph on 29 BC. There, Augustus is traced back to gods. Shield of Aeneas is made by Vulcan (God of Fire) by the request of Venus who is Vulcan’s wife and Aeneas’ divine mother. Battle of Actium labelled in the centre of the shield is not only a struggle between Augustus, and Antony and Cleopatra, but a battle between Roman and Egyptian gods. So, in a way, a description of the Battle of Actium in Aeneas’ shield has some Gigantomachic features. There, Augustus is braced by the Penates and the great gods. Great gods refer to the Neptune, Minerva, Apollo and Venus. Vergil’s description of Battle of Actium is the battle between light (Apollo) and darkness (Anubis), good and evil, order and disorder. Description of the shield shows that the war and Octavian’s defeat of Antony and Cleopatra was divine will.
Along with such obvious references in Aeneid, there are implicit references. In the first book between the lines 148 and 156, Juno and Aeolus cause a storm which agitates up the sea and then Neptune calms the sea. Vergil compares the Neptune’s intervention with that of a magistrate’s action in a civil uprising.
The lineage which begins with Aeneas who has ancestors such as Venus, Hercules and Jupiter end in Augustus. Each of these gods and heroes established order out of disorder. So, Augustus has a common quality with them, pietas, crucial element in the Roman world. There is another implicit connection. He was not only connected to Venus and Julius Caesar but also with Mars via Romulus. In Aeneid, Vergil highpoints Augustus’ origin from Venus and Mars through his connection with Aeneas and Romulus. In 6. 792, divi genus means Augustus’ origin from deified Julius Caesar, and in 8. 681, patrium sidus. Princeps took “Caesar” as his family name mentioned a couple of time in the book. Furthermore, the title of “Augustus” which is used in 6. 792 and 8. 678 is given to Octavian on January 13, 27 BC when Octavian returned his power to SPQR. The name Augustus was augustum augurium for contemporaries the twelve vultures which had appeared when Romulus founded Rome and when Octavian assumed his first consulate on August 19, 43 BC. So, all these facts contributed to the divine character of the title of “Augustus”. In a way, Vergil’s Aeneid is trying to explain why Octavian’s imperium is deeply rooted in mythic and divine origins.
Another indirect reference to Augustus is in 6. 69-70. Here, there is a temple which Aeneas had dedicated to Apollo and probably refers to the temple on the Palatine Hill raised by Augustus in 28 BC. Also in 6. 860-86, Vergil in his description of Aeneas visit to Hades where he meets up with Marcellus, grief is visible in Rome after the death of young Marcellus and his entombment in Augustus’ mausoleum.
Up to this point in the essay, we only mentioned the pro-Augustan side of Aeneid, but there are also lines that criticize Augustus. Vergil’s one of the expressed concerns is visible in 6. 847-53 where he says that there will be a price to be paid for imperial success. Not surprising since it coincides with the cyclical view and “fate”: In order to establish peace, there had to be suffering. The violence which Aeneas and his companions experienced is extraordinary, but inevitable such as the atrocities of Augustus during the civil wars. In 10. 310-11, in the battle against Turnus, there could be a link to Octavian’s expropriations after Philippi as suggested by Weeda. It is noteworthy that, as a direct lineage to Augustus, Aeneas is merely a hero. In a couple of occasions, Vergil depicts Aeneas as a man who lost his ability of judgement, in lines such as 946-7, furiis accensus et ira terribilis. Such lines show the “humanness” of Aeneas. Therefore, Vergil implicitly dictates that Augustus is a human being who is capable of doing mistakes. Vergil is not a man who is passionate about war. He depicts his dislike towards war and unnecessary violence, however, he is also aware that some of the wars are unavoidable and will of the gods.
Vergil’s view in this paper is described as “cyclist and stoicism” and Weeda suggest another term “double-sided outlook”. Through the book, we see his double-sided outlook towards Aeneas’ journey and therefore Augustus’ acts.
Virgil’s work defines the foundation of Rome by Aeneas, son of a goddess, and ancestor of Augustus. As if this were not propagandistic enough, the narrative of The Aeneid is frequently intermingled with forecasts which predict and applause the future decree of Augustus. Remarkably, one of these images of the future is given by the king of the gods himself, Jupiter, in which Augustus is prophesied to “bound his empire…at the limits of the world, and his fame by the stars”, establishing “an empire without end”. Clearly, Jupiter’s vision did not extend beyond 476 CE, when the Roman Empire finally fell apart.
In book six, Aeneas descends into the underworld to see his dead father, Anchises. While there, Anchises recognises the future Romans among whom are Romulus, and Julius Caesar. Finally, Anchises comes to Augustus: “the man who will bring back the golden years…and extend Rome’s empire…beyond the stars”. On the apparent, then, this seems to be hitherto additional of Virgil’s propagandistic visions. Remarkably, though, when Aeneas arranges to leave the underworld and return to the land of the living, Virgil writes that he exists “through the Gate of Ivory”. As Virgil himself points out, the Gate of Horn is for “veris…umbris”, whilst the Gate of Ivory is the gate of “falsa. . . insomnia”: “…through it the powers of the underworld send false dreams up towards the heavens”. It is a bizarre part of the story which Virgil does not intricate on any further. The assumption that some have come to is that the Gate of Ivory serves to disengage all the approval that Virgil has just poured on the ‘unborn’ Roman heroes. It proposes that their accomplishments and those of the Roman Empire are illusionary, “falsa… insomnia”.
Another argument in errand of the idea that The Aeneid is a dissident attack on the Augustan rule cites the end of the epic as proof. In this, Aeneas violently kills Turnus, his native Italian foe who resists the foundation of Rome. One might expect, if The Aeneid really is propaganda, for Virgil to settle with yet additional remark on the future glory of Rome, or some description of the foundation of the city. Instead, the final line is gory: “Ast illi solvuntur frigore membra vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras”. This is chiefly surprising when considered how often peace is foretold throughout the poem; both Jupiter and Anchises state that after the bloody clash in Italy, when Aeneas is triumphant, there will be congruence. Why end, thus, with an image of violence and war? Virgil deceased before the poem was finalized; still, it seems likely that he still planned for the epic to settle with this image. Virgil was certainly a “perfectionist”; it took him ten years to inscribe his Georgics. It is too alleged that, when it came to constituting The Aeneid, he inscribed only a few lines in the morning and dedicated the rest of the day to review them. Vergil’s interpretation was that such a ruthless killing went too far and through this, he indirectly assesses Augustus for the ferocity of the war. Vergil proposes that the ethical reasoning of the killing was contaminated by the cruelty of it. This agrees with the poet’s view that war is an untidy industry, in which men show their weakness, which always corresponding with cruelty and violence. Augustus had been blamed of brutality in the civil war, for instance in the case of the farmers’ expulsions of their property, which had caused many victims, and in the event of the massacre at the surrender of Perusia. He also condemns the ferocity in the civil war in 11. 100-105, 11. 372-373, and 12. 35-36.
It is difficult to know the true political memo that Vergil is endeavouring to make in his epic. What suggests that The Aeneid is somewhat other than propaganda, is the character of Aeneas Melancholic, reluctant and detached. Nowhere in the epic is Aeneas excited about Rome or his fate. Vergil often strengthens his hero’s depression at his condition; in Carthage, Aeneas says the Carthaginian queen that it is “Italiam non sponte sequor”. When Anchises, in the underworld, displays him the souls pending a new mortal life, Aeneas spectacles what could possibly compel them to the light of the earth? In spite altogether of the apparently propagandistic features of The Aeneid, serves to validate Vergil’s true opinions concerning the hypothetical glory of Rome.
In the Aeneid, Vergil writes more frequently about his fondness for the hereditary system of monarchy. The latter theme is very prominent in 6. 860-886, which concerns the demise of Marcellus, and, the marriage of Aeneas and Lavinia (7. 96-106) likewise displays Vergil supporting a method of hereditary monarchy. When he devoted to the indication of a king as future ruler in the Aeneid, this was not a fresh belief. It is likely that he continued as persuaded as he was before of the necessity to re-establish the land and to fetch order and stability and that he saw that the shifting realm requisite a more competent power, which the Republic could no longer offer. When Alexandria fell in 30 BC, and Octavian was made princeps in 27 BC, there was not just one key alteration in the Mediterranean, nevertheless double. The end of the Republic corresponded with the collapse of the last Hellenistic monarchy. The Republic had to be substituted with an innovative organisation and it is likely that the incipient leader observed at how authority was structured in the East. As Vergil supposed that the repair of Italy would only be likely in a regimented society, he affirmed in the Aeneid to his confidence that the fresh leader should obtain extensive imperium. Vergil did not present this opinion on the administration of the state by directive of the new command. Just as in 30 or 29 BC, the late twenties BC were not the correct period for Augustus to jump a lobby and a propaganda crusade for his advancement. Besides, there was no necessity to press Vergil, as he had previously printed down his opinions on the benedictions of a monarchy on his own enterprise. He was ready to breathe under a king, but he anticipated the monarch to be pius and iustus, and the rex ought to display his duty towards society at great and should be fair. Aeneas must be his correct model and merely by reigning in harmony with the canons which Aeneas had set, could the monarch be successful.
Augustus and Vergil had to grasp back into Roman history and custom to discover the auctoritas of Augustus' military and political power, his imperium. Augustus’ policies were predominantly concerned with the consolidation of the household and faith as they had been in early times of Rome. Augustus wished to recover the standards which had been degraded throughout the disorder of the last epoch of the Roman Republic. It was supposed that those public and private ethics had a sophisticated customary in the ancient. The past, however, was not only a prototypical for an allegedly superior life but also provided Augustus with the auctoritas that he needed for political power, part of his imperium. While Augustus denoted to an unknown past, Vergil bowed to Aeneas, at a time prior the very principal commencements of Rome and Romulus. The Aeneid links Augustus with Aeneas, the mythical forefather of the Romans, and then by Romulus, the renowned founder of Rome. Vergil consequently acquaintances the princeps with the primary possible days of Roman past, labelling Augustus as a next Aeneas as well as a next Romulus. This is why Vergil penned an Aeneid rather than an “Augusteid” evoking the mythic and celestial heritages which would afford the final source for Augustus' imperium. Therefore, whether The Aeneid was nothing but plain propaganda or not, Vergil helped Augustus to solidify his imperium while criticizing and warning Augustus and guiding him to follow the good deeds of his forefathers.
