From Cumae to the Po: Italian Itineraries in Aeneid 6

Urban Dreams and Realities in Antiquity, 2014

Arma virumque canō? "Arms and the Man I sing …"1 So Vergil begins his epic tale of Aeneas, who overcomes tremendous obstacles to find and establish a new home for his wandering band of Trojan refugees. Were it metrically possible, Vergil could have begun with "Cities and the Man I sing," for Aeneas' quest for a new home involves encounters with cities of all types: ancient and new, great and small, real and unreal. These include Dido's Carthaginian boomtown (1.419-494), Helenus' humble neo-Troy (3.349-353) and Latinus' lofty citadel (7.149-192).2 Of course, central to his quest is the destiny of Rome, whose future greatness-empire without limit (1.277-278)-Jupiter prophesies to Venus as recompense for the destruction of her beloved Troy, but whose foundation ultimately depends on Aeneas' success at establishing a foothold in Italy (1.257-296). Although Rome's (notional/traditional) foundation will occur several centuries after Aeneas's final victory, Vergil has his hero interact with the future city in several ways, including two well-known passages. In the first (8.95-369) he tours Evander's Pallanteum, the physical site of future Rome, taking delight in his surroundings and learning local lore (8.310-312, 359), yet he fails to perceive that this

Vergilius, 2014

This paper explores how Aeneid 6 might reflect and inform ancient audiences’ responses to Augustan architecture. Aeneas’ encounter with Daedalus’ temple at Cumae and vision of future Romans in the Underworld, as narrated by Vergil, raise questions of aesthetic and historical judgment. These episodes also model interpretive strategies that encourage Vergil’s readers to revisit contemporary monuments, notably the Palatine Temple of Apollo and the Forum Augustum, with a critical eye toward their presentation of Roman history. In my reading, audiences exercised considerable interpretive power over the physical city as well as the epic’s literary landscape, questioning the extent to which the princeps was able to turn Rome into a coherent urban narrative that controlled their paths and perceptions.

(Also: Heldenschau). From the Intro: “Arms and the Man I sing…” So Vergil begins his epic tale of Aeneas, who overcomes tremendous obstacles to find and establish a new home for his wandering band of Trojan refugees. Were it metrically possible, Vergil could have begun with “Cities and the Man I sing,” for Aeneas’ quest for a new home involves encounters with cities of all types: ancient and new, great and small, real and unreal. These include Dido’s Carthaginian boomtown (1.419–494), Helenus’ humble neo-Troy (3.349–353) and Latinus’ lofty citadel (7.149–192). Of course, central to his quest is the destiny of Rome, whose future greatness—empire without limit (1.277–278)—Jupiter prophesies to Venus as recompense for the destruction of her beloved Troy, but whose foundation ultimately depends on Aeneas’ success at establishing a foothold in Italy (1.257–296). Although Rome’s notional/traditional foundation will occur several centuries after Aeneas’s final victory, Vergil has his hero interact with the future city in several ways, including two well-known passages. In the first (8.95–369) he tours Evander’s Pallanteum, the physical site of future Rome, taking delight in his surroundings and learning local lore (8.310–312, 359), yet fails to perceive that this place will become the imperial metropolis. In the other (8.625–731), he examines a creation of Vulcan, a shield engraved with vignettes of Rome’s future history from Romulus to Augustus triumphant, the action-packed imagery of which Aeneas also fails to comprehend (8.730). Of course, references to Rome (and its culture) are not restricted to Jupiter’s prophecy and the iconic events in Aeneid 8: James Morwood cogently argues that, elsewhere in the Aeneid, Vergil’s descriptions of, or allusions to, structures built or rebuilt by Augustus give Rome a strong presence throughout the poem. The present essay expands upon his concept in significant ways to argue that Augustan Rome—its history, its aristocratic culture, and the city itself—is completely present, albeit in palimpsestic form, in Aeneid 6–8. Overview: “Rome in the Underworld” demonstrates that Vergil’s description of Elysian topography, combined with Anchises’ censorial activities in Aeneid 6, characterize this section of the Underworld as a ‘premortal’ version of Rome’s underlying landscape in which important religious and political activities take place simultaneously. “A Didactic City-Walk” examines the visual inspiration for the Parade of Heroes (also Aeneid 6), and how Vergil’s descriptions and groupings of Rome’s future leaders allow his audience to visualize Anchises leading Aeneas through key commemorative zones in Rome’s (future) historic center, areas heavily populated by statues of great men in Vergil’s day. It concludes with an examination of the simultaneously chiastic and linear structure of themes, activities, people and topography through which Anchises, Aeneas and the Sibyl ‘travel’ on their journey of discovery. “Palimpsestic Rome” explores the features of Latinus’ city (Aeneid 7), the terrain of Evander’s Pallanteum (Aeneid 8) and the cityscapes engraved on Aeneas’ shield (Aeneid 8) which, when (re)integrated with the ‘premortal’ Rome of Aeneid 6, comprise a comprehensive vision of Augustan Rome, its aristocratic culture, and its future-perfect history.

Constructing and Modelling Images of the City, 2015

It is well known that the city of Rome figures largely in Vergil's poetry. Study of this topic has tended to focus on its historical aspects, and special attention has been paid to the fact that the Aeneid is a foundation epic. As far as actual descriptions of the city are concerned, most scholars have inevitably been drawn to the famous promenade of Aeneas and Evander through the site of Rome in book 8. In this paper I would like to take a slightly different approach to Vergil's Rome, by looking at a number of passages which offer glimpses of clearly defined urban spaces, arguing that Vergil has a particular interest in depicting cityscapes throughout his career. Right from the first Eclogue, and again in the Georgics, the depiction of Rome as a physical space is clearly a matter of considerable literary importance for Vergil. Ironically, when one turns to the Aeneid, Carthage and Troy receive more direct attention than Rome, but the destinies of all three cities are clearly intertwined. Evocations of the cityscape of Carthage as it is being built by Dido and of Troy as it is being destroyed by the Greeks interact with Vergil's handling of the fate of Rome, and study of the poet's handling of urban space helps to reveal some interesting aspects of his epic technique. Vergil's Aeneid combines the story of a character from Homer's Iliad with the history of Rome. 2 Even before its actual publication around 19 BCE, Propertius (2,34,61-6, c. 25 BCE) could characterize it as a poem about the Battle of Actium and immediately go on to compare it directly to the Iliad. Servius, in the preface to his commentary on the Aeneid, shows his awareness of essential strands in the epic's make-up when he states that Vergil's intention was to imitate Homer and praise Augustus (Homerum imitari et Augustum laudare a parentibus). Modern scholarship has explored extensively the ways in which the 1 Sincere thanks are due to Th. Fuhrer, F. Mundt and J. Stenger for their invitation to speak at the splendid conference in Berlin that gave rise to this volume, and also to Bettina Bergmann, Laurent Brassous and Manuel Royo for expert bibliographical guidance. 2 The bibliography on this broad topic is so vast that it is hard to know where to start; see,

Recent scholarship has amply demonstrated that inconsistencies within the Aeneid, rather than being read as imperfections that would have been removed upon revision, can be interpreted as legitimate features of the text capable of generating meaning in their own right (O'Hara 2007 77-103). This paper explores the significance of the geographical inconsistency surrounding Circe's home in the Aeneid by contextualising it within a broader tradition of Homeric exegesis.