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Adelola Ajayi

Professor Santucci

CLAS 170

6 August 2017

Essay #2 Aeneid Dark Empire

Aeneas experiences many hardships throughout the Aeneid, he specifically loses his wife

Creusa, Dido, Anchises, and Pallas to find Rome. Virgils Aeneid leaves a negative account of

the Roman empire because of the costs Aeneas faces having to build this empire.

The empire Romes future standing is dependent on Aeneas. Jupiter states that Aeneas

will carry on a war and build a great empire, Your son will wage a great war in Italy, crush

barbarous nations, and set up laws and city walls for his own people, reigning in Latium until

three summers have passed and three winters since the Rutulians defeat (Book 1 lines 314-

318). Aeneas will rule the land that he builds and have dominion over its people. Anchises tells

Aeneas that others may be skilled at what they do but he will rule the empire that he builds,

Others will no doubt hammer out bronze that breathes more softly, and draw living faces out of

stone. They will plead cases better and chart the rising of every star in the sky. Your mission,

Roman, is to rule the world. These will be your arts: to establish peace, to spare the humbled, and

to conquer the proud (Book 6 lines 1011-1018). Aeneas is given the significant tasks to initiate

peace, help those who are too prideful and have dominion over everyone in the land. He prays to

Phoebus and says that when his great empire is established he will essentially honor Phoebus,

Then to Phoebus and Trivia I will dedicate a temple of solid marble and holy days in Phoebus

name. And a great shrine awaits in your realm, I will deposit your prophecies and the mystic

sayings told to my people and ordain your priests (Book 6 lines 87-93). Aeneas knows that he
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must find Rome and his actions are dependent on this great empire, his devotion to the gods and

his family is established because the gods and his family allow him to acknowledge that he must

find Rome.

To build this great empire, Aeneas must suffer for Romes promised greatness. The first

encounter of suffering that Aeneas faces is when he leaves Troy because Troy was being sacked.

He is forced to run away with his family but when he arrives at Ceres temple he realizes that his

wife is not with him, Some malignant spirit robbed me of my wits, for while I ran down back

alleys, leaving the familiar streets, My wife Creusa, was taken from me .. Had she stopped, or

got lost and sat down exhausted (Book 2 lines 864-869). Aeneas retraces his steps to find his

wife, eventually he finds her ghost, there rose before my eyes the sad ghost of Creusa herself,

an image larger than life. I was transfixed, my hair stood on end, and my voice choked (Book 2

lines 911-914). The pain and suffering of Aeneas losing his wife is evident here, Creusa

acknowledges his grief and says What good does it do, my sweet husband, to indulge in such

mad grief? These things do not happen without the will of the gods...and a royal wife shall be

yours. Dry your tears for your beloved Creusa (Book 2 lines 916-925). Creusa tells Aeneas that

he will find a new wife and he should stop grieving over her death, she also acknowledges that

her death would not have happened without the gods because she knows that Aeneas is devoted

to the gods. This is an example of how the Aeneid is a negative criticism of this empire because

Aeneas must suffer the pain of losing his wife to establish Rome.

Aeneas continues to suffer when he travels to Carthage. The queen of Carthage Dido has

fallen in love with Aeneas, Juno acknowledges this and conspires for Aeneas to get married to

Carthage with Venus help. Juno states And Dido and Aeneas will find themselves in the same

cave. I will be there too, and with your consent I will unite them in holy matrimony. This will be
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their wedding (Book 4 lines 142-145). Aeneas and Dido are married and they are enjoying each

other until Jupiter sends Mercury to tell Aeneas that he must leave Carthage to build his empire,

He seems to have quite forgotten, in his fatuation, the cities given to him by Fate...if his own

glory means nothing to him, if he will not take on this labor for his own fames sake, does he

begrudge Ascanius the towers of Rome ..In sum, he must sail(Book 4 lines 254-269). When

Aeneas hears this he begins to suffer because he was becoming comfortable with staying in

Carthage with Dido, Aeneas stood there amazed, choking with fear .. And he burned with desire

to leave that sweet land, in awe of the commandment from the gods above. But what should he

do? What can he say to the queen in her passion? How will he choose his opening words..and he

orders them to prepares his fleet for silent running(Book 4 lines 312-323). Aeneas does not

want to leave Dido, he feels a sense of devotion to her but he has to leave because of his

devotion to the gods, and his son Ascanius who he is building Rome for. Leaving Dido is one of

the cost Aeneas must face to establish Rome. The Aeneid is a negative criticism of this empire

because to build Rome Aeneas must sacrifice what he loves.

Aeneas takes a trip to the underworld, where he sees Dido and his father Anchises. When

he sees Dido he begins to speak to her but she does not respond, With such words Aeneas tries

to soothe her burning soul. Tears came to his eyes, But Dido kept her own eyes fixed on the

ground (Book 6 lines 561-563). He understands that he has caused her suffering, which

eventually leads to his suffering because now that he is able to see her again she does not want to

speak to him and it is his fault because he left Carthage for Rome. When in the underworld,

Aeneas grieves his father's death, As Aeneas said this he began to weep. Three times he tried to

put his arms around his father's neck. Three times his father's wraith slipped through his hands

(Book 6 lines 827-830). Aeneas recaps a dream to his father where his father kept appearing to
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him, while his father was still in the underworld, and this broke Aeneas. Since his father was

now a soul he was unable to hold his father, which causes Aeneas great anguish. Aeneas

agonizes over his father's death, Anchises left him to establish Rome on his own, another one of

the cost that he faces.

Aeneas ultimately suffers when Pallas, who was viewed as a son to Aeneas dies. Pallas

was killed by Turnus, who is now a suppliant of Aeneas. Aeneas wasn't going to kill Turnus until

he saw the belt of Pallas on Turnus, Turnus words were winning him over...the belt of young

pallas...Pallas sacrifices you with this stroke-Pallas-and makes you pay with your guilty blood

..Aeneas buries his sword in Turnus chest(Book 12 lines 1141-1155). VirgilsAeneid cost

Aeneas to be violent because of all the pain and suffering that he must endure for Imperial Rome.

Everything Aeneas does essentially is at the cost of the great empire. Aeneas suffers

throughout the Aeneid just to build Imperial Rome, an empire that he never sees but essentially

builds for his son, Ascanius. The only reason Aeneas faced these hardships were for Imperial

Rome was because of his devotion to his family and the gods. The Aeneid does not depict a

positive account of an empire destined for greatness, everything that Aeneas goes through is

negative and leads to him suffering.

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Works Cited

Lombardo, Stanley The Essential Aeneid Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006. Print.