The Theme in the Work
The Aeneid promises empire before showing it. In Book I, Jupiter tells Venus that he sets no limit of space or time for the Romans, and the promise appears beside a shipwrecked hero, Aeneas, who reaches a foreign shore, enters Carthage wrapped in a mist, and envies those who are already raising walls. The legitimacy of the empire comes from the weakness of its founder, and the rival city is the first to show him what he is looking for.
Carthage too is a foundation of exiles. Dido fled Tyre with her brother's treasure, leads the enterprise, and welcomes the Trojans because she knows exile. When Aeneas departs, in Book IV, she asks that there be no love or treaties between the peoples and calls upon an avenger born from her bones, who will pursue the Dardanian colonists: the poem gives the enmity between Rome and Carthage an origin in verse, and tradition reads the unnamed avenger as Hannibal.
It is in Book VI that the poem says what Rome must do. Anchises shows Aeneas the line of future Romans down to Augustus and dictates the mission: others will shape bronze more finely, speak more eloquently, and measure the heavens, but the Roman will rule, impose the custom of peace, spare the conquered and subdue the proud. The formula serves as a measure of good rule and as a justification for conquest, and the poem does not separate the two. In the same procession appear the warning against the civil war of Caesar and Pompey and the young Marcellus, whom the fates show to the earth and take away early.
Book VIII shows the other side: Rome begins poor. Evander points out to Aeneas the Capitol overgrown with brush, and the shield forged by Vulcan engraves, further on, Augustus at Actium against the Egyptian queen and the triumph with three hundred temples. Book XII collects the price of the agreement: defeated, Juno asks that the Latins keep their name, their speech, and their dress, and Jupiter grants that the Trojans will mix with them and that all will speak one Latin tongue, so that Troy vanishes into the people in whose land it landed.
The poem sustains two voices at once. That of Anchises sees in empire a service, to rule and to spare, and that of Dido and Turnus sees, from the side of those who receive the foreigner, the colonists who arrive and take the bride. In Book VII, the oracle of Latinus speaks of foreign sons-in-law who will carry the name of the people up to the heavens; in Book XII, Juturna tells the Rutulians that, if defeated, they will be subjects. The Trojan who swore he wanted no kingdom is the same man who threatens to raze the city if it does not accept the bridle.
Where It Appears
- Book I: Jupiter promises Venus that the Romans will have an empire without end, and Aeneas, covered by the mist, envies the Carthaginians whose walls are already rising.
- Book I: Dido, having fled Tyre with her brother's treasure, leads the enterprise of founding Carthage and welcomes the Trojans.
- Book IV: Dido, seeing the ships depart, calls upon an avenger born from her bones and asks for war between the peoples.
- Book VI: Anchises dictates Rome's mission: to rule the peoples, impose the custom of peace, spare the submitted, and subdue the proud.
- Book VIII: Evander shows Aeneas the Capitol overgrown with brush, and Vulcan's shield carries Augustus at Actium and the three hundred temples of the triumph.
- Book XII: Juno asks that the Latins keep their name, and Jupiter promises that the Trojans will mix with them and that all will speak a single language.
- Book VII: The oracle of Faunus tells Latinus to give his daughter to a foreign son-in-law, whose descendants will carry the Latin name up to the stars.
Passages
Jupiter promises the Romans a power without boundary.
His ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono: / Imperium sine fine dedi., for these I set no limit of space or time: I have given them an empire without end.
Dido calls for an avenger to rise from her bones.
Tum vos, o Tyrii, stirpem et genus omne futurum / Exercete odiis, cinerique haec mittite nostro / Munera: nullus amor populis nec foedera sunto. / Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor, / Qui face Dardanios ferroque sequare colonos. / Nunc, olim, quocumque dabunt se tempore vires, / Littora littoribus contraria, fluctibus undas / Imprecor, arma armis: pugnent ipsique nepotes, then you, Tyrians, torment with hatred their line and every generation to come, and send these offerings to my ashes: let there be no love or treaties between the peoples. Let some avenger rise from my bones, who will pursue the Dardanian colonists with torch and sword, now, later, whenever at any time their strength is offered: I curse them, shore against shore, waves against waves, weapons against weapons: let the grandsons fight too.
Anchises dictates Rome's mission.
Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento; / Hae tibi erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem, / Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos, Roman, remember to rule the peoples with your power; these will be your arts: to impose the custom of peace, to spare the submitted, and to subdue the proud
The procession of future Romans ends with its price stated in verse.
Heu, miserande puer! si qua fata aspera rumpas, / Tu Marcellus eris. Manibus date lilia plenis: / Purpureos spargam flores, animamque nepotis / His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani / Munere, alas, boy worthy of pity! If by some chance you were to break through the harsh fates, you would be Marcellus. Give lilies with full hands: I will scatter purple flowers and at least heap my grandson's spirit with these gifts, and perform an empty duty.
Aeneas's shield ends in Rome, with three hundred temples.
At Caesar, triplici invectus Romana triumpho / Moenia, dis Italis votum immortale sacrabat, / Maxima ter centum totam delubra per urbem, but Caesar, borne into the Roman walls in a triple triumph, was consecrating to the Italian gods an immortal vow: three hundred great shrines throughout the whole city.
Jupiter grants Juno that the Trojans will disappear as a name.
Sermonem Ausonii patrium moresque tenebunt; / Utque est, nomen erit: commixti corpore tanto / Subsident Teucri: morem ritusque sacrorum / Adjiciam, faciamque omnes uno ore Latinos, the Ausonians will keep their fathers' speech and customs; the name will be as it is: the Teucrians, mixed into so great a body, will settle down; I will add the custom and the sacred rites, and make all of them Latins with one voice.