Your best way to approach this is to look at things which Augustus himself promoted about himself (e.g. as seen in his Res Gestae ... read between the lines a bit, e.g., in regards to his role in the civil war ... how does Augustus portray his role?). At the same time, you should be looking at the imagery which was being promoted in the visual arts (great place to start: Zanker's *Power of Images in the Age of Augustus*) and see how those visual images are echoed as literary images in the *Aeneid*. As for making Romans 'feel good' about themselves, remember that the intended audience probably wasn't 'all Romans'(although it is likely that this was the 'eventual' audience (more or less), just the literate ones who would appreciate the craftsmanship involved. That's a very narrow class of people ... what do you suppose the message is that's being passed on to them via the Aeneid?
dm At 12:08 PM 4/17/1998 EDT, you wrote: I'm am working on a research paper that hopes to arrive at some conclusion that relates Augustus patronage of Vergil to the Aeneid. My feeling is that one of the purposes of writing the Aeneid was so that the Romans could "feel good" about themselves, and also that Augustus would be able to take and maintain control of the empire. I see the Aeneid as being a powerful tool of Augustine Propoganda. My paper also seeks to relate other works of literature in more modern times to political issues (ex: _Uncle_Tom's_Cabin_ and the issue of slavery). Any comments, suggestions, of direction towards research materials would be GREATLY appreciated. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. You will just prove to everyone that you can't read directions. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. You will just prove to everyone that you can't read directions. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body.
