The Aeneid Analysis

TO WHAT EXTENT WERE THE CHARACTERS OF AENEAS AND DIDO IN VERGIL’S AENEID INFLUENCED BY MARK ANTONY QUEEN CLEOPATRA VII PHILOPATOR OF EGYPT?

Dido and Aeneas were created as fictional characters in Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid. It can be suggested that these characters were based upon true accounts of Cleopatra VII Philopator of Egypt, Augustus Caesar, and Mark Antony. In the final years of his life, Roman poet Virgil wrote the epic of Aeneas, the founder of Rome, waylaid in his destiny by a beautiful, politically forward African Queen. Sources differ in opinion as to whether The Aeneid was written as political commentary or Augustan propaganda. Regardless, parallels can be drawn between both Queen Cleopatra and the fictional Dido, and between
Mark Antony and Aeneas. It is not unreasonable to suggest some historical influence from Cleopatra and Antony on Virgil, as obvious allusions to Augustus Caesar’s victory are found and coupled with clear, if superficial, similarities between the events that occurred and the characterisation in The Aeneid.
The timeline of the dissolution of the second Roman triumvirate and the writing of The Aeneid is important to note in discussion of the historical influence of Cleopatra and Mark Antony on Virgil’s characterisation. Formed in 43BCE, the second triumvirate consisted of the political alliance between Octavian and Mark Antony and was key in the last of the civil wars for dominance of Rome. It officially disbanded with Antony’s defeat at the battle of Actium in 30BCE, which also doubled as the beginning of an era of peace and Roman expansion until Augustus Caesar’s death in 14AD. Classical Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro, colloquially known as Virgil, lived from 70BCE to 10BCE, witnessing the Roman civil wars and significant threats to the posterity of Rome. Cleopatra, ruling from 79BCE to 30BCE, shared an overlapping timeline with Virgil
allows implication for her role in acting as an influence for Virgil’s character Dido. Virgil was active in the Roman political sphere throughout the civil wars of the first and second triumvirate. According to historian and translator W.F Jackson Knight, Virgil was a devout follower of Octavian, later Augustus. According to Propertius, a Roman poet living in __BCE, Virgil worked on the Aeneid during the last decade of his life (29–19 BC), commissioned by Augustus Caesar himself. Parallels can be found in the political power struggle existing during Virgil’s life and the characters in the epic. Augustus Caesar’s ultimate victory stems from the fall of Cleopatra and her lover, Mark Antony. It is not unrealistic to assume that a work commissioned by the Caesar would be influenced by one of his greatest victories. This relationship is further supported through Virgil’s inclusion of prophecies of future Rome and the deeds of Augustus and his ancestors found on the Aeneas’ shield. The shield itself explicitly depicts Augustus’ victory at Actium in 31 B.C.
Augustus Caesar… leading the Italians into battle, the Senate and People with him…/ On the other side, with barbaric wealth and motley equipment, / Is Antony, fresh from triumphs in the East…/ Egypt, the powers of the Orient and uttermost Bactra Sail with him; also - a shameful thing - his Egyptian wife…/Caesar has entered the walls of Rome in triumphal procession, three times a victor…
Octavian defeated Antony and his ally Cleopatra of Egypt, finally consolidating Roman power for himself alone. The allusion here to the battle at Actium, the resounding victory for Augustus Caesar, was carefully included by Virgil, and suggests that further allusions to the life of Augustus and his contemporaries may be found within.
Since The Aeneid’s was written, parallels have been drawn between Queen Cleopatra and the characterisation of the fictional Queen Dido.
Augustan perception of Queen Cleopatra is closely connected to Dido’s characterisation in Virgil’s work. In superficial terms, the fictional North African queen was leader of the Carthaginians, a significant and worrying rival to Roman control of Mediterranean power. Here, an allegory can be drawn between the two; like Virgil's character, Cleopatra was the widowed queen of an African kingdom that, like Carthage, had challenged Rome's right to dominate the Mediterranean (Taylor, 2003). Cleopatra, having ancestry from the Ptolemy Greeks, was not a native to the kingdom she ruled, just as Dido immigrated from the Phoecia before the events of The Aeneid (Weeda, 2015). As surmised by classical historian A.S Pease, through the figure of the foreign queen who tries to seduce the Roman from his destiny and his home, we feel a certain vibration of the unforgettable Cleopatra (Griffin, 1986). Further, it was Dido’s obsessive love for Aeneas that lead to the crumbling of her new empire, as, trying hard to escape from the love she dared not tell… work hung suspended. Dido loses her reputation as a competent queen and alienates the local African chieftains who had approached her as suitors (Webber, 1999). Dido, defined by Virgil with ignorance and goodness of heart, reflected the Roman perspective of women at the time, simultaneously providing a
comparison to Cleopatra and stripping her of her agency as a political power (Qualmann, 2012). While it was not Cleopatra’s political love affair that led to the decline of the Egyptian empire, but a range of various other mitigating factors, to the Roman readers of The Aeneid, who viewed women as irrational and unfit leaders, the message was clear. The language itself found in Roman versions of the Aeneid supports this. Cleopatra, described by her title as regina and not by name on Aeneas’ prophetic shield, written as pallentem morte future. Similarly, Dido, when introduced, is described as pallida morte futura Include Translation (Benario, 1970). This use of similar language of The Aeneid serves to further the comparison between the women. A final comparison, less superficial than the others, can be found in Dido’s death and the symbolic nature of her suicide.
If Dido is interpreted by the reader as an allegory for Cleopatra, as was likely Virgil’s intention, then it is implied that, in the metaphor, Aeneas risks but ultimately avoids becoming Antony. Various scholars, including ancient poet Propertius and contemporary Professor L. Fratantuono, allude to the fact that Aeneas is a representation for Octavian, later Augustus Caesar, for whom the Aeneid was written. It stands to reason that if Virgil was using Cleopatra as a functional model for Dido, a similar duality should exist for Aeneas. It is undeniable that Virgil’s characterisation of Aeneas lends him to represent the prototypical Roman male in his stoicism and pietas, his duty to his country (McMaster, 2011). In book four, Aeneas is content to live at wasteful leisure in African lands until a message from Cyllenian Mercury spurs him to action (Virgil). Mercury, messenger of the Roman gods, tells Aeneas not to forget his destiny, nor the other kingdom which is to be yours, a reference to the foundation of Rome. Here, Aeneas represents a good Roman, and Dido the temptress whose role it is to divert to Africa those who were meant by Destiny to hold rule in Italy (Benjamin, 2013). The legendary first Roman, far from his homeland, is waylaid from his true fate of founding the mighty Roman Empire after the fall of Troy by Queen Dido. In the epic, Aeneas’ desertion of love for duty and Dido’s subsequent suicide is clear evidence of the mindset of the day, in which... The fictional Aeneas dutifully resists temptation and abandons her to continue to progress, duty and political destiny more important than romantic love; in stark contrast to Antony, who puts passionate love of his own Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, before duty to Rome (Lemasters, 2010). Perhaps it is because Antony does not have the gods guiding him and reminding him of his duty, as Mercury does for Aeneas. In this way Virgil’s hero is an antithesis of the flesh and blood Antony, who was perceived as squandering an empire on account of the wiles of a woman (Scholla, 2009). The story of Cleopatra and Antony, from this point, form an alternate timeline of The Aeneid, which can be read by the audience of the events that may have occurred had Aeneas stayed in Carthage and not fulfilled his fate. From this information, and from the political atmosphere in which Virgil wrote the epic poem, the historical Antony and Cleopatra acted as the prototypes and antitypes for Dido and Aeneas.
However, accepting Dido as the perfect allegory for Cleopatra is problematic, particularly as to why Virgil sympathises with the woman who represents the republic’s greatest enemy. Virgil’s sympathetic blah blah blah. Historian __ Drake asserts that comparisons of Dido with other enemies of the state, such as Cleopatra, are superficial at best, as Dido was not able to become a barricade to Aeneas as Cleopatra became to Antony. As The Aeneid was pro-Augustan propaganda, it can be seen that Aeneas and all his positive attributes – his pietas, and honour – are used to act as a representation of the Caesar himself. Other suggestions include Dido certainly represented Rome’s major foreign enemy, Carthage, whereby Dido acted merely as a symbol for Carthage and Aeneas for Rome (Smit, 2005). __ suggests that the tale of Dido was symbolic of the third Punic war. Further, Dido’s dying curse placed upon Aeneas and his city, calling for an avenging spirit to rise up from [her] bones, can be read as a prophecy of Hannibal, one of the republic’s most formidable adversaries. Hannibal, explanation etc here (Kluth, 2010). Virgil fills The Aeneid with allusions to significant events of the Roman timeline, specifically those that threatened Roman posterity, including the Battle of Actium and __. So it is reasonable for a reader – Roman or modern – to read the characterisation of Dido as merely another allusion to a significant event on the Roman timeline, not a character with significant basis on Cleopatra.
Virgil’s The Aeneid, written as a tribute to Augustus Caesar, contains allusions and metaphors directly relating to the historical Queen Cleopatra and her lover, Mark Antony. Written for a Roman audience, the superficial similarities between the fictional and historical queens would have been enough to draw comparisons in the reader’s mind.
Word Count: 1726