The City

Virgil: Aeneid

In this course, Professor Llewelyn Morgan (University of Oxford) explores Virgil's Aeneid. In the first module, we think about the theme of the city in the poem, focusing in particular on the centrality of the city of Carthage, the use of both castra ('camp') and urbs ('city') to describe the Trojan camp in Italy, and the fact that the poem seems as interested in the destruction of cities as it is in their foundation. After that, in the second module, we think about the influence of Homer on the Iliad: why does Virgil draw so much on Homer? and what is the implication of Virgil's opening words – arma virumque cano? In the third module, we think about the importance of metre in the poem, looking at four points in the poem where metre reflects the meaning –– the galloping of hooves, the shapelessness of Polyphemus, the vastness of Latinus' palace, and so on. In the fourth module, we think about allusion in the Aeneid, focusing in particular on how Virgil engages not just with Homer and Apollonius, but also contemporary Roman history. In the fifth module, we consider some of the roles of the gods in the poem, focusing in particular on scenes featuring Hermes and Alecto, as well as the theme of fate in the poem, before moving on in the sixth module to think about the role of women, focusing in particular on Camilla in Book 11.

The City

In the first ten lines of the Aeneid, we are told that Aeneas will lose one city (Troy) and found another (Lavinium, precursor to Rome). However, Aeneas and the Trojans actually spend a lot of time in a third city: Dido's Carthage. Many other cities are encountered on the way, too: the various cities that Aeneas founds but abandons on the way to Italy (Book 3), the unnamed city of King Latinus (Book 7) as well as Pallantium, the city which occupies the future site of Rome (Book 8). In this lecture, Llewelyn talks about the theme of 'the city' in the Aeneid.