Vergil's Empire: Political Thought in the Aeneid

by Eve Adler

In Vergil's Empire, Eve Adler offers an exciting new interpretation of the political thought of Vergil's Aeneid. Adler argues that in this epic poem, Vergil presents the theoretical foundations of a new political order, one that resolves the conflict between scientific enlightenment and ancestral religion that permeated the ancient world. The work concentrates on Vergil's response to the physics, psychology, and political implications of Lucretius' Epicurean doctrine expressed in De Rerum Natura. Proceeding by a close analysis of the Aeneid, Adler examines Vergil's critique of Carthage as a model of universal enlightenment, his positive doctrine of Rome as a model of universal religion, and his criticism of the heroism of Achilles, Odysseus, and Epicurus in favor of the heroism of Aeneas. Beautifully written and clearly argued, Vergil's Empire will be of great value to all interested in the classical world.

Genres: Classics

299 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 2002

Reviews

[anne :)]

such a fascinating interpretation of the Aeneid

[Pater Edmund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adler gives a remarkably ingenious Straussian reading of Virgil. She argues that the gentle Mantuan agrees with Lucretius on the nature of things (well, most things), but disagrees with him on the advisability of publishing such knowledge in epic poetry. Lucretius, she argues, underestimated the power of Furor, which for most men can only be controlled by fear of the punishment of gods in the afterlife. Thus she sees the exoteric purpose of the Aeneid as the restoration of fear of the gods for the political salvation of mankind, while it's esoteric meaning denies that there are any such things as gods. Adler shows the political implications of Virgilian piety with great skill, refuting fashionable interpretations of the Aeneid as an anti-imperial poem, but her main thesis is false. John Alvis gives a very concise argument against it: http://www.claremont.org/publications...