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CIVILIZATION AND SAVAGERY: VIRGIL FOR TODAY
By Michael Poliakoff
Editor’s Note: Higher education today is ever less high. Our
institute stands against that trend. In shaping contemporary
citizens, we honor the ancient landmarks. This month’s
Centennial Review is not light reading. But Poliakoff’s insights
will repay you well. Aeneas speaks powerfully to our times.
The invitation this essay offers
is to travel an arduous path. It
will have sublimity, since we will
be looking at a masterwork of
the ancient world, the Aeneid ,
written by Virgil in what
Tennyson called “the stateliest
measure ever moulded by the
lips of man.” But the journey
will indeed be arduous, because
this ancient text will make us travel inside the human soul
and face some very hard questions about good and evil,
civilization and savagery, theirs and ours.
C.S. Lewis saw in Virgil’s epic poem a turning point in
civilization and a rite of passage for the reader:
No man who has once read it with full perception remains
an adolescent. … Virgil, with no intention of allegory, has
described once and for all the very quality of most human life
as it is experienced by anyone who has not yet risen to holiness
or sunk to animality. …You cannot be young twice. The
explicitly religious subject for any future epic has been dictated
by Virgil; it is the only further development left.
Virgil’s work is a classic that continues to speak to heartsand minds far removed in time, place, culture, and language
from its author. Its message is as urgent today as it was
in the time of Augustus Caesar. It challenges all of us, as
Lewis observed, to come into full maturity.
In this essay, we look rst at the impact of Virgil’s work in
preceding centuries. It has a central position in our cultural
literacy. We will also examine the context of the Aeneid ’s
creation: what it meant to live during the Roman Civil War
and the reign of Augustus. Then we return to the yet more
urgent question of why his work should matter to us.
Publius Vergilius Maro was born in 70 B.C. By 29 B.C when he completed his second poem, the Georgics , called
by John Dryden, “the best poem by the best poet,” Virgi
had wealth, stature, and even the ear of Caesar. The na
decade of Virgil’s life was devoted to the Aeneid , which h
composed at the average rate of two lines per day, leaving i
unnished when he died in 19 B.C. Ever the perfectionist
Virgil begged that the manuscript be burned. Augustu
fortunately, interceded and this monument of civilization
became the treasure of lands and peoples beyond th
farthest imagination of Rome.
Impacting Constantine, Augustine, Dante
Virgil’s works were instant classics. There are mo
manuscripts of his writings than of any other classica
author, and several are expensive, sumptuous copies, a sign
of his great popularity. It was a school text St. Augustin
recalls how in his youth he was required to know abou
the wanderings of Aeneas but did not take note of hi
own (moral) wanderings. Virgil weighed heavily upon him
as it did upon all educated Romans of his day. He wep
for Dido, the lost love of the Aeneid ’s hero, when, he tell
us, he should have wept for his own distance from God
( Confessions I.13-17). Like Augustine, the poet Dante draw
insight into the human heart and soul from Virgil, and it is
no accident that Dante makes Virgil his guide through hi
Inferno and Purgatory .
By the Middle Ages, Virgil has become a character larger
than life. In spelling his name with an “i,” even though the
Romans spelled it with an “e,” we follow medieval legend
where the poet becomes a necromancer with a magic wand
( virga in Latin). People used Virgil’s works for divination
and the early church had its own special legends of Virgil’
inuence and power. His fourth Eclogue, telling of the birth
Centennial ReviewEditor, John Andrews
Michael Poliakoff is policy director for the American Council of Trustees and
Alumni in Washington, D.C. He holds degrees from Oxford and the University
of Michigan. He has taught classics at Wellesley College, Hillsdale College,
Georgetown University, and George Washington University. He was formerly vice
president for academic affairs at the University of Colorado, deputy education
secretary in Pennsylvania, and a program director at the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
Centennial Institute sponsors research, events, and publications to enhance
public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation.
By proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom, teach citizen-
ship, and renew the spirit of 1776.
Principled Ideas from the Centennial Institute
Volume 2, Number 4 • May 2010
Publisher, William L. Armstrong
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CENTENNIAL REVIEW is published monthly by the Centennial Institute at ColoraChristian University. Designer, Danielle Hull. Illustrator, Benjamin Hummel.
Subscriptions free upon request. Write to: Centennial Institute, 8787 Alameda Ave., Lakewood, CO 80226. Call 800.44.FAITH. Or visit us online www.CentennialCCU.org.
Join the Centennial Institute today. As a Centennial donor, you can help urestore America’s moral core and prepare tomorrow’s leaders. Your gift is tadeductible. Please use the envelope provided.
Colorado Christian University seeks to impact the culture in support of traditionfamily values, sanctity of life, compassion for the poor, a biblical view of humanature, limited government, personal freedom, free markets, natural law, originintent of the Constitution, and Western civilization.
of a child during the consulship of Pollio in 40 B.C., who
will usher in a new Golden Age, was read by some as a pagan
prophecy of the birth of the Messiah, a matter that drew
the interest of the emperor Constantine. In an anonymous
medieval hymn, St. Paul mourns at Virgil’s tomb.
Returning to Virgil’s life
and times, we would
expect that the Aeneid
would be an intensely patriotic celebration of
Rome and Augustus Caesar, whose triumph brought peace
to Rome after decades of civil violence. The epic can and
has been read that way. The ancient commentator Donatus
stated that Virgil’s task was to show Aeneas as the worthy
ancestor of Augustus. He contended that the Aeneid was
written in the emperor’s honor.
And why should it be otherwise? As a child, Virgil had
experienced a conspiracy under Catiline to overthrow Rome,
had seen a citizen army cross the Rubicon to make war
against Rome itself, had lost his farm in land conscations,had seen Italy’s roads dangerous with highwaymen. Then
came the Augustan Peace and a First Citizen who legislated
to restore the old virtues of Rome: military discipline,
marriage, child-rearing.
But it was not that simple, and Virgil’s mind was not simple.
Octavian, on his way to power and his place in history as
Augustus Caesar, was known for his ruthlessness. With his
colleagues in the Triumvirate, he had published proscription
lists, rewarding anyone who brought the heads of their
political enemies, among them Cicero himself.
The Roman Republic was gone and liberty was dead.
Augustus would exile the poet Ovid for offending him.
Under the next emperor, Tiberius, informers would cause
the suicide and burn the books of a historian merely for
praising the long-dead Brutus and Cassius.
Mirror of Ambiguities
The hero of Virgil’s Aeneid is as complex as Virgil’s era, a
mirror of the ambiguities of human experience. Observe
the end of the story: The hero Aeneas, ancestor of Augustus,
has proposed a truce with Turnus, leader of the native forces
waging war against Aeneas as a foreign usurper. Dominionand the hand of Lavinia, the woman that both men have
sought, will be determined by their single combat.
But Turnus’ troops treacherously break the truce and
wound Aeneas, and Turnus returns to random slaughter
until cornered by Aeneas. At this crucial moment, Aeneas
wounds his enemy and brings him to his knees, pleading for
his life:
“Use the portion given to you: I deserve my fate. I have no
complaint. But if any thought of a grieving parent can touch
you still (and such you had in Anchises, the author of your line),
pity Daunus, my aged father. Return me to my kin–or even as
a corpse drained of life, if you prefer. You have conquered, and
my people see me in defeat, my hands stretched out, begging.
Lavinia is yours, your wife. Do not press further in hatred.”
What should the hero do? The action pauses:
He stood ferocious in all of his weaponry, eyes darting–and stayed his hand. And now more and more as he hesitated
Turnus words began to move him.
Aeneas has grounds for revenge. Turnus killed in ba
Aeneas’ young friend Pallas and wears the spoils he stripp
from the brave youth. Turnus is a truce breaker; he driv
a chariot with the heads of his slain enemies dangling fro
its rails. Should not Aeneas clear this monster from the la
destined to be Rome?
‘Spare the Defeated,’ Anchises Urged
Aeneas is not, however, supposed to act like the rag Achilles from Homer’s Iliad , aptly described by C. S. Lew
as “little more than a passionate boy.” When Aeneas met t
ghost of his father Anchises—the father whom he carri
out of the burning wrack of Troy as the old man clutch
in his arms the household gods—the paternal admoniti
for Aeneas’ burden and Rome’s destiny was clear:
“You, Roman, remember to rule the nations under your
dominion, for these will be your arts, and impress morality upon
the peace: to spare the defeated and to disarm the arrogant.” (6.
851-853)
Note that Anchises does not address Aeneas by his name,
as “son,” but as “Roman”: Virgil makes him speak for tim
to come. Aeneas’ great heir, moreover, Augustus, proud
(though not truthfully) inscribed on the monument of
achievements:
I often waged war, civil and foreign, by land and sea, throughout
the world, and as victor I spared all citizens who asked for
mercy. I preferred to preserve, rather than eliminate, foreign
nations whenever I could safely pardon them. (Res Gestae
Divi Augusti 3).
entennial Review, May 2010 ▪ 2
The Roman Republic
was gone and liberty
was dead.
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DUSTING OFF THE CLASSICS
By Megan DeVore
“Let the clever ones learn Latin as anhonor and Greek as a treat.” WinstonChurchill’s words fall out of cadence with today’s apathy toward the ancient world. We are told the past is dead andgone or relegated to the ivory tower,along with its irrelevant languages.
I beg to differ—and a recent surge inClassical studies suggests I’m not alone. Classics stu-dents enjoy innumerable practical benets: Familiarity with Latin or Greek produces an erudite vocabulary (increasing job prospects), enhances performance onstandardized exams, and increases comprehension of modern languages. Knowledge of ancient history en-ables recognition of allusions in contemporary literature,political systems, military affairs, and phrases such as “aSisyphean task.”
At Colorado Christian University, however, the abovelitany does not sufce. We do not teach the Classicsmerely to produce students with skill in trivia or lucrativejobs. We do so out of the conviction that humans liveinextricably in the dimension of time. We are marked by our past and move in a present which once was the fu-ture. Amnesia on the communal, institutional, or nationallevel is devastating. If we are ignorant of our history —or, worse, twist history to suit present purposes—weset upon dangerous, egomaniacal paths into a nebulousfuture.
Additionally, as a professor of Greco-Roman history and
early Christian theology, I consistently emphasize thatour Judeo-Christian faith exists today where it began mil-lennia ago: in historical context. An understanding of theClassical world brings a lively depth of insight into ourScriptures, theologies, practices, and future directions. The ancient world is part of us—isn’t this thrilling? No wonder, then, at Churchill’s words: Learning the Classicstruly is an honor and a treat. ■
Megan DeVore has taught in the School of
Theology at Colorado Christian University since
2006. She holds an M.A. in Classics from the
University of Colorado and is completing her Ph.D.
in theology at the University of Wales, U.K.
V o i c e s o f C CU We left Aeneas, staying his hand from slaughter. Maybe the
ending should be:
And the Roman hero, with the gaze of friendship, stretched out
his hand to the Rutulian and lifted him up, reassuring him in
his supplication and rejoicing to bestow peace upon Latium.
But I wrote those silly lines, not Virgil: Worse than their
clumsy versication is the violence they do to the subtle
thinking of the poet.
What really happens is that Aeneas sees that Turnus is wearing the spoils he stripped from Pallas. Furiis accensus et
ira terribilis, “on re with fury and terrible in his rage,” he
shouts that Pallas is exacting punishment from Turnus and
plunges his sword into Turnus’ heart. With a groan Turnus
dies and the epic abruptly ends.
The end of the Aeneid has troubled readers since antiquity.
An anonymous biographer in the 4th century asserted that
Virgil intended an epic of not twelve, but 24 books. Maffeo
Vegio in the 1400s actually wrote a thirteenth book of the
Aeneid . These absurdities help illustrate that Virgil has given
us a profoundly disturbing ending. And, just as Virgil was
Dante’s guide through Hell and Purgatory, so he is going to
make us look into our hearts.
What Kind of Hero?
The end of the Aeneid , moreover, is only the most startling
reversal of expectation about the hero. We should have
been prepared for it by Book 10, where Aeneas, fresh from
the grief of Pallas’ death, slays two suppliants who fall at his
knees, and takes captives to be used as human sacrices at
Pallas’ funeral. What kind of hero did Virgil give us?
Aeneas is the most perfect of men. He introduces himself,
without irony, “I am Aeneas, the pious.” C.S. Lewis captures
the character of Aeneas with a few bold strokes. Quoting
Virgil, “the mind remains unshaken while the vain tears fall,”
Lewis observes that Aeneas “is compelled to see something
more important than happiness.”
Lewis notes vocation in Virgil, and with it, duty. Aeneas
loves Dido, but when divinity reminds him of duty, there is
no hesitation. When he meets her ghost in the underworld,
after she takes her own life, there is no comfort Aeneas can
give or take. He can only resume his duty.Burden of Conscience
Yet Aeneas fails in the end. At the beginning of the Aeneid
(1.294-96), Jupiter, king of the Roman gods, envisioned
a Roman world where the personication of rage, Furor
Impius, is bound and chained. But Aeneas now slays his foe
“kindled with furor .” He does not execute Turnus as a danger
to the rational, ordered world Rome must build: He kills
him in angry revenge. Roman Stoicism had doctrine about
appropriate wartime behavior. Cicero wrote that ghting
for personal gratication, rather than for public safety, is
Centennial
Institute
Colorado Christian University
Centennial Review, May 20
repugnant to humanity ( On Duties 1.62). For Cicero, even
in the heat of mortal combat, anger has no place ( Tusculans
4.43). Utopian, surely, but this was the paradigm Aeneas
was expected to exemplify.
Oxford scholar Oliver Lyne, one of the most inspired
readers of Virgil, wrote: “If Aeneas, the son of a goddess,
the hero of the epic, cannot ‘succeed,’ then perhaps no
one can. With great realism Vergil shows how an Aeneas,
who is genuinely in sympathy with Stoic imperial ideas
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Centennial Review
May 2010
Centennial Institute
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entennial Review, May 2010 ▪ 4
of the appropriate methods
of warfare cannot, under the
relentless pressure of human
reality, always uphold them.”
Admonished and chastened,
if we listen to Virgil, we grow.
In the Georgics , Virgil warned
that all things collapse to ruin
and are swept away: humanity
rows against a hostile tide, and
with the relaxation of effort is
swept headlong away (I. 199-
203). In the world of war and
empire, the temptations are
yet greater, the consequences more dire. As C.S. Lewis toldus, Virgil bids us to take up the burden of our conscience
and our responsibility. Yearn as we might for childhood,
Virgil summons us to moral maturity and to the challenge of
civilization. ■
The Aeneid : A Beginning Bibliography
Jasper Grifn, Virgil (Oxford, 1986).
C.S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost (Oxford, 1954).
R.O.A.M. Lyne, Further Voices in Vergil’s Aeneid (Oxford, 1987).
Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (Oxford, 1939).
Aeneas, wounded by an arrow, with
his son and the goddess Venus
(Fresco from Pompeii, A.D. 79)
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Civilization and Savagery:
Virgil For Today
By Michael Poliakoff Aeneas is the most perfect of
men. Yet he fails in the end. Who
then can succeed? If we listen to
Virgil, we grow.