A-level Classical Civilisation Study Group 2023-2024

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The erosion of traditional values. In the midst of war it is easy for the distinctly good Roman values to be lost - pietas, clementia, severitas. War is passionate and violent, and severitas even for Aeneas and the stoical Latinus (in Book 7, at least) has no place. Roman values are replaced with Greek values of extreme emotion - a Homeric heroism explicitly condemned in Books 2, 5, and 6.

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The impact of warfare on Aeneas. Complete tragedy in Book 2 with the loss of Creusa where he goes into a burning city to look for her, followed by the onslaught of a fate he knows nothing about. He does not want war - the attempted peace treaty in Book 11 demonstrates this enough. Warfare also brings out his hated furor - Book 10 and Book 12. In Book 11 he even brings in human sacrifices as he weeps, the true price of war. It completely breaks Aeneas down - the protagonist and who is supposed to be a stand-in for Augustus.

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The death of youth and love. Nisus and Euryalus, basically everyone in Troy (e.g. Deiphobus in the underworld, the men Aeneas gathers that kill themselves, Polites), Pallas, Lausus. You could also mention Turnus, Camilla, Juturna, and some of the people mentioned during Turnus’ attack in Book 9. There’s a lot to say about them and the way their deaths are described!! The flower motif remains strong

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The impacts of war on women specifically. Euryalus’ mother, Creusa, Amata, Lavinia, the Trojan women. They all have extreme and adverse reactions to warfare that also undermine their traditional roles as women - when Camilla dies the Latin women use her as their ‘example’ and hurl ‘missiles’. A threat to patriarchal hegemony

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‘Damage’ to father-son relationships. Pallas/Evander and Pallas’ funeral, Pallas/Aeneas, Aeneas/Anchises, Priam/Polites, even Caesar/Augustus. The most striking example for me is always Lausus and Mezentius. When Lausus throws himself in front of the blade Aeneas tells him the love for his father is ‘deceiving’ him - just as it had moved him in the wrong direction in Book 5. When Lausus does die, Aeneas is not referred to with any grand epithet or simile, he is simply the ‘son of Anchises’ - father-son values are constant, and broken down to their basest levels in war.

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Dido isn’t necessarily linked to war but you can also talk about the curse that she gives before her death which acts as an explanation for the Punic wars

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Then obviously undermine all that arguing by saying that ultimately war is necessary for Rome to be founded. The shield, the most striking example of complete glorification, is a weapon of war, carrying scenes of the battle of Actium. War will also create ultimate peace, eventually, with Augustus’ Pax Romana. Hercules and Cacus is also a good small example to say that the text in some ways justifies warfare and furor if it is being used to defeat a great evil (Turnus, Mark Antony, though the extent to which Turnus is a sympathetic character can obviously be debated and I think he is).