Celebrare Romam: Virgilius poeta aulicus

I will not celebrate the poet Virgil(70 b.Ch.-21 b.Ch), because he has had and he is going to have certainly followers and lovers during centuries; but I want underline the celebration of family of Caesar, in person of August imperator, that has been the adoptive son of Caesar, thereupon himself of this family; but I want also underline that this celebration, happen in Aeneid, heroic poem that tells heroic flight and fight from Troy city and loves of Aeneas in land where after Romulus founded Rome; behind this celebration is a motive that to every poet of court is essential, search a costumer and master; but Virgil wasn’t Roman, he born near Mantua, Aedes, and the extension of Roman citizenship happen alone through Caracalla(188 a.Ch.-217 a.Ch), Virgil was died, thereupon he could ask the citizenship but after some centuries; during this time who was born out Rome isn’t Roman, and reached citizenship was very difficult or impossible; thereby Virgil have to exalt family of Caesar because he wanted be poet of court, and to thank Maecenas, when Caesar expropriated the fields to give it to his soldiers; others fields family of Virgil had in Campania, an Italian region, through Maecenas in 38 b.Ch. master of Roman cultural where his family moved; in fact, through Maecenas, master of Roman cultural, Virgil known better August, and may he decided that Aeneid would be poem to celebrated imperial family after 29 b.Ch.; I think that he aware of his qualities as poetry, he wanted more than simple local poetry, and in fact, this dream was alone a dream and it was always, although Augustus asked some extract of this poem. A note that I consider interesting, at last I consider so, about Aeneid; the literary criticism has valued that to Aeneid two Homeric side are in this poem; the first is the conquest of Troy and second is the adventurous travel of Aeneas after the flight; twice are correspondent to the Iliad and the second to Odyssey, but we haven’t proofs that Virgil known the ancient Greek language, how he has read thse poems in ancient Greek? It is very simple the fame of Odyssey and its translation was through Livy Andronicus, an intellectual that was born in Taranto(280 b.Ch-b.200 b.Ch), to Iliad two names of translator Gneo Mazio and Ninnio Crasso, that in first decade b.Ch. have translated the this book of Homer; thereupon Virgil can have read twice Homeric books, and took inspiration to his Aeneid; anyway these are masterwork of antiquity, in literary matters.

Alessandro Lusana