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Was Vergil Octavian's mouthpiece?

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Elistan (U1872011) on Wednesday, 30th November 2005

  Did Vergil intentionally feed into Augustus' imagery, or did Augustus subvert Vergillian imagery to his oen self-portrayal? Bit of a classicist chicken and egg question
  
  As a Post-scrit: Which was Ovid subverting, Vergil or Augustus' interpretation of Vergil?

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by lolbeeble (U1662865) on Wednesday, 30th November 2005

  Dunno, it seems that desire for moral regeneration and the re-establishment of absolute values was quite popular in Roman society during the early Principate so Ovid was as much reacting to the general attitudes of his day with the likes of Metamorphoses and its use of change and transformation as a central theme. Mind you his Ars Amoria, both written and physical meant he never finished his other work on Roman religious festivals.

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  Posted by Elistan (U1872011) on Thursday, 1st December 2005

  Lol,
  
  I feel that Vergil was both independent of Octavian and drawn into his propaganda program. throughout his works there is a deep seated anti-war, especially civil war, sentiment. Considering that he came to manhood during the Caesar/Pompey war and published the Eclogues at the same time as the battle of Phillipi this is quite understandable. I agree that there was a general movement within Roman society against the excesses of the late Republic, and the Eclogues echoed that desire to return to a simpler, purer life.
  
  The Georgics, whilst the first of the Principate, if you will, is not wholly indulgent of Octavian either. However it does utilise similar metaphors of development as Octavian did in his reinvention. By this stage there seems to be an awareness by Vergil that his work will be taken up by Octavian in this manner, and that therefore he has some (limited) power in the government iconography. By the Aeneid this symbiotic relationship is very apparent and sometimes none too subtle, but within the Georgics lies the question of whether Vergil was utilising the Mecenas driven spin of Octavian against Mark Antony and Cleopatra of a return to basics, or whether those illuminares were latching onto something that Vergil was giving voice to for the broader population.
  
  
  I think it is significant that Vergil never published Aeneid, and that he apparently wanted it destroyed. Reading the Eclogues and the Georgics the blatant interaction with the government imagery lacks the subtlety of the earlier works. The imagery of Aeneas given into Impius Furor, though, does serve to remind its audience of the actions of the bloody-minded triumvirate Octavian over the patria patre Augustus.
  
  I think Ovid read the subversion within Vergil and tried to re-invigorate the anti-Augustan elements of his works, with Ars Amoratia being a beautiful dig at Augustus' moral city of marble. But that's a rant for another day...
  
  Elistan

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