Adrift At the Dawn of Empire

One might question whether yet another English translation of The Aeneid is called for, but Shadi Bartsch’s recent version of the book is at least packaged with an erudite introduction, extensive notes on the poem, and a glossary of terms, places, and people mentioned in the epic poem. Originally penned by Vergil/Virgil (Bartsch prefers “Vergil”), The Aeneid is essentially Homeric fanfic, a sequel to The Iliad and The Odyssey: Troy has fallen, Aeneas of Troy has fled with a bunch of his buds, and the goddess Juno has kept up her grudge against the Trojans and will not let Aeneas be at peace.

Aeneas is not without divine allies, however: he is the son of the goddess Venus, who intervenes to help, and Jupiter has big plans for him: he intends that Aeneas and his followers will eventually find a safe harbour in the land of Latium and become the forefathers of the Romans, chosen by Jupiter to rule the world. King Latinus, ruler of Latium, is glad to welcome Aeneas, seeing in him a very suitable match for his daughter Lavinia – but Turnus, who Lavinia was promised to, will not let that stand…

On his deathbed, Vergil infamously urged that The Aeneid be destroyed, and it’s been speculated that this is because it was unfinished: there’s certain contradictions in the text, and the story cuts off very abruptly after Aeneas slays Turnus in a fit of fury mid-battle. However, Bartsch presents a cogent argument that this ending is an apt way to close the story: there’s textual reasons to think that even as Juno is finally persuaded to relent and stop messing with the Trojans (Jupiter placates her by promising that the Trojans will become so integrated with the Latins as to lose their cultural distinctness), Aeneas himself ends up taking on some of Juno’s vengeful, grudge-bearing qualities.