Virgil’s Aeneid Duty, Friendship, and Warriorship

Virgil’s Aeneid: Duty, Friendship, and Warriorship Virgil’s Aeneid is considered the greatest work in Latin and it is easy to see why. With obvious references to the works of Homer and the desire to be the greatest writer, Virgil used a large portion of his life to create a captivating tale about the founding of Rome. The Aeneid was meant to be the result of a commission by Augustus Caesar to capture his greatest exploits but Virgil refused to be limited in such a way. Instead, Virgil uses history to reference issues that were current in his time in hopes that Augustus and the Roman people could learn from their past. Due to Virgil’s desire to show Romans what it meant to be Roman he captures the values that Romans held in highest esteem. The greatest value he portrays is duty to a father and duty to the fate a person has been given. Vigil also shows the Romans value of friendship and warriorship. These insights can show how the ancient Romans valued different things in their day to day lives. The single greatest value depicted in the Aeneid is the value of duty. Virgil shows that duty is a twofold ideal in the minds of the Romans. The first is the duty of a son to the father and the father to the son, or in the case of Aeneas to all of the Trojan people. The best example of this type of duty, and the one filled with the most imagery, is Aeneas’ flight from Troy. When Aeneas finally submits that Troy is lost, he returns to his family to protect them. Aeneas flees a burning