Its immediate
purpose was to give adequate expression to this joy and hope at once in
an abiding record that the Romans and the rulers of Rome might read and
not forget. Its form seems to have been conditioned largely by a strange
allegorical poem written just before the peace by a still unknown poet.
The poet was Horace, who in the sixteenth epode had candidly expressed
the fears of Roman republicans for Rome's capacity to survive. Horace had
boldly asked the question whether after all it was not the duty of those
who still loved liberty to abandon the land of endless warfare, and found
a new home in the far west--a land which still preserved the simple
virtues of the "Golden Age." Vergil's enthusiasm for the new peace
expresses itself as an answer to Horace:[2] the "Golden Age" need not be
sought for elsewhere; in the new era of peace now inaugurated by Octavian
the Virgin Justice shall return to Italy and the Golden Age shall come
to this generation on Italian soil. Vergil, however, introduces a new
"messianic" element into the symbolism of his poem, for he measures the
progress of the new era by the stages in the growth of a child who is
destined finally to bring the prophecy to fulfillment.
Pages:
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147