Editing Virgil (section)

===Reception of the ''Aeneid''===
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[[File:Virgil Reading the Aeneid.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|''Virgil Reading the'' Aeneid ''to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia'' by [[Jean-Baptiste Wicar]], Art Institute of Chicago]]

Critics of the ''Aeneid'' focus on a variety of issues.<ref group="lower-roman">For a bibliography and summary see Fowler, pp. 1605–1606</ref> The tone of the poem as a whole is a particular matter of debate; some see the poem as ultimately pessimistic and politically subversive to the Augustan regime, while others view it as a celebration of the new imperial dynasty. Virgil makes use of the symbolism of the Augustan regime, and some scholars see strong associations between Augustus and Aeneas, the one as founder and the other as re-founder of Rome. A strong [[teleology]], or drive towards a climax, has been detected in the poem. The ''Aeneid'' is full of prophecies about the future of Rome, the deeds of Augustus, his ancestors, and famous Romans, and the [[Carthaginian Wars]]; the shield of Aeneas even depicts Augustus's victory at [[Battle of Actium|Actium]] against [[Mark Antony]] and [[Cleopatra VII]] in 31 BC. A further focus of study is the character of Aeneas. As the protagonist of the poem, Aeneas seems to waver constantly between his emotions and commitment to his prophetic duty to found Rome; critics note the breakdown of Aeneas's emotional control in the last sections of the poem where the "pious" and "righteous" Aeneas mercilessly slaughters Turnus.

The ''Aeneid'' appears to have been a great success. Virgil is said to have recited Books 2, 4, and 6 to Augustus;<ref name="Fowler, pg.1603" />{{Rp|1603}} and Book 6 apparently caused the emperor's sister [[Octavia the Younger|Octavia]] to faint. Although the truth of this claim is subject to scholarly skepticism, it has served as a basis for later art, such as [[Jean-Baptiste Wicar]]'s ''Virgil Reading the Aeneid''.

Some lines of the poem were left unfinished, and the whole was unedited, at Virgil's death in 19 BC. As a result, the text of the ''Aeneid'' that exists may contain faults which Virgil was planning to correct before publication. However, the only obvious imperfections are a few lines of verse that are metrically unfinished (i.e. not a complete line of [[dactylic hexameter]]). Some scholars have argued that Virgil deliberately left these metrically incomplete lines for dramatic effect.<ref>Miller, F. J. 1909. "Evidences of Incompleteness in the "Aeneid" of Vergil." ''[[The Classical Journal]]'' 4(11):341–55. {{JSTOR|3287376}}.</ref> Other alleged imperfections are subject to scholarly debate.