S8 Ep655: 4. Roman Exceptionalism and the Complexity of Power Guest Authors: Scott McGill and Susanna Wright (7) The final discussion addresses the *Aeneid* as a document of Roman exceptionalism, justifying Augustus’s empire as a divinely ordained destiny. Howeve

4. Roman Exceptionalism and the Complexity of Power Guest Authors: Scott McGill and Susanna Wright (7)
The final discussion addresses the *Aeneid* as a document of Roman exceptionalism, justifying Augustus’s empire as a divinely ordained destiny. However, McGill and Wright argue the poem transcends mere propaganda by emphasizing the human scale and showing sympathy for Aeneas’s adversaries, Dido and Turnus. They interpret Virgil’s portrayal of weak or coercive kings as a potential critique of the era’s shifting power dynamics. Ultimately, the work reflects the "veneer of Republicanism" Augustus maintained while establishing absolute rule, making the *Aeneid* a complex exploration of political transition and the hazards of individual power. (8)
1915 AENEID