Apollo then ordered the Trojans to keep the boy safe from the war<\/a> until when he was old enough.<\/p>\nThe gods knew that he would continue the line of his father in Italy until Rome was established.<\/strong> Just as his father, Ascanius was fated to play an important role in the founding of Rome and it came to pass.<\/p>\nThe Fate in the Aeneid and the Kings of Rome<\/h2>\n
The Kings of Rome, especially those from the Gens Julia, trace their ancestry through Ascanius, also known as Iulus. For example, Augustus Caesar, used the prophecy by Apollo to Ascanius to justify his government.<\/strong> Since the prophecy stated that Ascanius’ descendants would include \u201cgods as sons\u201d, Augustus Caesar\u2019s government attributed to itself divine power and authority. The Aeneid was also written when Augustus Caesar was king of the Roman Empire, thus the poem helped advance his propaganda of having divine origins.<\/p>\nFree Will in the Aeneid<\/h2>\n
Though the characters were fated in the Aeneid, they could choose whatever path they wished to take. Their fate was not forced on them as demonstrated by Aeneas when he chose to freely love Dido<\/strong> even though he had the destiny to fulfill. Their destinies were presented to them and they chose to follow through with them. However, their free will choices did little or nothing to thwart their destinies \u2013 exemplifying the complex relationship between fate and free will.<\/p>\nConclusion<\/h2>\n
So far, we\u2019ve explored the theme of fate in the Aeneid and looked at some examples of how fate played out in Virgil\u2019s epic poem. Here is a<\/strong> recap<\/strong> of all that we\u2019ve covered in the article:<\/p>\n\n- Fate as exemplified in the Aeneid was how the Romans understood the concept of predestination and the role of free will.<\/li>\n
- In the poem, Aeneas was fated to found Rome, and regardless of whatever obstacles were thrown at him, the prophecy was eventually fulfilled.<\/li>\n
- Both gods and humans were powerless against fate as demonstrated by Juno when she tried all she could to prevent Aeneas from fulfilling the prophecy but her efforts were useless.<\/li>\n
- Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, was also fated to continue his father\u2019s legacy so, when he killed Numanus, the gods ordered that he was to be protected till he comes of age.<\/li>\n
- The Kings of Rome used fate in the poem to justify their rulership and to affirm their divine authority and power as they traced their ancestry to Ascanius.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Free will in the poem meant that the characters were free to make decisions<\/strong> but these decisions had little effect on their ultimate destinations. Ultimately fate brought about the Aeneid resolution which was peace in the land of Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fate in the Aeneid is a major theme that explores how the ancient Romans viewed the concept of predestination. The entirety of the poem hinges on Aenea\u2019s destiny which is to set the foundations for the establishment of the Roman Empire. We learn from the Aeneid that fate is in cast stone and nothing, both…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23356"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23465,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23356\/revisions\/23465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}