The structure and purpose of Virgil’s parade of heroes
The parade of heroes at Aeneid 6.756ff. has attracted a huge bibliography but little attention has been paid elsewhere to its elaborate and elusive network of themes and links which the poet draws between the heroes portrayed and the Golden Age of Augustus. This is a detailed and scholarly examination of the parallels and possible links and of the purpose of the parade, both for Aeneas and for the contemporary Roman reader. Virgil must be considered as having the disturbances of 23 BC in mind, with his veiled warning to Caesar and Pompey against civil discord.