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AP® Latin passage guide · Vergil, Aeneid 6.450–476, 788–800, 847–853
Vergil, Aeneid 6.450–476, 788–800 and 847–853: Dido's Shade and Rome's Mission
What happens
In the underworld, among the Fields of Mourning, Aeneas sees Dido, her wound still fresh, like the new moon glimpsed through clouds. He weeps and speaks with sweet love: so the news was true. Was I the cause of your death? I swear I left your shore unwillingly; the gods' commands drove me. Stay; whom are you running from? This is the last time fate lets me speak to you.
Dido keeps her eyes fixed on the ground, no more moved than hard flint or Marpesian rock. At last she rushes away, hostile, into the shady grove where her first husband Sychaeus returns her love. Aeneas follows her with tears.
Later his father Anchises shows him the future heroes of Rome, among them Augustus Caesar, son of a god, who will bring back the golden age to Latium and extend the empire beyond the stars. Anchises ends with Rome's mission: others will shape bronze and marble or chart the heavens, but you, Roman, remember to rule the peoples, to impose the habit of peace, to spare the conquered and war down the proud.
Grammar to look for
- The future tense: aurea condet saecula, “he will found a golden age”
- Future imperative: tū regere imperiō populōs, Rōmāne, mementō, “you, Roman, remember to rule the peoples”
- Deponent verb in a relative clause: Extrēmum fātō quod tē adloquor hoc est, “this is the last time fate lets me speak to you”
Style
- Simile: nec magis inceptō vultum sermōne movētur quam sī dūra silex aut stet Marpēsia cautēs. Dido, silent as stone, reverses the scene of Book 4.
- Chiasmus and antithesis: parcere subiectīs et dēbellāre superbōs. The two halves of Rome's mission.
- Apostrophe: Rōmāne. Anchises speaks to every Roman reader.
Themes to think about
- Guilt and reconciliation that never comes
- Augustus and Roman destiny
- What makes a Roman: the arts of empire
- Echoes of Book 4 reversed
Practise this passage
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More passage guides
- Vergil, Aeneid 1.1–33: The Proem and Juno's Anger
- Vergil, Aeneid 1.88–107 and 496–512: The Storm and Dido
- Vergil, Aeneid 2.40–56 and 201–249: Laocoön and the Wooden Horse
- Vergil, Aeneid 4.74–89 and 165–197: Dido's Love, the Cave and Fama
- Vergil, Aeneid 4.305–361: Dido and Aeneas Quarrel
- Vergil, Aeneid 7.45–58 and 783–817: Latinus, Turnus and Camilla
- Vergil, Aeneid 11.532–594: Diana's Story of Camilla
- Vergil, Aeneid 12.791–828 and 919–952: Juno's Reconciliation and the Death of Turnus
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