book 8

• set on the site of the future Rome
• mentions sites and buildings with which the contemporaries of Virgil were familiar from their everyday lives must have inspired some patriotism and awareness of their roots
• they would have recognised the altar of Hercules by the Tiber, the Carmentine Gate, the Asylum, the Lupercal, the house of Tarpeia, temple of Janus and the Capitol
• the worship of Hercules and festival in thanks for the deliverance of Rome from a master is thought by Camps to be a reference to Augustus delivering Rome from Antony and civil war
• a parallel is drawn between Hercules and Augustus in book 6
• Camps suggests that the Salii are mentioned only because Virgil is alluding to Octavian's triumph in 29 BC at which they were present
• the shield is placed under an oak tree, another possible reference to 27 BC when Octavian was honoured with a golden shield in the senate house, and the oak-crown was fixed for ever above his door
• the civil war that is already in progress between the Etruscans and Rutulians, caused by Mezentius, could recall memories of the civil war and Antony