Which author emphasizes the rightness of Aeneas' decision and the wrongness of Antony's?

• A. Camps
• B. Ian Du Quesney
• C. Desmond M
• D. Helga Nehrkorn

Answer: (B)

The main point here is how modern scholarship frames Vergil’s moral landscape: Aeneas is shown making decisions rooted in pietas and duty to the gods, to his companions, and to Rome’s destined founding, while Antony is depicted as governed by personal ambition and passion, leading him away from Rome’s welfare. Ian Du Quesney is the author who foregrounds that exact contrast, arguing that Vergil deliberately casts Aeneas’s choices as ethically justified and Antony’s as misguided. Du Quesney analyzes how Aeneas’ adherence to fate, his prioritization of the greater good over private desire, and his steady leadership align with the epic’s political aim to legitimize a new Roman order. Antony, in this reading, embodies the opposite path: pursuit of power through personal alliance with Cleopatra and uncontrolled impulses, which Vergil marks as morally deficient within the poem’s framework. The emphasis is less on narrative technique or historical context and more on the moral evaluation Vergil builds into the characters, which is why this author stands out for this particular question.