Which author notes that Book 2 presents Aeneas displaying piety?

• A. Damien Nelis - Characterisation of Dido
• B. Ian Du Quesnay - Characterisation of Dido
• C. Philip Hardie - Modern audience and Dido
• D. Bruce Gibson - Book 2

Answer: (D)

The main idea being tested is how Aeneas’s pietas is presented in Book 2. Bruce Gibson argues that this book foregrounds Aeneas displaying piety—the sense of duty to the gods, to his family, and to the mission of founding a city. In Book 2, Aeneas acts under divine guidance and familial obligation: he explains Troy’s fall in the frame of divine will, he follows the gods’ orders to flee while preserving what must be carried forward, and he protects his aged father Anchises and the household gods as he escapes. These actions embody a piety that ties personal duty to the larger telos of his journey, making him a model of pietas within the epic’s moral architecture. Gibson’s reading highlights Book 2 as the moment where this virtue is most clearly displayed, shaping how we understand Aeneas’s character in contrast to the passions around him, like Dido’s. The other scholars mentioned focus on Dido’s characterization or on modern audience reception rather than on the specific claim that Book 2 shows Aeneas’s piety, which is why this option best fits.