Which scholar argues that the epic engages with Augustan Rome and the use of authority to calm faction?

• A. Gransden
• B. Ellen Olliensis
• C. Bob Cowan
• D. Paul Burke

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is that the Aeneid can be read as a response to Augustan Rome, using the exercise of political authority to calm faction and unify a divided people. Bob Cowan’s argument embodies this view by treating Virgil’s epic not only as a founding myth but as a commentary on how authority functions in a unified Roman state. He suggests that the poem engages with Augustus’s project by presenting a vision of Rome where leadership—grounded in pietas, tradition, and a sense of divine sanction—quells rivalries and brings disparate groups toward a single public good. Aeneas embodies disciplined obedience to fate and duty, and the narrative repeatedly frames governance, alliances, and ritual as legitimate means to restore order, rather than raw force alone. In this reading, the epic tests how Augustan authority can calm faction, legitimizing a stable imperial order through myth, prophecy, and the sacred embedded in political life. Other scholars certainly discuss Virgil’s politics or Augustan ideology from valuable angles, but Cowan’s emphasis on authority as a mechanism for unifying faction and shaping Rome’s future is what makes this interpretation distinctive.