Which scholar links the Neptune simile to Augustus?

• A. Isabel Paintin
• B. Richard Rutherford
• C. Edith Hall
• D. Galinsky

Answer: (D)

The main idea being tested is howVirgil uses divine imagery to reflect and legitimize Augustan authority. In the Neptune scene, the sea god’s command over the waters is presented as orderly and binding, a force that imposes calm and direction on a previously unruly element. Reading this as a political gesture, the scholar in question argues that Virgil is drawing a parallel between Neptune’s control of the sea and Augustus’s control of the Roman world. The calm sea and the restoration of order after chaos are read as a literary endorsement of the Augustan regime, with divine sanction underscoring the new era’s legitimacy and peace.

This interpretation is characteristic of the scholar who foregrounds Virgil’s poetry as a vehicle for Augustan political ideology, showing how epic craft and mythic imagery serve to naturalize the idea that Augustus brings not just temporary victory but a divinely approved, enduring order. The other scholars are associated with valuable but different aspects of Virgil or classical reception, whereas this particular link—tying the Neptune simile to Augustus through a reading of imperial legitimacy and pax—aligns with that political-reading approach.