MEMORIES - A Literature Collection

Augustus' Raging Hour

All at once, the familiarity of the surroundings came rushing towards him.

Here, Virgil's tomb stood, the stone overgrown with greenery.

A harsh breeze echoed through the stone monument,

ripping through Augustus' hair,

but stubborn Augustus stood, as still as a volcano

could be prior to its eruption.

Three knights stood behind him,

silver spears cradled within their hands.

Purple robes Augustus wore for this occasion,

"his streaming hair / braided with pliant laurel leaves

Entwined / in twists of gold" (Fagles 4.185-187).

The Heavens paled in comparison to Augustus' grand display.

The sunless skies sought to remind Augustus

of Virgil's burial three years prior,

where the same overcast skies celebrated the poet's death.

Now, the same skies would be victims to another great tragedy.

Augustus spoke swiftly: "Virgil, my dear old friend,

I have come to tell you that I have read the entirety of your

beloved poem. Oh, what a splendid thing it was!

In the hero, Aeneas, did I see myself.

Bound by virtuous duty, he set sail to Latium

and found the city of Rome.

His virtues promised much glory for the Roman people,

and alongside the citizens, I too celebrated

Aeneas and his story."

Here, a dark shadow passed over Augustus' face,

and in a strained voice, he continued:

"But, time altered the interpretation of your text,

and as the years passed, I realized the horrors that lay

beneath the deadly facade of your words.

Aeneas, bound by duty,

turned beautiful Dido away,

a heartless monster he was

and Tragic Queen Dido became a symbol of Aeneas' failure,

as the processes of time and space changed the

true colors of Aeneas' action in the text.

But did he stop? No, he continued out

the Ivory Gate into the night,

"its dancing light [striking] sparkles off the waves"

at Latium's bay (Fagles 7.11).

There, he forgot the Roman virtues

and spattered them red with poor Turnus' blood.

With those imperialistic values Aeneas, the colonizer, bore,

he did not spare the defeated natives.

An issue across the globe that

I do not wish to replicate within my reign.

Are these the values you praise in Aeneas?

Are these the values which you assigned to Roman citizens?

Are these the values which you hope to teach those born on Roman soil?

Are these the values you found in me Virgil?

Through your poem, your message becomes clear

and I will no longer ignore your true intentions."

Abruptly, Augustus became silent.

His eyes rolled backwards and he shut

the thick curtains of his eyes to welcome darkness.

Here, he was supposed to see black,

but all he could see was red.

Freshening breezes blew through the stone walls,

doing nothing to subside Augustus' anger.

But "the Father of Men and Gods" (Fagles 11.860)

had seen enough, for a voluminous

wail sounded through Mount Olympus-

Jove's impatient command to Augustus.

Now, action was instant.

Augustus' flicked his fingers in a well-versed manner

and the three fair knights surged forward,

the tips of their silver spears glistening

beneath Jove's booms of thunder and lightning.

Rounding the stone structure of Virgil's resting place,

each knight raised his spear in a high arc and

drove the tip into the tomb-

"quick as Apollo's falcon wheeling down from a crag /

outraces a dove in flight to a high cloud, seizes it, /

clutches it, hooked talons ripping its insides out, /

Its blood and plucked feathers drifting down the sky" (Fagles 11.851-854).

Now, the rain comes, washing away

the grim tragedy and with it, Augustus' final rage.