1. The Pageant of Roman Heroes
Aeneid 6: The Underworld

2. Silvius
According to Jupiter’s prophecy at , Rome is to be founded in 4 stages. Aeneas will build his city at Lavinium and live for 3 years. His son Ascanius/Iulus will reign for 30 years and transfer the city to Alba Longa. After their descendants, the Alban kings, rule for 300 years, Romulus, son of Mars and Ilia, will found his city at Rome. But here at 6.763, where Aeneas begins his survey of the Alban kings waiting in the Underworld, Ascanius, being still alive, is not in the parade, and the first to be mentioned is Silvius, a son of Aeneas not yet born.

3. The Alban Kings
Vergil offers 5 names to cover the years from about BC:
Silvius,
Procas,
Capys,
Numitor
Silvius Aeneas.

4. Romulus
Romulus restored his grandfather Numitor to the throne which Numitor’s younger brother had usurped. Romulus then founded Rome in 753 BC.
He was the legendary founder of Rome.

5. Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar, BC, adopted his grand-nephew Octavian as his son and heir.

6. Augustus This is the name adopted by Octavian in 27 BC.
He was Emperor at the time of the Aeneid being written.

7. (Numa)
From the village of Cures, he gave Rome religion and laws. His traditional dates are BC. (c. line 810)

8. Tullus
Tullus Hostilius, the warrior king, BC

9. Ancus
Ancus Marcius, BC, here only appears as a king who courted popular favour.

10. The Tarquin Kings
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, BC (father), and Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, BC (son).
The Tarquins were expelled from Rome during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus following the rape of Lucretia (a married noblewoman).

11. Brutus
Lucius Junius Brutus led a rising against Tarquinius Superbus to avenge the rape of Lucretia. Later, as one of the first 2 consuls of Rome, in 510 BC, he executed his own 2 sons who tried to restore the Tarquins. The rods and axes carried by the consuls signified their right to flog and execute. This passage alludes also to the other avenging Brutus who assassinated Julius Caesar in 44 BC.

12. The Decii
Publius Decius Mus, father and son of the same name, were famous for self-immolation, each taking his own life to secure victory for Roman armies, the father in 340 BC in the Latin War and the son in 295 BC in battle against the Samnites.

13. The Drusi
Livia, wife of Augustus from 38 BC till his death in AD 14, was a member of this notable Roman family.

14. Torquatus
Titus Manlius Torquatus led the Romans against the Gauls in 361 BC, and in 340 BC in the Latin War he executed his own son for disobeying orders in engaging and defeating an enemy champion.

15. Camillus
Marcus Furius Camillus recovered not gold, but the standards said to have been the price of the Gaulish withdrawal from Rome in 390 BC. This passage may also be read as an oblique tribute to Augustus, who, after long negotiations, recovered in 20 BC the standards lost to the Parthians at Carrhae in 53 BC.

16. (Pompey and Caesar)
Gnaeus Pompeius and Julius Caesar are the two spirits in gleaming armour. Caesar defeated Pompey at the battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC. (c. line 827)

17. (Mummius)
Lucius Mummius sacked Corinth in 146 BC. (c. line 837)

18. (Paullus)
Lucius Aemilius Paullus is here credited with the conquest of Greece for his defeat of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, at the battle of Pydna in 168 BC. (c. line 838)

19. Cato
Marcus Porcius Cato, Cato the Elder, BC, was famed as the custodian of traditional Roman virtues.

20. Cossus
Aulus Cornelius Cossus defeated Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, in single combat, perhaps in 246 BC.

21. The Gracchi
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (died 133 BC), and his brother Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (died 121 BC), the 2 reforming tribunes, were members of this famous Roman family.

22. The Scipios
Scipio Africanus Maior defeated Hannibal at Zama in 202 BC. Scipio Africanus Minor destroyed Carthage in 146 BC.

23. Fabricius
Gaius Fabricius Luscinus fought against Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, in BC. The power he found in poverty is an allusion to his rejection of Pyrrhus’ gifts.

24. Serranus
Gaius Atilius Regulus was sowing seed on his farm when he was called to the consulship in 257 BC. He therefore acquired the name Serranus (sero = I sow).

25. The Fabii and Fabius Maximus
Anchises at calls out to his friends the members of the great Fabian family to ask why they are all in such a hurry to reach the light of life that they are hustling one weary spirit along with them, and then he realises that the problem is not weariness. This is the great Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator (cunctator = delayer) who used Fabian tactics (ie. delaying) against Hannibal in BC in the Second Punic War. He is not tired. It is his nature to delay!

26. Marcellus
Marcus Claudius Marcellus, consul 5 times, killed the Gaulish chieftain Viridomarus in single combat in 222 BC, thus becoming the third Roman, after Romulus and Cossus, to win the Supreme Spoils (Spolia Optima –the spoils stripped from an opposing commander slain in a single combat). Augustus was eager to make sure that there would not be a fourth. The younger Marcus Claudius Marcellus (42-23 BC) was the son of Augustus’ sister Octavia, and was adopted by Augustus in 25 BC. An ancient life of Vergil describes how, when Vergil read this passage to Octavia and Augustus, Octavia swooned when he reached line 882.