Fata Deum and the Action of the Aeneid

Extract

In laying out the plot of the Aeneid there were certain features to which Virgil was committed. They were connected with plot, treatment, and theme. As to plot: the outlines of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Tiber were so well known that Virgil was bound to follow them fairly closely. They were to Virgil what Holinshed's Chronicles were to Shakespeare. As to treatment: by current literary etiquette, a writer of epic was obliged to follow established models, especially those of Homer, both in the larger design and in the shaping of notable incidents. As to theme: the essential purpose of the Aeneid was to show that Aeneas was a man of destiny, called by the gods to lead a chosen people to an appointed home in Italy.