Gauls on Top

Abstract

Of the select scenes encapsulating Roman history on Vergil’s shield of Aeneas (Aen. 8.652–62), it is the Gallic siege of the Capitol which presents the greatest difficulty for Vergilians wishing to accommodate it to any detailed scheme. As a result, it has become scholarly commonplace to consult the history of Livy as an aid to interpreting Vergil, and to reach a conclusion based upon it. This chapter aims to show that interpreting Vergil through Livy is a flawed approach. It analyzes Vergil’s Gallic siege independently of Livy, considers the ramifications for interpreting the shield as a whole, and offers an alternative vantage point from which to contemplate the Aeneid and the early Augustan period which produced it.