Michael Paschalis

uestras spes uritis: Hope and Empire in

Virgil’s Aeneid
The concept of hope and related Greek and Latin terms are usually excluded from
studies of ancient emotions. They are not found in relevant bibliographies and
are absent from mainstream books like The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks by Da-
vid Konstan and The Passions in Roman Thought and Literature by Susanna
Braund and Christopher Gill. It is only quite recently that hope attracted scholarly
attention and was treated in two edited volumes on ancient emotions.1 Hope oc-
cupied an ambiguous space in ancient thought. Aristotle understood hope (elpis)
as a neutral term indicating expectation or anticipation and hopefulness as a
state of being rather than an emotion.2 As far as Rome is concerned, it should be
kept in mind that Spes was worshipped as a goddess in Republican times and
beginning with Augustus it became a monopoly of the emperor as an imperial
virtue. The Spes Augusta represented the promise of prosperity for the Roman
people and the capacity of the emperor to ensure it.3 Cicero included spes in his
list of Stoic emotions (Tusc. 4.37.80) labelling it “an expectation of good” (expec-
tatio boni) as opposed to fear which would represent “an expectation of bad” (ex-
pectatio mali). According to Francesca Tataranni Roman spes was an essentially
positive concept (as a divinity she was often called bona Spes), unlike its Greek
counterpart elpis that had an ambivalent nature. Despite occasional negative de-
pictions the Romans viewed spes as “an overall virtuous quality, a benevolent
goddess and a benign force operating in their personal life and community.”4
In Virgil’s Aeneid there are 46 occurrences of spes and 14 of spero,5 figures
indicative of their prominent role in the narrative. Yet studies of the epic treating
hope, optimism, and pessimism, major Virgilian topics, have systematically ig-
nored the Latin terms and their significance.6 Rudolph Rieks’ monograph Affekte
und Strukturen. Pathos als ein Form- und Wirkprinzip von Vergils Aeneis, which is
the most comprehensive study of emotions in the Aeneid, discusses spes and
spero only in connection with desire (amor) in the story of Dido and Aeneas. In

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1 See Douglas Cairns, Damien Nelis, and Laurel Fulkerson, in Caston/Kaster 2016; Fulkerson 2017.
2 Gravlee 2000.
3 Tataranni 2013, 67; see also Axtell 1907, 18–20; Fears 1981, 861–3 and passim; Clark 1983.
4 Tataranni 2013, 65–67.
5 Rieks 1989, 164. For Ovid, Lucan and Statius the occurrences are respectively the following:
42/15, 36/24, 29/18.
6 Cf. Parry 1963; Johnson 1976; Jenkyns 1985; O’Hara 1990.

DOI 10.1515/9783110598254-010
172 | Michael Paschalis

his view “amor is one of various manifestations of spes and as a matter of fact it
is the most important”.7 In restricting the emotional aspect of spes to this context
only, Rieks seems to have had in mind Stoic views on emotions.8 A broader as-
sessment of the Latin terms for hope was very recently given by Laurel Fulkerson:
departing from the standpoint that “hope is similar enough to an emotion, if it is
not actually one”, Fulkerson surveyed many instances of spes and sperare in the
Aeneid, among them Trojan hopes fated to be realized and the misplaced and
frustrated hopes of major characters like Dido and Turnus.9
In the Aeneid there is a direct and strong link between spes and Trojan future,
settlement in Italy, establishment of the Roman race and growth of the Roman
empire till the Augustan Age. In this sense spes possesses a deeply political as-
pect. As made clear very early in the epic, however, the task of establishing the
Roman nation was an immense and laborious undertaking (1.33 tantae molis erat
Romanam condere gentem) immersed in public and private emotions. These in-
clude the relentless wrath of Juno and her persecution of the Trojans who are tried
and suffer by land and sea; Aeneas’ painful and traumatic experience of losing
his homeland, his tumultuous amorous engagement with the tragic queen of Car-
thage, his rage following the death of young Pallas that is vented into indiscrim-
inate massacre, and last but not least his terrible and furious wrath that drives
him to kill the wounded and suppliant Turnus at the very end of the Aeneid.
The question if spes is an emotion in itself may be less important vis-à-vis the
context of violent passions in which it is sometimes placed in Virgil’s epic. Most
readers are, for instance, familiar with Dido’s furious first reaction to Aeneas’ se-
cret preparations for departure in obedience to Jupiter’s command to abandon
Carthage and resume his mission:

dissimulare etiam sperasti, perfide, tantum

posse nefas tacitusque mea decedere terra?
[…] (Aeneid 4.305–6)

Was it your hope to disguise, you perfidious cheat, such a monstrous

Wrong, to get out, with no word said, from this land that I govern?
[…]10

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7 Rieks 1989, 162–175 (168).
8 69 note 6: “Vergils Unterscheidung zwischen bona spes und mala spes paßt demnach besser
zur stoischen als zur epikureischen Lehre.”
9 Fulkerson 2017.
10 The text of the Aeneid is quoted from Mynors 1969 and the translation from Ahl 2007.
 uestras spes uritis: Hope and Empire in Virgil’s Aeneid | 173

In Aeneid 5 there is an emblematic episode in the voyage towards Italy which the-
matizes the clash within the Trojan camp in Sicily of extreme desperation with
the hope of reaching the promised land, that is of private with public pursuits. It
is the episode of the burning of the ships by the Trojan women in 5.604–99.11 Be-
cause of its conceptual comprehensiveness, its dramatic and highly emotional
features and its potentially disastrous outcome regarding the fulfilment of Ae-
neas’ mission, I have chosen this episode to be the focus and guiding event in the
following brief study of the topic of “Hope and Empire in the Aeneid”.
Here is an outline of the episode. While the Trojans are conducting funeral
games on the anniversary of Anchises’ death, Juno sends Iris down from heaven.
Her mission is to incite the Trojan women, who are gathered on the shore weeping
over the loss of Anchises and their endless wanderings, to burn the ships that
would take them to Italy, their fated destination:

at procul in sola secretae Troades acta

amissum Anchisen flebant, cunctaeque profundum
pontum aspectabant flentes. heu tot uada fessis
et tantum superesse maris, uox omnibus una;
urbem orant, taedet pelagi perferre laborem. (Aeneid 5.613–7)

But, far off, on a lonely beach, in seclusion, the Trojan

Wives are lamenting the loss of Anchises. They all, while lamenting,
Stare at the deep sea’s surge: ‘We’re exhausted, yet so many seaways,
So much water is still to be crossed!’ Many voices sing one song.
Tired of enduring the high seas’ hardships, they pray for a city.

Since the beginning of the Aeneid Juno has directed all her efforts towards thwart-
ing Trojan arrival in Italy and, if the ships were burned, they would be unable to
resume their journey. Iris disguises herself as one of the women named Beroe and
proceeds to accomplish her mission by means of a skillfully constructed speech
which exploits their fatigue and unanimous feelings in favor of settling in Sicily.
Beroe begins by portraying in vivid colors the utter futility of their voyage; it
has been seven years of endless wanderings with no prospect of ever reaching
Italy:

septima post Troiae excidium iam uertitur aestas,

cum freta, cum terras omnis, tot inhospita saxa
sideraque emensae ferimur, dum per mare magnum
Italiam sequimur fugientem et uoluimur undis. (Aeneid 5.626–9)

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11 See West 1975, 168–74; Paschalis 1997, 197–200; Fletcher 2014, 176–185.
174 | Michael Paschalis

Summers have passed, almost seven by now, since Troy was demolished.
We, though, are still mapping all lands, seas, cruel reefs, constellations
Far beyond count, we’re shipped over the vast deep, rolled by the heaving
Waves, chasing Italy — which, in turn, tries hard to escape us.

Iris-Beroe proposes a deceitful remedy for their desperate situation consisting in

the hope of immediate and assured settlement: nobody can stop them, she ar-
gues, from founding a new Troy in the hospitable land tracing its name to Eryx,
Aeneas’ half-brother, and ruled by hospitable Acestes; so let them burn the ac-
cursed ships:

hic Erycis fines fraterni atque hospes Acestes :

quis prohibet muros iacere et dare ciuibus urbem?
o patria et rapti nequiquam ex hoste penates,
nullane iam Troiae dicentur moenia? nusquam
Hectoreos anmis, Xanthum et Simoenta, uidebo?
quin agite et mecum infaustas exurite puppis. (Aeneid 5.630–5)

Here we have brotherly Eryx’s land; and a host in Acestes.

Who says we can’t put up walls and give citizens something: a city?
Homeland and household gods! What a waste! You were saved from the foeman,
But will there never be walls to make Troy’s name real? Will I never
See Hector’s rivers, the Xanthus and Simoïs, redefined somewhere?
Come then — why don’t you? — and join me in burning these miserable galleys!

Iris-Beroe adds that the previous night she dreamed of the prophetess Cassandra
giving her burning torches and advising her as follows: “Seek Troy here: here is
your home” (637–8 “hic quaerite Troiam; / hic domus est”). She further cunningly
suggests that the four burning altars dedicated to Neptune are a sign that the god
himself provides the firebrands and the courage needed to perform the action.
Having said this she seizes herself a brand from one of the altars and hurls it
against the ships.
The women are startled and stunned. Then an elderly woman and nurse to
Priam’s sons named Pyrgo points out one by one the divine features of the woman
that has just spoken to them and reveals that she has just seen with her very own
eyes the true Beroe lying sick in bed and very much regretting that she could not
pay the offerings due to Anchises (644–52).
Having heard the two speeches the Trojan women are torn between two con-
trasting feelings (hopelessness and hope) and two diametrically opposed courses
of action: the desire to settle in Italy and the obligation to proceed towards their
destination ordained by the fata:
 uestras spes uritis: Hope and Empire in Virgil’s Aeneid | 175

at matres primo ancipites oculisque malignis

ambiguae spectare rates miserum inter amorem
praesentis terrae fatisque uocantia regna, […] (Aeneid 5.654–6)

Well, as the ladies, at first, were in two minds (yet casting an evil
Eye on the ships), hearts torn between pitiful love for this real,
Tangible land, and the call of the powerful realms that fate promised,
[…]

The women are driven to action only when the goddess flies off to the sky tracing
a rainbow and thus revealing her divine identity (657–8). The supernatural sign
confirms the authority of the first speaker and instills the spirit of Juno into their
hearts. Stunned at the miraculous sight (attonitae) they are next seized by frenzy
(actaeque furore) and set the ships aflame with brands taken from Neptune’s al-
tars (659–63).
When the news of the fire raging among the ships reaches the Trojan males,
they are engaged in the final event of the funeral games consisting in an eques-
trian display by the younger generation of Trojans commonly known as lusus
Troiae. Aeneid 5.548–603 is our main mythological source for this event, which
in historical times is first mentioned in the period of Sulla; it was revived by Julius
Caesar and established under Augustus as a regular event performed by boys of
noble and respected families.12 On this occasion the display is led by Ascanius,
Aeneas’ son, and his participation constitutes an important stage in the course of
his Bildung.13 It is precisely Ascanius who first responds to the news of the burn-
ing ships. His lightning reaction combines the impetuosity of youth with a sense
of the gravity of the situation befitting an adult leader:

primus et Ascanius, cursus ut laetus equestris

ducebat, sic acer equo turbata petiuit
castra, nec exanimes possunt retinere magistri.
‘quis furor iste nouus? quo nunc, quo tenditis’ inquit
‘heu miserae ciues? non hostem inimicaque castra
Argiuum, uestras spes uritis. en, ego uester
Ascanius !’—galeam ante pedes proiecit inanem,
qua ludo indutus belli simulacra ciebat. (Aeneid 5.667–74)

First to respond is Ascanius, as piqued now as he’d been delighted

Earlier, leading the cavalry show. And he gallops his stallion

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12 On the lusus Troiae, see Mehl 1956; Heinze 1994, 128–9; Scheid and Svenbro 1995; Kürv-
ers/Niedermeier 2005.
13 On Iulus-Ascanius, see Ross 1977; Petrini 1997; Paschalis 1997, 61–63; Rogerson 2017.
176 | Michael Paschalis

Into the rioting camp. Though his trainers try hard, they can’t stop him.
‘What is this new form of madness?’ he asks. ‘What’s your goal or your purpose,
Citizens, pitiful creatures? For shame! We’re not foemen! You’re torching
Your own hopes, not an Argive attack-force. It’s me, your Ascanius,
Look!’ And he tore off and flung at their feet the toy helmet he’d sported
During the games, when they’d staged mock versions of combat and warfare.

During the equestrian display, which represents the hopes placed in the younger
generation, the Trojans are delighted in gazing at the boys whose names and
faces evoke the older generations (5.576 ueterumque […] ora parentum).14 Asca-
nius himself who is in charge of the display (548–50) links Trojan past with Ro-
man and Augustan future in more than one ways.15 By telling the women that it
is madness to burn the ships because they are actually “torching their own
hopes” (uestras spes uritis) he condemns their action as hopeless and implies that
all their hopes are placed in the continuation of their voyage. The gesture of
pointing to himself (en, ego uester / Ascanius!) and flinging his helmet to the
ground in front of his feet can only mean that he views himself as embodying
hopes for the future (as implied by uestras spes) and that by their reckless action
they are destroying those hopes as well, which he only just now displayed in the
mock-battle equestrian maneuvers.
Through his brief speech and dramatic gesture Ascanius manages to bring
the women to the realization of their crime. They scatter in fear along the shore
and hide in the woods; they deeply regret their action; they recover their senses
and, as the narrator puts it, “Juno is driven from their hearts” (679 excussaque
pectore Iuno est). Eventually the flames are put out but only thanks to the inter-
vention of Jupiter who responds to Aeneas’ prayer by sending a thunderstorm.
His intervention confirms in action the promise that Aeneas will arrive in Italy
and his destiny will be fulfilled. All the ships are saved except for four. It is even-
tually decided that those unable or unwilling to proceed may stay behind and
settle in the city of Acesta (Segesta), named after king Acestes, while the rest will
resume their voyage to Italy.
Against Juno who strives to change the fated course of history and the divine
messenger who undertakes to carry out her plan Virgil has set not Aeneas himself
but Ascanius, his son, heir and successor. Ascanius comes victorious out of this
peculiar impar pugna, the battle of a boy against cosmic forces (the reader may
compare at this point the opening episode of the epic where Aeneas is caught in

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14 Cf. Sullivan 2009.
15 According to Virgil (5.596–603) he introduced the equestrian display to Alba Longa and from
there it was handed on to Rome and called the lusus Troiae.
 uestras spes uritis: Hope and Empire in Virgil’s Aeneid | 177

the storm raised by Juno’s agent Aeolus). Trojan-Roman future spans a time of
over a thousand years beyond the end of the epic. Ascanius is the character des-
tined to found Alba Longa, the city that will bridge the gap between Troy and
Rome. I quote the relevant passage from Jupiter’s prophecy to Venus in Aeneid
1.267–77:

at puer Ascanius, cui nunc cognomen Iulo

additur (Ilus erat, dum res stetit Ilia regno),
triginta magnos uoluendis mensibus orbis
imperio explebit, regnumque ab sede Lauini
transferet, et Longam multa ui muniet Albam.
hic iam ter centum totos regnabitur annos
gente sub Hectorea, donec regina sacerdos
Marte grauis geminam partu dabit Ilia prolem.
inde lupae fuluo nutricis tegmine laetus
Romulus excipiet gentem et Mauortia condet
moenia Romanosque suo de nomine dicet.

Youthful Ascanius, who’ll now be known by a new name, “Iulus”, —

“Ilus” it was while the Ilian state still ruled in the Troad —
He will go on to complete full thirty cycles of rolling
Months in command. Then he’ll transfer the centre of power from Lavinium
And, with a huge show of force, make Alba Longa his fortress.
Over the next three centuries, then, this will be the command post
Ruled by the people of Hector, until such time as a royal
Priestess named Ilia, pregnant by Mars, gives birth to her twin boys.
Romulus, happy to wear the tan hide from the she-wolf who nursed him,
Then will inherit the line. And, in Mars’ honour, he’ll found a city,
Giving its people a name he derives from his own name: the Romans.

By his other name Aeneas’ son is also the divine ancestor of the Julian family and
the emperor Augustus. This is how the god Apollo hails his victory over Numanus
Remulus in 9.641–4, alluding to the gens Iulia and the pax Augusta:

‘macte noua uirtute, puer, sic itur ad astra,

dis genite et geniture deos. iure omnia bella
gente sub Assaraci fato uentura resident,
nec te Troia capit.’

‘Blessings on your new manhood, my boy. That’s the pathway to heaven,

You, who are born of a god, and will some day beget gods! For all wars
Fated to come will subside when Assaracus’ people is ruling
Justly. And Troy doesn’t set its restrictions on you.’
178 | Michael Paschalis

Therefore though the burden of founding the Roman race is placed on the shoul-
ders of Aeneas, the hope for the fulfilment of this mission and the Augustan future
of Rome is specifically associated with his son. Elsewhere in the Aeneid this kind
of hope is conveyed through stock phrases combining the word spes most com-
monly with the name Iulus: spes Iuli, spes heredis Iuli, spes surgentis Iuli. That
Iulus embodies hope for the future is portrayed as a universal understanding and
expectation. It is placed in the mouth of Trojans and aliens as well as of divine
characters: Trojan Ilioneus addressing Dido in 1.556; Mercury addressing Aeneas
on behalf of Jupiter in 4.274; Trojan Palinurus addressing Aeneas in the Under-
world in 6.364; the Rutulian Mago pleading to Aeneas for his life on the battlefield
in 10.524; and the narrator himself in 12.168. I quote two of these references where
the content of spes Iuli is specified. In Aeneid 4 Jupiter sends Mercury to Aeneas
who has settled at Carthage at the side of Dido and has devoted himself to the
Carthaginian cause in order to remind him of his mission and the destiny of his
son, heir and successor:

‘tu nunc Karthaginis altae

fundamenta locas pulchramque uxorius urbem
exstruis? heu, regni rerumque oblite tuarum!
ipse deum tibi me claro demittit Olympo
regnator, caelum et terras qui numine torquet,
ipse haec ferre iubet celeris mandata per auras:
quid struis? aut qua spe Libycis teris otia terris?
si te nulla mouet tantarum gloria rerum
[nec super ipse tua moliris laude laborem,]
Ascanium surgentem et spes heredis Iuli
respice, cui regnum Italiae Romanaque tellus
debetur.’ (Aeneid 4.265–76)

‘You, laying foundations for mighty

Carthage!’ he said. ‘Obsessed with your wife, you’re now building a lovely
City for her. You’ve forgotten your own obligations and kingdom!
Heaven’s own king, who spins both the sky and the earth with his power,
Sends me to you himself, directly from gleaming Olympus,
Tells me himself to convey these instructions through swift-moving breezes:
What do you hope you can build, you deserter, in Libya’s deserts?
If, in fact, glory from such great deeds doesn’t fire up your spirit,
Being indifferent yourself to the plaudits earned by this hard work,
Think of the growing Ascanius, the dreams for Iulus to cherish.
He is your heir. Thus Rome’s fine earth and Italy’s kingship
Stand as his due.

In Aeneid 12.166–8 father and son appear side by side. It is a most solemn occa-
sion for Latins and Trojans: a treaty is about to be concluded and their differences
 uestras spes uritis: Hope and Empire in Virgil’s Aeneid | 179

will be resolved through a duel between Aeneas and Turnus. First a sacrifice is
conducted and next king Latinus and Aeneas take public oaths accepting the con-
ditions of the treaty and promising to preserve peace. In introducing Aeneas and
Ascanius the narrator calls the former “the root-stock of Roman growth”
(Romanae stirpis origo) and the latter “the second hope for the greatness of Rome”
(magnae spes altera Romae):

hinc pater Aeneas, Romanae stirpis origo,

sidereo flagrans clipeo et caelestibus armis
et iuxta Ascanius, magnae spes altera Romae.

Then, on this side, Aeneas, the father, the root-stock of Roman

Growth, sets forth from the camp with his star-bright shield and celestial
Armour: a vision of fire. At his side is Ascanius, the second
Hope for the greatness of Rome.

Calling Ascanius spes altera Romae may imply that Aeneas himself embodies the
“[first] hope” for Rome (spes una). But since spes is consistently associated not
with Aeneas but with his son, I would assume that Romanae stirpis origo and spes
altera Romae probably represent an order of succession.16
A more important question concerns the youth’s awareness of his destiny as
“hope for the greatness of Rome.” It is the omniscient narrator who knows about
the Roman future of the Trojans and of course the gods. When other characters
refer to the spes Iuli their knowledge cannot extend beyond Trojan arrival and
settlement in Italy. Towards the end of the epic Aeneas invites his son “to learn
from him courage and true labor” (‘disce, puer, uirtutem ex me uerumque laborem,
/ fortunam ex aliis […]’) and be inspired by his own example and the example of
his uncle Hector (12.435–40). This is the only conversation between father and
son recorded in the epic and in it Aeneas tells his son about the Trojan past and
present but nothing about Troy’s Alban and Roman future; this is most probably
because Aeneas himself remains rerum ignarus, though he heard about them
from his father’s lips in the Underworld and was later given by his mother a shield
representing scenes of Roman history. The Trojan past and present figures prom-
inently also in the so-called aristeia of Ascanius in 9.590–671. Numanus Remulus
derides the beleaguered Trojans for being effeminate Phrygians twice conquered

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16 According to Servius auctus Aeneas represents the spes una of Rome and Ascanius the spes
altera, an interpretation accepted by most commentators. According to Tarrant (2012, ad loc.)
altera suggests “Ascanius’ position vis-à-vis Aeneas, parallel to the place of Turnus in relation
to Latinus in 12.161–5.”
180 | Michael Paschalis

in the past17 and Ascanius shoots an arrow through his head uttering the follow-
ing sarcastic reply (634–5):

‘i, uerbis uirtutem inlude superbis!

bis capti Phryges haec Rutulis responsa remittunt.’

‘Go on! Mock bravery now with your arrogant speeches!

Here’s the retort twice-captured Phrygians send in dispatches!’

The one and only time Ascanius displays awareness of the future is in the much
earlier episode of the burning of the ships and it is specifically and prominently
associated with spes. By speedily reacting to the women’s action and shouting to
them that the ships they are burning represent Trojan hopes for the future (ues-
tras spes uritis) he displays awareness of the significance and vital importance of
continuing the voyage to Italy and of course leadership pointing towards the fu-
ture. By implying through word and gesture that it is himself who embodies Tro-
jan hopes for the future (en, ego uester Ascanius), he shows consciousness of his
role as an heir and successor to Aeneas. Despite the fact that we are unable to say
how much he had been told and how much he was expected to know, his attitude
in Aeneid 5 suggests a precocious maturity (his intervention strongly reminds of
Laocoon’s in Aeneid 2)18 and therefore the course of his Bildung in the Aeneid does
not seem to be a straightforward one. One may compare in this respect the imma-
turity he displays in 9.257–80, where he praises without any reservation the night
expedition of Nisus and Euryalus and promises rich rewards. As regards his aris-
teia in the same book it is not certain that it marks the transition from boyhood to
manhood;19 and though it carries long-term political and ideological significance
in the eyes of Apollo, all Ascanius does is defend the Trojans against the charge
that they are effeminate Orientals by shooting an arrow from within the safety of
the Trojan camp.
Hope is associated with the Trojan future elsewhere in the epic as well espe-
cially in connection with prophecies uttered by Anchises: when he directs the
Trojans towards Crete by erroneously interpreting the Delian oracle (3.103 spes

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17 On his speech see especially Dickie 1985.
18 There are conspicuous formal reminiscences of Laocoon’s speech, especially as regards the
opening address (5.670–1 ‘quis furor iste nouus? quo nunc, quo tenditis’ inquit / ‘heu miserae ci-
ues? […]’: 2.42 ‘O miseri, quae tanta insania, ciues? […]’) and the gesture that accompanies and
concludes his speech (helmet-flinging: spear-hurling).
19 Hardie (1994, 16) argues this point on the basis of the juxtaposition of noua uirtute and puer
in 641. Yet in 12.435 Ascanius is still a puer in his father’s eyes and expected to learn from him
the true meaning of uirtus.
 uestras spes uritis: Hope and Empire in Virgil’s Aeneid | 181

discite uestras); when he predicts not only war but also peace for the Trojans upon
their first sight of Italy and the view of grazing horses (3.543 spes et pacis); when
his prophecy of the eating of tables signifying arrival at the promised land is ful-
filled (7.126 tum sperare domos defessus). But the first of these predictions is mis-
taken while the other two offer a partial view of the future. By contrast the spes
Iuli is far-reaching, Roman, imperial and, through Iulus’ name and lineage,
prominently Augustan. Does this aspect of hope anticipate in some way Spes as
an imperial virtue? It is hard to say.
Evander in Aeneid 8 and Amata in Aeneid 12 place their hope for the future
respectively in his son Pallas (8.514 spes et solacia nostri) and her aspiring son-
in-law Turnus (10.56 spes tu nunc una, senectae). But Pallas and Turnus are both
slain on the battlefield (cf. Evander in 11.49), in a chain of killings where Turnus
slays Pallas in an impar pugna (10.426–509) and Aeneas avenges the death of
Pallas on Turnus at the end of the Aeneid (12.887–952). By contrast the spes sur-
gentis Iuli, the hope for the future which Aeneas’ growing son embodies, is un-
shakable; because it is so that the fata have ordained, Jupiter has promised, and
Apollo has predicted; because he is the grandson of Venus and ancestor of the
Julian family, and stands for future Roman grandeur and Augustan Rome.
The spes invested in Aeneas’ son is deeply political but at the same time, as
noted at the beginning, it is immersed in emotions. In the episode of the burning
of the ships on which I have focused hopes private and public, divine and human
clash fiercely against a background of weariness, desperation, and reckless ac-
tion. Ascanius’ impetuous ride towards the burning ships, his passionate speech
to the women, the telling gesture of flinging his helmet to the ground create a
highly emotional context for the message he wants to convey: by burning the
ships the women are burning their hopes to reach Italy and casting away the hope
he embodies as son, heir and successor to Aeneas: uestras spes uritis. En, ego
uester Ascanius.

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