Vergil's Empire - by Eve Adler (Paperback)

About the Book

In Vergil's Empire, Eve Adler offers an exciting new interpretation of the political thought of Vergil's Aeneid. Adler argues that in this epic poem, Vergil presents the theoretical foundations of a new political order, one that resolves the conflict between scientific enlight...

Book Synopsis

In Vergil's Empire, Eve Adler offers an exciting new interpretation of the political thought of Vergil's Aeneid. Adler argues that in this epic poem, Vergil presents the theoretical foundations of a new political order, one that resolves the conflict between scientific enlightenment and ancestral religion that permeated the ancient world.

Review Quotes

Adler's argument about the fundamental purpose of Aeneid is interesting and clearly presented.

Eve Adler takes a refreshingly novel approach in her recent study of the Aeneid. Adler's study of Vergil distinguishes itself from most current efforts in literary criticism by commenting upon the poem in a manner that develops a continuous course of thought.

Marvelous.

This book is stunningly original. An empire, even a benevolent one, may overreach, of course. And Virgil hints that there are, humanly speaking, perhaps even seeds of self-dissolution in the most providential and perfect of empires. And so we oscillate between force and restraint, unmindful of their deeper meaning-still caught in the dynamic perceived by Virgil and brilliantly revived for us by Eve Adler in Vergil's Empire.

This is a major work, of a kind one does not often come across.

About the Author

Eve Adler is professor of classics at Middlebury College and has published four previous books and translations.