Vergil's parade of heroes, a panegyric that becomes a threnody, is an odd blend. It is framed by an elaborate quasi-philosophical eschatology, whose relation to the parade is problematical. Much of the passage puts itself forward as high panegyric, yet certain sections are at variance with that tendency. The lament for Marcellus (868-86) is most commonly remarked upon; other passages are equally, or more, anomalous. Still, the massive self-assurance of the picture of the underworld has its own imposing conviction, so that although the disparateness of the contributing elements has been documented often enough, few have felt the need to dispute the question of whether the blend coheres as a single statement. One noteworthy reader of Vergil was, however, compelled to give minute attention to the implications of the historical vision in Book 6. Incidentally throughout the Bellum Ciuile, but especially in his own sixth book, with the vision of hell called forth by the agency of the witch Erictho, Lucan provides a provocative reading of Aeneid 6. His insights will be exploited in the discussion as a valuable stimulus to reflection and re-assessment; an appendix will give a more systematic account of his re-interpretation of Vergil.

qui pythia cantat tibicen didicit prius extimuitque magistrum All editors who place a mark of punctuation within these lines (the great majority) put a comma after tibicen; a few leave them unpunctuated, but say nothing about the construction. It therefore seems timely to recall the note of W. Heraeus on Martial 5.56.9 fac discat citharoedus aut choraules; this runs as follows, nescio an Hor. a.p. 415 tibicen cum didicit iungendum sit. This seems right to me. Apart from Martial, there is the corresponding use of didá skein in Greek (e.g. Plato Meno 94b tou´touv. .. i Ö ppe´av me`n eÒ dí daxen; other instances in LSJ s.v. dida´skw at the bottom of 421b and top of 422a), which is brought into Latin by two native Greek speakers, Ammianus Marcellinus (16.8.10 tonstrices docuit filias) and the freedman Echion in Petron. 46.7 destinaui illum artificium docere, aut tonstrinum aut praeconem aut certe causidicum, who slips back from Latin into Greek idiom. I do not pretend that this significantly alters the sense ('has trained as an oboe-player'), but our grammatical conscience demands to be satisfied.

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The reconciliation between Juno and Jupiter at the end of the Aeneid (12. 791–842) forms the cap to the divine action of the poem. The scene is conventionally regarded as the resolution of the heavenly discord that has prevailed since the first book; in particular, it is normal to see here a definitive transformation of Juno, as she abandons, her enmity once and for all, committing herself wholeheartedly to the Roman cause. So G. Lieberg, for example: ‘I due emisferi di Giove e di Giunone alia fine del poema si ricongiungono nella totalita del mondo divino, garante del glorioso futuro di Roma’ or W. Kiihn: ‘In einem strahlenden, vollen Schlussakkord endet das Gottergesprach.’