Analysis Of Aeneid And Sallust's Conspiracy Of Catiline

The Romans emerged from Italy and formed their culture that can find its roots among an array of native tribes and Greek colonies that populated Italy. There are two parts of the foundation of a Roman’s identity that stemmed from the cultural influences that produced the Romans, their culture and their ideals. The first component of the foundation of the Roman identity is the usage and the incorporation of others’ myths into their own etiological myth. The second part stems from these myths that made the Romans believe that their existence and success was the result of fate. By looking into Virgil’s Aeneid and Sallust’s Conspiracy of Catiline one can see that this two-part foundation produced a society and people that embodied this idea that they were the best parts of all the cultures

These mythical individuals show characteristics that are both valued and those that could be seen as inferior. In Sallust’s Conspiracy of Catiline, Catiline, the antagonist of his own story, is described as having some of these characteristics and how he displays them changes others perspective on him. With each of these characteristics that a Roman would have seen as positive were painted in a negative light because Sallust tells the audience instances where Catiline used these gifts in harmful ways. In contrast Aeneas, in Virgil’s Aeneid, is described and assigned what are thought of as the same Roman attributes, but these are held a positive approach compared to Sallust’s description of Catiline. The first example of this can be seen in the fifth section Sallust tells the audience of Catiline’s noble upbringing and is described as intelligent, ambitious, and as a brilliant solider. But Sallust tells of how Catiline acted against expectations and Roman nature by saying he: “scion of a noble family, had great vigour both of mind and body, but an evil and