A recent meme said men think about the Roman Empire daily. But what did the Romans think of themselves? What virtue made them so powerful? We might think of their courage. Their order
. Their power. Their loyalty. But which virtue did they think made them great?
I recently discovered the answer, of which virtue the Romans believed made them powerful enough to build the Roman empire.
The Aeneid1 was written by the poet Virgil around the time of Christ. It is a sort of holy fan-fiction about Rome, written by a Roman. Its hero is Aeneas, the mythical founder of Rome. Aeneas fled Troy, after the Greeks snuck in inside a wooden horse and slaughtered everyone. He then sailed to Italy and brought about the foundation of Rome. But the way Aeneas left Troy tells us what the Romans found heroic.
When the Greeks sneak into Troy, through guile and lies. Aeneas wakes to the sound of fire and slaughter, and immediately arms himself, and looks for “the hardest fight” to join to defend his city. When he realizes the city is doomed, he looks for his father. Then he heads to his home to find his wife and child. His father is frail and aged, so Aeneas has to carry him on his back. He has his son by the hand, his father on his back, and he also carries the priceless statues that represent his gods. With these he escapes the city. Whereas before, he was willing to fight where the Greeks were most numerous and the danger most explosive, now he fears “every gust and rustle,” because they could endanger his father, his son, and his gods. In the fire and the smoke he gets separated from his wife, and she gets murdered by Greek invaders.
His father, his son, and his gods. His love for these things is described as piety. It is exactly these things that the woke want us to hate. They want us to hate our ancestors. They want us to hate our children, to abort them, to feel guilty for having them, and to resent and complain about the ones we have; or perhaps maim them, sterilize them and abuse them for our own vanity. And gods, the woke hate Christianity, and want it neutered or converted into a gay pride parade. Our fathers, our sons, and our God. The love of these things is piety. And piety is the virtue that built Rome.
The Aeneid is about Aeneas’ unwavering devotion to his father, his son, and his gods. He is willing to sacrifice love, comfort, and his very life, to honor and protect those good things. Virgil, the poet, comments near the end of the book, that the Romans would “Surpass the world—and gods—in piety.” The virtue of piety is what built that great civilization. And the lack of it is what is destroying ours.
The piety of Rome eventually did surpass the gods, when the Romans discovered Christ. The pagan Romans recognized that Christ was the true and only God. They abandoned their false gods and idols, and turned their piety towards Christ and the Catholic faith. The Roman Catholic Church is the continuation of the Roman Empire, baptized, and put to the service of the crucified king.
The solution to the woke revolution is to love what they hate: our fathers, our sons, and our God. To build what they destroy: statues of our heroes and saints, beautiful art, strong and pious families. We may not be able to save Troy from fire and destruction. But we can carry our fathers on our back. We can take our sons by the hand and protect them. And we can carry the cross of Christ, through whatever trials we are called to endure, until we find the city of God.
I read a translation by Sarah Ruden, 2008 Yale