During his wanderings, Aeneas undergoes many hardships. In every instance, he consoles himself by remembering the great destiny of the empire that he is fated to found. With this knowledge to strengthen him, he constantly subordinates his own desires to his dream of a new Rome, an attitude that set an impressive example for many Romans. Aeneas's many personal sacrifices taught Roman citizens that their own personal doubts or complaints about Augustus's government were of little importance compared to the welfare and the needs of society. Individuals had to submerge their petty grievances for the good of all; a strong and centralized state was the only guarantee for peace and unity.
Romans also would have been comforted to know that the Aeneid's gods and goddesses were concerned with Rome's future. Troy's fall is a grave defeat for the Trojans, but it is a necessary condition for the evolution of Rome, which, according to the poem, is destined to become Troy's successor in the far distant future. The exultation of the gods, Jupiter among them, as they behold Troy's collapse in Book II does not contradict the belief that, as a group, they are on the Trojans's side. At times, Venus speaks with the voice of a prudent Roman matron, and even Juno is on her way to becoming reconciled to the Trojans's presence in Italy. In any case, Virgil's Roman contemporaries had only to point to their own unending series of successes in order to demonstrate to their satisfaction that Rome and its empire had permanently won divine favor.
Convinced by Virgil's arguments in the Aeneid, many members of Rome's educated class ceased their opposition to Augustus and grew accustomed to their emperor's government. Meanwhile, the Aeneid became a standard school text. Every new generation of students was exposed to Virgil's epic poem, and from it developed an unselfish dedication to the Roman imperial ideal. Thus, besides being a literary masterpiece, the Aeneid became what was, perhaps, the strongest intellectual bulwark of the Roman Empire.
