Dal Campidoglio ad Azio, e oltre (al centro dello scudo di Enea)

This article examines the central portion of Aeneas’ shield in book VIII of Vergil’s Aeneid, with the goal of understanding the ways in which political and ideological ‘centrality’, represented by Augustus and Rome, becomes evident in the product of both Vulcan the craftsman and Virgil the ekphrastic narrator. This analysis focuses on the scenes of the Actium battle and the attack of the Gauls on the Capitol. Alongside the Homeric model, the Hellenistic Hymn to Delos by Callimachus is also taken into account. This paper ends with some observations on the final scene (ll. 724-728), which features the defeated nations, particularly from the point of view of Aeneas and that of the readers.