Aeneid By The Poet, Virgil And City Of God By Saint Augustine Essay, Research Paper

Throughout the course of a lifetime, people question every event that happens, whether it be fortunate or to their disadvantage. Some believe that it is fate, whom is the culprit at hand, leaving them the only option of accepting what comes to them. Others, however, insist that they have complete control over their lives and the free will to decide what will happen. Yet, to answer the question of whether or not one’s life is determined or if it is the result of free will, one must understand the difference between the two.

In order to justify the arguments of fate and freewill, we can turn to two different works. These works are the Aeneid by the poet, Virgil and City of God by Saint Augustine. Both are focused on the city of Rome, but argue for completely opposite ideas. The Aeneid is based on the fate of the main character, Aeneas, who will found the greatest city ever, Rome. In contrast with this, Saint Augustine’s, City of God, explains how the fall of Rome is attributed to the choices that the pagan Romans made rather than the possibility that Christianity caused the decline of this great city.

In the Aeneid, It is a known fact among the gods that Aeneas’ fate is to discover a promised land, Rome. Yet, Aeneas faces many obstacles that he needs to overcome on this journey and most are initiated by Juno. Her purpose in doing this is because she knows that Aeneas’ Rome will destroy her treasured city of Carthage in later years to come. The mother of Aeneas, Venus, goes to Jupiter, the god of all gods, and frantically begs to know why Aeneas must overcome all this toils placed before him. She wonders if Aeneas’ fate is still true. Jupiter replies to her: “Fear not, my daughter; fate remains unmoved. For the Roman generations. You will witness Lavinium’s rise; her walls fulfill the promise; (Book I, lines 69-71) These lines suggest that fate is unchangeable. It can be stalled but eventually, it will happen.

In The Aeneid, we can conclude that free will is not an option for the people in these ancient days. Aeneas even says: “It is not my own free will that leads me to Italy.”(Book IV, lines 491-492) The common idiom, “What must be, must be!” would be well known by those of these times who believed that these gods controlled everything, especially the fate of each and every one of them. The Aeneid is a perfect example for exhibiting how those of that time might have thought they had no control over their lives that it was predestined and the gods helped to control it. However, some people thought that the fall of Rome was contributed to the fact that the gods were angry with those who became Christians.

Saint Augustine began writing City of God as a defense for these rumors. Augustine says: “For when men hear that word [fate], they simply understand by it the virtue of that particular position of the stars, which may exist at the time when anyone is born or conceived, which some separate altogether from the will of God.”(Book V, Chapter one) He used twins as example for this argument. In chapter two, the famous physician Hippocrates says that a pair of twins who both took ill at the same time and died at the same time was the same fate shared by one, because they were both born of the same constellation. Augustine’s justification was the fact that they both came from the same mother, were nourished in the same house, ate the same foods, had the same air, quality of water and locality. Augustine’s answer defies fate by giving obvious well thought out reasons rather than a simple explanation from astrology.

St. Augustine promoted the idea of free will. In book V, he says: ”They attribute the so-called order and connection of causes to the will and power of God most high, who is most rightly and most truly believed to know all things before they come to pass, and to leave nothing unordained; from whom are all powers, although the wills are not from Him.” (Book 5, Chapter 8) The message that Saint Augustine is conveying is basically similar to the Aeneid in the sense that things are predestined. In contrast with the Aeneid, He says that a person makes their own choices throughout life.

When one has the knowledge of the difference between fate and free will, they can make a conscious decision what they believe. My argument is for free will. It is hard to believe that one’s life is predestined and that one can have no control over what happens. I can understand why the ancient Romans felt that fate guided the course of their lives because they lived in a fantasy world, full of many gods, who when seen in stories appear to be superficial and only out for themselves. When you look at reality, people choose the path they take. They aren’t told what to do or in their mind know what to do. They have the free will to decide where they are going in life.