The Aeneid has been analyzed by scholars of several different generations and schools of thought to try to determine the political commentary that Virgil had hoped to portray.
This mirrors Rome's disestablishment of the republic after the strife of a civil war, and the establishment of peace and prosperity with the new Roman Empire.
These reflect Augustan propaganda which asks that his people not forget the repetition of the past of civil war but remember and repeat it in order to conquer their problems in support of his new reign of the empire.
Virgil creates a common ancestry between Aeneas and Augustus by interacting[clarification needed] with the Roman tradition of viewing Romulus as the founder of Rome.
According to the historian Livy, this vestal virgin's name was Rhea Silvia, who is described in Book I of the Aeneid as a descendant of Aeneas.
Virgil questions whether the new political foundation promised by Caesar will actually be an escape from the repetitions of the civil war.
In Virgil's most significant display of war against nature, the Trojans cut down a sacred olive tree in preparation of an open battlefield.
This sacred tree represents a focus on preservation of nature, and is therefore in opposition to the political values of the contemporary Roman Empire.
Through the events of the Aeneid, Virgil hopes to reveal the consequences of Aeneas' mission as the destruction of Italy's natural environment.