Distilled to its essence, The Aeneid is the account of the mythical invasion and conquest of Italy by an army from Asia Minor, almost a thousand miles away by sea. Normally, its easier to enlist the sympathy of an audience for the side thats defending their country rather than raiding someone elses, yet Virgil keeps us squarely on Aeneass side. He does this so effectively that it hardly occurs to us how easily Aeneas might have been cast as the villain and Turnus as the hero of the story. Given that Aeneas really is the invader and Turnus really is the defender of his country, how does Virgil keep us so entirely sympathetic to Aeneas?
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