Chapter 9 - Virgil, Creator of the World

Summary

This chapter looks at an early stage in the construction of the Latin tradition, reviewing the ways in which the early fifth-century Macrobius treats Virgil as a godlike author, constructing his influence along the lines of Christian monotheism while resolutely disavowing any knowledge of Christianity. Macrobius too is constructing his tradition of Latin literature, while positioning himself as a crucial contributor to that tradition – an even clearer example of the self-serving nature of such normative historiographies. The chapter proposes that Macrobius’ willed blindness to the Christian intellectual constructs around him, which nonetheless inevitably bleed into his work, serves as a model for the myopias and occlusions of classical philology as practised today