I do believe that there is much to say about the nuances of Virgil's words. My argument on the Aeneid, is that much of it is really anti-Augustan, though it comes off on the surface as propoganda for the principate. i wouldn't say it was necessarily republican, but anti-war in one of the deepest sense. even the lines that you refer too VI:826, doesn't deal with what Ronald Syme would call gloriae, but rather calls for one to "throw away your sword" (fitzgerald translation) now there's a dilemma with reading the aeneid the way i suggest. on one hand, i think that the aeneid should not be read too allegorically (though, as you imply, there is a great deal of historical allegory in it). allegorical readings are the main sources of misreadings in homeric works. on the other hand, it would be a mistake to believe that virgil did not have a profound sense of the platonic connection between words and logos. even in the latinized form, there is a strong connection between sense and sentence. therefore, to compromise these two approaches, i believe that one must see Virgil as a writer- and what does all writing, wish to do- to demonstrate something- to reveal something layer by layer. virgil's work, more than homer, was a literary epic that is capapble more of using rhetorical device, because of its written medium, but its message may still be plainer than what we are making it out to be. sure- there are conflicting interpretations, but the true interpretation of the book, is the one that is consistent throughout. the challenge of literary or historical interpretation of the aeneid is the difference between cohesion and contradiction. one must look beyond the propoganda facade, and behind that is a layer consistent throughout the book, contradictory to the propoganda. it goes beyond words and has to deal with actions. in a sense it is an example of everything that challenged the greeks- the difference between nomos and physis, between thought and action, between opinion and knowledge. one layer of the aeneid, there is all the former- this is the propoganda layer. on another layer, quite plain for those who wish to seek it, and quite consistent, there is the latter of those greek challenges. all in all it is presented as the difference between thought and action.
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