Hunt as War and War as Hunt

This chapter argues for a deeper intellectual engagement between Grattius and Virgil’s Aeneid than has been posited by some previous scholars, who argue that Grattius borrows words and phrases from Virgil in a somewhat sporadic and magpie-like fashion. The discussion focuses upon key hunting passages and hunter figures in the epic: the figure of Camilla, Aeneas as hunter, the Trojans’ stay on the Strophades, and Allecto’s incitement of the war in Latium. The investigation remains open-minded on the relative chronology of these two works, and entertains fruitful readings irrespective of the ‘direction of travel’ of the interaction between the texts.