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On Queen Elizabeth and Aeneas
12-Sep-22Reading all the tributes to Queen Elizabeth that have appeared in the past months – I do love appreciation, and when people are appreciated by other people – I was struck by how old a playbook she seemed to be ruling from. It’s an ancient ideal of leadership, and from the ancient world the most thoroughgoing exposition of how it works is from the greatest work of literature in Latin, the Aeneid. The combination was too good to resist, so I wrote a brief essay about Queen Elizabeth and Aeneas. Much more could be said.