The opening of Virgil's Aeneid begins with the words "Song of war and of a man at war" (Virgil 1.1) which signal two important themes of the epic : the war and struggles of a man (Boyle). The epic revolves around a Trojan named Aeneas, who follows his destiny by founding the city of Lavinium, a precedent of Rome, where his descendants continued to rule until the birth of Romulus. Virgil adapts the epic and Homeric structure to make social commentary on Roman life under Augustus. Like Homer, Virgil uses a shield as ekphrasis to show the transition from the primordial to the civilized state and the future history of Rome (Boyle). Virgil demonstrates how the Roman values ​​of virtus, iustitita and pietas prevailed over the barbaric and uncivilized enemies of Rome in the episodes of the shield (Boyle). While Rome became a great empire through war, Virgil appears to advocate peace rather than further bloodshed and warns that, while peace may have been achieved, it is not a permanent state. Festivals and weddings take place on Achilles' shield, but a murder occurs during an apparently peaceful period (Homer 18.490-508) similar to the bloodshed and final peace on Aeneas' shield (Virgil 7.746). Virgil uses Aeneas' shield like Homer as an allegorical symbol to point out that even in times of peace there is violence, links history and myth together, and ultimately reveals that no person or city can escape that fate. Vergil draws parallels between Achilles and Aeneas to show his artistic abilities to those of Homer. Both Achilles and Aeneas receive the shield from their mothers and Hephaestus or Vulcan, the god of fire, forges the weapon. The shield of Achilles describes scenes of nature and the creation of the universe and depicts agricultural scenes... in the center of the card... the Gauls are similar to the clothes worn by the conquered peoples who parade before Augustus. Furthermore, the description of Metto's body being torn to pieces is similar to the way the Battle of Actium is fought on the sea. Virgil describes the water as “torn” (7.715) and how the fighting has turned the sea red (7.722), which refers to Mettus and shows the bloodiest events in Roman history. The symbolic nature of Cocles and Cloelia tearing down the bridge seems to show that they are tearing down every aspect of the kings of Roman history. Through the shield, Virgil shows the importance of peace to prevent history from repeating itself, but also as a warning. Like the great city of Troy, Rome will also fall again under the splendor of Augustus. Virgil, like Vulcan, shapes and molds Roman history into his narrative and creates a new artistic form.