So we've been studying the Aeneid recently in ClaCiv at "school" and my teacher made a comment which threw me off: that Augustus would have asked Virgil to write a poem for him. The sentence seems normal, but then I thought: to what extent would Augustus even be familiar with Virgil, who was actually a subordinate to one of his ministers (if that is the word). And moreover, to what extent would he, and any other emperor for that matter, actually have been close to him and other advisors or servants close to him - since the upper society in Rome mostly stayed within itself, did Augustus or other emperors even consider having friendships or to get to know those working for him who were not directly in the upper class (hence my question involving important civil servant)?
A bit of a long one but there's my question.
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