The games in Aen. 5 should be understood to improve on the Homeric precedent by inserting the death of Anchises into a prototype ritual calendar invented by Aeneas.
The improvement is not only a matter of poetic rivalry.
By emphasizing the memorial nature of the games (5, 46-50), and by alluding in a sustained way to the Augustan circus games, Vergil gives Aen. 5 an important role in his Augustan agenda.
The role of the « lusus Troiae », whose antique and ritualistic connotation should be questioned, tells us something about the interaction between spectacle and memory not only in the poem, but also in Augustan Rome.
