The text discusses the appearance of Aeneas as he emerges from a cloud, made by Venus to look divine, to charm Dido. It reflects on the emphasis on beauty and majesty, similar to how Cyrus and Alexander the Great were portrayed, with larger-than-life statues to enhance admiration. The text suggests that this tradition continued with Roman Emperors' statues.
THEORY
Queen of Carthage, at the sight of Aeneas coming out of the cloud in which he had been enveloped by his mother Venus, who took care to embellish his charms to make him loved by Dido.
Aeneas stood, shining in a bright cloud,
Looking like a God: for indeed the mother
Gave a beautiful appearance to her son's hair,
And youthful light, with purplish glow,
And granted his eyes joyful honors.
Aeneas stopped and appeared before the Queen with the greatest splendor, in the midst of the brilliant cloud that surrounded him. He had the bearing and majesty of a God because the Goddess, his mother, had taken care to embellish his long hair and bestowed upon him a ravishing beauty and the graces of youth in his eyes and in every feature of his face. From the Aeneid, Book IV.
Xenophon mentions that Cyrus, after the famous victory over the Assyrians, was very attentive to everything that could contribute to the beauty and majesty of his body. And we read in Quintus Curtius that Thalestris, Queen of the Amazons, showed disdain for Alexander the Macedonian when she saw his short stature, and that this was what determined this conqueror of Asia to have erected, at the place he had camped, a statue larger than life: being convinced that this statue of extraordinary grandeur would further provoke the admiration of posterity.
I also believe that it is with the same intention that larger-than-life statues have been erected for our Emperors. And this occurs not so much (as common people might think) because if they were made of ordinary proportions...