The Aeneid was a propaganda epic written under the reign of Augustus and published in 19 B.C. It should have been made known fairly widely, as it’s entire purpose was to lend legitimacy and backing to the Augustan regime.

Luke, himself a gentile, would likely have known the Aeneid by the time he was writing his Acts. There seems to be a very strong similarity between the holy tongue of fire in the Aeneid and the tongues of fire at Pentecost. I could easily see how someone could claim Luke used the tongues of fire as a literary device to get the idea across that a/the Holy Spirit had descended upon the Apostles.

Thoughts?

"So did Creusa cry; her wailing filled my father's house. But even then there comes a sudden omen--wonderful to tell: between the hands, before the faces of his grieving parents, over Iulus' head there leaps a lithe flametip that seems to shed a radiance; the tongue of fire flickers, harmless, a plays about his soft hair, grazes his temples. Shuddering in our alarm, we rush to shake the flames out of his hair and quench the holy fire with water. But Anchises raised his glad eyes to the stars and lifted heavenward his voice and hands: 'O Jupiter, all-able one, if you are moved by any prayers, look on us. I only ask you this: if by our goodness we merit it, then, Father, grant to us your help and let your sign confirm these omens.'" (Virgil, Aeneid)

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4)