Book summary

Virgil's Homeric epic was not quite completed when he died suddenly in 19 B.C. However, against Virgil's expressed wishes, the emperor Augustus decreed that it be published. It traces the journey of Aeneas to Italy after the Trojan War, where (according to Homer) he was instrumental in the founding of Rome. His voyage is a sequence of reversals and triumphs: great storms, the meeting with Dido, the visit to the underworld. Virgil celebrates the people and places of the Mediterranean, as well as the emperor Augustus and the empire. Written in hexameters, "The Aeneid" is a synthesis of tales and legends from Homer, Greek tragedy, and various Latin poets into a patriotic epic that remains stirring today for its humanity and strong feeling.