| Virgil |
| (70-19 BCE) The Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro is commonly referred to as Virgil and is most noted as the author of the epic poem the Aeneid. |
| The Aeneid was written between the years 29-19 BCE during the reign of Augustus Caesar, i.e., Octavian, and was an undisguised attempt to re-instill the noble values on which Rome had been founded and to give new faith to the Roman people after the flagrant excesses of Julius Caesar and Marcus Antony. |
| The Aeneid tells the story of the Greek hero, Aineias (Aeneas), the final battle of Troy and the eventual founding of Rome by Troy’s survivors; it’s impossible to read the Aeneid without comparing it to the Greek epics such as The Iliad and The Odyssey; one glaring difference is that The Iliad and The Odyssey were written for the “people” and the Aeneid was written for an emperor; Virgil’s loyalties aside, he created an important work of art and gave us a glimpse into the mind of the imperial Romans; Virgil died before he could finish the Aeneid but Augustus Caesar had the unfinished poem copied and distributed. |
