Aeneid

Summary: Virgil (70 B.C-19 B.C)is regarded as the greatest Roman poet, known for his epic,The Aeneid(written about 29 B.C. unfinished). Virgil was born on October 15, 70 B.C., in a small village near Mantua in Northern Italy. He attended school at Cremona and Milan, and then went to Rome, where he studied mathematics, medicine and rhetoric, and completed his studies in Naples. Between 42 and 37 B.C. Virgil composed pastoral p...oems known asEcologues, and spent years on theGeorgics. At the urging of Augustus Caesar, Virgil began to writeThe Aeneid, a poem of the glory of Rome under Caesars rule. Virgil devoted the remaining time of his life, from 30 to 19 B.C., to the composition ofThe Aeneid, the national epic of Rome and to glory of the Empire. The poet died in 19 B.C of a fever he contracted on his visit to Greece with the Emperor. It is said that the poet had instructed his executor Varius to destroyThe Aeneid, but Augustus ordered Varius to ignore this request, and the poem was published. From the Hardcover edition. [read more]