The Aeneid translated

"I sing of arms and of the man." After a century of civil strife in Rome and Italy, Virgil wrote The Aeneid to honour Emperor Augustus by praising Aeneas – Augustus’ legendary ancestor. It is a patriotic epic that provides Rome with a literature equal to Greek works. It tells the story of Aeneas, a survivor of the sack of Troy, detailing his journey to Carthage where he falls in love with Queen Dido, his travels to the underworld with the Sibyl of Cumae, and finally his arrival in Italy where he founds Rome. This epic is a tale of defeat, exile, love, and war, praised by Tennyson as ‘the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man’.