19 BCEThe Classical Epic
The Aeneid
Virgil · 70–19 BCE · Italy
Originally Aeneis (Latin) · translated by Robert Fagles
Why it matters
A Trojan survivor sails west through storm, love, and war to found the line that becomes Rome. Homer's epic machinery retooled into a national myth of duty, with an undertow of grief for everything empire costs, including its hero's happiness.
At a glance
epic
Difficulty 6/10medium pace400 pagesStately epic diction and a weight of Roman allusion, but a strong forward narrative line.
Deep dive
The empire this poem builds a myth for is founded on an act its own final line refuses to let the reader feel good about.
