Virgil
Aeneid — Rome's founding epic
Rome's Homer and Dante's guide through Hell. The Aeneid gave the empire its origin myth and gave European literature its model of the serious, self-conscious epic — poetry aware of its own burden.
Key works
- Aeneid~19 BC— Arms and the man — from Troy to Rome
- Georgics~29 BC— The dignity of agricultural labor
- Eclogues~37 BC— Pastoral poetry, the golden age