The Aeneid

The Aeneid, written by the Roman poet Virgil (70-19 BCE), is a twelve-book-long epic poem that describes the early mythology of the founding of Rome. The eponymous hero Aeneas, a Trojan prince and son of Venus, faces trials and tribulations as he escapes Troy as it burns and sails the Mediterranean searching for a new home. Virgil spent the last ten years of his life writing the Aeneid, only to die before its completion. The poem is written in dactylic hexameter, a meter known for its use in epic poetry. It also features themes of conflict and renewal, which parallel the decades of civil war and strife the Roman Republic endured before the establishment of the Roman Empire under the rule of Augustus and the peace ("Pax Romana") that accompanied it.