The Aeneid

Virgil's epic of Aeneas's flight from Troy to Italy, the founding poem of Rome's imperial destiny.

Specifications & Metrics

author

Virgil

type

Epic poem

era

Augustan Rome (29–19 BC)

language

Latin

verse form

Dactylic hexameter

cantos count

12

Core Principles & Analysis

• Composed 29–19 BC and left unfinished at Virgil's death, with instructions to burn it.
• Its twelve books split between Aeneas's wanderings and his war in Latium.
• It gave Rome a Trojan origin and the empire its governing epic.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Aeneid