The Aeneid Summary

Virgil's Epic of Rome's Founding

The Aeneid is Virgil's Roman epic (20 BCE) about Aeneas, a Trojan hero who escapes Troy's fall and journeys to Italy to found the civilization that becomes Rome.

After Troy falls, Aeneas carries his father on his back through the burning city. He sails the Mediterranean facing storms from Juno. In Carthage, he has an affair with Queen Dido. When Jupiter orders him to continue his mission, Dido kills herself on a funeral pyre. Aeneas visits the underworld, where his dead father shows him a vision of Rome's future glory.

The second half mirrors the Iliad. Aeneas arrives in Latium and is promised Lavinia's hand. Turnus raises an army against the Trojans. After fierce fighting, Aeneas kills Turnus, securing the Trojans' place in Italy. The poem is both a founding myth for Rome and a meditation on empire's terrible costs — Virgil never lets readers forget the suffering that destiny requires.