Aeneid

When Troy falls at the end of the Trojan War, the Trojan hero Aeneas and his followers embark on a journey to find a new home. After recounting the disastrous end of the war and the Greek ruse of the Trojan Horse, Aeneas and his men struggle against the scheming gods to make their way to Latium, where they intend to build a new home by any means necessary.

Although Virgil died before he could fully complete his epic poem, the first Emperor of Rome, Augustus Caesar, insisted that Aeneid be published. The story of the conquer of Latium, a city-state close to where Rome would one day be founded, served was an important work of propaganda about the heroic origins of the Roman Empire. The Aeneid is often compared to the Greek epic poems Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, as they are written in the same rhyme scheme and cover the same events and themes as Homer’s works.