AUTHOR$SHEET:$$VERGIL$ ! Dates:$$70!–!19!BC! ! Home:$$$Vergil!is!said!to!have!been!born!on!October!15,!70!BC!in!a!village!near!Mantua.! ! ! ! $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Surviving$Works:$ $ Bucolics)(also!called,!Eclogues)—ten!brief!poems!in!hexameters$ Georgics—a!didactic!poem!in!four!books!of!hexameters! Aeneid—an!epic!poem!in!twelve!books! $ $ An$Introduction$to$the$Aeneid:$ $ 8Vergil!composed!the!Aeneid)between!29!and!19!BC,!but!died!before!the!work!was!entirely! finished.!!What!remains!to!us!is!roughly!10,000!lines!of!dactylic!hexameter.! 8The!epic!tells!the!legendary!story!of!Aeneas,!a!Trojan!who!travelled!to!Italy,!where!he!became! the!ancestor!of!the!Romans.!! 8The!first!six!of!the!poem’s!twelve!books!tell!the!story!of!Aeneas’!wanderings!from!Troy!to!Italy! (modeled!after!Homer’s!Odyssey),!and!the!poem’s!second!half!tells!of!the!Trojans’!ultimately! victorious!war!upon!the!Latins!(modeled!after!Homer’s!Iliad).! 8The!hero!Aeneas!was!already!known!in!Greco8Roman!legend!and!myth!as!a!character!in!the! Iliad;!Vergil!took!the!disconnected!tales!of!Aeneas’!wanderings,!and!authored!a!compelling! founding!myth!or!nationalist!epic!that!both!tied!Rome!to!the!legends!of!Troy,!glorified! traditional!Roman!virtues!and!represented!the!Julio8Claudian!dynasty!as!descendants!of!the! founders,!heroes!and!gods!of!Rome!and!Troy.! ! ! Main$Sources:!!! Conte,!Gian!Biagio.!!Latin)Literature:)A)History.!!Baltimore:!Johns!Hopkins!University!Press,!1994.!! Hornblower,!Simon,!and!Antony!Spawforth.!!The)Oxford)Classical)Dictionary.!!New!York:!Oxford!University!Press,!1996.!! Kenney,!E.!J.,!and!W.!V.!Clausen.))The)Cambridge)History)of)Classical)Literature.))Vol.)2)Latin)Literature.))Part)3,)The)Age)of) Augustus.!!New!York:!Cambridge!University!Press,!1983.!! Martindale,!Charles.!!The)Cambridge)Companion)to)Virgil.!!New!York:!Cambridge!University!Press,!1997.!!