Virgil wrote the Aeneid, the Roman epic that begins with the journey of the Trojan survivor Aeneas after Troy falls. Written in Latin, the poem presents Aeneas as an ancestor of the Roman people and connects the Trojan past with Rome’s legendary origins.
The Aeneid is divided into 12 books. Its first half follows Aeneas’ travels, including his stay in Carthage with Queen Dido, while its second half describes war in Italy. The poem draws on both the Iliad and the Odyssey, but it is not a Greek account of the Trojan War itself.
Virgil’s full name was Publius Vergilius Maro. He lived during the first century BCE and composed the Aeneid during the reign of Augustus. The poem was unfinished when Virgil died in 19 BCE, but Augustus ordered that it be preserved rather than destroyed.