A free download from manybooks.net The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Aeneid of Virgil, by Virgil This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at Title: The Aeneid of Virgil Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor Author: Virgil Editor: Ernest Rhys Illustrator: Maine J. P. Translator: Edward Fairfax Taylor Release Date: May 28, 2006 [EBook #18466] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AENEID OF VIRGIL *** •Produced by Ron Swanson EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS CLASSICAL THE AENEID OF VIRGIL THE SAGES OF OLD LIVE AGAIN IN US. GLANVILL The AENEID OF VIRGIL TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE BY E. FAIRFAX TAYLOR LONDON: PUBLISHED by J. M. DENT & SONS LTD. AND IN NEW YORK BY E. P. DUTTON & CO. _First issue of this Edition 1907._ _Reprinted 1910._1

INTRODUCTION Virgil--Publius Vergilius Maro--was born at Andes near Mantua, in the year 70 B.C. His life was uneventful, though he lived in stirring times, and he passed by far the greater part of it in reading his books and writing his poems, undisturbed by the fierce civil strife which continued to rage throughout the Roman Empire, until Octavian, who afterwards became the Emperor Augustus, defeated Antony at the battle of Actium. Though his father was a man of humble origin, Virgil received an excellent education, first at Cremona and Milan, and afterwards at Rome. He was intimate with all the distinguished men of his time, and a personal friend of the Emperor. After the publication of his second work, the _Georgics_, he was recognized as being the greatest poet of his age, and the most striking figure in the brilliant circle of literary men, which was centred at the Court. He died at Brindisi in the spring of 19 B.C. whilst returning from a journey to Greece, leaving his greatest work, the _Aeneid_, written but unrevised. It was published by his executors, and immediately took its place as the great national Epic of the Roman people. Virgil seems to have been a man of simple, pure, and loveable character, and the references to him in the works of Horace clearly show the affection with which he was regarded by his friends. Like every cultivated Roman of that age, Virgil was a close student of the literature and philosophy of the Greeks, and his poems bear eloquent testimony to the profound impression made upon him by his reading of the Greek poets. His first important work, the _Eclogues_, was directly inspired by the pastoral poems of Theocritus, from whom he borrowed not only much of his imagery but even whole lines; in the _Georgics_ he took as his model the _Works and Days_ of Hesiod, and though in the former case it must be confessed that he suffers from the weakness inherent in all imitative poetry, in the latter he far surpasses the slow and simple