Myself acquainted with misfortune, I learn to help the unfortunate.

Modeled after Homer's Iliad and Odyssey the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and arrive on the shores of Italy—in Roman mythology the founding act of Rome. The tradition holds that Virgil was born in the village of Andes near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul. Scholars suggest Etruscan Umbrian or even Celtic descent by examining the linguistic or ethnic markers of the region.

He is known for three major works of Latin literature the Eclogues (or Bucolics) the Georgics and the epic Aeneid. His Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome from the time of its composition to the present day.