Aeneid
<p >The <i><b>Aeneid</b></i> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/ɨˈniːɪd/</a>; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_language" title="Latin language" class="mw-redirect" >Latin</a>: <i>Aenēis</i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Latin" title="Help:IPA for Latin" >[ae̯ˈneːɪs]</a>) is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin" title="Latin" >Latin</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_poetry" title="Epic poetry" >epic poem</a>, written by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil" title="Virgil" >Virgil</a> between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend" title="Legend" >legendary</a> story of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneas" title="Aeneas" >Aeneas</a>, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy" title="Troy" >Trojan</a> who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome" title="Ancient Rome" >Romans</a>. It comprises 9,896 lines in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dactylic_hexameter" title="Dactylic hexameter" >dactylic hexameter</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid#cite_note-1" >[1]</a></sup> The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latins" title="Latins" >Latins</a>, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.
The hero Aeneas was already known to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Roman" title="Greco-Roman" class="mw-redirect" >Greco-Roman</a> legend and myth, having been a character in the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad" title="Iliad" >Iliad</a></i>, composed in the 8th century BC. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil" title="Virgil" >Virgil</a> took the disconnected tales of Aeneas's wanderings, his vague association with the foundation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome" title="Ancient Rome" >Rome</a> and a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulous <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietas" title="Pietas" >pietas</a></i>, and fashioned this into a compelling <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_myth" title="Founding myth" class="mw-redirect" >founding myth</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_epic" title="National epic" >national epic</a> that at once tied Rome to the legends of Troy, explained the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punic_wars" title="Punic wars" class="mw-redirect" >Punic wars</a>, glorified traditional Roman virtues and legitimized the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio-Claudian_dynasty" title="Julio-Claudian dynasty" >Julio-Claudian dynasty</a> as descendants of the founders, heroes and gods of Rome and Troy.</p>