The Aeneid by Virgil and Robert Fagles Reviewed by Emily Wilson
The New Republic Online
"Virgil was the closest thing to the poet laureate of Augustan Rome. Augustus saw himself as the liberator of the Roman people, the man who had brought peace after years of civil war, and who controlled and expanded Rome's enormous empire. The new ruler was eager to find artists and poets to celebrate and to immortalize his achievements. But many of the most talented poets of the age ? including Horace, Propertius, and Ovid ? refused to write the grand political epic that Augustus hoped for. Only Virgil came close to giving the emperor what he wanted. The close association between the Aeneid and imperial power has made many readers uncomfortable with it ? including, perhaps, Virgil himself...." Read the entire New Republic Online review.