The Aeneid: A New Prose Translation (Classics) - Softcover

West, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140444572 ISBN 13: 9780140444575

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1991

Synopsis

The legendary origin of the Roman nation which tells the story of the Trojan Prince Aeneas who escaped with some of his men after Troy fell and sailed to Italy under the protection of the goddess Venus. Here they settled and laid the foundations of Roman power.

About this title

From the Back Cover

'I sing of arms and of the man fated to be an exile ...'

Part of the beautifully presented 'Wonders of the World' series. A prose translation with an introduction by David West.

'A poem for our time? The Aeneid is the story of a man who lived three thousand years ago in the city of Troy in the north-west tip of Asia. What has that to do with us?

Troy was besieged and sacked by the Greeks. After a series of disasters Aeneas met and loved a woman, Dido, queen of Carthage, but obeyed the call of duty to his people and his gods and left her to her death. Then, after long years of wandering, he reached Italy, fought a bitter war against the peoples of Latium and in the end formed an alliance with them which enabled him to found his city of Lavinium. From these beginnings, in 333 years, in 753BC, the city of Rome was to be founded. The Romans had arrived in Italy.' From the Introduction

About the Author

Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BC) was born in the north of Italy and completed his education in Rome. He also wrote THE ECLOGUES, completed in 37 BC, and THE GEORGICS, which he finished in 29 BC. He then devoted the rest of his life to the composition of his greatest work, THE AENEID.

Since retiring from the Latin Chair at Newcastle University, David West has translated the Odes and Epodes of Horace and written commentaries on Odes I and on Odes II.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140444572
• ISBN 13: 9780140444575
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 368