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Virgil's Aeneid was the national epic of the Roman empire. It is reported that he only wrote 3 lines a day and was obsessive about polishing and making the poem better. On his deathbed Virgil ordered the executioners of his estate to burn the Aenied, however, Augustus told them otherwise. There is a feeling of manifest destiny in the poem, as if the Roman people were meant to conquer the world and destroy Carthage. Virgil wrote the Aeneid when Rome was ruler of the most of the known world and had already burned Carthage to the ground hundreds of years ago.

Aeneas, the hero of the story, is the propagator of the Roman race. He does not found the city of Rome, this is done by Romulus many years later. Aeneas has a thing called pietas which is best represented by book II of the Aeneid when he runs out of Troy with his father and household items on his back. Pietas can not be translated as "piety" and still do justice to the original word. Although piety is a component of the concept of pietas the word itself does not do it justice. Pietas is also patriotism, filial loyalty, and reverence for duty in general. In many ways it is the opposite of the Greek hubris, which leads to the downfall of men like Oedipus and Tantalus. Pietas is accepting one's destiny and the will of the Gods, hubris is doing the opposite of that.
The first book opens with the classic invocation of the muse, Virgil asks the muse to explain the anger Juno had against Aeneas. The race that Aeneas founds was supposed to destroy the city of Carthage and Juno's favorite city was Carthage. Given Venus's advice, Aeneas goes to Carthage, where he meets Dido, the queen of the city. Venus worries for Aeneas's safety, so she sends Cupid to protect him. Cupid, being the mischievous God he was, causes Dido to fall in love with the Trojan war hero. Juno's anger goes back to Homer's Iliad, which if one recalls, the Goddess Eris threw a golden apple out and started all of these problems. Juno is juxtaposed to Aeneas, because Juno tries to defy fate. The Gods themselves had to adhere to Fate, it was the inescapable way of the world. Aeneas also is even-tempered and deals with the pain of the Trojan war quietly and calmly. Juno on the other hand is vindictive and furious throughout most of the epic. Dido asks Aeneas to tell his story and that is when the second book begins.
He talks about the fall of Troy and gives a detailed description of the Trojan horse. Although the average person thinks Homer is the

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