In Book 1 of the Aeneid, Jupiter promises Venus that her son, Aeneas, will not be prevented by the enmity of Juno, Queen of the Gods, from founding a dynasty that will produce the city of Rome and the great Augustus.

In the illustration, Augustus cuts a figure that is no less imposing than Virgil’s descriptions of his mighty ancestor.

Hear Virgil’s original Latin and follow in a new English translation here.

As the Aeneid slowly approaches its climax, a new combatant enters the strife between Aeneas’s Trojans and the Latins, led by Turnus. She is Camilla, a powerful huntress and warrior beloved of Diana, the Goddess of the chase: sadly, she is foredoomed to die in the battle. Today’s extract tells of the strange circumstances under which her father dedicated her to the Goddess as a baby. Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in English here.