Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC – September 21, 19 BC), usually called Virgil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period.

He wrote three of the most famous poems in Latin literature:

• the Eclogues (or Bucolics)
• the Georgics
• the epic Aeneid.
• A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him.

Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Rome’s greatest poets.

• His Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome since the time of its composition.
• Modeled after Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and reach Italy; where his descendants Romulus and Remus were to found the city of Rome.
• Virgil’s work has had wide and deep influence on Western literature, most notably Dante’s Divine Comedy, in which Virgil appears as Dante’s guide through Hell and Purgatory.

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