Virgil and Dante on their journey together
as painted by Botticelli.
Virgil was the poet of the Roman Empire. Where Homer created the hero of Achilles to inspire generations of Greeks to excel toward heroic achievements, Virgil gave the Romans a new hero, Aeneas, someone to inspire the new imperial Romans as they extended Roman rule all over the Mediterannean world. The story of Aeneas and the foundation of ancient Rome as told in the Aeneid became the bible of the empire. It has been read for over 2000 years.
