Selections from Virgil Aeneid VIII

This is the first intermediate-student edition of a selection from Virgil's Aeneid VIII. Lines 86–279 and 558–584 are included as Latin text with an accompanying commentary and vocabulary. Focusing on a deliberately concise extract from the original, this edition is designed to be manageable for students reading the text for the first time while also perfectly encapsulating the interest of the longer work and inspiring further study of it. A detailed introduction explains points of historical and stylistic interest.

Book VIII of the Aeneid is remarkable for the diversity of its subject matter. Aeneas travels upriver to the site where Rome will be founded. He meets King Evander, who tells him the dramatic story of Hercules and Cacus and shows him round 'Rome' before it is Rome. Aeneas' mother makes new armour for him and at the end of the book we see him brandishing the shield whose centrepiece is the triumph of Augustus.

The selection presented here focuses on Evander and Hercules, and concludes with the fatal moment when Aeneas takes Evander's son Pallas to war. Its vivid narrative, human characters and larger-than-life heroes and villains are compelling reading.