Vergil died at Brun-di'si-um, in south Italy, in the fifty-first year
of his age. He was buried near Naples, by the side of the public road,
a few miles outside that city, where what is said to be his tomb is
still to be seen. Of his character as a man we are enabled to form an
agreeable idea from all that is known about him. He was modest, gentle
and of a remarkable sweetness of disposition. Although living in the
highest society while in Rome, he never forgot his old friends. He was
a dutiful and affectionate son, and liberally shared his good fortune
with his aged parents.

As a poet, Vergil was not only the greatest that Rome produced, but
the most popular. His poems, particularly the AEneid, were the
favorite reading of his countrymen. They became a text-book in the
Roman schools. The "little Romans," we are told, studied the AEneid
from their master's dictation, and wrote compositions upon its heroes.
And not alone in Italy but throughout the world wherever learning
extended, the AEneid became popular, and has retained its popularity
down to our own time, being still a text-book in every school where
Latin is taught.

There are many excellent translations of the AEneid into English. In
this book we make numerous quotations from the translation by the
English poet Dryden, and from the later work by the eminent Latin
scholar Conington.



SPELLING OF THE POET'S NAME.

The spelling of the poet's name adopted in this book is now believed