
The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro (2nd ed. 1654), Virgil's Æneis
The Æneis of Virgil (1718)
The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro (2nd ed. 1654), Virgil's Æneis
Book I, lines 1–4
The Aeneid of Virgil (1971)
Aeneis, Book I, lines 1–4.
The Works of Virgil (1697)
Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book I, Chapter VII, Sec. 1
Context: For the temples, the sites for those of the gods under whose particular protection the state is thought to rest and for Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, should be on the very highest point commanding a view of the greater part of the city. Mercury should be in the forum, or, like Isis and Serapis, in the emporium; Apollo and Father Bacchus near the theater; Hercules at the circus in communities which have no gymnasia nor amphitheatres; Mars outside the city but at the training ground, and so Venus, but at the harbor. It is moreover shown by the Etruscan diviners in treatises on their science that the fanes of Venus, Vulcan, and Mars should be situated outside the walls, in order that the young men and married women may not become habituated in the city to the temptations incident to the worship of Venus, and that buildings may be free from the terror of fires through the religious rites and sacrifices which call the power of Vulcan beyond the walls. As for Mars, when that divinity is enshrined outside the walls, the citizens will never take up arms against each other, and he will defend the city from its enemies and save it from danger in war.
The battles and the man I will describe
From Troy's bounds first that fugitive
By fate to Italy came and coast Lavinia,
Over land and sea driven with great pain
By force of gods above from every stead,
Of cruel Juno through old remembered wrath:
Great pain in battles suffered he also,
Or he his gods brought in Latium
And built the city, from which of noble fame
The Latin people taken have their name,
And also the fathers, princes of Alba,
Came, and the wall-builders of great Rome also.
Bk. 1, line 1.
Eneados