The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.
“This man sold his country for gold.”
Vendidit hic auro patriam.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 621
“An awful misshapen monster, huge, his eyelight lost.”
Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book III, Line 658 (tr. Mandelbaum); of Polyphemus.
“Jove almighty,
nod assent to the daring work I have in hand!”
Iuppiter omnipotens, audacibus adnue coeptis.
Compare: Annuit cœptis ("[God] has favored our undertaking"), motto on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IX, Line 625 (tr. Fagles)
“I shudder as I tell the tale.”
Horresco referens.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Line 204 (tr. Fairclough)
“A mind conscious of its own rectitude.”
Mens sibi conscia recti.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 604
“Here and there are seen swimmers in the vast abyss.”
Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 118 (tr. Fairclough)
“Is it then so sad a thing to die?”
Usque adeone mori miserum est?
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book XII, Line 646 (tr. Alexander Thomson)
“Yield not to misfortunes, but advance all the more boldly against them.”
Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 95
“Cease to think that the decrees of the gods can be changed by prayers.”
Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 376
“The leader of the enterprise a woman.”
Dux femina facti.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 364 (tr. Fairclough); of Dido.
“Your honor, your name, your praise will live forever.”
Semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 609 (tr. Fagles); Aeneas to Dido.
“Blessings on your young courage, boy; that's the way to the stars.”
Macte nova virtute, puer, sic itur ad astra.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IX, Line 641
“If only Jupiter would give me back
The past years and the man I was…”
O mihi praeteritos referat si Iuppiter annos.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VIII, Line 560 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald)
“Some day, perhaps, remembering even this
Will be a pleasure.”
Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 203 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald)
“Who can deceive a lover?”
Quis fallere possit amantem?
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Line 296
“Amid the friendly silence of the peaceful moon.”
Tacitae per amica silentia lunae.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Line 255 (tr. Fairclough)
“Friends and companions,
Have we not known hard hours before this?
My men, who have endured still greater dangers,
God will grant us an end to these as well.”
O socii—neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum—
O passi graviora, dabit deus his quoque finem.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Lines 198–199 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald)
“Rumor, swiftest of all the evils in the world.”
Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Line 174 (tr. Robert Fagles)
“Who could tell such things and still refrain from tears?”
Quis talia fando
Temperet a lacrimis?
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Lines 6 and 8 (tr. Fagles)
