Books I to VI
After the fall of Troy, in the mythic world of the ancient Mediterranean, the Trojan prince Aeneas leads the survivors who escaped the city destroyed by the Greeks. A destiny announced by the gods orders them to found a new homeland in Italy, and the goddess Juno, who hates the Trojans, does everything to prevent them. It is this dispute between fate and a goddess's anger that moves the story.
Seven years after the flight, the fleet sails from Sicily toward Italy when Juno bribes Aeolus, the king of the winds, and a storm scatters the ships. Neptune calms the sea, and seven ships reach the coast of Libya. On Olympus, Jupiter consoles Venus, mother of Aeneas, with the prophecy that he will found a city in Latium, that his son Ascanius will reign after him, and that Rome will be born of his line, with an empire without limit of time or space. In Carthage, the city that Queen Dido, who fled from Tyre, is building in North Africa, Aeneas is received with hospitality, and Venus sends Cupid, disguised as Ascanius, to kindle in Dido passion for him. At the banquet, the queen asks him to tell his story.
In Books II and III, Aeneas himself is the narrator. He recounts the last night of Troy: the wooden horse that the Greeks pretend to leave as an offering, the Greek Sinon who persuades the Trojans to take it inside the walls, the serpents that kill the priest Laocoön when he grows suspicious, the warriors who come out of the horse's belly at night and open the gates. Aeneas sees King Priam die, is prevented by Venus from killing Helen, and flees with his father on his shoulders, his son by the hand and the household gods. On the way he loses his wife, Creusa, and her shade announces a long exile. In Book III he relates the seven years of wandering: a misunderstood oracle leads the Trojans to Crete, from where a plague drives them out, the Harpies prophesy that they will wall in a city only when hunger forces them to gnaw their own tables, the group narrowly escapes the Cyclops Polyphemus, and at Drepanum, in Sicily, Anchises dies.
Book IV returns to Carthage. Dido, seized by love, and Aeneas take shelter in the same cave during a storm while hunting, and she calls what she lived with him a marriage. Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his mission, and he quietly prepares to leave. Dido confronts him, he answers that he departs by the order of the gods, and she curses him. Dido has a pyre raised with his belongings; when the ships sail, she curses Aeneas, asks that an avenger be born from her bones, lies down on the sword he left behind and dies.
In Book V the Trojans see the glow of the pyre from afar and veer toward Sicily, where they celebrate with games the anniversary of Anchises' death. Incited by Juno, the women set fire to the ships, and four are lost. On the next voyage, the pilot Palinurus falls into the sea while sleeping. In Book VI, at Cumae, the Sibyl guides Aeneas, who gathers a golden bough, and the two descend to the world of the dead. He finds Dido, who turns her back on him, and in Elysium his father Anchises shows him the souls of the Romans yet to come, from Romulus to Augustus, and sums up Rome's mission for him: to rule the peoples, spare the conquered and subdue the proud.
Books VII to XII
In Book VII the Trojans reach the mouth of the Tiber, in Latium. King Latinus welcomes Aeneas because an oracle told him that his daughter Lavinia would marry a foreigner, but Queen Amata wants to marry her to Turnus, young chief of the Rutulians. Juno sends the Fury Allecto, who drives Amata and Turnus mad, and a deer wounded by Ascanius provokes the first deaths. Latinus refuses to open the gates of War, and Juno herself pushes them open. All of Italy arms itself, and the list of Turnus's allies ends with Camilla, the warrior queen of the Volsci.
In Book VIII Aeneas sails up the Tiber and forms an alliance with the Arcadian king Evander, who rules a poor settlement where Rome will one day stand, and who entrusts to him his son Pallas and a troop of cavalry. Venus asks Vulcan, her husband, for arms for her son, and he engraves on the shield the future history of Rome, up to the battle of Actium and Augustus's triumph. In Book IX, with Aeneas absent, Turnus surrounds the Trojan camp and nearly burns the ships, which break loose and turn into sea nymphs. Nisus and Euryalus, two young friends, try to cross the enemy lines to warn Aeneas and die in the attempt. Turnus manages to enter the camp, but is repulsed and flees by the river.
In Book X the gods argue and Jupiter refuses to take sides. Pallas dies at the hand of Turnus, who strips the baldric from him as a trophy, and Aeneas, seized with fury, kills without sparing anyone, up to Mezentius, the Etruscan king who scorned the gods, and his son Lausus. In Book XI Aeneas sends the body of Pallas back to his father, accepts a truce to bury the dead, and the Latins divide between asking for peace and following Turnus. Camilla fights at the head of the cavalry and is killed by Aruns, and Diana orders her to be avenged.
In Book XII Turnus demands a duel with Aeneas, and the two sides swear a pact that unravels the same day, through a maneuver by Juturna, Turnus's sister. Aeneas is wounded by an arrow and healed by Venus. Amata, who believes Turnus dead, hangs herself. Jupiter weighs the fate of the two, Turnus's sword shatters against the armor of Vulcan, and after the pursuit, Juno gives up resisting and obtains that the Latins keep their name and their language. Felled by a spear, Turnus begs to be spared or for his body to be returned to his father. Aeneas hesitates, until he sees the baldric of Pallas on the shoulder of the vanquished, and kills him, and Turnus's life flees with a groan, indignant, to the shades.