Themes

Fate and Free Will Jupiter's prophecy of empire in Book I, which Aeneas fulfills without choosing, and the scale that weighs Turnus's fate in Book XII. Duty Aeneas leaves Dido on the gods' orders in Book IV, and loyalty to father and son runs through the whole poem. War the siege of the Trojan camp and the night raid of Nisus and Euryalus in Book IX. Empire and Colonialism the shield that engraves the future history of Rome in Book VIII. Home, Exile, and Return the fall of Troy and the flight with the household gods in Book II, and the wandering without rest in Book III. Passion Dido's love and her death on the pyre in Book IV.