Short answers, pulled from the story.
Os Lusíadas first appeared in print in 1572, three years after Luís de Camões returned from the Indies. Historical records confirm that the ten cantos were composed over many years before this final publication date.
The text contains exactly 1,102 stanzas written in ottava rima rhyme scheme ABABABCC. Each stanza holds eight lines of decasyllabic verse, totaling 8,816 lines across the entire work.
Luís de Camões wrote much of this epic while living as an exile in Macau during the mid-16th century. This remote outpost served as a quiet refuge for a man who had faced imprisonment and poverty throughout his life.
Camões dedicated the finished work to King Sebastian of Portugal, hoping to secure royal favor through verse. The epilogue begins at stanza 145 of Canto X, concluding the epic journey with advice for young King Sebastian.
Egas Moniz appears during Dom Afonso Henriques' reign alongside the Battle of Ourique, and Nuno Álvares Pereira leads forces during the Crisis of 1383 until the Battle of Aljubarrota. Other figures include Vasco da Gama, Fernão Veloso, Martim Afonso de Sousa, and João de Castro.