Aeneas was a Trojan hero who fled the fall of Troy. Greek colonists expanding into Magna Graecia and Sicily during the sixth century BC adopted stories of Aeneas to create a shared cultural identity with native populations.
Virgil wrote the Aeneid during the reign of Augustus Caesar and died in Brundisium harbour on the 21st of September 19 BC. He traveled to Greece around 19 BC to revise the poem but caught a fever near Megara and left instructions for the manuscript to be burned.
Books one through six follow the pattern of the Odyssey detailing Aeneas' wanderings across the Mediterranean while Books seven through twelve mirror the Iliad focusing on warfare between the Trojans and the Latins. This structural division reflects Virgil's ambition to treat both wandering themes and warfare themes within a single work.
Queen Dido committed suicide by stabbing herself on a pyre using Aeneas' sword after Mercury arrived to remind Aeneas of his duty to leave for Italy. Her final words invoke an avenging spirit that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for future wars including the rise of Hannibal from her bones.
Pietas defined selfless duty toward filial religious and societal obligations throughout ancient Rome and appears as pious Aeneas twenty times within the poem. He embodies this virtue by carrying his father Anchises from burning Troy despite having no hope of help and venturing into the underworld fulfilling his father's wishes.