from Book I

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ob oris

Italiam fato, profugus laviniaque venit

Litora - multum ille et terris iactatus et alto

vi superum, saevae memorem Junonis ob iram,

multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem

inferretque deos Latio - genus unde Latinum

Albanique patres atque altae moenia Romae.

Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso

quidve dolens regina deum tot volvere casus

insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores

impulerit.  Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?

~ Vergil (Aeneid I.1-11)

I sing of arms and a man, who first from the shores of Troy,

exiled by Fate, came to Italy and the Lavinian shores

-that man, having been tossed much on land and on sea

by the power of the gods above, on account of the unforgiving wrath of cruel Juno,

and also having suffered many things in war, until he could found the city

and bring the gods into Latium - from whence comes the Latin race

and the Alban fathers and the walls of high Rome.

Muse, relate to me the causes, with what divine will thwarted

or grieving at what would the Queen of the gods drive a man,

distinguished by such loyalty, to undergo so many hazards,

and encounter so many trials.  Can heavenly minds hold such angers?