The Aeneid by Virgil Books 7-12

After reading The Iliad, we turn our attention to Aeneas who escapes burning Troy to be the founder of another settlement, ancestral of the great city of Rome.
For the last meeting, we will discuss the second half of the epic (books 7-12) - the "Iliadic" part of the book.

"Erato—who were the kings, the tides and times, how stood
the old Latin state when that army of intruders
first beached their fleet on Italian shores?
All that I will unfold, I will recall how the battle first began . . .
And you, goddess, inspire your singer, come!
I will tell of horrendous wars, tell of battle lines
and princes fired with courage, driven to their deaths,
Etruscan battalions, all Hesperia called to arms.
A greater tide of events springs up before me now,
I launch a greater labor."

- The second invocation of the muse in Robert Fagles' translation