Virgil's Aeneid, Frederick Ahl, c. 2007 -- Part 1

This was very problematic for me. I don't have shelf-room for any more books in the apartment. I have to be very, very discriminative when deciding what books to buy. I've struggled over this one for quite some time, a copy of Virgil's Aeneid. I have never "understood" the Aeneid and never had any interest. But after "reading" a copy of Frederick Ahl's 2007 translation has me captivated.

So, I finally sent off for a hardback copy. It will go not the shelf next to the Odyssey. I don't think I have a cop of the Iliad.

Ahl's translation is easy to read and the notes are incredible. For the first time ever, I really understand the Aeneid.

My problem now is how to take notes on the book. Where does one start? How does one even begin?

Important dates:

• Troy fell probably in 13th / 12th century; actual collapse may have been due to earthquake; probably tries of skirmishes between Greece and Trojans that lasted a decade (or longer)
• Homer probably lived around 650 BC
• Athenians defeat the Persians: 480 BC 
• Golden era of Greece: 5th century BC; under leadership of Pericles, 495 - 429 BC; 15 years old when Athenians crushed the Persians
• Tragedy: during the 50-year golden era of Greece, following the defeat of the Persians
• Aeschylus: 525 - 455 BC -- about 80 years old when he died; middle-aged/older when Persians defeated
• Sophocles: 496 - 406 BC -- about 16 years old when Athenians defeated the Persians; 90 years old
• Euripides: 480 - 406 BC -- 74 years old; born the same year the Athenians defeat the Persians
• Socrates: 470 - 399 BC -- overlapped with Euripides; ten years younger than Euripides
  Plato: 428 - 348 BC -- lived to be 76 years old
• Aristotle: 384 - 322 BC -- lived to be 62 years old
• Alexander the Great: 356 - 323 BC; his father enrolled him with Aristotle
• Caesar Augustus: founder of the Roman Empire; its first emperor, 63 BC - 14 AD
• Virgil: 79 BC - 19 BC; the Aeneid never completed; "finished" when Virgil died about 20 BC