Books, Arts & Manners: Arms and the Man

The Aeneid of Virgil, translated by Robert Fitzgerald

Random House, 403 pp., $13.95 The Aeneid is indisputably the central poem of the West. It tells the story of Aeneas, who sets out from Troy, his conquered homeland, obedient to the commands of the gods that he establish the city of Rome and the empire that was to define Europe. This journey has a fateful quality similar to that of Abraham’s departure from Ur of the Chaldees to establish God’s kingdom in Canaan. Both voyages represent turning points in history; both contributed incalculably to the shape of our civilization.

RR

About the Author

Robert Royal

Robert Royal is editor in chief of The Catholic Thing and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. His most recent book is A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century.

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The Aeneid of Virgil, translated by Robert Fitzgerald

Random House, 403 pp., $13.95 The Aeneid is indisputably the central poem of the West. It tells the story of Aeneas, who sets out from Troy, his conquered homeland, obedient to the commands of the gods that he establish the city of Rome and the empire that was to define Europe. This journey has a fateful quality similar to that of Abraham’s departure from Ur of the Chaldees to establish God’s kingdom in Canaan. Both voyages represent turning points in history; both contributed incalculably to the shape of our civilization.

RR

About the Author

Robert Royal

Robert Royal is editor in chief of The Catholic Thing and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. His most recent book is A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century.