The great poem of empire and its price. Aeneas carries his father from burning Troy and founds Rome; the cost is everything he has, including his love for Dido, his humanity, his happiness. Virgil's melancholy undertow ("sunt lacrimae rerum") transforms triumphalist epic into something far more troubled. Dante chose Virgil as his guide for good reason.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.