The Aeneid by Virgil

Virgil's poem, from the first century BCE, aims to legitimize Roman superiority and the rule of the Caesars with a story of how Trojan Prince Aeneas, fleeing the sack of Troy, establishes a line of new rulers in Italy after conquering the native Latins and marrying Lavinia. Virgil reworks the Greek epics the Iliad and Odyssey with episodes of meddling gods, the seduction and abandonment of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and long speeches, battles, lists of the slain, and detailed discussion of the spoils of war.