s was expressly desired
by Augustus to revise and publish the _Aeneid_.

Donatus, 'Egerat cum Vario, priusquam Italia decederet, ut si quid
sibi accidisset Aeneida combureret; sed is facturum se pernegarat ...
Edidit autem auctore Augusto Varius, sed summatim emendata, ut qui
versus etiam imperfectos sicut erant reliquerit.'

This account is corroborated by Pliny the elder, _N.H._ vii. 114,
Gellius, and Macrobius.

The rules laid down to the editors by the Emperor were, according to
Servius, 'ut superflua demerent, nihil adderent tamen.'

It seems probable that the _Aeneid_ was published B.C. 17, for it is
in the _Carmen Saeculare_ of that year that Horace first alludes to
the story of Aeneas (cf. l. 50, 'clarus Anchisae Venerisque sanguis'),
and in the fourth Book of the _Odes_ (four years later) it is more
than once introduced.

The _choice of the subject_ was influenced (1) by the personal desire
of the Emperor; (2) by the connexion of the Caesarian house with
Venus, through Iulus;[51] cf. the invention of Atys (_Aen._ v. 568) by
Virgil to please Augustus, whose mother was Atia; (3) by Virgil's
design to write an epic on the greatness of Rome, in the manner of
Homer.

_The Aeneas Legend._--Stesichorus of Himera, among other writers, made
Aeneas, a Homeric hero (cf. _Il._ xx. 307-8), settle in Italy; and
Naevius is said to have adopted the legend in the form given by
Timaeus, the Sicilian historian of the third century B.C. The legend
probably arose from the worship of Aphrodite on the coasts of Italy,
and was disseminated by the Greeks of Cumae to please the Romans. The
connexion of Rome with Troy had been officially recognized for two
hundred years (cf. Sueton. _Claud._ 25), and, though not a popular
belief, had been accepted in literature from the time of Naevius.

_Sources of the Aeneid._--1. Earlier Roman poets as Naevius, Ennius,
Pacuvius, Accius, Lucilius, Hostius, Varro Atacinus, Lucretius. For
details see under these names.

2. Cato's _Origines_ and Varro's _Antiquitates_, for Italian legends
and peoples.

3. _Ius pontificium_ and _ius augurale_, as found in the books of
sacred colleges (Macrob. i. 24, 16). Cf. the ritual meaning of
_porricio_ (v. 776), _porrigo_ (viii. 274), the habit of praying with
veiled head (iii. 405), prayer to Apollo of Soracte (xi. 785).

4. Greek sources: (_a_) particularly the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, but
also the Homeric Hymns and Cyclic Poems. Thus the games in Book v.