Virgil (70 BCE–19 CE), born Publius Vergilius Maro in Mantua, in northern Italy, is one of ancient Rome's greatest poets. He wrote three major works: the Eclogues (c. 37 BCE), pastoral poems influenced by Theocritus; the Georgics (c. 29 BCE), a didactic poem on agriculture and rural life that celebrates the Italian landscape; and the Aeneid, an epic in twelve books recounting the journey of Aeneas from Troy to the founding of Rome, left unfinished at his death. The Aeneid became the foundational text of Roman imperial identity and one of the most influential works in Western literary history, shaping Dante, Milton, and countless others. Virgil was closely associated with the patron Maecenas and Emperor Augustus.