The selections from Pliny, Virgil and Roman and Greek myth allow students to work with short extracts to practice their skills in unprepared translation.
Roman poet Virgil, also Vergil, originally Publius Vergilius Maro, composed the Aeneid, an epic telling after the sack of Troy of the wanderings of Aeneas.
Seven years later, I can still intone "At regina gravi iam dudum saucia cura" with the correct scansion. I was never good at Latin, but I loved reading this text; Virgil is why everyone should learn latin. I've never been able to read the Aenied, because every translation since has felt so dead and wooden than I can't do it.
Read this an uncountable amount of times to memorise it (prescribed text) and still love it. Ending especially poignant as Virgil paints a beautiful image of the Iris descending from heaven on saffron wings, trailing rainbows, to allow Dido to die.
The Austin commentary on Book IV of the Aeneid focuses on the rhetorical and aesthetic qualities of the poem. Particularly delightful are the liberal samples with which Austin allows us to hear the echoes of Virgil's poetry in its English, French, and Italian successors. The historical, philosophical, and religious background of story is of less interest to Austin.