The Aeneid

By: Scott McGill - translator, Susannah Wright - translator, Emily Wilson - introduction, Virgil

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Emily Wilson

Rome’s epic origin story, brilliantly rendered in a vivid, rhythmic idiom.

Crafted during the reign of Augustus Caesar at the outset of the Roman Empire, Virgil’s Aeneid is a tale of thrilling adventure, extreme adversity, doomed romance, fateful battles, and profound loss. Through its stirring account of human struggle, meddling gods, and conflicting destinies, the poem brings to life the triumphs and trials that led to one of the most powerful societies the world has ever known. Unlike its Homeric predecessors, which arose from a long oral tradition, the Aeneid was composed by a singular poetic genius, and it has ever since been celebrated as one of the greatest literary achievements of antiquity.

This exciting new edition of the Aeneid, the first collaborative translation of the poem in English, is rendered in unrhymed iambic pentameter, the English meter that corresponds best, in its history and cultural standing, to Virgil’s dactylic hexameter. Scott McGill and Susannah Wright achieve an ideal middle ground between readability and elevation, engaging modern listeners with fresh, contemporary language in a heart-pounding, propulsive rhythm, while also preserving the epic dignity of the original. The result is a brisk, eminently approachable translation that captures Virgil’s sensitive balance between celebrating the Roman Empire and dramatizing its human costs, for victors and vanquished alike. This Aeneid is a poem in English every bit as complex, inviting, and affecting as the Latin original.

With a rich and informative introduction from Emily Wilson, maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, genealogies, extensive notes, and helpful summaries of each book, this gorgeous edition of Rome’s founding poem will capture the imaginations and stir the souls of a new generation of listeners.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2025 Emily Wilson, Translation copyright 2025 by Scott McGill and Susannah Wright (P)2025 Audible Inc.

An amazing audiobook

I really like this audiobook,

it did everything right. a good narrator, authors that took the effort to write in poetic rythem, and an accompanying pdf.

Highly recommended if you like mythology

It's okay

Nothing to comment on the performance, which was adequate, but -- dare I say it -- I didn't much care for the story. The Aeneid is often mentioned as the greatest epic since Homer but I far preferred the Iliad and the Odyssey. It's mainly because of Aeneas who as a hero is rather meh. He just piously rolls with the punches and lacks agency. The supporting characters like Dido were much more interesting.

Extraordinary

The epic is as compelling as when I first read it 60 years ago, and many times since. The translation is remarkable. The performance is a sheer delight.

A bit of a mixed experience

2.5 Stars
Reading The Aeneid by Virgil (translation by Scott McGill, with an introduction by Emily Wilson) was a mixed experience for me — and honestly, the highlight of the entire book was Wilson’s introduction.

I’ve long admired Emily Wilson’s work — her biography of Seneca was stellar — and her framing of Virgil, Augustus, and the political-cultural moment that produced The Aeneid was the most engaging part of the edition. She does a wonderful job situating the poem as both literature and statecraft.

Now, I may be in the minority here, but epic poetry just may not be my thing. This is my third foray into the genre, and while I respect its place in the classical canon, it doesn’t grab me the way ancient history does. Give me the lived reality of Rome and Greece — the politics, the personalities, the rise and fall of real empires — that’s my wheelhouse.

What fascinated me most wasn’t the narrative itself, but the historical machinery behind it. Learning how Virgil operated within the cultural orbit of Augustus — and how the regime, in a sense, commissioned a foundational myth of Rome — was far more compelling to me than Aeneas’s journey.

And to be fair, The Aeneid has all the epic ingredients:
   •   Blood and battlefield carnage
   •   Long, perilous quests
   •   Gods meddling in human affairs
   •   Monsters and mythic showdowns
   •   A grand attempt to rival Homer

It’s all there.

But much like my experiences with The Iliad and The Odyssey, I found the idea of the epic more exciting than the reading experience itself.

I fully recognize the poem’s literary power and historical importance — especially as Augustan propaganda wrapped in sublime verse — but when it comes to my personal reading enjoyment…

Give me Adrian Goldsworthy anytime.