Historical etching of a scene from Virgil's Aeneid: the Cumaean Sibyl leads Aeneas through the underworld to the Golden Bough, enabling Aeneas to cross the river Styx. Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC) was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature: the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid.