The is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil from 29 to 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy. The second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins. The hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the Iliad; Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas' wanderings and fashioned them into a founding myth that at once tied Rome to the legends of Troy and gods of Rome and Troy.