This edition, originally published in 1953 in the admirable Methuen Classical Texts series, has been in print ever since. It's longevity is deserved; for it remains a very fine edition, manageable at different levels of attainment. Maguinness had chiefly in mind students at sixth-form or early university level but, for the benefit of less practised students taking GCSE or in their second year of Latin bugun at University, he wisely included a Vocabulary (marked with syllable lengths to tie in with his very useful section on scansion and reading aloud) and a considerable amount of fairly elementary linguistic matter in the Notes. The Introduction gives an outline of the background knowledge needed by a beginner in Virgilian studies. For a succinct and always level-headed approach to the "Aeneid", this remains a splendid edition - one for which more advanced Virgilians still have every reason to be thankful; and Book XII gives an excellent flavour of the whole epic and the meaning of its constantly enigmatic closure.

W.S Maguinness was Professor of Latin at King's College, University of London, UK.