THE DEATH OF VIRGIL Hermann BrochPantheon Books ($5.50).
THE PINE TREE AND THE MOLEEnzio TaddeiDial ($2.50).
The ships of the imperial squadron were heading for the Adriatic port of Brundisium (Brindisi). The largest ship carried vast purple sails; its prow bore a golden lion's head. Lounging in a tent beneath the ornamented rigging was Augustus Octavian Caesar, Emperor of Italy, Gaul and the lands of the Nile. Lying on a pallet in the next ship was the Roman poet Virgil, coughing 'blood and clutching the manuscript of his unfinished masterpiece, The Aeneid.
Virgil was...