Virgil died in Brundisium (Brindisi), Italy, instructing that his unfinished Aeneid manuscript be burned, but Emperor Augustus overruled and published it. The epic on Rome's founding survived through copies, but original drafts and variants were lost. This occurred in the context of Roman literary patronage in southern Italy.

The survival and editing shaped Western epic poetry traditions, influencing Dante, Milton, and others who modeled works on Virgil. It raises questions of authorial intent in literary criticism and poetry, inspiring meta-poetic reflections on creation and preservation.