By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Furiously engrossed in our present, intensely focused on our future, we still retain the wisdom to keep an eye on the past. Academics help bring the past to the present, so our future may reap the benefits. The classic works of the ancients, the holy books of religion, the great plays of Shakespeare, remain cultural icons, affording us an aesthetic pleasure, a sense of completeness and a prelude to the understanding of a far richer past. This vast, intense foundation of our history offers us a vivid insight in what the future might be. In themselves, the ancient works are neither antiquated, rigid or boring, they are intriguing and entertaining. They stimulate, swiftly and suddenly, rather like a shock, and you read and read, for their merits alone. Best-selling authors, have for the past millennia, found inspiration and indeed prosperity in revisiting the ancients. A vigorous new revival is taking place right now, injecting new life in the ancient masters. A new translation of Virgil's The Aenid by Robert Fagles, has realised favourable rewards, and why should it not! Fagles is a seasoned translator of Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, it is only natural to move on from Greece to Rome, to the complex beauty of Virgil's The Aenid. Virgil (70 -- 19 BC) was ancient Rome's greatest poet and remains among the most outstanding poets of all time. Aenid, his masterpiece, is the national epic of Rome. Virgil's verse was widely used throughout the ages, serving as inspiration and guidance to religious leaders, poets, authors throughout Europe and beyond. Copies of Virgil's Aenid were kept in Roman temples, and priests foretold prophecy by randomly opening the poem and interpreting the first words read. By 100AD, Roman schools used Virgil's works as textbooks and later Christian writers used verses from Virgil's poems to express their own beliefs. During the Middle Ages, Virgil grew larger in stature among Christians who regarded him as a prophet who had foreseen the coming of the Christ. Some even considered him a magician. His magic continued to cast its spell on the likes of Dante Alighieri who based his Divine Comedy on the sixth book of The Aenid, where Virgil, his literary master, guides Dante on his journey through hell and purgatory Renaissance poets idolised Virgil, and English writers of later years such as John Milton ( Paradise Lost ) regarded him as the ideal poet. John Dryden translated The Aenid in the 1600s. As recently as Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth (1800s) were greatly influenced by him. Now comes our chance to taste of the sweet fruits of Virgil's labour. He will take you up to the top of the mountain with his many miracles of lyricism and sagaciousness. If poetry is not your cup of tea, a new novel by Robert Harris will bring ancient Rome alive. You can journey back into time to the latter half of the first century to the glorious Republic of Rome, walk through its cobbled alleys, linger behind the Forum to witness the hostilities, conspiracies, and struggles of senators, judges, generals, and gladiators. In The Imperium Harris recreates a gripping tale of twists and turns, suspense and surprises, that reads more like a modern thriller. He engages us in a world, 2000 years old, with heroes possessing the great quality of life's secret quintessence, the same life we were blessed with then, and now. Imperium is written in the form of a memoir. Tiro, the conteur is a learned slave (credited in history for inventing shorthand), to one of the greatest and most prolific writers in ancient history, soldier, poet, philosopher, orator, and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero, the subject of the Imperium. Cicero was responsible for developing a style in Latin prose that has become the basis of literary expression in the language of Europe. His orations have been among the most commonly studied Latin works. Harris has written an earlier novel on ancient Rome, Pompeii, a thriller about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (79AD). The historic novel pops up periodically to adorn shelves in bookstores, often drawing public interest and brisk sales. It was not too long ago that Lindsey Davis entertained and enlightened, and continues to do so, with her "Falco" novels of Flavian Rome. If Falco, the Roman informer, were to shed his toga and sandals, he could be transformed into a modern-day private eye, in a world that looks different from today, yet eerily similar. We are beholden to feature film and television, that have kept alive history's classics. Time and again they visit the ancients, in a popular genre that is filled with pageantry and drama. Though their course of destiny is clearly charted, they send us rushing to our libraries to quench our thirst for more knowledge. The Gladiator (2000) success was a prime example of how a simple story of loyalty love, honour, and bravery, set in ancient Rome (180 -- 192AD), can touch a nerve among the young and old of the third millennium. Will the glory of Rome ever be abandoned by filmmakers? Television does not shy away from such pageantry either. I Claudius, novels by Robert Graves which deal sympathetically with the life of Roman Emperor Claudius were made into a successful TV series. A new HBO-BBC series Rome, a historical drama produced in Italy's Cinnecitta, is starting its second season 14 January 2007, depicting the violent transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. From Jerusalem, to Greece, to ancient Rome, books abound on history's remarkable characters with all their virtues and vices, illuminating the depth of the individual soul. What came before is the foundation of what is, and what will come to pass. Is it any wonder that the land of Virgil, Cicero, Ovid, and Dante, Italy, in all its ancient and modern splendour, is the honoured guest of this year's Cairo International Book Fair! And what an honour it is! Consider your origins! You were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge Divina Comedia "Inferno" Dante Alighieri (1265 -- 1321)
