One feature of the Aeneid that certainly defies translation is its imagery - "for," as the great Bernard Knox wrote, "in the complexity of a great poet's imagery we must recognise a mystery which lies beyond the frontiers of conscious art". Knox found, and in his classic essay, The Serpent and the Flame, carefully pointed out, the image of a serpent that dominates Book 2 as a kind of obsessive metaphor, appearing again and again, explicitly and implicitly. What he realised but could only begin to explore was that his serpent - the presence of which is undeniable - was just a local example of a broad process. Repeated images, echoes and recurring variations on a visual theme act as veins of meaning that course and intertwine throughout the fabric of the poem, and create their own complex narratives.

How well does Ruden's, or any other translation, capture this? The answer is: inadequately. The Aeneid is ultimately too dense and too important a poem to be read only in English, but with the tribe of Latin poetry readers hurtling ever closer to extinction, we may have to settle for the next best thing - lots of different translations. They are all hit and miss, but between them they give us a great deal of what the Aeneid has to offer. Ruden's is an outstanding addition to the fold.