Author: Gabriel Josipovici (Great Britain 1940)
Genre: Radio play
Production: RIAS 1992
Director: Götz Naleppa
Length: 90 min.
Translation: Hubert von Bechtolsheim
Sound and technology: Lutz Pahl; Schwutke

Contributors:
Vergil: Jürgen Hentsch

Content: 'Brindisi, not Athens as hoped. It was to be a new beginning. Finally, no more poetry. No more lies. Truth. Peaceful study of truth. And now?'
In the palace of Emperor Augustus at Brindisi, the Roman poet Publius Vergilius Marus (70 BC - 19 BC) has arrived in poor health after crossing from Athens. After a period of exile and itinerant life, a triumphant return is to await him in Rome. A festival is just being held to celebrate the emperor's birthday. Vergil, however, retreats and in his last night wrestles with doubts about the validity of his great, fragmentary work, the "Aeneid". He wants to destroy it, cannot accept its artistic imperfection. But he fails, accepting the incomplete and fleeting nature of life and art - as well as, finally, his approaching death.