 DATE: Octavia is asked for some poetry, and quotes the lines  starting "Easy it is to descend into hell ...", a famous passage  from Vergils Aeneid. At this point Julius Caesar is still alive  (therefore 44 BC at the latest). In fact the Aeneid was written at  the end of Vergils life, 30 to 19 BC, when Augustus (Octavian) was  emperor.