This is a very welcome addition to the vast scholarship on Virgil's Aeneid, and to the increasing focus therein on the use of space and the development of national identities. F.'s thesis is that in the course of his journey to Italy and by means of the directions he receives, Aeneas learns to love his destination as a homeland, and is consequently prepared to fight for it when he arrives. At the heart of Aeneas' travels lies the mid-first century issue of a double patria which Cicero discusses in De legibus: from the Late Republic onwards, people identify themselves as having two homelands, namely their birthplace and Rome, the latter necessarily taking precedence over the former. Likewise, F. persuasively argues, Virgil shows how Aeneas gets over his love for Troy, stops trying to recreate his past and starts to develop a strong affection and loyalty for Italy, a new patria he has never seen but whose picture is slowly pieced together from the information he collects on his way there.

The book offers a largely linear reading of Aeneid 1–6 in as many chapters, followed by a final section detailing the journeys Aeneas undertakes within Italy. In the course of his journey, Aeneas receives travel instructions through prophecy and vision, mostly from relatives and compatriots, but also from divine agents. F. examines these directions in terms of their function in a plot that fits the pattern of colonisation narratives. This explains the presentation of the Aeneid as a ktistic epic from the very beginning of Book 1, and the various divine interventions which authorise Aeneas' movements. It justifies too the Trojans' decision gradually to leave behind the women and the elderly in order to turn into a militarily active colonising force as they near their final destination. This is also why the success of Aeneas' mission rests on marriage, announced by Creusa in Book 2, and fought for in the second half of the poem: his union to Lavinia ensures both the end of wanderings and the fulfilment of the prophecy regarding the foundation of a new race.

At the same time a clear development is noticeable in another colonisation process, the naming of new places: at the beginning of their journey the Trojans reuse the place names of their Asian homeland, but when they get to Italy they start naming the new places after their fellow travellers who die there. As F. points out, the shifting of names supports the idea that place is not something fixed but depends on perspective, and is ultimately closely linked to its inhabitants. Thus, Aeneas' destination has three names (Hesperia, Italia, Ausonia – all found together in the prophecy of the Penates in Book 3), depending on the group of people naming it, and consequently laying a claim on it.

National identity is also in flux. In Carthage, even though a large part of their travels has already taken place (narrated in Books 2 and 3, during which the travellers still retain much of their connection to Troy), Aeneas is tempted to stay with Dido, a seemingly successfully settled fellow wanderer, because he does not yet fully see Rome as his patria. A first step in that direction is made towards the end of Book 4, after a necessary divine intervention, when Aeneas realises that it is not just for his own sake, but also for his son's that he must seek Italy. The process is completed by the end of Book 6, when the vision Anchises presents to him makes him realise that the purpose of his journey transcends his immediate family to affect their descendants and all future Romans. F. stresses Anchises' emphasis on mixed ancestry in the Underworld, which is balanced by Evander as an example of a successfully integrated foreigner in Book 8, and which reaches its climax in Book 12 when Jupiter and Juno agree the terms of the reconciliation. Trojans and Latins will become a single Italian nation, and Aeneas' old patria, Troy, will be completely subsumed into his new one, Rome.

The transformation of Aeneas' ships into nymphs in Book 10 signals the end of his travels, and concludes the identification of the Trojans with their fleet which runs throughout the poem, often coinciding with the motif of fatigue that characterises the travelling heroes. As F. points out, their wanderings are not unrealistic in the context of ancient travel, especially since the Trojans have no access to navigational aids of any kind (whether maps or travelogues such as periploi and itineraria), nor previous experience. At the same time, these wanderings contribute to the process of developing a new national identity, as they provide the necessary time for it to be understood and embraced.

Finally, F. offers a new explanation of the presence of inconsistencies in the directions Aeneas receives through prophecies: they are both to be expected in real travel in the ancient world, and instrumental in conveying the development of Aeneas' knowledge of and feelings for his destination. But prophecies also fulfil a second, equally important role in the poem: they offer a view of Italy which resonates with Virgil's audience – alongside the shifting names of the Roman world, they cast it in a strange and yet familiar light. As Aeneas progressively falls in love with Italy, even before he has caught a glimpse of it, so the readers of the Aeneid are offered an outsider's perspective which enhances their own love for their all-encompassing Roman patria.