Accepting gifts has its own pressures, especially if it is Greeks bearing gifts. Many well-read people believe Homer is the author of the famous story about Odysseus devising a hollow horse to allow the Greek invaders to slip in and capture Troy. Hyde Flippo, a linguist writing for About.com, notes that Homer's "Iliad" ends before Odysseus comes up with the Trojan horse deception. "The Odyssey" takes place after the fall of Troy.

It is Virgil's "Aeneid," written in Latin, that fills the gaps between those two events. Publius Vergilius Maro, known to his fans as Virgil, was commissioned to write a national epic of Rome by none other than Caesar Augustus, which certainly carried a variety of incentives.

As Heywood pointed out, "Nothing is impossible to a willing heart." Homer spoke to Virgil in a way that really resonated, so when Augustus offered to pay Virgil to do something he ached to do, he aligned with Heywood, who wrote, "No man ought to look a gift horse in the mouth."

Gifts come in all forms, and the opportunity to spend years researching and composing in verse the history of Rome was perhaps the best gift Virgil ever received.