In composing his masterpiece, the "Aeneid," Vergil used colors as none of his predecessors had done. In place of the largely formulaic and functional employment of color, Vergil wove a complex network of chromatic allusions, linking episode to episode, developing a set of color themes or -chords- which strongly influence the reader's response to key passages in the epic. This study further argues that Vergil anticipated a favorite device of modern film makers by -shooting- certain sections of the poem in color and others in black and white. Long appreciated for its intellectual and ethical dimensions, the "Aeneid" must also be seen as a masterful appeal to the senses."