Question

What happened to Dante that led him to write epic poetry?

Answer 1

I think this is the answer not sure.

He was exiled from Florence for political reasons. Very roughly speaking, Dante was an advocate of a strong Holy Roman Emperor, and thought Florence should subject itself to the HRE. This made him two sets of enemies: those who thought Florence should rule itself, and those who wanted to ally it with the secular claims of the Papacy.