Virgil

I

Introduction

Virgil (70-19 bc), Roman poet, author of the masterpiece the Aeneid, the most influential work of literature produced in ancient Rome.

II

Life

Virgil was born Publius Vergilius Maro in Andes, a village in northern Italy near Mantua (Mantova). His father was a farmer. Virgil was thoroughly educated in Greek and Roman literature, rhetoric, and philosophy in the Italian cities of Cremona, Milan, Rome, and Naples. The patronage of Roman statesman Gaius Maecenas relieved him of financial cares and allowed him to devote himself wholly to literary pursuits and to study. He spent the greater part of his life at or near Naples and Nola, numbering among his intimate friends his patron Maecenas; Octavian, who became Emperor Augustus during Virgil's lifetime; and many prominent poets, among them Gaius Cornelius Gallus, Horace, and Lucius Varius Rufus. In 19 bc Virgil set out on a trip to Greece and Asia with the intention of revising his masterpiece, the Aeneid, already substantially completed, and then of devoting the remainder of his life to philosophical study. He met Augustus in Athens, Greece, and returned with him to Italy. Virgil was taken ill before leaving Athens and died shortly after his arrival at Brundisium (now Brindisi, Italy). On his deathbed Virgil gave instructions that the Aeneid should be destroyed but, by Augustus's order, the poem was edited and published after Virgil's death by Roman poets Varius Rufus and Plotius Tucca.

III

Minor Works

The Appendix Vergiliana, a collection of minor poems, was attributed in antiquity to Virgil. The collection includes short epics (Ciris, Culex), elegies (Lydia, Copa), a didactic poem on volcanism (Aetna), and a group of short poems called the Catalepton, or Poems in a Trifling Vein. The poems are written in the erudite, or learned, innovative style that is characteristic of the poets of the Hellenistic Age (4th century to 1st century bc), many revealing the influence of Roman poet Catullus and his school of poets. The authenticity of the collection, however, is disputed by modern scholars. Some of the poems, especially a few of the Catalepton that deal with the life of Virgil, may be youthful works of his. The Aetna is generally dated in the 1st century ad.

IV

The Eclogues

In 37 bc Virgil completed his first major work, the ten Eclogues, or Bucolics, pastoral poems modeled on the Idylls of Alexandrian poet Theocritus. Virgil preserved the pastoral style of his predecessor, such as the good-natured banter of the shepherds and their love songs, dirges, and singing matches, but he gave the Eclogues an original and more national character by introducing real persons and events into the poems and by referring through allegory to other persons and events. The famous fourth Eclogue celebrates the birth of a child who is destined to usher in a new Golden Age of peace and prosperity. This tale may have been Virgil's allusion to an expected child of Mark Antony and Octavia, the sister of Augustus, or the child in the poem may simply have been a symbol for the dawning age. During the later Roman Empire (3rd century ad to 5th century ad) and Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century ad), the poem was regarded as a prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ.

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