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Place of Birth
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Andes (near Mantua, Italy)
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Known for
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Composing the epic poem, the Aeneid
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Milestones
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Was educated in Cremona, a nearby town, and later sent to Rome by his father to study rhetoric and philosophy
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41 bc Roman statesman Gaius Maecenas became his patron, freeing Virgil from financial worries.
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37 bc Completed the Eclogues (Bucolics), a series of pastoral poems modeled after Greek poet Theocritus's Idylls |
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37-30 bc Wrote a four-book poem titled Georgics (Art of Husbandry), which celebrated the farming life and its potential in rebuilding the Roman Empire
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29-19 bc Wrote the Aeneid, a poem in 12 books, at the request of Roman Emperor Augustus, who sought to stimulate patriotism through an epic honoring the legend of Aeneas and the founding of Rome
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Did You Know
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In the Middle Ages, Virgil was believed to have been a prophet and a magician.
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The Aeneid was unfinished at the time of Virgil's death, and he requested that it be destroyed. Augustus ignored Virgil's wish and had the Aeneid edited and published instead.
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Italian poet Dante Alighieri thought so highly of Virgil that he cast Virgil as his guide in part of The Divine Comedy.
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Virgil helped Roman poet Horace by introducing him to the statesman Maecenas, who was a great patron of the arts.
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