Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC–19 BC), known in English as Virgil or Vergil, is a Latin poet, the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid, the last being an epic poem of twelve books that became the Roman Empire's national epic.

Life

Virgil was born in the village of Andes, near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul (Gaul south of the Alps; present-day northern Italy). Virgil is of non-Roman Italian ancestry, which he alluded to and defended in the Aeneid when he said that Rome will be of mixed blood.

Related Topics:
Andes - Mantua - Cisalpine Gaul - Alps - Italy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Early works

Virgil received his earliest education at five years old. He later went to Rome to study rhetoric, medicine, and astronomy, which he soon abandoned for philosophy. In this period, while Virgil was in the school of Siro the Epicurean, he began writing poetry. A group of minor poems attributed to the youthful Virgil survive, but are largely considered spurious. One, the Catalepton, consists of fourteen short poems, some of which may be Virgil's, and another, a short narrative poem titled the Culex (the mosquito), was attributed to Virgil as early as the 1st century AD. These dubious poems are sometimes referred to as the Appendix Vergiliana.

Related Topics:
Rome - Rhetoric - Medicine - Astronomy - Philosophy - Siro the Epicurean - Mosquito - 1st century - Appendix Vergiliana

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 42 BC, after the defeat of Julius Caesar's assassins, Brutus and Cassius, the demobilized soldiers of the victors settled on expropriated land and Virgil's estate near Mantua was confiscated. However, the first of the Eclogues, written around 42 BC, is taken as evidence that Octavian restored the estate, for it tells how "Tityrus" recovered his land through Octavian's intervention, and "Tityrus" is usually identified as Virgil himself.

Related Topics:
42 BC - Julius Caesar - Brutus - Cassius - Mantua - Octavian

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Virgil soon became part of the circle of Maecenas, Octavian's capable agent d'affaires who sought to counter sympathy for Mark Antony among the leading families by rallying Roman literary figures to Octavian's side. After the Eclogues were completed, Virgil spent the years 37 BC–29 BC on the Georgics ("On Farming"), which was written in honor of Maecenas, and is the source of the expression tempus fugit ("time flees").

Related Topics:
Maecenas - Mark Antony - 37 BC - 29 BC - Georgics - Tempus fugit

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

However, Octavian, who had defeated Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and two years later had the title "Augustus" given to him by the Roman Senate, was already pressing Virgil to write an epic to praise his regime.

Related Topics:
Battle of Actium - 31 BC - Roman Senate

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Composition of the Aeneid and death

Virgil responded with the Aeneid, which took up his last ten years. The first six books of the epic tell how the Trojan hero Aeneas escapes from the sack of Troy and makes his way to Italy. On the voyage, a storm drives him to the coast of Carthage, where the queen, Dido, welcomes him, and before long Aeneas falls deeply in love. But Jupiter recalls Aeneas to his duty and he slips away from Carthage, leaving Dido to commit suicide, who curses Aeneas as revenge. On reaching Cumae, in Italy, Aeneas consults the Cumaean Sibyl, who conducts him through the Underworld and reveals his destiny to him. Aeneas is reborn as the creator of Imperial Rome.

Related Topics:
Trojan - Aeneas - Carthage - Dido - Jupiter - Suicide - Cumae - Cumaean Sibyl - Underworld

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The first six books (of "first writing") are modeled on Homer's Odyssey, but the last six are the Roman answer to the Iliad. Aeneas is betrothed to Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, but Lavinia had already been promised to Turnus, the king of the Rutulians, who is roused to war by the Fury Allecto. The Aeneid ends with a single combat between Aeneas and Turnus, whom Aeneas defeats and kills, spurning his plea for mercy.

Related Topics:
Homer - Odyssey - Iliad - Lavinia - Latinus - Turnus - Fury - Allecto

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Virgil travelled with Augustus to Greece. There, Virgil caught a fever, which he died of in Brundisium harbor, leaving the Aeneid unfinished. Augustus ordered Virgil's literary executors, Lucius Varius Rufus and Plotius Tucca, to disregard Virgil's own wish that the poem be destroyed and to publish it with as few editorial changes as possible. As a result, the text of the Aeneid that exists is a draft version, and contains faults which Virgil was planning to correct before publication:

Related Topics:
Greece - Brundisium - Lucius Varius Rufus - Plotius Tucca

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Verses which are not a complete line of dactylic hexameter.
• Future tenses made by adding -s-, such as faxo for faciam. This form is not valid Latin, but is common in Greek and in Osco-Umbrian; it could be that Virgil could speak Osco-Umbrian, at least well enough to communicate with his farm workers.

Incomplete or not, the Aeneid was immediately recognized as a masterpiece. It proclaimed the imperial mission of the Roman Empire, but at the same time could pity Rome's victims and feel their grief. Dido and Turnus, who are both casualties of Rome's destiny, are more attractive figures than Aeneas, whose single-minded devotion to his goal may seem almost repellent to the modern reader. However, at the time Aeneas was considered to exemplify virtue and pietas (roughly translated as piety), duty to one's gods, family and homeland. However, Aeneas struggles between doing what he wants to do as a man, and doing what he must as a virtuous hero. Aeneas' inner turmoil and shortcomings make him a more realistic character than the heroes of older poems, such as Odysseus.

Related Topics:
Roman Empire - Piety - Odysseus

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~