Virgil was a Roman poet who lived between 70 and 19 BC. He was the author of the masterpiece Aeneid, which later proved to be the most influential work of ancient Roman literature. He was born Publius Vergilius Maro in Andes , a small town near present-day Mantua in Italy . He was born in the first consulship of Gnaeus Pompeius the Great and Marcus Licinius Crassus , on the Ides of October. Son of a farmer, his mother dreamed of giving birth to laurel branch when she was pregnant with him. He was educated in Greek and Roman literature, rhetoric, and philosophy in the Italian cities of Cremona , Milan , Rome and Naples .
Virgil spent his early childhood at Cremona until he assumed the toga of a man at the age of fifteen; the day coinciding with the death of the poet Lucretius . Soon after, he moved to Milan for further studies. He moved yet again at the age of seventeen to Rome where he learned philosophy and rhetoric from the best teachers of that time. At around the same time the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey resulted in his family farm’s seizure, but that came as a blessing to Virgil because it brought his powerful friends. First of his such friends was Maecenas . Being under his patronage rid him of any financial worries, which allowed him to devote himself solely to his literary pursuits and studies. At this time, he also met Octavian , who later went on to become Emperor Augustus . This friendship had a deep influence on Virgil . He also met many prominent poets, among them Gaius Cornelius Gallus , Horace , and Lucius Varius Rufus . Virgil was also given to passion for the boys at that time, his favorites being Cebes and Alexander whom he also referenced in his poem “Bucolics”. He is also rumored to have had an intrigue with Plotia Hieria . Virgil , however, remained a very modest man though most of his life, gaining him the title of “Parthenias” [The Maiden].
Virgil ’s writings were deeply influenced by earlier Greek and Roman works. He was the author of several minor works, two poem collections and his magnum opus, the Aeneid. His Appendix Vergiliana was a collection of minor poems that included short epics Ciris and Culex, elegies Lydia and Copa, a didactic poem on volcanism Aetna , and a group of short poems called the Catalepton. The influence of Roman poet Catallus is evident in these poems, the authenticity of the work is though questioned by modern scholars. His first major work, the ten Eclogues, or Bucolics, pastoral poems based on Idylls of Alexandrian poet Theocritus was completed in 37 BC. Virgil made sure that he preserved the style of Theocritus through his good-natured banter of shepherds and their love songs, dirges, and singing matches, but he gave it a more national character by introducing real persons and events into the poems and by referring those events and people through allegory. The famous fourth Eclogue celebrates the birth of a child that was to bring prosperity and peace to the world. What the child symbolized is up for debates, theories ranging from the expected child of Mark Antony and Augustus to the prophecy of Jesus Christ ’s coming. His second major work was the Georgics, or the Art of Husbandry. The book was about the life of a farmer and was completed in 30 BC. The book was published in honor of Maecenas , who lent him aid against the violence of a certain veteran, who nearly killed him in an argument over some disputed land. This book drew its inspiration from the Works and Days of Greek poet Hesiod . This work of his confirmed Virgil ’s position as the foremost poet of his age through his artistic perfection shown in the work’s Latin poetry. Though ostensively a treatise on agriculture, Georgics was in fact a celebration of country life and of Italy . The poem was designed to be universal in scope, as evidenced by the topics of war, peace, death, and resurrection, which respectively conclude each of the four books.
Virgil created his magnum opus, the 12 book long Aeneid in the last ten years of his life while living in Naples and Sicily . This poem was written at the request of the Roman Emperor Augustus who sought to stimulate patriotism through an epic honoring the legend of Aeneas and the founding of Rome . Like his earlier works, this work was also influenced, this time by Homer ’s Greek epic Iliad. This epic describes the seven-year wanderings of hero Aeneas from the fall of Troy to his military victory in Italy . In 19 BC, Virgil went to Greece and Asia with the intention to revise his masterpiece, the Aeneid, which was almost complete and to devote his remaining life to philosophical study. Virgil was taken ill before leaving Athens , and died shortly after his arrival at Brundisium. At his deathbed, he instructed the Aeneid to be destroyed, but it was edited and published posthumously by Augustus ’ order. The poem became a classic in its own day.
Virgil remains one of the most influential Roman authors throughout history and his texts have exhibited profound effects upon writers throughout the years because of his qualities of tenderness, deep religious sentiment and smooth beauty of his style. His work Aeneid has been considered a symbol of literary perfection due to his subtle development of both music and the technical precision of dactylic hexameter in it. Several meanings were given to his works in the middle ages and he was regarded as a seer and a magician. His influence caused Dante Aligheiri to choose his as a guide in his masterwork The Divine Comedy. In the Renaissance together with Seneca and Ovid, Virgil became the greatest influence on extended literary composition and so helped create the models of excellence that have lasted till comparatively recently. He influenced several modern age poets including Chaucer , Edmund Spencer , John Milton and Lord Tennyson Alfred . The reading of his works was required by all European poets until the twentieth century. |