Virgil (Publius Vergilius
Maro) 70–19 B.C.
Greatest of Roman poets. The well-educated
son of a prosperous provincial farmer, Virgil led a quiet life, though he
eventually became a member of the circle around Octavian (later Caesar
Augustus) and was patronized by Maecenas. His first major work, the 10 pastoral
Eclogues (42–37), may be read as a prophecy of tranquility, and one has even
been read as a prophecy of Christianity. The Georgics (37–30) point toward a
Golden Age in the form of practical goals: the repopulation of rural lands and
the rehabilitation of agriculture. His great epic, the Aeneid (begun c. 29, but
unfinished at his death), is one of the masterpieces of world literature. A
celebration of the founding of Rome by the legendary Aeneas at the request of
Augustus, whose consolidation of power in 31–30 unified the Roman world, it
also explores the themes of war and the pathos of unrequited love. In later
centuries his works were regarded in the Roman Empire as virtually sacred. He
was taken up reverently by Christians as well, including Dante, who, in his
poem The Divine Comedy, made Virgil his guide through hell and purgatory.1
1. Taken from The Online
Encyclopaedia Brittanica at http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9382055
“I
see wars, horrible wars, and the Tiber foaming with much blood.” (Part of the Sibyl' if Cumae’s prophecy to
Aeneas, foretelling his difficulties in winning a home in Italy, Aeneid, Bk.
VI, 19 BC)
“But
yours, my Roman, is the gift of government, That is your bent - to impose upon
the nations the code of peace; to be clement to the conquered, But to utterly
crush the intransigent.” (Virgil, The Aeneid, 1st Century B.C.)
“The
great cycle of the ages is renewed. Now Justice returns, returns the Golden
Age; a new generation now descends from on high.” (Virgil’s 4th Ecologue)