The Life and Literary Works of Virgil

The Life of Virgil

Virgil was born in Mantua in 70 BC into a modest family. At twenty years old, he went to Rome to perfect his knowledge of rhetoric. He could not practice oratory because he lacked the temperament and attitude; he was shy, suffered from poor health, and lacked stage presence. Despite his paternal history, he returned to Rome, explained his situation to Augustus, and was granted an indemnity and land in Campania. He spent the last days of his life in a villa in Naples that Augustus had gifted him.

In 19 BC, he traveled to Greece and Asia Minor to visit the locations described in his poem, the Aeneid, to correct its defects. He fell ill in Megara, Greece, returned to Italy, and died in Brindisi shortly after. Before his death, he begged Augustus to destroy the poem because it was unfinished, but Augustus ordered it to be published.

Major Works

The works of Virgil whose authenticity is undisputed include:

• The Eclogues (or Bucolics)
• The Georgics
• The Aeneid

The Eclogues

The Eclogues are ten short poems about pastoral life, showing a clear influence from the Hellenistic poet Theocritus of Syracuse regarding themes and characters. In these poems, shepherds sing of their love and misfortunes, sometimes engaging in poetic contests where a third shepherd acts as a judge. The action takes place in Arcadia, a literary landscape invented by Virgil, distinct from the actual Greek region in the Peloponnese. The Eclogues are written in hexameters.

The Georgics

The Georgics is a poem by Virgil on farming techniques, consisting of four books written between 36 and 29 BC to improve agricultural production.

• Book I: Dedicated to the cultivation of fields in general.
• Book II: Explains the cultivation of vines, olives, and fruit trees, including a eulogy of country life.
• Book III: Devoted to livestock and domestic animals, featuring a dramatic episode regarding a plague.
• Book IV: Concerns the life and cultivation of bees, including the mythological episode of the shepherd Aristaeus, who restores his bees from the entrails of sacrificed oxen.

From an artistic standpoint, the Georgics is Virgil's most polished work.

The Aeneid

The Aeneid is an epic poem written by the Roman author Virgil in the 1st century BC. It tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan hero who flees his home and becomes the mythical founder of Rome. It is one of the most famous works of Latin literature, and its opening line, "Arma virumque cano," is among the most famous phrases in literary history. The influence of Homer is evident in its composition and style.