Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro

He was born on October 15, 70 B.C. in the small northern village of Andes, between Mantua and the Po river.

His father, a potter and cattle farmer, married his landlord’s daughter, worked at beekeeping, and invested in lumber.

Virgil had two brothers—Silo, who died in childhood, and Flaccus, who lived to young manhood.

Virgil was tall, lanky, dark-eyed, bashful, and unpolished in appearance.

Virgil's ambitious father wanted to provide his son with an aristocratic education.

Virgil was sent to study at Cremona and Milan. He showed early promise of greatness.

In 53 B.C., he went to Rome to study law and rhetoric.

A fateful meeting

In Rome, Virgil studied at Epidius’ academy, where he met a boy seven years his junior named Octavian, who was a nephew of Julius Caesar.

Octavian would later become Caesar Augustus, the first “emperor” of Rome.

Julius Caesar at war with Pompey

Virgil served in the military briefly round 47 B.C. It was an experience he loathed.

Virgil then went to Naples to study philosophy under Siro.

When Siro died in 42 B.C., he left Virgil his estate outside Naples. This was Virgil’s favorite residence.

Virgil lived quietly in Naples

Virgil enjoyed country life. He lived at the villa with his mother and brother.

He may have been purposely avoiding the murky political situation in Rome which followed the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.

His father’s estate was confiscated in 42 B.C.

Many estates and farms were confiscated by the state and given to military veterans.

This event saddened Virgil, and influenced the writing of his major early work the Bucolics (Rural Poems) also known as the Eclogues (Selections).

Bucolics was finished in 37 B.C.

Virgil intended this poem to be read aloud, as was the Roman custom.

The poem is set in northern Italy, in the countryside.

Eclogue 4 remained famous

It contains a mystical prophecy about a Golden Age of peace and goodwill, ushered in by the birth of a divine child.

Marc Antony? Augustus? Christ?

The Georgics

From 37 to 30 B.C., Virgil composed a poetic manual, both technical and philosophical, on farming.

Focusing on planting, care of orchards and vineyards, stock management and beekeeping, it also emphasized the work ethic.

After defeating Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian became emperor in 27 B.C.

Octavian Caesar Augustus

Antony and Cleopatra

Augustus called Virgil to court, and commissioned a national epic that

would glorify Rome

This epic poem is known as the Aeneid

Virgil reads draft to Augustus and Octavia

Virgil worked on the Aeneid from 30 B.C. until his death in 19 B.C.

The Aeneid

Twelve books long and written in hexameter verse, the epic poem was modeled on the works of Homer.

Virgil linked a Trojan hero, Aeneas, to the founding of Rome and the family of the Caesars.

Virgil had always suffered from ill health

Before his death, he wrote his own epitaph.

The emperor Augustus traveled to be with him at his death.

Virgil’s epitaph

Virgil’s epitaph ends with the line: “I sang of pastures, farms, and rulers.”

Thus, he and his three great works, the Bucolics, the Georgics, and the Aeneid, were immortalized.

The AeneidUnhappy with the fact that he had no time to revise and polish his great epic poem, Virgil left instructions in his will that it be destroyed.

The emperor overrode the will, and asked two friends of Virgil’s to edit the manuscript for publication.

Completed in 18 B.C., it was immediately popular and became the definitive Roman epic.