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Virgil: Roman Empire
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Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BCE – September 21, 19 BCE), later called Virgilius, and known in English as Virgil or Vergil, was a classical Roman poet. He was the author of epics in three modes: the Bucolics (or Eclogues), the Georgics and the substantially completed Aeneid, the last being an epic poem in the heroic mode, which comprised twelve books (as opposed to 24 in each of the epic poems by Homer) and became the Roman Empire's national epic.
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Virgil (October 15, 70 BC-May 25, 19 BC) was a Roman poet, tour guide of the underworld, and Nike spokesperson. He became famous for his work documenting the life of basketball legend- Aeneas.
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Virgil represents the pinnacle of Roman epic poetry. His Aeneid was produced at the request of Maecenas and tells the story of flight of Aeneas from Troy and his settlement of the city that would become Rome. Lucretius, in his On the Nature of Things, attempted to explicate science in an epic poem. Some of his science seems remarkably modern, other ideas, especially his theory of light, are no longer accepted. Later Ovid produced his Metamorphoses, written in hexameter verse, the meter of epic, attempting a complete mythology from the creation of the earth to his own time. He unifies his subject matter through the theme of metamorphosis.
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Virgil set out on a trip to Greece and Asia with the intention of revising his masterpiece, the Aeneid, already substantially completed, and then of devoting the remainder of his life to philosophical study. He met Augustus in Athens, Greece, and returned with him to Italy. Virgil was taken ill before leaving Athens and died shortly after his arrival at Brundisium (now Brindisi, Italy). On his deathbed Virgil gave instructions that the Aeneid should be destroyed but, by Augustus's order, the poem was edited and published after Virgil's death by Roman poets Varius Rufus and Plotius Tucca.
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Virgil is described by Donatus as tall and dark, with the appearance of a countryman. His health was weak, he was shy and led a retired life, rarely appearing in Rome. Although he became famous during his lifetime, he was diffident of his own poetic powers. His fame was based primarily on his position as the epic poet who revealed the greatness of the Roman empire, but his poetic eminence rests ... on the technical perfection of his verse and its sustained beauty and melodiousness, and on the poet's tenderness and melancholy, and his love of nature. He is the poet not only of the destiny of Rome but of the beauty and fertility of Italy, its morality and its religion.
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Virgil was born in the village of Andes, near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul (Gaul south of the Alps; present-day northern Italy). Virgil was of non-Roman Italian ancestry, which he alluded to and defended in the Aeneid when he said that Rome will be of mixed blood.
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