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Virgil
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Virgil was born Publius Vergilius Maro in Andes, a village in northern Italy near Mantua (Mantova). His father was a farmer. Virgil was thoroughly educated in Greek and Roman literature, rhetoric, and philosophy in the Italian cities of Cremona, Milan, Rome, and Naples. The patronage of Roman statesman Gaius Maecenas relieved him of financial cares and allowed him to devote himself wholly to literary pursuits and to study. He spent the greater part of his life at or near Naples and Nola, numbering among his intimate friends his patron Maecenas; Octavian, who became Emperor Augustus during Virgil's lifetime; and many prominent poets, among them Gaius Cornelius Gallus, Horace, and Lucius Varius Rufus. In 19
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The first Aldine edition of the Roman poet Virgil is of great importance in the history of printing, as it was the first book entirely printed in Aldus's splendid new italic typeface. Based on the Renaissance humanist hand, italic was immediately imitated by printers all over southern Europe and France and became the standard typeface for books printed in the vernacular languages during the sixteenth century. The 1501 Virgil ... introduced another innovation, that of printing books in the smaller, octavo size. Aldus often explained that he hoped his smaller-sized books would be "handy" for those who wanted good reading that they could easily carry with them. Like the italic typeface, this idea was also immediately imitated widely and octavo books were soon being produced all over Europe.
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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 ... 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.
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Virgil completed his first major work, the ten Eclogues, or Bucolics, pastoral poems modeled on the Idylls of Alexandrian poet Theocritus. Virgil preserved the pastoral style of his predecessor, such as the good-natured banter of the shepherds and their love songs, dirges, and singing matches, but he gave the Eclogues an original and more national character by introducing real persons and events into the poems and by referring through allegory to other persons and events. The famous fourth Eclogue celebrates the birth of a child who is destined to usher in a new Golden Age of peace and prosperity. This tale may have been Virgil's allusion to an expected child of Mark Antony and Octavia, the sister of Augustus, or the child in the poem may simply have been a symbol for the dawning age. During the later Roman Empire (3rd century
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Virgil's first work of literature is known as the Eclogues, the ten short pastoral poems containing dialogues between shepherds, shepherdesses, and other rustic figures. This work attracted the attention of a patron of literature named Maecenas. Maecenas had so much interest and confidence in Virgil's poetry that he decided to introduce him to Octavian. The Ecolgues became very successful. However, Virgil preferred to remain apart from his admirers.
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The great Roman poet Virgil (... spelled Vergil) was born on Oct. 15, 70 BC, in Andes, a village near Mantua in northern Italy. Virgil spent his childhood on his father's farm and was educated at Cremona, Milan, and then Rome, where he studied rhetoric. There he met poets and statesmen who were to play an important part in his life. When civil war broke out in 49 BC, he retired to Naples where he studied philosophy with the Epicurean Siro.
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Virgil