|
|
 Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70-–19 BC) known in English as Virgil or Vergil, Latin poet, is the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid, this last being an epic poem of twelve books that is called the Roman Empire's national epic. Life Virgil was born in the village of Andes (modern Pietole), near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul (Gaul "this side", i.e., south of the Alps, present northern Italy). He received his earliest schooling at Cremona and Milan. (It is a little known fact that Virgil was of Celtic ancestry.) He went to Rome to study rhetoric, medicine, and astronomy, which he soon abandoned for philosophy. Early works In this period, while he was in the school of Siro the Epicurean, Virgil began writing poetry. A group of minor poems attributed to the youthful Virgil survive but most are spurious. One, the Catalepton, consists of fourteen little poems, some of which may be Virgil's, and another, a short narrative poem titled the Culex (the mosquito), was attributed to Virgil as early as the 1st century AD. Such dubious poems are sometimes referred to as the Appendix Virgiliana. In 42 BC, after the defeat of Julius Caesar's assassins, Brutus and Cassius, the demobilized soldiers of the victors were settled on expropriated land and Virgil's estate near Mantua was confiscated. However, the first of the Eclogues, written around 42 BC, is taken as evidence that Octavian restored the estate, for it tells how "Tityrus" recovered his land through Octavian's intervention and "Tityrus" is usually identified as Virgil himself. Virgil soon became part of the circle of Maecenas, Octavian's capable agent d'affaires who sought to counter sympathy for Marc Antony among the leading families by rallying Roman literary figures to Octavian's side. After the Eclogues were completed, Virgil spent the years 37–29 BC on the Georgics ("On Farming"), which was written in honor of Maecenas. But Octavian, who had defeated Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and two years later had the title "Augustus" given him by the Roman senate, was already pressing Virgil to write an epic in praise of his regime.
Composition of the Aeneid Virgil responded with the Aeneid, which took up his last ten years. The first six books of the epic tell how the Trojan hero ) at PP Sacred Texts: Classics: The Works of Virgil (http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/virgil/index.htm) Latin Library: P. Vergilivs Maro (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/verg.html) Works by Virgil (http://www.gutenberg.org/author/Virgil) at Project Gutenberg These links above are for sites containing multiple works by Virgil. For sites containing individual Virgil works, see the pages associated with the specific work. Biography Suetonius: The Life of Virgil (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/suet-vergil.html) (English Translation) Vita Vergiliana (http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/donatus_vita.html) (Aelius Donatus' Life of Virgil in the original Latin) Virgil.org: Aelius Donatus' Life of Virgil translated into English by David Wilson-Okamura (http://www.virgil.org/vitae/a-donatus.htm) Project Gutenberg edition of Vergil--A Biography (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/10960) by Tenney Frank. Commentary Virgil in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance: an Online Bibliography (http://www.virgil.org/bibliography) Virgilmurder (http://www.virgilmurder.org) (Jean-Yves Maleuvre's website setting forth his theory that Virgil was murdered by Augustus) The Secret History of Virgil (http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/AV/) contains a selection of the magical legends and tall tales that circulated about Virgil in the Middle Ages. The article above was originally sourced from Nupedia (http://www.nupedia.com/) and is open content. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/"
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
