The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil - William Young Sellar - Google Books

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Loss of his farm.

Publication of the Eclogues and preparation of the Georgics
Testimonies of Horace as to his life during this time

The Georgics composed at Naples

His death and wish to destroy the Aeneid

III. Personal Characteristics

His recluse and studious life

His personal appearance and habits

Impression of his character derived from Horace.

His indifference to political freedom

His devotion to his art

from his own works

CHAPTER IV.

•

Order and time of their composition

Imitative character of the second and third.

The fifth founded on the death and apotheosis of Julius
Caesar

I. The Eclogues examined in the order of their composition 130-152

Character of the Eclogues indicated by expressions used in

Purely Theocritean character of the seventh

The first and ninth Eclogues

Elements of interest in the sixth

The 'Pollio'

II. Relation of the Eclogues to the Greek Pastoral

Theocritean origin of Virgil's Eclogues

Primitive pastoral poem among the Greeks.

The woes of Daphnis'

The love of the Cyclops for Galatea

Origin of the pastoral dialogue

Artistic form given to these primitive elements by Theocritus

Difference between the pastoral life of Sicily and rural life of

III. Truth of feeling in the Eclogues

Inferiority of the Eclogues in truth and vividness of repre-

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MOTIVES, FORM, SUBSTANCE, AND SOURCES OF

I. Original motives of the Poem

Desire to treat of rural life in the spirit of Hesiod

Influence of Maecenas on the choice of the subject

Virgil's sympathy with the old class of husbandmen

II. Form of poetry adopted by Virgil

What forms of poetry available for Virgil's purpose?

Character of didactic poetry among the Greeks

New type of didactic poetry introduced by Virgil

III. National interest and substance of the Poem.

Italian character of the subject

Connexion of the subject with national history

Exceptional character of the concluding episode

IV. Sources of the Poem .

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Materials derived by Virgil from his own life

From Greek and Roman writers on agriculture

Relation of the Georgics to the Works and Days'

to the Alexandrine Metaphrastae

CONTENTS

STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF THE POEM IN

RELATION TO THE POEM OF LUCRETIUS.

I. Personal affinities and contrast between Lucretius and

Influence of Lucretius on the ideas, method, and style of the

Virgil's recognition of his relation to Lucretius

Identity of feeling in the two poets

Difference in position and sympathies.

Difference between the philosophic poet and poetic artist

II. The Lucretian idea of Nature in the Georgics.

III. Dedications and Invocations in the two Poems

Nature more fully revealed in Lucretius than in earlier poetry

Idea of the struggle of man with Nature in Lucretius

Lesson drawn by him from this idea.

Presence of the same idea in other Roman writers

Virgil's sense of the life of Nature derived from Lucretius

Idea of the struggle with Nature as ordained by Providence

Prominence thus given to the duty of labour

Lesson inculcated in the Georgics

Scientific beliefs of Lucretius as adopted or rejected by Virgil

Religious conceptions embodied in Greek art

Religious elements in Greek speculative philosophy

National religion of Rome.

Meaning of the Invocation of Caesar

Lucretius Virgil's chief model in technical execution

Address to Maecenas compared with address to Memmius

Eulogy of Caesar compared with eulogy of Epicurus

Meaning of their Invocation of Supernatural aid.

Varieties of religious feeling and belief in the Augustan Age

Rustic Paganism of Italy

Method of science in Lucretius, of art in Virgil

Greater selection and elimination of materials in Virgil

Union of various modes of religious belief in the Invocation

Proems to the other Books of the Georgics.

IV. Comparison of Virgil with Lucretius in didactic expo-

sition and illustration.

CONTENTS

Illustration of Virgil's subject from his sense of beauty

from his sense of the life of Nature

from his sympathy with the life of animals.

from his conception of human energy in conflict with

Inferiority of Virgil to Lucretius in the use of imaginative

Purpose of the episodes in Lucretius and in the Georgics
The minor episodes in the Georgics

Episodes at the end of Books iii. and iv.

Episode of the omens accompanying the death of Julius

Episode of the Glory of Italy

Episode at the end of Book ii.

THE GEORGICS A POEM REPRESENTATIVE OF ITALY 261-279

The Georgics an original work of Latin genius

Technical value of the poem as an exposition of Italian hus-

Relation of the illustrative matter to the cultivated Italian

Feeling of the dignity of labour an Italian sentiment

Italian feeling and representation of Nature.

Italian character of the religious sentiment of the poem

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Distinction between primitive and literary epic

Absence of primitive epics from Roman literature

The Roman epic originates in the imitation of the Greek epic

New character given to the Roman epic from the national
sentiment and commemorative instinct

from admiration of great men

from capacity for works of massive execution
National characteristics of the poem of Naevius
Historical substance of the early Roman epic
Representative character of the Annals of Ennius
Later annalistic and panegyrical poems

New type of Roman epic introduced by Varro Atacinus
Type of historical epic rejected in the maturity of Roman art

FORM AND SUBJECT OF THE AENEID.

I. Purpose of the Aeneid and motives determining the form
of the Poem .

Literary motives of the poem

Motive originating in the state of public feeling

in the position of Augustus

New problem in literary art presented to Virgil

The Aeneid the epic of the national fortunes

Deficiency of the legend of Aeneas in national and human

Greek origin of the legend

Its late reception among the Romans

Vague and composite character of the legend

Grounds on which Virgil's choice was justified

Connexion of the legend with the Homeric cycle of events

Its recognition by the State for more than two centuries

Connexion with the glory of the Julian family

Largeness of scope afforded by the vagueness of the legend.

Adaptation to a poem representative of Rome in the

III. Composite character of the Aeneid illustrated by an

examination of the Poem

Twofold purpose of Virgil in composing the Aeneid

Native and Greek sources employed by him

II. Adaptation of the legend of Aeneas to Virgil's purpose 300-310

Adaptation of the legend of Romulus to a poem founded on

national sentiment

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