Philippi (B.C. 42) was the farm of Vergil's father. By the advice of the commissioners appointed to carry out the confiscation our Poet went to Rome to make personal application to Octavian. His success made him a devoted friend and panegyrist of the Emperor. About the same time (B.c. 40) he became acquainted with Maecenas, and thenceforward enjoyed his protection, and became a member of the brilliant literary coterie of which Maecenas was the centre. By his means, or by the liberality of other friends and admirers he became possessed of considerable property. He had a house on the Esquiline, a villa near Naples, and another near Nola in Campania. It was at Naples that he composed his Georgics or part of them (see G. iv. 559), on the suggestion, it is said of Maecenas,' who wished to make the country life and agricultural pursuits of the ancient Romans once more fashionable: though Vergil's own tastes and the study of Hesiod are enough to account for them. While composing the Aeneid he appears to have visited Greece, if the third ode of Horace's first book refers to him, and was published some years previous to his death. The object of the voyage may have been to acquire a knowledge of the localities which he has to mention in his poem. In the year B.C. 19 he set out again to visit Greece and Asia. But he met Augustus at Athens and was induced to accompany him back to Italy. He seems to have contracted an illness while visiting Megara, and pressing on his 1 G. 3, 4, tua Maccenas haud mollia jussu. 2 Orelli, however, refers this ode to the voyage made by Vergil on the return from which he died. The difficulty as to the date has led some to suppose that our Vergilius is not the person referred to at all. homeward voyage he died on the 21st September soon after landing at Brundusium, and was buried at Naples, where his tomb is still shown. The veneration long shown to it gave rise to the curious belief long entertained in the Middle Ages that he was a magician. The allusions to him in Horace indicate that he was of an amiable character, and had secured the strong affection of his friends; though it is said that he was rustic in appearance, and somewhat melancholy in temperament. His anxious and fastidious taste in regard to his writings was shown by his desire to destroy the Aeneid when he felt himself to be dying, because he had not been able to revise and polish it. He directed in his will that nothing should be published by his executors except what he had revised. But this direction was by the order of Augustus disobeyed, and we thus have the Aeneid almost in spite of its author. § 2. VERGIL'S WORKS. These extracts are taken from three distinct works of Vergil. 1. The Eclogues B.C. 42-37. The word Eclogae means 'Selections,' and it may be that what we possess is a selection from a larger number. The more correct title of these poems is Bucolica. They are short Pastorals or Idyls. The salient feature in a Pastoral is that it presents primarily a scene in the life of shepherds or countrymen. Whatever story or theme is to be expanded must be set in a background of pastoral life and scenery. It was the form of poetry peculiar to the later Hellenic literature which flourished principally in Sicily, and Vergil follows in the steps of Theocritus. Many English poets have imitated this form of composition, notably Pope and Keats. 2. The Georgics B.C. 40-30. The form of this work also, consisting of four books, is imitated from the Greek, and Vergil professes to follow in the path of Hesiod.1 The scenery, however, and the industries described are Italian, and while the work is adorned by frequent episodes and allusions drawn from history and mythology, the poet has put his own feelings and tastes, his philosophy of life, and view of nature in bold and clear relief. The first book treats of agriculture, the second of the cultivation of the vine, the third of the breeding of cattle and horses, the fourth of bee-keeping. 3. The Aeneid B.C. 30-19. The Aeneid is one of the great poems of the world. Its theme is the destiny of Rome. Its story is the narrative of the escape of Aeneas from Troy; his difficult, yet destined, journey to Italy; his alliance with King Latinus, and his final triumph over all that hindered him from settling in Latium and there founding a race which was hereafter to be Rome. Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem gives the keynote to the whole. The mythos which connected 1 Ascraeumque cano Romana per oppida carmen, G. 2, 175. the Julian family with Aeneas, and Augustus with the consummation of Rome's greatness, is made as subordinate as could be expected from a poet who was also a courtier. The epic narrative is adorned with a great wealth of learning and invention, and by a liberal use of his predecessors, whether countrymen of his own as Ennius and Lucretius, or Greeks of every kind, but especially of course, Homer. The Iliad and Odyssey he knew thoroughly and used without scruple. The poem, however, though thus in a sense artificial, has a noble and wonderful originality and freshness. If it lacks the spontaneity of the Iliad, it has the advantage of a better defined plan and of the self-suppression which comes of a severe art. If it is less sublime than the early part of Paradise Lost, its interest is better sustained and its language more simple than that of Milton's great Epic. If it lacks the gravity and intenseness of the Divina Commedia, it has a religion and a humanity all its own, not contemptible either for its faith or its largeheartedness: Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt. SELECTIONS FROM VERGIL. I. A Restored Home and Exile.-A Contrast. [ECL. I., 47-79.] ME. Fortunate senex, ergo tua rura manebunt, et tibi magna satis: quamvis lapis omnia nudus limosoque palus obducat pascua iunco. Non insueta graves temptabunt pabula fetas ; TI. Ante leves ergo pascentur in aethere cervi et freta destituent nudos in litore pisces; 5. ΙΟ 15 |