Virgil (70 BCE - 19 BCE)

A Virgil (70 BCE - 19 BCE) is a person.

• AKA: Publius Vergilius Maro, Vergil, The Roman Homer.
• Context:
  • It can (typically) create Roman Epic through classical verse forms.
  • It can (typically) influence Western Literature through poetic techniques.
  • It can (typically) celebrate Roman Values through narrative poetry.
  • It can (typically) compose Latin Verse through metrical patterns.
  • It can (typically) explore Pastoral Themes through poetic imagery.
  • It can (often) integrate Greek Traditions with Roman themes.
  • It can (often) examine Rural Life through pastoral poetry.
  • It can (often) support Augustan Program through literary works.
  • It can (often) teach Agricultural Knowledge through didactic verse.
  • It can (often) be associated with Virgil Quotes, such as:
    • "Fortune favors the bold" ("Audentes fortuna iuvat"), which emphasizes the value of courageous action.
    • "Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to love" ("Omnia vincit amor; et nos cedamus amori"), which explores the power of universal love.
    • "Time flies never to be recalled" ("Fugit inreparabile tempus"), which reflects on the nature of temporal passage.
    • "If I cannot move heaven, I will raise hell" ("Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo"), which illustrates the depth of human determination.
    • "Easy is the descent into hell" ("Facilis descensus Averno"), which warns about the path to moral decline.
    • "Perhaps even these things will be pleasant to remember one day" ("Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit"), which contemplates the nature of memory and suffering.
    • "They can because they think they can" ("Possunt quia posse videntur"), which reveals the power of self belief.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Pastoral Poet to being an Epic Poet, depending on its literary development.
  • It can range from being a Republican Writer to being an Imperial Writer, depending on its historical context.
  • It can range from being a Rural Poet to being an Urban Poet, depending on its social environment.
  • ...
  • It can have Virgil Major Works, such as:
    • Eclogues Publication, which explores pastoral life and political change.
    • Georgics Composition, which examines agricultural practices and natural order.
    • Aeneid Creation, which celebrates Roman destiny and heroic virtue.
  • It can have Virgil Literary Themes, such as:
    • Roman Destiny, through epic narratives.
    • Pastoral Life, through bucolic poetry.
    • Agricultural Knowledge, through didactic verse.
  • ...
• Examples:
  • Birth in Andes (70 BCE), marking his entry into Roman world.
  • Education in Milan (55-50 BCE), gaining classical training.
  • Move to Rome (50-45 BCE), joining literary circles.
  • Eclogues Publication (42-39 BCE), establishing poetic reputation.
  • Georgics Completion (36-29 BCE), achieving literary mastery.
  • Beginning of Aeneid (29 BCE), undertaking epic composition.
  • Death in Brundisium (19 BCE), leaving unfinished work.
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • Horace (65 BCE - 8 BCE), which focuses on lyric poetry rather than epic verse.
  • Ovid (43 BCE - 17/18 CE), which emphasizes mythological narratives over national themes.
  • Propertius (50-45 BCE - 15 BCE), which specializes in elegiac poetry instead of epic poetry.
  • Maecenas (70 BCE - 8 BCE), which patronizes literary works rather than creates them.
• See: Roman Literature, Epic Poetry, Pastoral Poetry, Didactic Poetry, Augustan Age, Latin Verse, Classical Tradition, Literary Influence, Western Canon, Roman Culture.

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References

2024-12-28

• Perplexity.ai
  • Question: What are the major works, life, and legacy of Virgil, including his literary career, major works, and his influence on Western Literature?
  • Answer: Publius Vergilius Maro, commonly known as Virgil, was born on October 15, 70 BCE in the farming village of Andes, near Mantua in northern Italy. As one of Rome's most celebrated poets, he composed three major works that would define Roman Literature.
    • Major Works:
      • The Eclogues:
        • His earliest major work, written between 42-37 BCE, comprised ten hexameter poems exploring pastoral themes.
        • Reflected both rural tranquility and political turmoil, addressing land confiscations and their effects on the Italian Countryside.
      • The Georgics:
        • A didactic poem about farming, composed over seven years.
        • Divided into four books covering crops, trees, livestock, and beekeeping.
        • Commissioned by Maecenas and first read to Octavian in 29 BCE.
      • The Aeneid:
        • Rome's national epic took eleven years to write.
        • Chronicles the journey of Aeneas, a Trojan refugee, to Italy.
        • Serves as both national epic and celebration of Rome's divine destiny.
    • Life and Death:
      • Education:
        • Born to peasant stock.
        • Received extensive education in Cremona, Milan, and Rome.
      • Literary Support:
        • Found patronage under Emperor Augustus.
        • Supported by Maecenas in literary endeavors.
      • Final Journey:
        • Traveled to Greece in 19 BCE seeking inspiration.
        • Contracted fever during return journey with Augustus.
        • Died at Brundisium on September 21, 19 BCE.
        • Requested the unfinished Aeneid be destroyed, but Augustus preserved it.
    • Legacy:
      • Educational Influence:
        • Works became standard texts in Roman and medieval schools.
      • Writer Impact:
        • Influenced Dante Alighieri, who featured him in Divine Comedy.
        • Inspired later poets like Edmund Spenser and John Milton.
      • Career Model:
        • Progression from pastoral to epic poetry established pattern for future poets.
  • Citations:

[1] https://poets.org/poet/virgil
[2] https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/virgil
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil
[4] https://study.com/academy/lesson/virgil-biography-writings.html
[5] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Virgil
[6] https://cdn.britannica.com/93/182093-050-8F17E3A6/scroll-Virgil-quotation-mosaic-Aeneid-Clio-Melpomene.jpg
[7] https://www.worldhistory.org/virgil/
[8] https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Virgilhome.php
[9] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Virgil/Influence-and-reputation
[10] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/virgil

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil Retrieved:2024-12-29.
  • Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil () in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, were attributed to him in ancient times, but modern scholars generally regard these works as spurious, with the possible exception of a few short pieces.

    Already acclaimed in his own lifetime as a classic author, Virgil rapidly replaced Ennius and other earlier authors as a standard school text, and stood as the most popular Latin poet through late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and early modernity, exerting inestimable influence on all subsequent Western literature. Geoffrey Chaucer assigned Virgil a uniquely prominent position among all the celebrities of human history in The House of Fame (1486–7), describing him as standing on a pilere / that was of tinned yren clere ("on a pillar that was of bright tin-plated iron"), and in the Divine Comedy, in which Virgil appears as the author's guide through Hell and Purgatory, Dante pays tribute to Virgil with the words (Inf. I.86–7) ("thou art alone the one from whom I took the beautiful style that has done honour to me"). In the 20th Century, T. S. Eliot famously began a lecture on the subject "What Is a Classic?" by asserting as self-evidently true that "whatever the definition we arrive at, it cannot be one which excludes Virgil – we may say confidently that it must be one which will expressly reckon with him."

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