VIRGIL

born Oct. 15, 70 BC, Andes, near Mantua died Sept. 21, 19 BC, Brundisium Virgil also spelled Vergil, Latin in full Publius Vergilius Maro the greatest Roman poet, best known for his epic, the Aeneid (from c. 30 BC; unfinished at his death). The son of a prosperous farmer in the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul, Virgil received a thorough education. Although his life was quiet, his poetry reflects the general turbulence in Italy during an extended period of civil war and then the trend toward stability that followed the rise of Octavian (afterward the emperor Augustus) to undisputed power in 3130 BC. Virgil became a member of Augustus' court circle and was aided by the imperial minister Maecenas, one of the most famous patrons of the arts. He died of a fever contracted on a visit to Greece. Virgil's first major work, the collection of 10 pastoral poems, called the Eclogues (4237 BC), may be read as a visionary prophecy of local tranquillity and world peaceconditions that, in his last years, he saw imposed to a considerable degree by Augustus. His Georgics (3730 BC) points toward a Golden Age in the form of immediate practical goals: the repopulation of rural Italy and the rehabilitation of agriculture by the government as soon as the civil wars shall have ended. Finally, the 12 completed books of the Aeneid celebrate the dual birth of Rome. The legendary founding of Rome by Aeneas of Troy and the Roman unification of the world by Augustus are viewed as extraordinary tasks, glorious achievements, and divinely ordained necessities. born Oct. 15, 70 BC, Andes, near Mantua died Sept. 21, 19 BC, Brundisium also spelled Vergil, Latin in full Publius Vergilius Maro Roman poet, best known for his national epic, the Aeneid (from c. 30 BC; unfinished at his death). Virgil was regarded by the Romans as their greatest poet, an estimation that subsequent generations have upheld. His fame rests chiefly upon the Aeneid, which tells the story of Rome's legendary founder and proclaims the Roman mission to civilize the world under divine guidance. His reputation as a poet endures not only for the music and diction of his verse and for his skill in constructing an intricate work on the grand scale but also because he embodied in his poetry aspects of experience and behaviour of permanent significance. Virgil was born of peasant stock, and his love of the Italian countryside and of the people who cultivated it colours all his poetry. He was educated at Cremona, at Milan, and finally at Rome, acquiring a thorough knowledge of Greek and Roman authors, especially of the poets, and receiving a detailed training in rhetoric and philosophy. It is known that one of his teachers was the Epicurean Siro, and the Epicurean philosophy is substantially reflected in his early poetry but gradually gives way to attitudes more akin to Stoicism. Additional reading Detailed bibliographical information about Virgil may be found in the lists in L'Anne philologique (annual). In English there are bibliographical surveys by G.E. Duckworth, Classical World, vol. 51 (195758) and vol. 57 (196364), reissued as Recent Work on Vergil, 2 vol. (1964); the summaries in Vergilius (annual), the journal of the Vergilian Society (U.S.); the reviews of important modern works in the Proceedings of the Virgil Society (annual), the journal of the Virgil Society (U.K.); and the survey by R.D. Williams, Virgil (1967). The best texts of Virgil's work (including discussion of the manuscripts) are those of R.A.B. Mynors, Oxford Classical Texts (1969), replacing Hirtzel's 1900 edition; R. Sabbadini (1930; reprinted with minor alterations by L. Castiglioni, 194552); E. de Saint-Denis (Eclogues, 1942; Georgics, 1956); and Goelzer-Durand-Bellessort, Aeneid, 2 vol. (192536), in the Bud Series. The commentaries by Servius have been edited by Georg Thilo and Hermann Hagen, Servii Grammatici qvi fervntvr in Vergilii carmina commentarii, 3 vol. (18811902); and by Edward K. Rand et al. (Aeneid, books 1 and 2, 1946; books 3 to 5, 1965); James Henry, Aeneidea, 4 vol. (187392, reprinted 1972); Conington-Nettleship-Haverfield, 3 vol. (185898); Thomas E. Page, The Aeneid of Virgil (18941900); and R.D. Williams, The Aeneid of Virgil, 2 vol. (197273). For such biographical facts as are known about Virgil, see the introduction to John W. MacKail, Aeneid (1930); and W.F. Jackson Knight, Roman Vergil, rev. ed. (1966, reissued 1971). Gilbert A. Highet, Poets in a Landscape (1957, reprinted 1979), gives a popular and readable account. The ancient sources are collected in Vitae Vergilianae Antiquae (1954, reissued 1966). An excellent critical evaluation of Virgil's Aeneid is W.A. Camps, An Introduction to Virgil's Aeneid (1969). Other important works are T.R. Glover, Virgil, 7th ed. (1942, reissued 1969); C.M. Bowra, From Virgil to Milton (1945, reissued 1967); Brooks Otis, Virgil: A Study in Civilised Poetry (1963); Kenneth Quinn, Virgil's Aeneid: A Critical Description (1968); D.R. Dudley (ed.), Virgil (1969); and J. William Hunt, Forms of Glory (1973), an introductory study of the Aeneid. On the Eclogues, see Herbert J. Rose, The Eclogues of Vergil (1942); and William Berg, Early Virgil (1974). On the Georgics, see L.P. Wilkinson, The Georgics of Virgil (1969, reissued 1978); Michael C.J. Putnam, Virgil's Poem of the Earth (1979); and Gary B. Miles, Virgil's Georgics: A New Interpretation (1980). On Virgil's influence, see G.A. Highet, The Classical Tradition (1949, reissued 1967); R.R. Bolgar, The Classical Heritage and Its Beneficiaries (1954, reissued 1973); D. Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages (1895); J.H. Whitfield, Virgil into Dante; and R.D. Williams, Changing Attitudes to Virgil, chapters 4 and 5 in D.R. Dudley (cited above). Robert Deryck Williams The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Major Works: Eclogae (4237 BC; Eclogues), comprising 10 poems also known as the Bucolica; Georgica (3730 BC; Georgics), comprising 4 books of poems on farming and rural life in Italy; and Aeneis (3019 BC; Aeneid), an epic poem in 12 books.Many English translations of Virgil's works have been made, including verse translations by Gavin Douglas (1553), John Dryden (1697), C. Day Lewis (194063), and Rolfe Humphries (1951). Notable among prose translations are those by J.W. Mackail (2nd ed. rev., 190814), H.R. Fairclough (Loeb Series, 193435); and W.F. Jackson Knight (1956). There is a French translation of all the works in the Bud Series (192656).