Virgil - biography.

Virgil - biography. Roman Poet Birth October 15, 70 BC Death September 21, 19 BC Place of Birth Andes (near Mantua, Italy) Principal Naples Residence Known for Composing the epic poem, the Aeneid Milestones Was educated in Cremona, a nearby town, and later sent to Rome by his father to study rhetoric and philosophy 41 BC Roman statesman Gaius Maecenas became his patron, freeing Virgil from financial worries. 37 BC Completed the Eclogues (Bucolics), a series of pastoral poems modeled after Greek poet Theocritus's Idylls 37-30 BC Wrote a four-book poem titled Georgics (Art of Husbandry), which celebrated the farming life and its potential in rebuilding the Roman Empire 29-19 BC Wrote the Aeneid, a poem in 12 books, at the request of Roman Emperor Augustus, who sought to stimulate patriotism through an epic honoring the legend of Aeneas and the founding of Rome Did You Know In the Middle Ages, Virgil was believed to have been a prophet and a magician. The Aeneid was unfinished at the time of Virgil's death, and he requested that it be destroyed. Augustus ignored Virgil's wish and had the Aeneid edited and published instead. Italian poet Dante Alighieri thought so highly of Virgil that he cast Virgil as his guide in part of The Divine Comedy. Virgil helped Roman poet Horace by introducing him to the statesman Maecenas, who was a great patron of the arts. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.