Virgil (Vergil) (70-19 b.

Virgil (Vergil) (70-19 b.c.) A great Roman poet, born Publius Vergilius Maro near present-day Mantua (now Italy, then Cisalpine Gaul). Virgil's education took him to Cremona, Milan, and Rome. Virgil's first works were the Eclogues, short pastoral poems. Later he wrote the Georgics, more poems about country life. His final work was the Aeneid, an epic poem that took him the last 11 years of his life to write and remained unfinished, as far as he was concerned. People consider it one of the great literary works of the world. Virgil enjoyed admiration and a great reputation during his lifetime. The Aeneid became a school textbook almost as soon as it appeared. It was known and quoted by people of all classes. The Aeneid had great influence on worldwide thought but particularly on Roman thought, since it was a uniquely Roman myth that glorified the city and inspired all with pride and patriotic fervor. Furthermore, Virgil's fame and popularity continued into the Christian era, for the Christians saw his poetic epic as having foretold the birth of Christ and the advent of Christianity, which occurred only 40 years after Virgil wrote the fourth Eclogue. 148 Vertumnus Virgil's influence on Roman thought derives more from the Aeneid than the Eclogues or the Georgics, for it foretells the glory of Rome, expressing the feelings of the time and the country of Virgil.