Virgil whose name was Publis Vergilius Maro was an icon of his time. Virgil’s

work has been widely studied until today. He was very famous in his community and

very involved in Rome’s politics. Vergil was an introspective man very different from

other important poets such as Horace.

Virgil was born in Andes, a small town near Mantua, Italy on October 15, 1970

BCE and died on September 21, 1919. He was born under the government of Gnaeus

Pompeius the Great and Marcus Licinius Crassus. While being pregnant , Virgil’s mother

dreamt that she was giving birth to a tree full of fruits and flowers. The next day when

she was with her husband in a nearby town, she gave birth to Virgil beside the road. The

baby had such a pacific expression in his face that his parents predicted that he was going

to have a happy destiny. Few days later, someone planted a tree in the same place where

Virgil was born. The tree rapidly reached the size of other older trees. Consequently,

pregnant women who wished their children to become as successful as Virgil worshiped

the tree. (Naumman)

Virgil’s family was well regarded but they weren’t wealthy. Virgil’s father, according to some historians was a potter, even though some have stated that he used to work for a Magus, an attendant on the magistrates, and because of his upstanding work his employer allowed him to marry his daughter. He later acquired some land and was dedicated to raise bees.
The influence of Agriculture impacted Virgil’s writings. Bees were greatly admired and understood by Virgil. He writes in his Georgics “Bees on the other hand , though very tiny, are admirable community, often taken as exemplary for human society….Virgil handles his bees with affection. They’re little Romans ; they’re intensely patriotic, industrious, selfless, dying gladly for the community. ‘All have the same rest from work, all have the same toil.’ The idle drones are mercilessly expelled from the hive. While ‘an inborn love of possession’ drives the workers on.” (Griffin p.51)
Virgil spent the first part of his life at Cremona, Italy until he was about fifteen years old. Then, he moved to Mediolanum [*Milan], and soon after to Rome. “He was tall and of full habit, with a dark complexion and a rustic appearance. His health was variable; for he very often suffered from stomach and throat troubles, as well as with headache; and he also had frequent hemorrhages. He ate and drank but little.” (Naumman)
Virgil earned a good education at Cremona and Rome but his education wasn’t as good as Horace whom was educated in Athens in Philosophy studies which was considered University by Romans. The gubernator of the tine was Caesar; he decided that he was going to conquer the city of Gaul. Therefore, he started to recruit boys for war at their county’s schools. As a result, Virgil refers to the Caesar as the great imperator. When Virgil finds out that The Caesar was looking forward the second consulship or conquering, he decided to finish his studies in Milan. This city was growing in relevancy and size. This was a positive move because the schools over there were considered to have a healthier doctrine.
The Eclogues of Rome and Arcadie were one of Virgil’s most important poems. In this Eclogues, Virgil discusses many issues related to the everyday life of Romans. The first Eclogue is about the journey of the herdsmen to Rome. There is a singing contest in Mincius, a river that comes from Mantua, the characters basically discuss what they see in their reflection in the river and consider even taking their lifes by drowing in the river. Virgil mentions places such as Mantua and Arcadia that for Virgil was “not really a place which can be found on a map; rather, it is an ideal, the home of song and love. So in the Tenth Eclogue the lovelorn Gallus, a real man and a friend of Virgil, wishes he had been born arcadian.” (Griffin pg.19)
Moreover, Virigil discusses agricultural subjects in his Eclogues. Since Virgil’s parents had a farm, he grew intensely aware and curious of Animals and farming procedures, and also noted the intervention of Roman’s politics in the farmers’ life “here are all the pastoral ingredients, the delightful spot in the shade (This is a Mediterranean country), the music, love. Why is Meliboeus’ land and the speakers, being drived into exile? Because, it soon emerges, this Arcadia is near Rome and Roman politics are invading the partoral world where they do not belong.” (Griffin pg.23)
The Eclogues are ten different poems but they’re all part of a whole. “ The architecture of the Eclogues book seems to have made a considerable impression; and it is not by chance that so many of the books of the other Augustans contain ten poems or multiples of ten, that Horace, in particular, exhibits similar patterns in some of his collections. The Georgics and the Aeneid were to contain further evidence of Vigil’s architectonic power.” (Griffin pg.24)
It seems that in addition to being a talented poet, Virgil also used to have Anthropologist abilities as he used to study groups such as the Catullan and Celtics” A Celtic strain of romance has been from time to time claimed for Vergil’s poetry, though those who employ such terms seldom agree in the definition of them. His romanticism may be more easily explained by his early devotion to the Catullan group of poets, and the Celtic traits- whatever they may be—by the close racial affiliations between Celtics and Italians, vouched for by anthropologists.” (Frank pg.6)
Virgil also used satire to refer to political figures of the time in his book. Instead of referring to the Ceasars direcltly in his poems, he would assign them a different name to represent an important episode of their lifes. In the Eclogues, he describes the life of Daphnis, who is thought to be Julio Cesar, and his tragic assesanation “At Daphnis death all nature mourned; nut now he is a god, benevolent and a bringer of peace to the country- side, in return for their eager worship…. The tremendous event was in very recent past, the utterly unexpected killing of the man who held the supreme power in the world…. Virgil will write of those portents, the marks of divine anger and their world, at the end of the first Gerogic.”
It is thought that Virgil could have been homesexual as he wrote some poems referring to the character’s feelings for other men. Virgil’s favorite boys were Cebes and Alexander, whom he calls Alexis in the second poem of his " Bucolics." Both of them had some education; Cebes was even a poet “ Virgil replaces the pretty girls who rebuff the suitors( in Theocritus’ Third and Eleventh Idylls) with an homesexual passion, that of Corydon for the boy Alexis who is the favorite of his master. Corydon is in the country, the boy apparently in the town; even beyond that, the social situation of the two, in any case, means that his love in totally without hope. The elegance of the poem lies in the depiction of Corydon’s train of thought as he spends the whole day mooning over his love. He begins approaching the distant Alexis for disregarding his song, reflects that it would have been better to fall in love with someone else” (Griffin, Pg. 24)

Vigil had a passion for bees and countiniously use the bees analogies to describe what for him would be the utopical Rome in the Georgics. Since his father use to raise bees, he spent long time analyzing the bees characteristics and logistics. He noted how the bees would work together for a same cause “ they’re little Romans; they are intensely patriotic, industrius, selfless, dying gladly for the community. All have the same rest from work, all have the same toil. The idle drones are mercilessly expelled from the hive, while an inborn love of possession drives the workers on. They die of their hard work but their races goes on forever. All that is very admirable no doubt , and it strongly resembles the typical notion of what early Romans were like- not individualists but dour and impersonal, in a favourite phrase of approval—born not for themselves but for their county.” (Griffin pg. 51)
In the Aenied, Virgil seemed to have wanted to describe the career of Augustus in the Aenied but decided to call the main character Aneas instead. He tried to give his story as to the beginning of Rome different from those of other poets of the era “by making his epic the story not of Augustus but of Aeneas, Virgil had a ready way to conbine three strands of plot which he regarded as vital: the story of the foundation of Rome from Troy, by a hero famous for his Pietas; the history of Rome and deliverance of Rome achieved by Augustus.” (Griffin pg. 61) Virgil was not only a brilliant poet but also an anthropologist, and sociologist. He set the way for many poets to come in the classical as well as the modern era. His works are masterpieces and will never be forgotten.

Bibliography
Griffin, Jasper. Virgil. Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltda, 2002
Frank, Tenney. Vergil: A biography. Henry Holt and Company: 1922.