Publius
Vergilius Maro was born in 70 BC, into a world debased
by civil
wars and then repression under Caesar
and Augustus.
He was dispossessed of his small-holding by returning veterans,
but was able to work quietly under the patronage of Maecenas.
Virgil's three works are all masterpieces: Eclogues,
Georgics
and Aeneid,
and have been frequently translated, the last most famously
by Dryden.
Not
much is known of his life, but Virgil seems to have
remained awkward and retiring, unmarried and of indeterminate
sexual orientation. Though asked to write the great Roman
epic of the Aeneid
by Augustus, and famous in his day, the poet kept out of
politics and public life. His death in 19 BC was probably
by natural causes, though some
have argued for murder.
Virgil's influence
Virgilwas, and
continues to be, one of the great influences
on western literature, as important for craftsmanship as
his reworking of the epic
tradition. Virgil brought to perfection the Latin hexameter,
the reading of which (and sometimes the writing) was required
of all European poets until the twentieth century. He also
took from Alexandrian poets a fuller portrayal of women,
and gave his hero greater compassion and psychological complexity,
aspects that foreshadowed Christian attitudes. The Aeneid
was often allegorized in the Middle Ages, the characters
turned to abstract qualities. In the Renaissance, however,
together with Seneca and Ovid, Virgil became the greatest
influence on extended literary composition and so helped
create the models of excellence that have lasted till comparatively
recently.
