Publius Virgil Maro: summary of life and works. Quick explanation of Bucolics and Georgics.
Publius Virgil Marone was born in Andes (near Mantua) on 15 October 70 BC , the son of a landowner: his father owned a small farm near the Mincio, the place of the poet’s childhood.
In Cremona he attended grammar school and at fifteen he took the toga virilis. He moved to Milan and then to Rome, to the school of the rhetorician Elpidio , who numbered among his disciples the future ruling class of Rome, including Mark Antony and Octavian . Virgil, however, shy by nature, had no oratory talent and did not pursue a legal career (he defended only one case, perhaps without success). He abandoned rhetoric to devote himself to philosophy and in particular to Epicureanism, which he studied in depth in Naples at the school of Sirone.
Here he became friends with Varius Rufus and Protius Tucca , the future editors of the first edition of the Aeneid . The period of his education was dominated by the personalities of Catullus and Helvius Cinna . Fascinated by this environment, in this period he wrote some of the compositions that would become part of the collection today known as the Appendix Vergiliana . After the death of Caesar he returned to Andes, where he met his youthful friend Asinius Pollio , who held the office of distributing lands to veterans.
Virgil: Bucolics and Georgics
Thanks to him, he initially managed to save his lands from expropriation, however a year later, while he was busy composing the Bucolics , his fields were assigned to Octavian’s veterans. Having lost his lands, he moved to Rome where he published the Bucolics.
The following year he joined the literary circle of Maecenas. The latter, together with Octavian, offered Virgil a house in Rome, but the poet preferred to retire south towards the sea and the sun, while he devoted himself to the composition of the Georgics , completed in seven years, during a stay in Naples, between 37 and 30.
The Georgics brought Virgil fame and aroused the admiration of Maecenas .
In the summer of 29, Octavian, returning from Asia after the victory of Actium , chose Virgil as the singer of the new empire and the new prince. From this moment until his death, Virgil devoted himself to writing the Aeneid. In 19 he left for a journey through Greece and Asia, with the aim of deepening his culture. Returning to Italy, he landed at Brindisi in precarious health and died shortly after, but before dying he asked for the manuscript of the Aeneid to burn it: fortunately, his friends did not obey him.
His body was transferred to Naples and buried on the Via di Pozzuoli. His tomb bears the inscription “Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Partenope, cecino pascua, rura, duces”.
