Virgil Case

In my essay I will discuss the Author of the Aeneid, Virgil's, a Latin poet, biography. I will also discuss how and why he composed the national epic poem, the Aeneid.

Publius Vergilius Maro is Virgil's full name in Latin, also known as Virgilius in English, which is said to be wrong but relates to the word Virgil (Page, 1957). He was born on October 15th, 70 BC at Andes which is a small village near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul, 21 to 25 miles southeast of Verona, Italy (Williams, 2006). Apparently Virgil was a tall man, with a dark complex and a rural appearance. He was a humble, profound and good tempered man. Virgil was religious and a firm believer in an overruling power who rewards the good and requites the evil. His love of the Italian countryside and of the people who cultivated it inspired his poetry. For an ordinary man to describe Virgil is almost disrespect. It needs a poet to appreciate a poet.

Virgil's fathers name was Anchises and his mother's name was Maia. According to Smith in the Dictionary of the Greek and Roman Antiquities, Virgil's father supposedly owned a farm and could afford education for his son, however according to Page, in the Aeneid of Virgil; his father could not afford education for his son. He was a laborer that worked for a certain Magius, who was impressed by his employee's intelligence and diligence at work and allowed him to marry his daughter, Magia. The marriage improved Virgil's father's position and was able to give his son education reserved for children of higher status.

According to Smith in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Virgil began his education at Cremona and Mediolanum (modern word, Milan). He took the toga virilis, which is the white toga of manhood taken by boys of ancient Rome at the age of 15, in Cremona when he was 16 in 55 BC. Later on in his life it is said that he studied at Neapolis (modern word, Naples) where he studied under Parthenius from Bithynia, which taught him Greek. He studied rhetoric, which is the study of writing/public speaking and studied under Epidius which was a rhetorician. He also studied medicine and mathematics before studying philosophy which is the study of knowledge, in Rome, under Siron, an Epicurean philosopher.

After his studies he supposedly went back home and wrote a few poems known as, Ciris, Copa, Culex, Dirae and Moretum. Virgil wrote to please the artistic and literacy tastes of his readers and not with any practical aim. Williams stated in the Encyclopedia that Virgil's career started in, 42 BC. His earliest work is the Eclogues, a collection of 10 rustic poems written between 42 and 37 BC. His most finished work written after 37 BC was the Georgic, an agricultural poem, consisting of four books.

Before poetry Virgil briefly considered rhetoric and law. He evidently spoke in a law court once but Virgil was a very shy and reserved person. His retiring nature made him give up law, because in Roman courts, a lawyer was known to be outspoken and aggressive. Virgil never got married and half of his life he lived as a student, an outsider. However, later in life his poetry won him fame and he slowly became friends with many different important men in Rome (Page, 1957).

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus was awarded the title Augustus by the governing body as he became the emperor of Spain in 27 BC, after winning the final battle of the civil war at Phillipi in 42 BC against the forces of Cassius and Brutus. Augustus apparently rewarded his soldiers' with farms and lands after they fought for him. In some cases property was taken away from their occupiers, Virgil being one of the sufferers. Virgil was advised by Asinius Pollio, governor of Gallia, to go to Augustus and request that his property be given back to him. After his request was granted Augustus