famous than the themes of Greek song, yes even than the Roman Lucrece for
whose honor your sires drove the tyrants out of Rome."

"Great are the honors that Rome has bestowed upon the liberty-loving
(Publicolas) Messallas for that and other deeds. So I need not sing of
your recent exploits: how you left your home, your son, and the forum, to
endure winter's chill and summer's heat in warfare on land and sea. And
now you are off to Africa and Spain and beyond the seas."

"Such deeds are too great for my song. I shall be satisfied if I can but
praise your verses."

The most significant passage is the implied comparison of Valerius
Messalla with the founder of the Valerian family who had aided the first
Brutus in establishing the republic as he now was aiding the last Brutus
in restoring it. The comparison is the more startling because our
Messalla later explicitly rejected all connection with the first Valerius
and seems never to have used the cognomen Publicola. The explanation of
Vergil's passage is obvious.[2] The poet hearing of Messalla's remarkable
exploit at Philippi saw at once that his association with Brutus would
remind every Roman of the events of 509 B.C., and that the populace would
as a matter of course acclaim the young hero by the ancient cognomen
"Publicola." Later, after his defeat and submission, Messalla had
of course to suppress every indication that might connect him with
"tyrannicide" stock or faction. The poem, therefore, must have been
written before Messalla's surrender in 42 B.C.

[Footnote 2: The argument is given in full in _Classical Philology_,
1920, p. 36.]