INTRODUCTION


Virgil--Publius Vergilius Maro--was born at Andes near Mantua, in
the year 70 B.C. His life was uneventful, though he lived in stirring
times, and he passed by far the greater part of it in reading his
books and writing his poems, undisturbed by the fierce civil strife
which continued to rage throughout the Roman Empire, until Octavian,
who afterwards became the Emperor Augustus, defeated Antony at the
battle of Actium. Though his father was a man of humble origin, Virgil
received an excellent education, first at Cremona and Milan, and
afterwards at Rome. He was intimate with all the distinguished men
of his time, and a personal friend of the Emperor. After the
publication of his second work, the _Georgics_, he was recognized
as being the greatest poet of his age, and the most striking figure
in the brilliant circle of literary men, which was centred at the
Court. He died at Brindisi in the spring of 19 B.C. whilst returning
from a journey to Greece, leaving his greatest work, the _Aeneid_,
written but unrevised. It was published by his executors, and
immediately took its place as the great national Epic of the Roman
people. Virgil seems to have been a man of simple, pure, and loveable
character, and the references to him in the works of Horace clearly
show the affection with which he was regarded by his friends.

Like every cultivated Roman of that age, Virgil was a close student
of the literature and philosophy of the Greeks, and his poems bear
eloquent testimony to the profound impression made upon him by his