November 27, 2012
Biography The Roman writer Publius Vergilius Maro, or as he is more commonly known as Virgil, was born on October 15, 70 B.C. in a small village near Mantua, Italy. He was born to a successful landowner, who was wealthy enough to afford a proper education for Virgil. He was there by sent to Cremona, Milan, and then Rome, where he studied mathematics, medicine, and rhetoric, and then completed his studies in Naples. Now having completed his education, Virgil entered literary circles as an “Alexandrian,” which was the title given to a group of poets who sought inspiration in the sophisticated work of third century Greek poets. Virgil’s property was taken from him by the government in 42 B.C. to give it to the veterans from the battle of Philippi, but later this was restored to him by the command of Caesar Augustus. In the years afterward, he lived in Sicily and Campania for the majority of is time, but he also held property in Rome. From the time of 42 B.C. to about 37 B.C., Virgil wrote several pastoral poems, known as Ecologues, written about farmland from the perspective of a townsman. Virgil’s most famously know work is the Aeneid, which was asked by Caesar Augustus to show the glory of Rome under his rule. This composition took the remainder of Virgil’s life to create, but Virgil was devoted to