The Eclogues

Publius Vergilius Maro—known colloquially as Virgil—was born on October 15, 73 BCE near Mantua, a small city in northern Italy. While the details of his early life are somewhat obscure, it is clear that his family were small landowners and that Virgil himself was educated in Naples or Rome as a youth. In the Eclogues, Virgil often references the land appropriations of 41 BCE, in which Triumvirate members Octavian and Antony rewarded their veterans with valuable gifts of land seized from around Mantua. This caused great distress in the area (despite Virgil’s own high status). That being said, ancient commentators agree that Virgil’s own family farm was among those seized, and that Octavian seemed to play some role in restoring Virgil’s home to him (Virgil showcases his gratitude to Octavian for this generosity in Eclogue 1).

After the Eclogues’ publication sometime around 38 BCE, Virgil was invited into the inner circle of Octavian’s cultural taste-maker, Maecenas, along with other Roman poetic luminaries like Horace and (later) Ovid. While young Ovid was a noted urbanite who loved the city and its dramas, Virgil kept to himself; he dedicated his life to writing poetry above all else. Around 29 BCE, he released his Georgics, a didactic (or educational) work on agriculture.