Virgil

Virgil Virgil was born Publius Vergilius Maro in Andes, a village in northern Italy near Mantua. His father was a farmer. Virgil was thoroughly educated in Greek and Roman literature, rhetoric, and philosophy. The patronage of Roman statesman Gaius Maecenas relieved him of financial cares and allowed him to devote himself fully to literary pursuits and to study. He spent the greater part of his life at or near Naples and Nola. His most intimate friends were his patron Maecenas; Octavian, who became Emperor Augustus during Virgil's lifetime; and many prominent poets. Among these were Gaius Cornelius Gallus, Horace, and Lucius Varius Rufus. In 19 BC, Virgil set out on a trip to Greece and Asia with the intention of revising his masterpiece, the Aeneid, already substantially completed, and then of devoting the remainder of his life to philosophical study. He met Augustus in Athens, Greece, and returned with him to Italy. Virgil was taken ill before leaving Athens and died shortly after his arrival at Brundisium. On his deathbed, Virgil gave instructions that the Aeneid should be destroyed but, by Augustus's order, the poem was edited and published after Virgil's death by Roman poets Varius Rufus and Plotius Tucca. The Appendix virgil, poems, roman, poem, virgil's, poets, life, collection, child, augustus, age, varius, theocritus, style, study, short, rufus, pastoral, near, maecenas, italy, greece, gave, gaius, eclogues, during, completed, catalepton, been, bc, athens, after, aeneid, youthful, written, works