s after the main body of the poem. The most probable date is 43 B.C., when the young nobleman, then only ab

away student hours at Athens for Greek verse writing, gained no little renown by taking a lawsuit against the most lear

Cicero, Ad Br

l still eager to win his place as a rival

ave begun so that the Muses may cease to entice me further. Oh, if only wisdom, the mistress of the four sages of old, would lead me to her tower whence I might from afar view the errors of men; I should not then honor one so great with a theme so trifling, but I should weave a marvel

d that he is willing to appease the muses of lighter song only because they insist on returni

se. Later at Philippi he led the cavalry charge which broke through the triumvirate line and captured Octavius' camp. That was the famous first battle of Philippi, prematurely reported in Italy as a decisive victory for the Republica

of such a nature that political differences played no part in it. The poet's complete silence in the poem about Brutus and Cassius indicates that it is not to any extent the cause which interests him. Nor can a eulogy of a young republican at this time be considered as implying any ill-will toward Octavian

h speed, has few good lines (indeed it was probably never finished

e and therefore misunderstood, we must dwell at length on some

place in my pages, pastoral songs in which two shepherds lying under the spreading oak sing in honor of your heroine to whom the divinities bring gifts. The he

ds. So I need not sing of your recent exploits: how you left your home, your son, and the forum, to endure winter'

y song. I shall be satisfied if

nnection 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 wo

is given in full in Classi

" naturally the subjection of the Thracian and Pontic tribes and of the Oriental provinces earlier in the year. And the assumption is made (1. 51 ff.) that Messalla has, as a recognition of his generalship, been chosen to complete the war in Africa, Spain, and Britain. Most significant of all is Vergil's blunt confession that his mind is not wholly at ease concerning the theme (II. 9-12): "I am indeed strangely at a loss for words, for I

esents the divinities as bestowing gifts! Propertius, who acknowledged Mesalla as his patron later employed this same motive of celestial adoration in honor of Cynthia (II. 3, 25), but surely Messalla's herois was, to judge from Vergil's comparison, a person of far higher station than Cynthia. Could she have been the lady he married upon his return from Athens? Such

had translated from Messal

ridi patulae su

ores et Mel

ntes alterno

criae doctus

es. When he published them he placed at the very beginni

lae recubans su

eminder to Messalla that it was he

zable phrase or line from the master into the very first sentence of a new work: cf. Arma virumque cano-[Greek: Andra moi ennepe] (Lund

ognition of Messalla's influence. Conversely it is proof, if proof were needed, that the

stras venerunt

en some of his Eclogues, and that these early ones-presumably at

umvirs, and, preferring not to return to Rome in disgrace, cast his lot with Antony who remained in the East. Vergil, who thoroughly disliked Antony, must then have f

, not to be used seriously in di

red in Italy for nearly two hundred thousand veterans. Every one knew that the cities that had favored the liberators, and even those that had tried to preserve their neutrality, woul

ironis eras, et

omino tu quo

una mecum, qu

patria tris

isque patrem: t

uerat quodque

osophers at Rome, he had left his property to his favorite pupil. The garden school, therefore, seems to have come to an end, though possibly Philodemus may have continued it for the

ent. If, as seems wholly likely, Servius is right, the sixth Eclogue is a fervid tribute to a teacher who deserves not to be forgotten in the story of Vergil's education

of poems written by Gallus (Aus Vergils Frühzeit.) Cartault, étude sur les Bucoliques de Virg

se, how Plato also likened his teacher Socrates to Silenus. Silenus sang indeed till hills and valleys thrilled with the music: of creation of sun and moon, the world of living thin

Quintilius Varus as fellow students at Naples. Surely Servius has provided the key. The whole poem, with its references to old myth

, uti magnum p

que animaeque m

l ignis; ut his

tener mundi co

um et disclude

erum paulatim

rrae stupeant l

adant summotis

ae cum primum

ros errent an

ested to Varus the usual Epicurean theories of perception, imagination, passion, and mental aberrations, subjects that

as in the prooemium and again in the allegory of the seasons (V. 732). He also employs them in a Euhemeristic fashion, explaining them as popular allegories of actual human experiences, citing the myths of Tantalus and Sisyphus, for example, as expressions of the ever-pr

mendosae vulgat

ction of the Cybele myth, after a lovely pas

ght scent by making the first riddles very easy. The lapides Pyrrhae (I. 41) refer of course to the creation of man; Saturnia regna is, in Epicurean lore, the primitive life of the early savages; furtum Promethei (I. 42) must refer to Epicurus' explanation of how fire came from clashing trees and from lightning. The story of Hylas (I. 43) probably rem

fulness and love

Siro, but he may have re

bus, if we may believe him, suggests the possibility in calling him a schoolmate of Vergil's, and a plausible interpretation of this eclogue turns that possibility

ad died, the school closed, and Varus gone off to war. The younger man's school days are now over; he had found his idio