Virgil

Contents

1 Virgil 1
1.1 Life and works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Birth and biographical tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.2 Early works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.3 The Eclogues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.4 The Georgics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.5 The Aeneid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.6 Reception of the Aeneid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.7 Virgil’s death and editing of the Aeneid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Later views and reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.1 In antiquity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.2 Late antiquity and Middle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.3 Legends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.4 Virgil’s tomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Name in English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.5 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.6 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2 Virgilius the Sorcerer 9

2.1 Virgil’s powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 Synopsis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.1 Effects on Rome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.5.1 Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.5.2 Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.5.3 Content license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

i
Chapter 1

Virgil

For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation).

Publius Vergilius Maro (Classical Latin: [ˈpuː.blɪ.ʊs

wɛrˈɡɪ.lɪ.ʊs ˈma.roː]; October 15, 70 BC – September 21,
19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil /ˈvɜrdʒɨl/ in En-
glish, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan pe-
riod. He is known for three major works of Latin liter-
ature, the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the
epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the
Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him.
Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Rome’s greatest
poets. His Aeneid has been considered the national epic
of ancient Rome from the time of its composition to the
present day. Modeled after Homer's Iliad and Odyssey,
the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he strug-
gles to fulfill his destiny and arrive on the shores of Italy—
in Roman mythology the founding act of Rome. Virgil’s
work has had wide and deep influence on Western litera-
ture, most notably Dante's Divine Comedy, in which Vir-
gil appears as Dante’s guide through hell and purgatory.

1.1 Life and works

A bust of Virgil in Naples

1.1.1 Birth and biographical tradition

Virgil’s biographical tradition is thought to depend on a
lost biography by Varius, Virgil’s editor, which was in-
corporated into the biography by Suetonius and the com-
mentaries of Servius and Donatus, the two great com-
mentators on Virgil’s poetry. Although the commentaries
no doubt record much factual information about Virgil,
some of their evidence can be shown to rely on inferences
made from his poetry and allegorizing; thus, Virgil’s bio-
graphical tradition remains problematic.[2]
The tradition holds that Virgil was born in the village of
Andes, near Mantua[3] in Cisalpine Gaul.[4] Analysis of
his name has led to beliefs that he descended from ear-
lier Roman colonists. Modern speculation ultimately is
not supported by narrative evidence either from his own
writings or his later biographers. Macrobius says that Vir-
gil’s father was of a humble background; however, schol-
ars generally believe that Virgil was from an equestrian
landowning family which could afford to give him an ed-
ucation. He attended schools in Cremona, Mediolanum,
Rome and Naples. After considering briefly a career in
rhetoric and law, the young Virgil turned his talents to
poetry.[5]
1.1.2 Early works
Main article: Appendix Vergiliana
According to the commentators, Virgil received his first
education when he was five years old and he later went
to Cremona, Milan, and finally Rome to study rhetoric,
medicine, and astronomy, which he soon abandoned for
philosophy. From Virgil’s admiring references to the
neoteric writers Pollio and Cinna, it has been inferred
that he was, for a time, associated with Catullus' neo-

1
2 CHAPTER 1. VIRGIL

teric circle. However schoolmates considered Virgil ex- ported inference from interpretations of the Eclogues. In
tremely shy and reserved, according to Servius, and he Eclogues 1 and 9, Virgil indeed dramatizes the contrasting
was nicknamed “Parthenias” or “maiden” because of his feelings caused by the brutality of the land expropriations
social aloofness. Virgil seems to have suffered bad health through pastoral idiom, but offers no indisputable evi-
throughout his life and in some ways lived the life of dence of the supposed biographic incident. While some
an invalid. According to the Catalepton, while in the readers have identified the poet himself with various char-
Epicurean school of Siro the Epicurean at Naples, he be- acters and their vicissitudes, whether gratitude by an old
gan to write poetry. A group of small works attributed to rustic to a new god (Ecl. 1), frustrated love by a rustic
the youthful Virgil by the commentators survive collected singer for a distant boy (his master’s pet, Ecl. 2), or a
under the title Appendix Vergiliana, but are largely con- master singer’s claim to have composed several eclogues
sidered spurious by scholars. One, the Catalepton, con- (Ecl. 5), modern scholars largely reject such efforts to
sists of fourteen short poems,[6] some of which may be garner biographical details from works of fiction, pre-
Virgil’s, and another, a short narrative poem titled the ferring to interpret an author’s characters and themes as
Culex (“The Gnat”), was attributed to Virgil as early as illustrations of contemporary life and thought. The ten
the 1st century AD. Eclogues present traditional pastoral themes with a fresh
perspective. Eclogues 1 and 9 address the land confisca-
tions and their effects on the Italian countryside. 2 and 3
1.1.3 The Eclogues are pastoral and erotic, discussing both homosexual love
(Ecl. 2) and attraction toward people of any gender (Ecl.
Main article: Eclogues 3). Eclogue 4, addressed to Asinius Pollio, the so-called
The biographical tradition asserts that Virgil began the “Messianic Eclogue” uses the imagery of the golden age
in connection with the birth of a child (who the child was
meant to be has been subject to debate). 5 and 8 describe
the myth of Daphnis in a song contest, 6, the cosmic and
mythological song of Silenus; 7, a heated poetic contest,
and 10 the sufferings of the contemporary elegiac poet
Cornelius Gallus. Virgil is credited in the Eclogues with
establishing Arcadia as a poetic ideal that still resonates in
Western literature and visual arts and setting the stage for
the development of Latin pastoral by Calpurnius Siculus,
Nemesianus, and later writers.

1.1.4 The Georgics

Main article: Georgics

Sometime after the publication of the Eclogues (proba-

bly before 37 BC),[7] Virgil became part of the circle of
Maecenas, Octavian’s capable agent d'affaires who sought
to counter sympathy for Antony among the leading fami-
Page from the Eclogues in the 5th-century Vergilius Romanus lies by rallying Roman literary figures to Octavian’s side.
Virgil came to know many of the other leading literary
hexameter Eclogues (or Bucolics) in 42 BC and it is figures of the time, including Horace, in whose poetry he
thought that the collection was published around 39–38 is often mentioned,[8] and Varius Rufus, who later helped
BC, although this is controversial.[6] The Eclogues (from finish the Aeneid.
the Greek for “selections”) are a group of ten poems
roughly modeled on the bucolic hexameter poetry (“pas-
toral poetry”) of the Hellenistic poet Theocritus. After
his victory in the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, fought
against the army led by the assassins of Julius Caesar,
Octavian tried to pay off his veterans with land expropri-
ated from towns in northern Italy, supposedly including,
according to the tradition, an estate near Mantua belong-
ing to Virgil. The loss of his family farm and the attempt Late 17th-century illustration of a passage from the Georgics by
through poetic petitions to regain his property have tra- Jerzy Siemiginowski-Eleuter
ditionally been seen as Virgil’s motives in the composi-
tion of the Eclogues. This is now thought to be an unsup- At Maecenas’ insistence (according to the tradition) Vir-
1.1. LIFE AND WORKS 3

gil spent the ensuing years (perhaps 37–29 BC) on the

long didactic hexameter poem called the Georgics (from
Greek, “On Working the Earth”) which he dedicated to
Maecenas. The ostensible theme of the Georgics is in-
struction in the methods of running a farm. In handling
this theme, Virgil follows in the didactic (“how to”) tradi-
tion of the Greek poet Hesiod's Works and Days and sev-
eral works of the later Hellenistic poets. The four books
of the Georgics focus respectively on raising crops and
trees (1 and 2), livestock and horses (3), and beekeeping
and the qualities of bees (4). Well-known passages in-
clude the beloved Laus Italiae of Book 2, the prologue
description of the temple in Book 3, and the description
of the plague at the end of Book 3. Book 4 concludes with
a long mythological narrative, in the form of an epyllion
which describes vividly the discovery of beekeeping by
Aristaeus and the story of Orpheus' journey to the un-
derworld. Ancient scholars, such as Servius, conjectured
that the Aristaeus episode replaced, at the emperor’s re-
quest, a long section in praise of Virgil’s friend, the poet
Gallus, who was disgraced by Augustus, and who com-
mitted suicide in 26 BC.
The Georgics’ tone wavers between optimism and
pessimism, sparking critical debate on the poet’s
intentions,[9] but the work lays the foundations for later
didactic poetry. Virgil and Maecenas are said to have A 1st-century terracotta expressing the pietas of Aeneas, who car-
taken turns reading the Georgics to Octavian upon his re- ries his aged father and leads his young son
turn from defeating Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of
Actium in 31 BC.
with a storm which Juno, Aeneas’ enemy throughout the
poem, stirs up against the fleet. The storm drives the hero
1.1.5 The Aeneid to the coast of Carthage, which historically was Rome’s
deadliest foe. The queen, Dido, welcomes the ances-
Main article: Aeneid tor of the Romans, and under the influence of the gods
The Aeneid is widely considered Virgil’s finest work and falls deeply in love with him. At a banquet in Book 2,
one of the most important poems in the history of west- Aeneas tells the story of the sack of Troy, the death of
ern literature. Virgil worked on the Aeneid during the his wife, and his escape, to the enthralled Carthagini-
last eleven years of his life (29–19 BC), commissioned, ans, while in Book 3 he recounts to them his wanderings
according to Propertius, by Augustus.[10] The epic poem over the Mediterranean in search of a suitable new home.
consists of 12 books in dactylic hexameter verse which Jupiter in Book 4 recalls the lingering Aeneas to his duty
describe the journey of Aeneas, a warrior fleeing the sack to found a new city, and he slips away from Carthage,
of Troy, to Italy, his battle with the Italian prince Tur- leaving Dido to commit suicide, cursing Aeneas and call-
nus, and the foundation of a city from which Rome would ing down revenge in a symbolic anticipation of the fierce
emerge. The Aeneid's first six books describe the journey wars between Carthage and Rome. In Book 5, Aeneas’
of Aeneas from Troy to Rome. Virgil made use of several father Anchises dies and funeral games are celebrated for
models in the composition of his epic;[7] Homer the pre- him. On reaching Cumae, in Italy in Book 6, Aeneas con-
eminent classical epicist is everywhere present, but Virgil sults the Cumaean Sibyl, who conducts him through the
also makes special use of the Latin poet Ennius and the Underworld where Aeneas meets the dead Anchises who
Hellenistic poet Apollonius of Rhodes among the various reveals Rome’s destiny to his son.
other writers to which he alludes. Although the Aeneid Book 7 (beginning the Iliadic half) opens with an address
casts itself firmly into the epic mode, it often seeks to ex- to the muse and recounts Aeneas’ arrival in Italy and be-
pand the genre by including elements of other genres such trothal to Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus. Lavinia had
as tragedy and aetiological poetry. Ancient commenta- already been promised to Turnus, the king of the Ru-
tors noted that Virgil seems to divide the Aeneid into two tulians, who is roused to war by the Fury Allecto, and
sections based on the poetry of Homer; the first six books Amata Lavinia’s mother. In Book 8, Aeneas allies with
were viewed as employing the Odyssey as a model while King Evander, who occupies the future site of Rome, and
the last six were connected to the Iliad.[11] is given new armor and a shield depicting Roman history.
Book 1[12] (at the head of the Odyssean section) opens Book 9 records an assault by Nisus and Euryalus on the
4 CHAPTER 1. VIRGIL

Rutulians, Book 10, the death of Evander’s young son BC.

Pallas, and 11 the death of the Volscian warrior princess
Camilla and the decision to settle the war with a duel
between Aeneas and Turnus. The Aeneid ends in Book
12 with the taking of Latinus’ city, the death of Amata,
and Aeneas’ defeat and killing of Turnus, whose pleas for
mercy are spurned. The final book ends with the image
of Turnus’ soul lamenting as it flees to the underworld.
1.1.6 Reception of the Aeneid
1.1.7 Virgil’s death and editing of the
Aeneid
According to the tradition, Virgil traveled to Greece in
about 19 BC to revise the Aeneid. After meeting Augus-
tus in Athens and deciding to return home, Virgil caught
a fever while visiting a town near Megara. After cross-
ing to Italy by ship, weakened with disease, Virgil died
in Brundisium harbor on September 21, 19 BC. Augus-
tus ordered Virgil’s literary executors, Lucius Varius Ru-
fus and Plotius Tucca, to disregard Virgil’s own wish that
the poem be burned, instead ordering it published with as
few editorial changes as possible.[14] As a result, the text
of the Aeneid that exists may contain faults which Vir-
gil was planning to correct before publication. However,
the only obvious imperfections are a few lines of verse
that are metrically unfinished (i.e. not a complete line
of dactylic hexameter). Other alleged imperfections are
subject to scholarly debate.

1.2 Later views and reception

Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia by
Jean-Baptiste Wicar, Art Institute of Chicago 1.2.1 In antiquity
Critics of the Aeneid focus on a variety of issues.[13] The
tone of the poem as a whole is a particular matter of de-
bate; some see the poem as ultimately pessimistic and po-
litically subversive to the Augustan regime, while others
view it as a celebration of the new imperial dynasty. Vir-
gil makes use of the symbolism of the Augustan regime,
and some scholars see strong associations between Au-
gustus and Aeneas, the one as founder and the other as
re-founder of Rome. A strong teleology, or drive to-
wards a climax, has been detected in the poem. The
Aeneid is full of prophecies about the future of Rome, the
deeds of Augustus, his ancestors, and famous Romans,
and the Carthaginian Wars; the shield of Aeneas even de-
picts Augustus’ victory at Actium against Mark Antony
and Cleopatra VII in 31 BC. A further focus of study is
the character of Aeneas. As the protagonist of the poem,
Aeneas seems to waver constantly between his emotions
and commitment to his prophetic duty to found Rome;
critics note the breakdown of Aeneas’ emotional control A 3rd-century Tunisian mosaic of Virgil seated between Clio and
in the last sections of the poem where the “pious” and Melpomene (from Hadrumetum [Sousse])
“righteous” Aeneas mercilessly slaughters Turnus.
The works of Virgil almost from the moment of their pub-
The Aeneid appears to have been a great success. Virgil lication revolutionized Latin poetry. The Eclogues, Geor-
is said to have recited Books 2, 4, and 6 to Augustus;[7] gics, and above all the Aeneid became standard texts in
and Book 6 apparently caused Augustus’ sister Octavia school curricula with which all educated Romans were
to faint. Although the truth of this claim is subject to familiar. Poets following Virgil often refer intertextu-
scholarly scepticism, it has served as a basis for later art, ally to his works to generate meaning in their own poetry.
such as Jean-Baptiste Wicar's Virgil Reading the Aeneid. The Augustan poet Ovid parodies the opening lines of the
Unfortunately, some lines of the poem were left unfin- Aeneid in Amores 1.1.1–2, and his summary of the Ae-
ished, and the whole was unedited, at Virgil’s death in 19 neas story in Book 14 of the Metamorphoses, the so-called
1.2. LATER VIEWS AND RECEPTION 5

“mini-Aeneid”, has been viewed as a particularly impor- eral places, along with some other Latin poets, though he
tant example of post-Virgilian response to the epic genre. cautions that “we ought not to relate their lying fables, lest
Lucan's epic, the Bellum Civile has been considered an we fall under sentence of eternal death.”
anti-Virgilian epic, disposing with the divine mechanism, Dante made Virgil his guide in Hell and the greater part
treating historical events, and diverging drastically from of Purgatory in The Divine Comedy. Dante also mentions
Virgilian epic practice. The Flavian poet Statius in his Virgil in De vulgari eloquentia, along with Ovid, Lucan
12-book epic Thebaid engages closely with the poetry of and Statius, as one of the four regulati poetae (ii, vi, 7).
Virgil; in his epilogue he advises his poem not to “ri-
val the divine Aeneid, but follow afar and ever venerate The best-known surviving manuscripts of Virgil’s works
its footsteps.”[15] In Silius Italicus, Virgil finds one of his include the Vergilius Augusteus, the Vergilius Vaticanus
most ardent admirers. With almost every line of his epic and the Vergilius Romanus.
Punica Silius references Virgil. Indeed, Silius is known
to have bought Virgil’s tomb and worshipped the poet.[16]
Partially as a result of his so-called “Messianic” Fourth 1.2.3 Legends
Eclogue—widely interpreted later to have predicted the
birth of Jesus Christ—Virgil was in later antiquity im-
puted to have the magical abilities of a seer; the Sortes
Vergilianae, the process of using Virgil’s poetry as a tool
of divination, is found in the time of Hadrian, and contin-
ued into the Middle Ages. In a similar vein Macrobius in
the Saturnalia credits the work of Virgil as the embodi-
ment of human knowledge and experience, mirroring the
Greek conception of Homer.[17] Virgil also found com-
mentators in antiquity. Servius, a commentator of the
4th century AD, based his work on the commentary of
Donatus. Servius’ commentary provides us with a great
deal of information about Virgil’s life, sources, and refer-
ences; however, many modern scholars find the variable
quality of his work and the often simplistic interpretations
frustrating.

1.2.2 Late antiquity and Middle Ages

Virgil in his Basket, Lucas van Leyden, 1525

In the Middle Ages, Virgil’s reputation was such that it in-

spired legends associating him with magic and prophecy.
From at least the 3rd century, Christian thinkers inter-
preted Eclogues 4, which describes the birth of a boy
ushering in a golden age, as a prediction of Jesus’ birth.
As such, Virgil came to be seen on a similar level as the
Hebrew prophets of the Bible as one who had heralded
Christianity.[18]
Possibly as early as the second century AD, Virgil’s works
were seen as having magical properties and were used
for divination. In what became known as the Sortes
Vergilianae (Virgilian Lots), passages would be selected
A 5th-century portrait of Virgil from the Vergilius Romanus at random and interpreted to answer questions.[19] In
the 12th century, starting around Naples but eventually
Even as the Western Roman empire collapsed, liter- spreading widely throughout Europe, a tradition devel-
ate men acknowledged that Virgil was a master poet. oped in which Virgil was regarded as a great magician.
Gregory of Tours read Virgil, whom he quotes in sev- Legends about Virgil and his magical powers remained
6 CHAPTER 1. VIRGIL
popular for over two hundred years, arguably becoming
as prominent as his writings themselves.[20] Virgil’s legacy
in medieval Wales was such that the Welsh version of
his name, Fferyllt or Pheryllt, became a generic term for
magic-worker, and survives in the modern Welsh word
for pharmacist, fferyllydd.[21]
The legend of Virgil in his Basket arose in the Middle
Ages, and is often seen in art and mentioned in literature
as part of the Power of Women literary topos, demon-
strating the disruptive force of female attractiveness on
men. In this story Virgil became enamoured of a beauti-
ful woman, sometimes described as the emperor’s daugh-
ter or mistress and called Lucretia. She played him along
and agreed to an assignation at her house, which he was
to sneak into at night by climbing into a large basket let
down from a window. When he did so he was only hoisted
halfway up the wall and then left him trapped there into
the next day, exposed to public ridicule. The story paral-
leled that of Phyllis riding Aristotle. Among other artists
depicting the scene, Lucas van Leyden made a woodcut
and later an engraving.[22]
1.2.4 Virgil’s tomb
The verse inscription at Virgil’s tomb was supposedly composed
by the poet himself: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet
nunc Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces ("Mantua bore me,
the Calabrians snatched me away, now Naples holds me. I sang
of pastures, countrysides, leaders”)
The structure known as "Virgil’s tomb" is found at the en-
trance of an ancient Roman tunnel (also known as “grotta
vecchia”) in Piedigrotta, a district two miles from the cen-
tre of Naples, near the Mergellina harbor, on the road
heading north along the coast to Pozzuoli. While Virgil
was already the object of literary admiration and vener-
ation before his death, in the Middle Ages his name be-
came associated with miraculous powers, and for a couple
of centuries his tomb was the destination of pilgrimages
and veneration.[23]
1.3 Name in English
In the Late Empire and Middle Ages Vergilius was spelled
Virgilius. Two explanations are commonly given for this
alteration. One deduces a false etymology associated with
the word virgo (“maiden” in Latin) due to Virgil’s exces-
sive, “maiden"-like modesty. Alternatively, some argue
that Vergilius was altered to Virgilius by analogy with the
Latin virga (“wand”) due to the magical or prophetic pow-
ers attributed to Virgil in the Middle Ages (this explana-
tion is found in only a handful of manuscripts, however,
and was probably not widespread). In Norman schools
(following the French practice), the habit was to anglicize
Latin names by dropping their Latin endings, hence Vir-
gil. In the 19th century, some German-trained classicists
in the United States suggested modification to Vergil, as
it is closer to his original name, and is also the traditional
German spelling. Modern usage permits both, though the
Oxford guide to style recommends Vergilius to avoid con-
fusion with the 8th-century grammarian Virgilius Maro
Grammaticus. Some post-Renaissance writers liked to
affect the sobriquet “The Swan of Mantua”.
1.4 References
[1] Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World, ed. Roberts,
John, (Oxford: OUP, 2005)
[2] Don Fowler “Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)" in The Ox-
ford Classical Dictionary, (3.ed. 1996, Oxford), pg.1602
[3] The epitaph on his tomb in Posilipo near Naples was Man-
tua me genuit; Calabri rapuere; tenet nunc Parthenope.
Cecini pascua, rura, duces (“Mantua gave birth to me, the
Calabrians took me, now Naples holds me; I sang of pas-
tures [the Eclogues], country [the Georgics] and leaders
[the Aeneid]").
[4] Map of Cisalpine Gaul
[5] http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320AncLit/chapters/
11verg.htm
[6] Fowler, pg.1602
[7] Fowler , pg.1603
[8] Horace, Satires 1.5, 1.6, and Odes 1.3
[9] Fowler, pg.1605
[10] Avery, W. T. (1957). “Augustus and the “Aeneid"". The
Classical Journal 52 (5): 225–229.
[11] Jenkyns, p. 53
[12] For a succinct summary, see Globalnet.co.uk
[13] For a bibliography and summary see Fowler, pg.1605–6
[14] Sellar, William Young; Glover, Terrot Reaveley (1911).
“Virgil”. Encyclopædia Britannica 28 (11th ed.). p. 112.
Retrieved 2012-06-07.
1.6. EXTERNAL LINKS
[15] Theb.12.816–7
[16] Pliny Ep. 3.7.8
[17] Fowler, pg.1603
[18] Ziolkowski, Jan M.; Putnam, Michael C. J. (2008). The
Virgilian Tradition: The First Fifteen Hundred Years. Yale
University Press. pp. xxxiv–xxxv. ISBN 0300108222.
Retrieved November 11, 2013.
[19] Ziolkowski & Putnam, pp. xxxiv, 829–830.
[20] Ziolkowski & Putnam, p. xxxiv.
[21] Ziolkowski & Putnem, pp. 101–102.
[22] Snyder, James. Northern Renaissance Art, 1985, Harry N.
Abrams, ISBN 0136235964, pp. 461-462
[23] Chambers, Robert (1832). The Book of Days. London:
W and R Chambers. p. 366.
1.5 Further reading
• Buckham, Philip Wentworth; Spence, Joseph;
Holdsworth, Edward; Warburton, William; Jortin,
John. Miscellanea Virgiliana: In Scriptis Maxime
Eruditorum Virorum Varie Dispersa, in Unum Fas-
ciculum Collecta. Cambridge: Printed for W. P.
Grant, 1825.
• Conway, R. S. (1915). The youth of Vergil: a lecture
delivered in the John Rylands Library on 9 Decem-
ber, 1914.
• Jenkyns, Richard (2007). Classical Epic: Homer
and Virgil. London: Duckworth. ISBN 1-85399-
133-3. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
• Sondrup, Steven P. (2009). “Virgil: From Farms to
Empire: Kierkegaard’s Understanding of a Roman
Poet” in Kierkegaard and the Roman World edited
by Jon Bartley Stewart. Farnham: Ashgate.
1.6 External links
• Collected works
• Works by Virgil at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Virgil at Internet Archive
• Works by Virgil at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
• Works of Virgil at the Perseus Digital Library
• Latin texts, translations and commen-
taries
• Aeneid translated by T. C. Williams, 1910
• Aeneid translated by John Dryden, 1697
7
• Aeneid, Eclogues and Georgics translated
by J. C. Greenough, 1900
• Works of Virgil at Theoi Project
• Aeneid, Eclogues and Georgics translated
by H. R. Fairclough, 1916
• Works of Virgil at Sacred Texts
• Aeneid translated by John Dryden, 1697
• Eclogues and Georgics translated by J.W.
MacKail, 1934
• P. Vergilius Maro at The Latin Library
• Virgil’s works: text, concordances and fre-
quency list.
• Virgil: The Major Texts: contemporary, line
by line English translations of Eclogues, Geor-
gics, and Aeneid.
• Virgil in the collection of Ferdinand, Duke of
Calabria at Somni:
• Publii Vergilii Maronis Opera Naples and
Milan, 1450.
• Publii Vergilii Maronis Opera Italy, be-
tween 1470 and 1499.
• Publii Vergilii Maronis Opera Milan,
1465.
• Biography
• Suetonius: The Life of Virgil, an English trans-
lation.
• Vita Vergiliana, Aelius Donatus’ Life of Virgil
in the original Latin.
• Virgil.org: Aelius Donatus’ Life of Virgil
translated into English by David Wilson-
Okamura
• Project Gutenberg edition of Vergil—A Biog-
raphy, by Tenney Frank.
• Vergilian Chronology (in German).
• Commentary
• “A new Aeneid for the 21st century”. A re-
view of Robert Fagles’s new translation of the
Aeneid in the TLS, February 9, 2007.
• Virgilmurder (Jean-Yves Maleuvre’s website
setting forth his theory that Virgil was mur-
dered by Augustus)
• The Secret History of Virgil, containing a se-
lection on the magical legends and tall tales
that circulated about Virgil in the Middle
Ages.
• Interview with Virgil scholar Richard Thomas
and poet David Ferry, who recently translated
the "Georgics", on ThoughtCast
• SORGLL: Aeneid, Bk I, 1–49; read by Robert
Sonkowsky
8 CHAPTER 1. VIRGIL

• SORGLL: Aeneid, Bk IV, 296–396; read by

Stephen Daitz
• Bibliographies

• Comprehensive bibliographies on all three of

Virgil’s major works, downloadable in Word
or pdf format
• Bibliography of works relating Vergil to the lit-
erature of the Hellenistic age
• A selective Bibliographical Guide to Vergil’s
Aeneid
• Virgil in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and
the Renaissance: an Online Bibliography

The article above was originally sourced from Nupedia

and is open content.
Chapter 2

Virgilius the Sorcerer

Virgilius the Sorcerer is a fairy tale about the poet Virgil books, and the knowledge how to use them, first; then
by Andrew Lang who included it in The Violet Fairy Book. he freed the spirit. It grew to an enormous size, so the
quick-witted Virgilius declared he did not believe it came
out of the hole, and the spirit, to prove it, went back in
2.1 Virgil’s powers whereupon Virgilius quickly trapped it again.
He studied magic for many days gaining a wonderful rep-
Medieval legends attributed magical powers to the poet utation for his powers (“he was much thought of as show-
Virgil, but even among these legends, this tale attributes ing promise of great learning”). This was cut short when
a very high level of power to him. his mother sent for him because she was ill and could no
longer look after their affairs. When he arrived home, his
Among his accomplishments in the tale, Virgilius is a rich relatives were displeased because his presence meant
quick thinker, using his magical powers to defeat corrup- they could no longer rob their kinsmen. They were, how-
tion and military attacks and spirits. One of his spells was ever, related to the emperor, who put off the matter of
to make an army immobile, turn men to stone, or cre- giving Virgilius his due. His enemies attacked him but
ate a river out of nowhere, encircling them so they could Virgilius used his magic to drive them off or cast spells
not proceed. Although he wins many challenges, includ- on them. The emperor himself went to him without effect
ing a magician’s battle, wily schemes also help his cause. until a magician came into camp and was hired to battle
Among his creations, he invents and animates a horse, Virgilius. Virgilius had a hard time fighting the magician,
rider and dogs out of copper to assert his will. but reached the emperor in secret with a proposition: he
Virgilius avenges the trickery of his first love for publicly would stop the fight if he could have justice, compelling
humiliating him before finding true love at last, and cre- the emperor to agree.
ating the city of Naples for her. Virgilius then fell in love with a woman named Febilla.
His real life counterpart, Sigurd Virgilius Korzon, has She told him that she would let him visit her by draw-
only one power: giving the D to Maleks Mor ing him up in a basket to a tower. Once he was in the
basket, she lifted it only half way, leaving him a dangling
target of the crowd’s ridicule. The emperor ordered his
release, but the next day, no fire in Rome would light. Vir-
2.2 Synopsis gilius told them to bring Febilla to a scaffold in the market
place and take fire from her. Fire started about her and
The story begins – she had to stand there until everyone had re-lit their fires.
The emperor threw Virgilius into prison with a death sen-
Long, long ago there was born to a Roman tence, but when he was brought up, thirsty Virgilius asked
knight and his wife Maja a little boy called Vir- for water. When the guards brought him a pail of water,
gilius. While he was still quite little, his fa- jumped into it, saying he was going to Sicily and magi-
ther died, and the kinsmen, instead of being a cally vanished.
help and protection to the child and his mother, Andrew Lang has heavily bowdlerized his sources here;
robbed them of their lands and money, and the in the original Medieval tradition, the fire could only be
widow, fearing that they might take the boy’s rekindled from her vagina. The story was very popular
life also, sent him away to Spain, that he might with Renaissance artists. The Metropolitan Museum has
study in the great University of Toledo. a Venetian confittiera (ca. 1475–1500) showing Febilla
standing on the square with raised skirt, a gift by J. Pier-
One holiday, when walking, he came upon an evil spirit pont Morgan.[1][2]
that was trapped; the spirit offered him magical books in
exchange for setting him free. Virgilius demanded the

9
10 CHAPTER 2. VIRGILIUS THE SORCERER

2.2.1 Effects on Rome

The fairy tale says that it is unknown how he reconciled
with the emperor, but he next made statues of the gods of
every country, including Rome, with bells in their hands,
and the bells would ring if they intended treachery toward
Rome, so the Romans would send their armies against
them.
A country that hated them sent men to Rome; they
claimed to be diviners and to have dreamed of gold, and
then, with the Senate’s permission, dug up the gold they
had buried the night before. The third time, they told the
Senate it was under the Capitol and they would dig for
them, for their generosity; they undermined the Capitol
and stole away. Immediately after, the statues fell and
were ruined.
Much crime followed in the city. Virgilius had a copper
horse and rider made and ordered all men indoors. Only
the honest obeyed, and the horse trampled those it found
outside. The next day, the surviving thieves tried to use
ropes and grapples to stop it, and used rope ladders to
escape it. Two copper dogs were added, to jump up and
bite them to death.
Virgilius fell in love with a foreign princess, the daughter
of a sultan, and carried her away from her father. She was
a guest in his house, wondering at the marvels, until she
wished to return to her father. Virgilius returned her, but
the sultan ordered his death. Virgilius cast a spell on him
and his court and carried the princess away again. Then,
thinking Rome not fine enough, he built a marvelous city
for her, which was Naples.

2.3 Commentary
The technique of tricking spirit is a motif also found in
The Spirit in the Bottle and with genies in The Fisherman
and the Jinni.
The legend that he had been trapped in a basket was a
common medieval tale, warning of the power of love to
make fools of men.
There is a reference to the “Black Book” he uses as the
source of his spells which in popular culture can be a book
containing lists or evil deeds.

2.4 References
• Virgililus the Sorcerer

[1] Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

[2] Les cahiers d'Alain Truong

2.5. TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES 11

2.5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

2.5.1 Text
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Anome, Tarquin, Olivier, Llywrch, Looxix~enwiki, Ihcoyc, Stan Shebs, Arwel Parry, Habj, Djnjwd, John K, RodC, Charles Matthews,
Adam Bishop, Jallan, JonMoore, CalRis25, Paul-L~enwiki, Wetman, JorgeGG, Chuunen Baka, Robbot, RedWolf, Dersonlwd, Timrollpick-
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Conte, Michael Devore, Mboverload, Macrakis, Telsa, Wmahan, Andycjp, Antandrus, JoJan, Ruzulo, Ellsworth, M.e, HunterX, Joy-
ous!, Irpen, Mschlindwein, Neschek, Kura1204, Mike Rosoft, Haiduc, Pyrop, Rich Farmbrough, Wclark, FiP, Vsmith, Silence, EliasAlu-
card, MeltBanana, StoneColdCrazy, Maksym Ye., Paul August, Brian0918, CanisRufus, MBisanz, Dalf, Bill Thayer, Bobo192, Stesmo,
Atomique~enwiki, Elipongo, Zidel333, Jguk 2, Arcadian, NickSchweitzer, DrZaius, Troels Nybo~enwiki, Jumbuck, Alansohn, Gary,
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ence, Daniel Lawrence, Regoarrarr, Gimboid13, Stefanomione, MrSomeone, Cuchullain, Kbdank71, Tokle, Zbxgscqf, NatusRoma, MZM-
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