A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1266 VIRGILIUS. VIRGILI US.
ing, which indeed is the characteristic of all Virgil's indebted to his extensive reading of the Gleek
Eclogues, whatever they may be in substance. The poets.
third, the fifth, the seventh, and the ninth are The Aeneid, or adventures of Aeneas after the
more clearly modelled on the form of the poems of fall of Troy, is an epic poem on the model of the
his Sicilian prototype: and the eighth, the Phar- Homeric poems. It was founded upon an old
maceutria, is a direct imitation of the original Greek. Roman tradition that Aeneas and his Trojans
The tenth, entitled Gallus, perhaps written the settled in Italy, and were the founders of the
last of all, is a love poem, which, if written in Roman name. In the first books we have the
elegiac verse, would be more appropriately called story of Aeneas being driven by a storm on the
an elegy than a Bucolic. All the Eclogues of Virgil coast of Africa, and being hospitably received by
abound in allusions to the circumstances and per- Dido queen of Carthage, to whom he relates in
sons of the time; but these allusions are often ob- the episode of the second and third books the fall
scure. Though the Eclogues contain many pleasing of Troy and his wanderings. In the fourth book
lines, they present very great difficulties arising the poet has elaborated the story of the attachboth from the construction of the poems, and the ment of Dido and Aeneas, the departure of Aeneas
language. Those who find them easy are not per- in obedience to the will of the gods and the suicide
sons who are much alive to the perception of diffi- of the Carthaginian queen. The fifth book conculties; and those who bestow upon them very tains the visit to Sicily, and the sixth the landing
liberal praise, have the merit at least of being of Aeneas at Cumae in Italy, and his descent to
easily satisfied. Virgil borrowed many lines from the infernal regions, where he sees his father AnTheocritus; but the adaptation of a few lines does chises, and has a prophetic vision of the glorious
not give to his poems the genuine rustic cast of destinies of his race and of the future heroes of
some of the best pieces of Theocritus. We do not Rome. In the first six books the adventures of
feel that the Eclogues of Virgil represent rural life Ulysses in the Odyssey are the model, and these
or rural manners in Italy; and such a represent- books contain more variety of incident and situaation, even if Virgil could have given it, is incom- tion than those which follow. The critics have
patible with the leading idea that pervades some of discovered an anachronism in the visit of Aeneas
the Eclogues. Julius Caesar Scaliger preferred to Carthage, which is supposed not to have been
Virgil's Eclogues to those of Theocritus, a curious founded until two centuries after the fall of Troy,
instance of perverted judgment. but this is a matter which we may leave without
The " Georgica" or " Agricultual Poem" in discussion, or admit without allowing it to be a
four books is a didactic poem, which Virgil dedi- poetical defect. The last six books, the history
cated to his patron Maecenas. He treats of the of the struggles of Aeneas in Italy, are founded on
cultivation of the soil in the first book, of fruit trees the model of the battles of the Iliad. Latinus,
in the second, of horses and other cattle in the the king of the Latini, offers the Trojan hero his
third, and of bees in the fourth. In this poem daughter Lavinia in marriage, who had been beVirgil shows a great improvement both in his taste trothed to Turnus, the warlike king of the Rultuli.
and in his versification. If he began this poem be- The contest is ended by the death of Turnus, who
fore he had finished the Eclogues, he went on falls by the hand of Aeneas. The fortunes of
working at it and correcting it after he had laid Aeneas and his final settlement in Italy are the
his Eclogues aside. It has been attempted to show subject of the Aeneid, but the glories of Rome
that the first book was written before B. c. 35, and of the Julian house, to which Augustus bebut there is no conclusive evidence on this point. longed, are indirectly the poet's theme. In the
It has been stated when it was finished. Neither first book the foundation of Alba Longa is proin the Georgics nor elsewhere has Virgil the merit mised by Jupiter to Venus (Aeneid, i. 254), and
of striking originality; his chief merit consists in the transfer of empire from Alba to Rome; from
the skilful handling of borrowed materials. His the line of Aeneas will descend the " Trojan
subject, which was by no means promising, he Caesar," whose empire will only be limited by
treated in a manner both instructive and pleasing; the ocean, and whose glory by the heavens. The
for he has given many useful remarks on agriculture future rivalry between Rome and Carthage, and
and diversified the dryness of didactic poetry by the ultimate triumphs of Rome are predicted. The
numerous allusions and apt embellishments, and poem abounds in allusions to the history of Rome;
some occasional digressions without wandering too and the aim of the poet to confirm and embellish
far from his main matter. In the first book (v. 1, the popular tradition of the Trojan origin of the
&c.) he enumerates the subjects of his poem, Roman state, and the descent of the Julii from
among which is the treatment of bees; yet the Venus, is apparent all through the poem. It is ohmanagement of bees seems but meagre material jected to the Aeneid that it has not the unity of
for one fourth of the whole poem, and the author construction either of the Iliad or of the Odyssey,
accordingly had to complete the fourth book with and that it is deficient in that antique simplicity
matter somewhat extraneous - the long story of which characterises these two poems. Aeneas, the
Aristaeus. The Georgica is the most finished spe- hero, is an insipid kind of personage, and a much
cimen of the Latin hexameter which we have; superior interest is excited by the savage Mezenand the rude vigor of Lucretius, and the antiquated tius, and also by Turnus, the unfortunate rival
rudeness of Ennius are here replaced by a versi- of Aeneas. Virgil imitated other poets besides
fication, which in its kind cannot be surpassed. Homer, and he has occasionally borrowed from
The Georgica are also the most original poem of them, especially from Apollonius of Rhodes. If
Virgil, for he found little in the Works and Days Virgil's subject was difficult to invest with inof Hesiod that could furnish him with hints for the terest, that is his apology; but it cannot be denied
treatment of his subject, and we are not aware that that many parts of his poem are successfully elathere was any work which he could exactly follow borated, and that particular scenes and incidents
as a whole. For numerous single lines he was are treated with true poetic spirit. The historical