campusaraujo
- Mar 14
- 15 min read

Virgil - The Roman Homer

Publius Virgilio Marone or simply Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC), considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest poet of Ancient Rome, put into verse the songs of shepherds, the work of farmers and the exploits of the heroes and gave us answers that are not certainties, but deep questions and doubts about man, the meaning of history and the possibility of justice.

Virgil witnessed some crucial changes in the history of the Roman Empire. In his works he demonstrated not only the ability to capture the sensitivity of his time, but also to have a deep knowledge of rhetoric and the human soul. He has inspired writers and philosophers over the centuries. He became an object of curiosity, study, and emulation (a feeling that leads an individual to try to equal or surpass another individual) that made him immortal in all aspects.

Experts have great appreciation for his poetry, not only for the musicality and diction of his verses and his ability to construct an intricate work on a large scale, but also for what he reveals about Roman life and behavior. He was educated in Cremona, Milan, and Rome, trained in rhetoric and philosophy.

Together with his predecessor Homer and his successor Dante Alighieri, he would form the three main pillars of epic poetry where he shines as an expert in dactylic hexameter, a verse form first used by the ancient Greeks. He was, for Dante, a head of style and thought and the pinnacle of human perfection.

Historical and political context

Virgil lived at a time of profound changes in the history of Rome. In addition to his importance in literature, he also played a significant role in Roman politics. He was a contemporary of Julius Caesar, murdered in 44 BC, and of Octavian (Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus Augustus), who became the first emperor of Rome in 27 BC. As the Roman Republic approached its end, the political and military situation in Italy was confusing and often calamitous.

The First Roman Civil War broke out when the leaders of the two factions vying for control of the Roman Senate, optimates and popular, Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius respectively, competed for the honor of leading the war against Mithridates VI, king of the Kingdom of Pontus, who had invaded the province of Asia and murdered thousands of Romans. Initially Sula obtained the support of the Senate to lead the war, but the people annulled the decision by appealing directly to the Plebeian Assembly, which granted command to Marius.

The Second Roman Civil War, also known as the Caesarian Civil War, took place between 49 BC and 45 BC. It was Julius Caesar's personal confrontation with the traditionalist and conservative faction of the Senate, led militarily by Pompey the Great. Caesar's armies advanced into southern Gaul, crossed the Rubicon River and began the series of civil wars that would end on September 2, 31 BC, in the naval battle of Actium, in Greece, between the fleet of Marcus Antony supported by the warships of Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, and Octavian's fleet, which won the decisive victory.

Both Virgil and his contemporary Horace powerfully express the hatred and fear of civil war. The key to a proper understanding of the Augustan Age and its poets lies, in fact, in a proper understanding of the turmoil that preceded the Augustan Peace.

Virgil was a loyal supporter of Augustus, and his work was seen as a tool to promote Roman values and patriotism. He earned the respect and admiration of the population thanks to his generosity and his commitment to society.

Virgil's life

Virgil was born in the rural area of Mantua in October 15, 70 BC. Classical biographies, based on legends and inferences drawn from his work, as well as that of Horace himself, describe him as coming from a modest peasant family, linked to the land. His love for the countryside and the people who cultivated it colors all his poetry.

He was educated at the Lyceum of Cremona and obtained the male toga at the age of fifteen. In Milan, he studied rhetoric in 53 BC and delved into Latin, Greek, medicine, and mathematics. He acquired a vast knowledge of Greek and Roman authors, especially poets. It is known that one of his teachers was the epicure Siro, for this reason the epicurean philosophy is reflected in his early poetry. He gradually approaches stoicism. In Rome he studied the art of eloquence with the aim of becoming a lawyer.

His life, however, was destined to take a different direction. He realizes this when he is unable to open his mouth in his first public speech, due to shyness and some pronunciation defects that embarrass him. After that, he abandoned his oratory studies to dedicate himself solely to philosophy, medicine, and mathematics. In 42 BC, he moved with his entire family to Naples where he attended the Epicurean school of Philodemus and Siron. There he met many intellectuals, politicians, and artists, including Horace.

In 42 BC, after the defeat of Brutus and Cassius, Julius Caesar's assassins, the victors' demobilized soldiers settled on expropriated land and Virgil's property near Mantua was confiscated. He explores the various emotions surrounding these appropriations and other aspects of rural life in the Eclogues, his first major poem, which addresses the wonders and problems of the Roman Empire.

Virgil's life was entirely dedicated to poetry. He played no role in military or political life and never married. The first half of his life was that of a scholar and almost recluse. As his poetry gained him fame, he won the friendship of many important men. The enthusiasm of a provincial for Rome is seen in the first Eclogue, in which the pastor Titiro tells of his recent visit to the capital and his astonishment at its splendors.

The intellectual life of his time was flourishing and rich. For some, like that of the French salons and circles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The young Mantuan then became an exquisite recipient of the activity of literary circles whose first animators were powerful people like Scipio Emilianus and the fabulous close friend of Augustus and Horace.

Literary career

Some of Virgil's early poetry may have survived in an anthology of poems attributed to him and known as the Vergilian Appendix, but many of them are unlikely to be genuine. The Catalepton, consists of fourteen short poems, some of which may be by Virgil and others may be by later poets.

The Bucolics or Eclogues

His first work is the Bucolics (Cattlemen's Songs) or Eclogues, a collection of ten poems in hexameters belonging to the so-called pastoral genre, inaugurated by Idylls, by the Greek Theocritus, composed between 42 BC and 37 BC. The work was written between the 28th and the author's 31st birthday and had immediate success. Virgil entered the circle of the Maecenas, the group of poets and intellectuals close to the new lord of Rome, Octavian Augustus.

He returns to the theme of the idealization of the countryside, combining it with the violence and difficulties of the sociopolitical context in which he found himself personally immersed. The desire to live in an Arcadian world characterized by naturalness, simplicity, and harmony, leads peasant poets to take refuge in a reality different from the chaotic environment of Rome. Although, in previous centuries, it was common for readers to find excerpts from Virgil's autobiography in the Eclogues, scholars reject the effort to try to identify him with characters from his poetry.

The serene and peaceful world of Bucolics, however, is not completely isolated in a dreamlike atmosphere, disturbed only by love problems. Even pastors suffer the dramatic consequences of the civil wars, during which the work was written. This is the case of the first bucolic that presents the dialogue between the shepherd Títiro who enjoys the peace of the country world and dedicates himself to leisure and singing and Melibeo who abandons this world because his lands were confiscated because of the wars. It is believed that the fifth eclogue on the death of Daphnis, king of the shepherds, has some connection with the death of Julius Caesar, which was still recent at the time the work was written.

The famous Eclogue IV deserves to be highlighted, a poem that prophesies in sonorous and mystical terms a child born of a Virgin, who will bring back the Golden Age, banish sin and restore peace. It was clearly written at a certain time (41-40 BC) when the clouds of civil war seemed to dissipate. It is more likely that Virgil refers to an expected child of Mark Antony and his wife Octavia, sister of Emperor Octavian.

In symbolic terms, it presents a vision of world harmony that was destined to be realized under Augustus. The passage has often been interpreted as a kind of anticipation of the coming of Jesus Christ which, of course, is still hotly debated. However, it led Virgil to be considered with respect and interest by the Church.

In Antiquity, these poems were widely believed to allegorically express the loss of his family's farm, when the veteran soldiers of Antony and Octavian were resettled after the Battle of Philippi in 42 B.C. It was also later believed that he regained his property through the intervention of his powerful friends.

What is certain is that the poems are based on Virgil's own experience, whether in relation to his farm or those of his friends, and they express, with a moving pathos (a quality that stimulates the feeling of pity or sadness) that came to be considered especially Virgilian, the sadness of the dispossessed. The Bucolics became an emblematic work of pastoral poetry and influenced poets such as Dante Alighieri, Shakespeare, and John Milton.

The Georgics

The Georgics, composed between 37 and 30 BC (the final period of the civil wars), are an excellent call for the restoration of traditional agricultural life in Italy. It was published around 29 BC, when the poet was just over forty years old. In four books, he moves from the dream world of shepherds to the real world of farmers and herders. Inspired by the poem De rerum natura, by Lucretius, it is a kind of poetry ‘manual,’ with advice on cultivating fields, planting trees, raising livestock, and caring for bees.

Written once again in hexameters, but closer to Stoicism than Epicureanism, at the same time it fits into Octavian Augustus' historical attempt to restore and innovate Roman culture, society, and morals after his rise to power, still linked to institution of the triumvirate, but which already laid the foundations of his empire in the following decades.

That is why, among the advice for peasant life, the descriptive digressions and reflections on the author's life and death, a large space is dedicated to a model of the division of society, explored in depth and praised by Virgílio with a propagandistic perspective.

Octavian had the opportunity to read it in 29 BC and hear it recited by the voices of Virgil and Maecenas. It was then that he understood that he could entrust the Mantuan poet with an even more ambitious literary project, a foundational epic poem (Aeneid) to celebrate the values of Roman life and give new prestige to the gens Iulia from which the new prince of Rome descends.

The Georgics, in form, is didactic, but, as Seneca said: “it was written not to instruct farmers, but to delight readers.” Practical instruction is presented with a vivid view of nature and interspersed with highly crafted poetic digressions on topics such as the beauty of the Italian countryside and the joy of farmers when they are gathered.

The literary form also serves to talk about deeper themes such as the meaning and value of human work, the role of poetry in society and the changes taking place in the Roman political world. Augustus, in fact, won the civil wars, and the Georgics, with their exaltation of the small working farmer, support the restoration of traditional Roman values that characterize the new regime.

But it would be a mistake to believe that they are simple political propaganda poems. In a deliberately problematic way, Virgílio alternates parts in which he exalts the ideals of the new regime with others in which he reveals the deepest pessimism about the real value of these ideals. He was a member of what might be called the court circle, and his desire to see his beloved Italy restored to its former glories coincided with the national demand to repopulate the lands and ease the pressure on the cities.

Augustus was eager to preserve the republic's traditions and constitutional forms, but in fact he was the sole ruler of the Roman world. He used his power to establish a period of peace and stability and strove to awaken in the Romans a sense of national pride and a new enthusiasm for their ancient religion and traditional moral values of bravery, thrift, duty, responsibility, and devotion to the family.

The ***Aeneid*, the national epic of Rome**

The Aeneid, the last work written by Virgil, is his most famous. Considered the undisputed masterpiece, it is an epic poem in hexameters, divided into twelve books. The chosen theme gave him two great advantages: the date and theme were remarkably close to those of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, so he could remodel episodes and characters from his great Greek predecessor. The second is that it could be related to the contemporary world of Augustus, presenting Aeneas, prince of Troy, as the prototype of the Roman way of life. Using prophecies, visions and devices or the origins of contemporary customs and institutions, he could foreshadow the actual events of Roman history.

The poem, composed of more than 10,000 verses, tells the story of Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus and the mortal Anchises, who, after the destruction of Troy, leaves with his son Ascanius (also called Lulus) to the region of Latium, where he marries a local princess from whom the future founders of Rome will descend.

On the journey, a storm takes him to the coast of Carthage. Queen Dido welcomes him and, under the influence of the gods, falls deeply in love with him. Jupiter calls Aeneas back to his duty and he flees Carthage. Dido commits suicide and, in revenge, curses Aeneas. Upon arriving in Cumae, Aeneas consults the Sibyl of Cumae, who leads him through the underworld and reveals his destiny.

The gods prophesied that he would find a city and a lineage destined to dominate the world. Aeneas will marry Lavinia, daughter of the king of the Latins, and will find the city of Lavinium. Ascanius, after the death of Aeneas, founded another city, Alba Longa. Three hundred years later the last king of Alba Longa, Romulus, the founder of Rome, was born.

The Aeneid is a national epic of Rome that celebrates the rise and greatness of the Roman Empire. It is a complex and ambitious work that explores themes of pietas (devotion) and glory and has been studied for centuries for its impact on later literature and culture. The legend of Aeneas takes on a particular significance: Augustus was a member of the gens Iulia, the Julii family, who claimed descent from Lulus, son of Aeneas.

The Trojans are imagined as the ancestors of the Romans and Greeks and take on the role of enemies who will be defeated by the Roman Empire. We have a subjugated Greek people, yes, but who receive respect from the Romans in relation to Greek culture and civilization.

Virgil embodies his ideal Rome in the Aeneid and tells the story of the founding of the first settlement in Italy, from where an exiled Trojan prince would emerge in Rome. Aeneas was presented as the prototype of the Roman way of life, the last of the Trojans and the first of the Romans. By describing the images on the hero's shield, Virgil foreshadowed real events in Roman history.

The first six books are modeled on the Odyssey, but the last six are the Roman answer to the Iliad. Aeneas is betrothed to Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, but Lavinia has already been betrothed to Turnus, the king of the Rutulians, who is incited to war by the fury Allecto. In Greek mythology, Erinyes were personifications of revenge. While Nemesis (goddess of revenge) punished the gods, the Erinyes punished mortals. They were Tisiphone (Punishment), Shrew (Regret) and Alecto (Nameless). In Roman mythology, they were called Furies (Furiæ or Diræ).

Virgil follows the Greek epic, however, he makes different choices: from the point of view of language, he opts for a contamination of genres and styles, while from the point of view of content he makes the Greeks enemies and maintains respect for the Romans, considered the precursors of Latin civilization.

In the Aeneid, the journey happens first and then the story of the war. Unlike Ulysses, eager to return to his homeland, Aeneas sails towards a new city, which must be built and not destroyed as Troy was.

Aeneas is often guided by his pietas, an entirely Roman value that makes him compassionate towards human suffering, sad and torn in his soul, and always able to establish for himself how to behave based on his ideals, unlike heroes Greeks at the mercy of the gods and fate.

At the end of the sixth book, in the underworld, the figures of heroes from Roman history pass before your eyes, awaiting birth. The ghost of his father (Anchises) describes them and ends by defining the Roman mission as one concerned with government and civilization. “Rule the people with your dominion, spare the conquered and fight the proud.”

This is the vision of Rome's destiny that the emperor Augustus and the poet Virgil had before them: that Rome was divinely appointed first to conquer the world in war and then to spread civilization and the rule of law among the peoples. As Horace said to the Romans in one of his odes: “Because you are servants of the gods, you are lords on earth.”

The vision of Rome that the Aeneid expresses is noble, but the true greatness of the poem is due to Virgil's awareness of the private as well as the public aspects of human life. The Aeneid is not an apology; puts the achievements and aspirations of the gigantic organization of Roman government in tension with the dashed hopes and sufferings of individuals.

Dido, queen of Carthage, opponent of the Roman way of life, is the most unforgettable and the only character created by a Roman poet who passed into world literature. In a mere exaltation of Rome, she could have been presented in such a way that Aeneas's rejection of her would have been an applauded victory; but in the fourth book she wins so much sympathy that the reader wonders whether Rome should be bought for that price.

Once again, Turnus, who opposes Aeneas when he lands in Italy, resists the invader who has come to steal his bride. Of course, he is a less civilized character than Aeneas, but in his defeat, Virgil allows him to gain a lot of sympathy. These are two examples of the tension against Roman optimism.

Content and meanings of the Aeneid

The Homeric model – the Aeneid is divided into twelve books. The first six tell the story of the fall of Troy and Aeneas' journey to the mouth of the Tiber; the last six speak of the war that took place in Latium between Aeneas and the federation of Italic peoples led by Turnus. Virgil follows the Homeric poems as models: the first half of the Aeneid (a travel story) is modeled on the Odyssey, the second on the Iliad.

As in Homer, the gods participate in the action, alongside Aeneas are Venus and Apollo; Juno, however, is against him. There is Jupiter: his will is identified with the immutable Destiny: it was he who decided that the Roman people, rulers of the world, should be born from the lineage of Aeneas.

The narrative – the plot, like that of the Odyssey, does not begin at the beginning of the story, but at a later point. In books II and III, in the first part of the journey, Aeneas will tell of the fall of Troy and his escape. At the beginning of the poem, Aeneas' ships are about to arrive in Latium, but Juno triggers a storm that pushes the Trojans to Carthage, on the coast of Tunisia, where Queen Dido, exiled from Phoenicia, is.

Worried about her son's fate, Venus awakens Dido's passion for Aeneas who, alongside her, forgets his mission. Called to order by Jupiter, Aeneas abandons Dido to resume his journey. Desperate, the queen commits suicide. When Aeneas arrives in the region of Latium, Juno restarts the war and helps Turnus, but the goddess allows herself to be convinced by Jupiter and in the final duel decides the fate of the war.

The complexity of meaning - the Aeneid does not end with a picture of peace and hope, but rather a scene of violence and death that perfectly summarizes the contradictions and problems of the entire work. Virgil does not hide the terrible sadness and pain that the creation of an empire brings with it, and often presents his hero, Aeneas, as a cold and callous warrior.

Virgil's last years

Virgil realizes the high responsibility assigned to him and dedicates himself body and soul to his task for ten years, from 29 BC to 19 BC, awakening Octavian's impatience, wanting the work to be completed as quickly as possible. Before concluding the Aeneid, Virgíl goes to Greece to see the landscape where part of Aeneas' adventures would take place. During the trip he contracted a fever. Sick and exhausted, he managed to reach Brindisi, where he died, on September 21, 19 BC, at the age of fifty-two. The poet's remains were transferred to Naples, Varus, and finally Tucca; however, they were lost during the Middle Ages.

It is said that Virgil himself dictated his epitaph to those present:

“Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc / Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces” (Mantua gave birth to me, Salento took my life, now Naples preserves me; I sang of the pastures, the countryside, the heroes).

Dissatisfied with his work, his last wish was to burn it, unfinished and with revisions to be made. Augustus, however, ordered the literary executors, Lucius Varius Rufus and Plotius Tucca, to publish the work with as few changes as possible. Therefore, the existing text of the Aeneid may contain flaws that Virgil planned to correct before publication, but the only obvious imperfections are a few metrically unfinished lines of verse. Other supposed "imperfections" are subject to academic debate.

Incomplete or not, the Aeneid was immediately recognized as a masterpiece. It proclaimed the imperial mission of the Roman Empire, but at the same time portrayed the casualties and pain of Rome's expansion into an empire that spanned the continent. Dido and Turnus, victims of Rome's fate, are more compelling figures than Aeneas, whose single-minded devotion to his goal may seem almost repulsive to the modern reader.

Soon after the publication of the Aeneid, Virgil was recognized and in fact loved by the Roman people. He earned the nickname Roman Homer and became, without his knowledge, an essential point of comparison for the poets and writers of subsequent eras.

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