Introductory Notes on Virgil.

Publius Vergilius Maro, b. 70 BCE, d. 19 BCE

Regarded in antiquity and today as the greatest Latin poet.

Author of ten pastoral poems, the Eclogues; the Georgics, a plea for
the restoration of traditional agricultural life in Italy
(depopulation of rural areas had been an effect of the civil wars);
and the Aeneid. 

From peasant family in north of Italy.

The Roman Empire in Virgil's time:  stretching from Britain to India.
Rome the undisputed power of the world, occupying and enlarging
Alexander's empire, the rival sea-going power of Carthage long
subjugated.  Cultural dominance lingering from Greece, but Greece and
the other Hellenistic settlements politically subjugated.  Roman art
and religion largely derivative from Greek models.  Dominant
philosophical doctrine was Stoicism, a Greek-derived, primarily
ethical body of doctrine advocating calm, rational, ethical behavior
in the face of life's apparent vicissitudes.  Founded on the idea that
the fates governing the universe were essentially rational, and that
the world was the best of all possible worlds.  Not wealth, health, or
fame are important for a good life, but virtuous conduct in private
and public life.  (Stoicism had a strong influence on early Christian
thinking, as well).
  
Significance of Augustan Age (beginning with the victory at Actium in
31 BCE) for the Latin people and poets:  peace and order following 20
years of civil war.  Hatred and fear of civil war is a main theme of
Virgil and of Horace.  Roman Republican traditions submerged by the
pressing need for peace and an end to bloodshed. 

Virgil celebrates traditional Roman religion (worship of household
gods, lares) and the traditional Roman virtues:  bravery, thrift,
duty, responsibility, family devotion.  

Virgil's Popularity in the Christian world:

1. The Fourth ("Messianic") Eclogue (41-40 BCE) prophesies the coming
   birth of a child who will usher in a golden age of peace and
   virtue.  The child meant was probably Octavian's sister's child,
   but the poem was later taken to be prophetic of Jesus and a
   Christian age.  

2. Heavy emphasis in the Aeneid on virtues common to Roman and
   Christian thinking:  filial piety, duty to community over personal
   desire, truthfulness, marital fidelity, honest business dealings,
   etc. 
 
3. Aeneid's depiction afterlife divided between heaven and hell, with
   the good rewarded and the bad punished.  Different from Greek
   notion of a uniform underworld.

4. Moralistic world view in general rather than fatalistic world view,
   as in Homer and the other Greeks.

Virgil's verse was considered in antiquity to embody perfect
structure, meter, and diction.  His poems were used as textbooks as
long as Latin was studied (down to the 20th century). 
 
Christian allegorical interpretations (based on the 4rth Eclogue and
on the Aeneid, with its virtuous hero on a divine mission) flourished
in the Middle Ages, culminating in Dante's use of Virgil as poetic and
philosophic guide to everything except heaven itself. 

About the subject matter of the Aeneid:

Poem operates on two levels-as myth of origin of the Latin people, and 
as commentary on contemporary events.  Hence a double time scale-both 
heroic and Augustan.  Imitation of Homer in many particulars, but use 
of prophecies, divine conversations, the shield, etc. to inject 
references to the Roman future. Visions, miracles everywhere, more than 
in Homer.  A reflection of the poeme's political and moral purpose:  
Virgil has specific ideological points to make, which Homer, 
comparatively speaking, did not.  Particularly, the need to justify 
Rome's mission and destiny-hence the need for frequent divine justifications. 

An example of the "lost tribes" myth of origins.  Cf. the English
legends and descent from Troy, the Irish notion of descent from the
lost tribes of Israel, and the Mormon notion that the American Indians
were the lost tribes.  Aeneas is last of the Trojans, first of the
Romans.

The end of the fighting in Heaven (between Juno and and Jupiter/Venus) 
parallels the end of the fighting on earth.  

The messianic overtones of the poem reflect a specific historic
situation, much as the messianic overtones of the Old and New
Testament prophecies did.  It is a historical accident that Virgil
lends himself so well to Christian allegorization.