Virgil

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Virgil (Latin: Publius Vergilius Maro) (70-19 BCE) was a Roman poet, the author of the national epic of Rome, the Aeneid.

In the Roman imperial period, Virgil went on to distinguish himself as a great writer and poet. He is noted for writing the Aeneid, considered to be one of the most influential works of European literature. Earlier in his career he also wrote a book of pastoral poetry (the Eclogues) and a didactic poem on farming (the Georgics). Virgil was sponsored by Maecenas and a personal friend of the Roman emperor Augustus.

He studied philosophy with Epicurean Siro. As a poet, Virgil was deeply influenced by Lucretius, and apparently looked up to him philosophically; he refers to him in his laudatory verses

felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, atque metus omnis et inexorabile fatum subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acheronti avari.

(Georgics, II 490-492)

Happy is he who knows the causes of things, and has trampled underfoot all fears, and inexorable fate, and the tumult of avaricious death.

See also: notes