P. Vergilius Maro (B.C. 70-19) is the name that is most closely linked with the new order of things that ushers in the Empire. Born at a small town near Mantua, in Northern Italy, he found himself, when still a young man. deprived of his inherited estate, which, like all the good land of that region, was confiscated after the death of Caesar and given to the veterans of Octavianus. But Vergil had influential friends, who secured for him a restitution of his prop erty; and his gratitude toward the future Em peror was boundless. At this time he began writing his bucolic poems, Eelogues. modeled upon the Greek poems of Theocritus; and in the first of these, the shepherd Tityrus expresses the thought of Vergil himself when he says: Dens rinse twee Olin ferit, 'It is a god who has secured us these comforts.' This admiration for Octa vianus, horn of gratitude, increased with time and personal acquaintance, and made of Vergil devoted adherent of the new order of things and the logical exponent of the new national glory. The ten Eclogues of Vergil are all preserved. He next turned his attention to didactic poetry, and wrote four books of Georgics at the request of Ma.cenas. the minister of Octavianus and great patron of literature and learning. One of the most charming of the longer Latin poems, the Georgics, treats in an ideal way, and with inti mate personal knowledge, of agriculture, arbori culture, domestic animals, and bee-keeping. Ver gil had now taken up his residence at Rome, with frequent sojourns in Campania, and was an esteemed member of the higher literary and cul tured circle of the capital, and a friend of Augustus. The last years of his lire ("Lc. 29 19) were devoted to the writing of the .Eneid, the great national epic, glorifying at the same time Rome and the Julian house, and forming the connecting link between the Republic and the Empire. It is an hexameter poem of twelve books, the first six modeled on the Odyssey, the last six upon the Iliad; and the whole describes the adventures of _Eneas and his companions from the destruction of Troy to the settlement in Italy leading to the founding of Rome. It was left unfinished at the poet's death in B.C. 19. Indeed. Vergil had made up his mind to destroy the .Eneid, for failing health foretold him that he could never perfect it, but he was persuaded by the Emperor and by his friends to save the manuscript, and the work was published by Varius and Plotius Tucca after his death. Be sides the greater poetry of Vergil, a number of smaller poems have passed under his name: Culex (`Gnat'), Ciris, Morelum ('Salad'). Cope ('-)line Hostess'), and Caleleplon (a collection of fourteen poetic miscellanies). The Morclum, Cope, and part of the Cata/cpton may really be the work of Vergil.
Closely associated with Vergil, though differ ing widely from him as a poet. was Q. Horatius Flaccus (n.c. 65-8), who also belonged to the coterie of authors that gathered about Augustus and his minister Mmeenas. A native of Venusia in Apulia. the son of a freedman who had given him every possible educational advantage. a par tisan of Brutus, for whom he fought at the bat tle of Philippi. then a clerk in the office at Rome, Horace gained access to the literary world by his genius, his wit and his admirable disposition. Vergil introduced him to Mmeenas, and thus assured him fame and a competency, for Horace was extremely fond of the quiet country life, and passed happy years on the Sabine farm presented to him by his patron. His earliest poems were the Satires, in hexameter verse, in two hooks, completed respectively in u.c. 35 and 30, and the Epodes, completed also in n.c. 30. The Satires, written in a familiar and colloquial style for the delectation of his friends, are mod eled upon Lueilins (see above), and are either humorous narratives or mild rebukes of particu lar moral obliquities and weaknesses. The Epodes, which are related to the Satires in sub ject matter, have more of the character of per sonal invective. The first three books of the Odes were published together. with a dedication to necenas, in n.c. 23, and were followed, after an interval, by the fourth book of Odes, written by request, and published in B.C. 13. They rep resent the highest perfection of Latin lyric poetry. It was only by long and patient effort, however, that Horace acquired a mastery over the lyric metres. Ibis verse is no irresistible out burst of genius, but the result of ripe study and a matured power of expression. But despite the actual labor in the execution, the language of the (Mt:, has all the effect of ease; it is brief without being abrupt, subtle without being ob scure, and possesses a liveliness which sustains the interest of the reader. The Epistbs, of which the first book was published in n.c. 20, are full of a genial criticism of life, and with the Selirfs furnish the most complete and vivid picture that we have of the condition of Roman society in the Augustan Age. The Carmen Sweularr was written to be sung at the great Secular Game- of B.C. 17. The last work of Ilorace's life was his poem in literary criticism, De Ar l'oelice, in reality an epistle addressed to the Pisos, in which he treats lightly but acutely the problems of literary history and the principles of style.
Of the friends and companions of Vergil and Horace, almost all were writers, but few of their works have survived. Augustus himself (n.c. 63-A.D. 14) wrote both verse and prose. too (u.c. 69-8) indulged in poetic trifles, of which one or two are preserved. Asinius PoIli° (n.c. 76-A.D. 5) was the author of tragedies and a his tory of the Civil Wars. Caries Rufus (u.c. 74 14), one of the editors of the .Eneid, was an epic poet of great reputation among his contempo raries. -Emi Maeer (died B.C. 16) wrote di dactic poems on hunting. etc.. while Cornelius Gallus (n.c. 70-27) devoted himself to the love epigram.
Three of the younger poets of the Augustan pe riod are so similar in temperament and in the subjects on which they wrote, as well as in the choice of the elegiac metre, which they brought. to its highest perfection. that they should be classed together here—Tibullus. Propertius, and Ovid. The first two have many points of re semblance with their far greater predecessor Catullus. Like him. they both wrote love-poetry, veiling their sweethearts under fictitious names; like him, too, they (lied in the very flower of their youth. But the love poems of Catullus are sincere and spontaneous. theirs are self-conscious and more artificial. Ile wrote from the heart, they from the head. Propertius, with his wealth of imagery and mythic lore. forms the link be tween the thoroughly self-centred Tibullus and Ovid, whose best work is wholly free from the personal element. The eldest of the three poets of this group, Albins TidalIlus (c.54-19 n.c.), was one of a younger group of literary men that gathered around Valerius as and Horace and their friends formed the circle of :Alfecenas, and some of the elegies of Tomlin: are dedicated to Messalla as patron and friend. The first book, as a whole, treats of his love for 'Delia.' the second of his passion for 'Nemesis.' The language is pure and natural: the versifi cation. careful and polished: and though the themes are but few—ideal love as contrasted with the reality, the of country life. the horrors of war—yet they are very often relieved by delightful touches of realism, as in the pic ture of Messalla. returned from the wars. sitting with his cup of wine in the poet's house in the country. and describing his eampaigns by mark ing out e:nnps and battlefields on the table with the tip of his finger dipped in wine. Tihullus did not live to publish his poems: to the two books that are certainly his, his editors added a number of elegiac verses by other writers, notably the se of Sulpicia, interesting as the work of a NVullla a, and those of a certain •Lygdainus,' evi dently a pseudonym. Sextus Properties (c.49-15 w•.) lacked the restraint and purity of diction of •ildlus, but is far broader in his range of sub jects, and richer in his wealth of imagery and of mythical allusions. Ile gave promise of becom ing a poet of the first rank. but did not live to martin- his genius. Like Catullus and Tibullus, he found his inspiration in love, in his ease, for a Nome, perlmps llostia, to whom he writes un der the name of 'Cynthia.' The latest in order of time of the elegiac poets is I'. Ovid his Naso Om.c. 43-A.D. 17 or 1S), a native of Sulino, but early a resident of Rome, where he wrote lo•e poetry with a strong trend to the purely sensual aspect, as in the A mores, the subject of which passed under the fictitious name of 'Corinna! In the Hen/ides we have an early example of the imaginary love-letters, which have lately become so popular. Each of these poems purports to be a letter addressed by a Homeric heroine, as Pene lope, RH-kis, Pluedra, to her absent lover. Not long after this, lie published his Ars Amu oria (also called Ars containing instruc tions, couched in poetic form, for lovers of both sexes in the art of retaining their conquests; and his Re m ia moris, on the same general theme, but even coarser in tone. To the middle period of his literary activity belong the Metamorphoses and the Fast i. The former, which are written "Wholly in hexameters, show the breadth of Ovid's versatile poetic genius, and form a considerable manual of Creek and Roman mythology. The •asti explain in elegiac couplets the religious significance of each day and month—a sort of commentary on the calendar. The work was planned in twelve parts, with a hook dedicated to each month, but only six were ever completed, and these were not published until after Ovid's death. While still engaged in writing the Metamorphoses, Ovid was overtaken with sudden disaster that wrecked his life and reduced him to desolation and despair. Exactly what caused his downfall is, and probably will always remain, a mystery. Toward the end of TLC. S lie was sud denly banished from Rome by Imperial orders, and commanded to live in the far-distant and wholly uncongenial village of Toni, on the shores of the Black Sea. Here lie miserably passed his remaining year:, yearning for Rome and hoping in Vain for a reprieve. His poetry now became melanelmly; the Trist ia, in five books, the Ex Polito in four, and the Ibis, a single poem whose title is lint its first word ibis, 'you will go.' give but too vivid a picture of his lonely wretched ness. Ile died in A.D. 17, a broken-hearted old man.