VERGIL, PUBLIC'S VERC,ILrt7s :NI ARO (n.c. 70 19). One of the most celebrated of P‘oinan poets. The orthography Vergilius is established beyond question by the evidence of inscriptions. as well as by the earlier manuscripts and the Greek transliterations NerylMos and BetrylNan, and is now generally employed. Virgilins appears for the first time in the fifth century. and became current during, the Middle Ages. It was due to popular etymology, which connected the name with rirga, 'wand,' on account of the association of Vergil with magic rites, and perhaps also with rirgo, either on account of the purity of his character, or because of the belief in later times that lie was born of a virgin. Among modern nations the spelling varies between Vergil and Virgil. The former is, strictly speaking. correct, but conservatism has preserved the latter in many cases, especially in England and America.
Unlike his friend and contemporary, Ilorace, Vergil gives us but little information about him self in his own writings. Our knowledge of his life is derived from casual allusions in other lloman writers, and from three ancient biographies, of which the hest is that of _Elius Donatus, a grammarian of the fourth century of our era. The account of Donatus is doubtless based on the Dc Firis Thastribus of tuetonius. and derived from good sources, but it has been amplified and distorted in many particulars. Sonie few details may, however, be regarded as authentic.
Like nearly all, if not all, the great Roman writers, Vergil was not a native of Rome, and lie was not even a Roman citizen by birth; yet no writer in the history of Roman literature is more intensely patriotic or more thoroughly Roman in spirit than lie. He was born in Cisalpine Gaul, near Mantua, in the district of Andes, which appears to have been the name of a people, rather than that of a town, on the 15th of oe tober. in the year B.C. 70. His birthplace has been identified by some with Pietola. three miles below Mantua, on time river Mincio; but the exact location must be regarded as a matter of uncertainty. He was thus a fellow countryman of Catullus. for whom he had a warm admira tion, of Cornelius Gallus, and of Nepos; and the same region afterwards produced Livy, the Plinys, and perhaps Taeitus. His parentage was humble and obscure. His father was said by some to have been a potter, by others the hired laborer of a certain Magius. whose daughter, he took to wife. In any event, Vergil's father became an independent land holder, and he appears to have acquired a com petency from farming and bee-keeping. Ile was certainly able to give his son a thorough educa tion, following the usual currieultun of grammar, rhetoric. and philosophy. Vergil studied first
at home and in the nei!dmboring town of Cre mona. On his sixteenth birthday he assumed the manly gown ( toga ririfis), and went to 1‘ I olio lamim for further instruction. He con tinued his studies at Naples under Parthenius, whin laught him I :reek, and finally, in the year B.C. 53, he went to Rome. where he studied rhetoric and philosophy. liere the leacher who had the most influence on him seems to have been the Epicurean Siro. Through him he probably be Vain(' acquainted with the work of Lucretius, by which lie was strongly influenced. Ile also ac quired a love I if philosophical study which lasted throughout his life and doihl li s. helped to give Ilimn that psyehological insight which character izes all his work. At Rome he seems to have busied himself also with the study id mathe matics, natural philosophy, and medicine. At this pninl in his life we lose sight of Vergil for about ten years. Being of a delicate constitu tion and a retiring disposition, instead of fol lowing the usual military or politival en 11`01', he to have returned to his native phi ee, where he devoted himself to the management of his paternal estate and to study. Throughout his life he was a diligent student, and read widely in the Grecian literature, as well as in that of his own country. After the battle of Philippi Inc. 42) Vergil's property was included in the proscriptions which were made in Cisalpine Gaul for the benefit of the veterans of Antony and Octavian. The details of the affair are somewhat confused and uncertain. The influence of C. Asinins Pollio, who held an important military command in that region, and took a friendly in terest in the gifted young man, seems to have saved the estate for a while. After Pollio was suc ceeded by Alfenus Varus, although the latter was also a friend of Vergil's, the poet was driven from his home, and lie is said to have had a nar row escape from death at the hands of one of the soldiers. At the advice of his friend Cor nelius Callus, Vergil moved to Rome, where he made the acquaintance of .Novenas and of Oc tavian. He soon became a member of the for mer's circle of literary friends, into which he was afterwards the means of introducing Horace. lie did not succeed in recovering his property, but he was given another estate by way of com pensation, perhaps the one which he is known to have possessed near Nola in Campania. The patronage of MIrcenas relieved him forever of tinaneial cares and allowed him to devote himself wholly to literary pursuits and to study.