The Eclogues are modeled closely on the bly/Th of Theocritns. The names of the personages who figure in the poems are taken from the Greek poet. and the scenery is throughout Sicilian and not Italian. Yet Vergil succeeded in giving them a national character, and the pathos which is characteristic of all his work appears in the feel ing descriptions of the miseries caused by the civil wars. The interpretation of the poems of the first of the two classes mentioned above, which follow Theocritus most closely. present no special difficulty. The allegorical poems. on the other hand. are full of puzzling contradictions and inconsistencies. A recent German writer regards the sixth and tenth, which are especially difficult, as 'catalogue poems.' made up in great part of passages from the works of Cornelius Gallus. In spite of their highly imitative char acter and of many obvious defects vf versification and of composition, the Eclogues take a high rank in the history of Roman literature.
The seven years which followed the publica tion of the Eclogues were spent by Vergil in the composition of a poem on agriculture. the Georgics (Georgira). This was published in the year 29 and represents the perfection of Vergil's work from the point of view of finish. The sub ject is said to have been suggested by ISIfecenas and Augustus. with the purpose of arousing a greater interest in rural life, in the hope that if agriculture were made more attractive to the Roman people, the farms which had been aban doned and laid waste during the civil wars might be restored to cultivation. Here again, however, the task was a congenial one. and the subject was one in which the poet was deeply interested and which he was thoroughly competent to handle. Although Vergil was the first Roman writer to compose a poem on agriculture. the topic was at all times a popular one, and he had an abun dance of material at hand in his native language, the translation of the treatise of the Carthagin ian :Map), the works of Cato and of Faro, and probably those of Hyginus. besides an abundance of Greek sources. Vergil styles himself the Ro man Hesiod, but there is little in common be tween the Works and Days and the Georgics; he owes much more to the Alexandrian poets, espe cially Nicander and Aratus. Though strictly speaking a didactic poem, the Georgics are not a complete treatise on agriculture, but handle selected topics. The first book deals with the management of fields, the second with the cal of trees, the third with the rearing of horses and cattle, and the fourth with bee-keeping, con cluding with the episode of Arist;cus. It is said that the last book contained a panegyric of Cor nelius Gallus, which was stricken out at the re quest of Augustus after the downfall of Gallus in B.C. 27. The poem was composed slowly and deliberately, and refined and polished to the highest degree. There is nothing in it of the dryness of a didactic work, but the most com monplace details are given an attractive form. There are numerous digressions. such as the praise of spring and of Italy. and each hook closes with one of these. It has justly been called the most finished poem in the Latin language, and Addison termed it the most finished of all poems. As in the case of the Eclogues, Vergil undoubtedly followed his Greek and Roman sources closely, but he nevertheless stamped the work with his own individuality.
In spite of the literary perfection of the Georgics and the unfinished state in which he left the ..Eneid, the latter has always rightly been regarded as the greatest of Vergil's works. The idea of writing a great national epic is one which lie seems to have formed early in life, but he had postponed the undertaking until he should feel himself eompet eat for it. lie was doubtless hastened somewhat in carrying out his plan by requests for such a work from authority which it was impossible to resist. In this field Vergil was not a pioneer. for the works of Nevins and Ennius had already connected the destiny of Borne with that of Troy amid had out lined a plan for a national epic from which it would have been diflienit to depart in any radical way. Vergil undoubtedly made mid] use of the work of his predecessors, but the .Encid bore to their productions much the same relation that history does to mere chronicle. 11 entirely slip planted them, and at once took a posit ion as the national epic, from which it was never displaced. Besides the Roman writers, Vergil had at his command an abundance of Creek models, the Iliad and odyssey, the Cyclic Poets, and Apollo nius Rhodins, and on these and others lie drew with a freedom which would to-day be called plagiarism. In order to form a fair estimate of the rank of the .Encid as an epic poem, it must be borne in mind that it is an epic of a different type from the Homeric poems and hence can not fairly be compared with them. The Iliad and the Odyssey are the greatest of primitive epics, and as such defy imitation. But the _Eneid is an historical epic, written with a definite purpose, the glorification of Rome and of the Julian line, In its own class it must hold a high rank, if not the highest. In the ..Encid the stories of the gods and goddesses and many of the mythological details are of the nature of `epic machinery,' though Vergil himself appears to have had a religious nature; and while his philosophical studies probably prevented him from accepting the ancient belief in its entirety, a desire to effect a revival of the old Roman reverence for the gods doubtless formed part of his plan, and was thoroughly in accord with the wishes and the policy of Augustus. The task which Vergil had undertaken was a great one. and he never completed it to his own satisfaction, although, as Mackail says, it is easy to see within what limits any changes or improvements must have been made, and the poem is substantially complete. Suetonius tells us that he first wrote a version in prose and then turned this into poetic form in no special order. Such a method of composition would account for various incon sistencies that are found in the poem, which would doubtless have been corrected in the final revision which Vergil had in mind; though strict consistency is not demanded of a poet. So dis satisfied was himself with his work. that on his death-bed he gave directions that the .Eneid should be destroyed; but by the com mand of Augustus it was published, with only such revision as was absolutely necessary, by Varius and Tucea.