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''For other uses see [[Virgil (disambiguation)]].''

'''Publius Vergilius Maro''' ([[October 15]], [[70 BCEBC|70]]–[[19 BCEBC]]) known in English as '''Virgil''' or '''Vergil''', [[Latin language|Latin]] poet, is the author of the ''[[Eclogues]]'', the ''[[Georgics]]'', and the ''[[Aeneid]]'', this last being a narrative poem in twelve books that is deservingly called the [[Roman Empire]]'s national epic.

==Life==

Born in the village of Andes (modern Pietole?), near [[Mantua]] in [[Cisalpine Gaul]] (Gaul "this side", i.e., south of the [[Alps]], present northern [[Italy]]), Virgil received his earliest schooling at [[Cremona]] and [[Milan]]. (It is a little known fact that Virgil was, in fact, of [[Celt|Celtic]] ancestry.) He then went to [[Rome]] to study rhetoric, medicine, and astronomy, which he soon abandoned for philosophy. In this period, while he was in the school of [[Siro the Epicurean]], Virgil began writing poetry. A group of minor poems attributed to the youthful Virgil survive but most are spurious. One, the ''Catalepton'' (bagatelles?), consists of fourteen little poems, some of which may be Virgil's, and another, a short narrative poem titled the ''Culex'' (the mosquito), was attributed to Virgil as early as the first[[1st century]] CEAD.

Such dubious poems are sometimes referred to as the ''Appendix Virgiliana''.

In [[42 BCEBC]], after the defeat of [[Julius Caesar]]'s assassins, [[Brutus]] and [[Cassius]], the demobilized soldiers of the victors were settled on expropriated land and Virgil's estate near Mantua was confiscated. However, the first of the ''Eclogues'', written around [[42 BCEBC]], is taken as evidence that [[Augustus Caesar|Octavian]] restored the estate, for it tells how "Tityrus" recovered his land through Octavians intervention and "Tityrus" is usually identified as Virgil himself. Virgil soon became part of the circle of [[Maecenas]], Octavian's capable agent d'affaires who sought to counter sympathy for [[Marc Antony]] among the leading families by rallying Roman literary figures to Octavian's side. After the ''Eclogues'' were completed, Virgil spent the years [[37 BCEBC|37]]–[[29 BCEBC]] on the ''Georgics'' ("On Farming"), which was written in honor of [[Maecenas]]. But Octavian, who had defeated Antony at the [[Battle of Actium]] in [[31 BCEBC]] and two years later had the title "Augustus" given him by the Roman senate, was already pressing Virgil to write an epic in praise of his regime.

Virgil responded with the ''Aeneid'', which took up his last ten years. The first six books of the epic tell how the [[Trojan]] hero [[Aeneas]] escapes from the sack of [[Troy]] and makes his way to Italy. On the voyage, a storm drives him on to the coast of [[Carthage]] where the queen, [[Dido]], welcomes him and before long Aeneas falls deeply in love. But [[Jupiter_(god)|Jupiter]] recalls Aeneas to his duty and he slips away from Carthage, leaving Dido to commit suicide but not before swearing vengeance. On reaching [[Cumae]], in Italy, Aeneas consults the [[Cumaean Sibyl]], who conducts him through the Underworld and reveals his destiny to him. Aeneas is reborn as the creator of imperial Rome.