Virgil
Virgil (70-19 B.C.), also spelled Vergil, full name Publius Vergilius Maro, was a great Latin poet, known for authoring in succession of the "Eclogues," the "Georgics," and the "Aeneid". The Aeneid, also spelled Aeneit, is the the Roman Empire' s national epic.He was born near Mantua, studied at Cremona and Milan, and at 16 was sent to Rome to study rhetoric and philosophy. He lost a property he had in Cremona during the civil war, but recommended himself to Pollio, the governor, who introduced him to Augustus, and he went to settle in Rome, where, in 37 B.C., he published his "Eclogues," a collection of 10 pastorals, and gained the patronage of Mæcenas, under whose favour he was able to retire to a villa at Naples, where in seven years he, in 30 B.C., produced the "Georgics," in four books, on the art of husbandry, after which he devoted himself to his great work the "Aeneid," or the story of Aeneas of Troy, an epic in 12 books, connecting the hero with the foundation of Rome, and especially with the Julian family, and which was finished in 19 BC. On his deathbed he expressed a wish that it should be burned, and left instructions to that effect in his will. He was one of the purest-minded poets perhaps that ever lived.
Wisdom & Quotes
- Anger supplies the arms.
- Arms and the man I sing, the first who came,
To Italy and the lavinian coast.
- Aeneid
- Endure, and preserve yourself for better things.
- Fortune sides with him who dares.
- I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts.
- The way down to hell ( Hades) is easy,
But to retrace one's steps and escape to the upper air
That is toil, that is labour.
- Aeneid
- They can do all because they think they can.
- Happy is he who has been able to learn the causes of things.
- Omnia vincit Amor : et nos cedamus Amori. ( Love conquers all : and let us too surrender to love.
- A snake lurks in the grass.
- Time bears away all things, even the mind.
Hillel the Elder