Question

Latin questions!

Answer 1

1. Although it is not possible to say these things with absolute precision due to various sources, the general consensus is that he was born in the village of Andes, near Mantuain, in Cisalpine Gaul. It is assumed that he was born around 70 years Before Common Era and that he was born in a commoner family.

2. There is an inscription written on his tombstone and this inscription was supposedly written by the poet himself and talks about his life, where he was born, where he lived, and what his goal of writing was which was writing about leaders, countries, pastures and vivid areas, and similar things like that, it is a large inscription.

3. It is believed that Virgil wanted for the poem to be burned after his death. As the story goes, this was prevented by Augustus who believed that the epic poem was too important as a cultural and a historical thing to be erased in such a manner and that it should exist forever. Augustus believed the poem was a monument to Rome's glory.

4. He was in friendly terms with Augustus and many historians and chroniclers believe that it was actually Augustus who gave the idea of writing  the Aeneid to Virgil, and that he meddled in his creative process by providing new ideas and always reviewing what Virgil had written. As mentioned before, he published it posthumously as Virgil's.

5.  The Bucolics, also known as Eclogues, wanted to present to the people a part of Rome's history which was highly turbulent and filled with political tension and showed how life was changing for everyone. It was hist first work and made him a legend the instant he published it. It also showed life in rural areas as well as the life in Rome.

The Georgics were his second poem after the Bucolics and before the Aeneid. It was about agriculture, but what is interesting about it is that it was not just a simple and peaceful piece of rural poetry, but rather it was full of tension and numerous problems between people, both highborn and lowborn.