William Harris on Vergil
William Harris on Vergil and the Prophetic Passage from vergil about Augustus
In the days when, according to William Harris, a minimum of eight years study of Latin was expected for graduation with a B.A., it might have been reasonable to assume familiarity with the entire 12 books of Vergil's masterpiece, Aeneid, the 10 books of his Pastoral poems, known as Eclogues or Bucolics, and his treatise on the four aspects of farm-life (tillage, horticulture, cattle-breeding, and bee-keeping), known as the Georgics.
Prophetic Passage by Vergil about Augustus
Now the last age by Cumae's Sibyl sung
has come and gone, and the majestic roll
of circling centuries begins anew:
justice returns, returns old Saturn's reign,
with a new breed of men sent down from heaven.
Only do thou, at the boy's birth in whom
the iron shall cease, the golden race arise,
befriend him, chaste Lucina; 'tis thine own
apollo reigns. And in thy consulate,
this glorious age, O Pollio, shall begin,
and the months enter on their mighty march.
Under thy guidance, whatso tracks remain
of our old wickedness, once done away,
shall free the earth from never-ceasing fear.
He shall receive the life of gods, and see
heroes with gods commingling, and himself
be seen of them, and with his father's worth
reign o'er a world at peace.
-(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup=verg.+ecl.+4) From Vergil's Fourth Eclogue [Perseus]In Latin
Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas;
magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo:
iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna;
iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto.
Tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum
desinet ac toto surget gens aurea mundo,
casta fave Lucina: tuus iam regnat Apollo.
\quad Teque adeo decus hoc aevi te consule inibit,
Pollio, et incipient magni procedere menses.
te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,
inrita perpetua solvent formidine terras.
ille deum vitam accipiet, divisque videbit
permixtos heroas, et ipse videbitur illis,
pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.
Vergil's influence on the world's literature has been immeasurable. Not only was his writing, along with Seneca's, Cicero's Ovid's, Aristotle's and Plato's, continuously read throughout the Middle Ages, but even today he exerts an influence on poets and the college-bound.
| (http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/PT/BA/JO-AN.html) Legends about Vergil |
| Vergil or Virgil? |
... Vergil produces a "prophecy" poem about the birth of Augustus as a savior of the world, bringing peace and law. Since Vergil lived so close to the birth of Christ, the Christians of medieval Europe would interpret the poem as a prophecy about the birth of Christ and give Vergil, a pagan, a kind of honorary status as a Christian poet.
(http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ROME/AUGUSTUS.HTM) The Age of Augustus
Publius Vergilius Maro was born October 15, 70 BC at Andes, near Mantua, in Cisalpine Gaul. He died 51 years later on September 21, 19 BC at Brundisium, possibly as the result of sunstroke. He was thought to have been sickly, slow of speech, and of a countrified appearance. His writing was sometimes criticized for its rusticity, too. But he wasn't ill-educated. He studied law, medicine, mathematics, and probably some Epicurean philosophy.
Wealth and power were not part of his inheritance, but he had the good fortune to win the friendship and patronage of influential men. When in 41 BC his estate was appropriated as part of a distribution of land to war veterans (or (http://www.edenpr.k12.mn.us/ephs/ArcadiaWeb/Virgil/Vergil.Poetry.html) "in order to pay and satisfy his army for their defeat of the assassins of G. Julius Caesar"), through the assistance of two influential men, Pollio and Cornelius Gallus, he recovered it. Maecenas and even Augustus came to support Vergil's poetic endeavors.
