Virgil (70–19 BC)

Roman poet. He wrote the Eclogues (37 BC), a series of pastoral poems; the Georgics (30 BC), four books on the art of farming; and his epic masterpiece, the Aeneid (30–19 BC). He was patronized by Maecenas on behalf of Octavian (later the emperor Augustus).

Born near Mantua, Virgil was educated in Cremona and Mediolanum (Milan), and later studied philosophy and rhetoric at Rome. He wrote his second work, the Georgics, in honour of his new patron, Maecenas, to whom he introduced Horace. He passed much of his later life at Naples and devoted the last decade of it to the composition of the Aeneid, often considered the most important poem in Latin literature. In 19 BC Virgil went to Greece and caught a fever while visiting the ruins of Megara. Returning to Italy, he died soon after landing at Brundisium. The Aeneid, which he had wanted destroyed, was published by his executors on the order of the emperor Augustus.

Later Christian adaptations of his work, in particular of the prophetic Fourth Eclogue, greatly enhanced his mystical status in the Middle Ages, resulting in his adoption by Dante as his guide to the underworld in the Divine Comedy.