Virgil

Born Publius Vergilius Maro near Mantua in northern Italy. His family were modest landowners. He studied rhetoric in Cremona and Milan, then philosophy in Rome under the Epicurean teacher Siro.

Lost his family farm when Octavian's soldiers confiscated land for veterans after the Battle of Philippi. The experience haunted his poetry. His first major work, the Eclogues, contains laments for dispossessed farmers.

Published the Eclogues, ten pastoral poems. Maecenas, Augustus's cultural minister, noticed and became his patron. Virgil joined the circle of poets that included Horace and Propertius.

Completed the Georgics, a poem about farming in four books. Read it aloud to Augustus over four consecutive days. The emperor loved it. The poem elevates plowing, beekeeping, and cattle into meditation on civilization itself.

Began the Aeneid, an epic tracing Rome's origins from the fall of Troy. Augustus wanted a national poem. Virgil spent 11 years writing it. He told friends he needed three more years to finish.

Died at Brundisium after falling ill on a trip to Greece. He was 50. On his deathbed, he asked friends to burn the unfinished Aeneid. Augustus overruled the request. The poem survived and became the foundation of Western literary tradition.