Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, known as Virgil, was born in 70 BCE near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul. He gained early fame with the Eclogues, pastoral poems that caught the attention of Octavian (later Augustus). His Georgics, a didactic poem on farming, further established his reputation. Virgil’s masterpiece, The Aeneid, commissioned by Augustus, tells the story of Aeneas’s journey from Troy to found Rome. Unfinished at his death in 19 BCE, the epic was published by his executors against his wishes. Virgil’s influence is immense: Dante chose him as his guide through Hell and Purgatory, and his works have been central to Western education for two millennia. His poetry is celebrated for its technical mastery, emotional depth, and vision of Roman destiny.