Virgil

Born as Publius Vergilius Maro on October 15, 70 BC near Mantua in northern Italy, Virgil became the great poet of Rome’s Augustan age. In English he is usually called Virgil, though Vergil is also common, and his surviving major works are the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the unfinished epic Aeneid.

His poems move from pastoral song to rural labor to national myth. The Aeneid, written late in his life, follows Aeneas from the ruins of Troy to Italy and became Rome’s great national epic, admired for its emotional depth as much as its grandeur.

Virgil died on September 21, 19 BC. His influence lasted far beyond the ancient world: Roman readers treated him as their supreme poet, medieval writers revered him, and Dante famously chose him as a guide in the Divine Comedy.