whom he may have had an aff air. His main theme was faith-
fulness in love and friendship.
VIRGIL
Th e second part of the golden age is known as the Augustan
age, named for the emperor Augustus Caesar, who solidifi ed
his sole rule in 31 b.c.e. Much of the literary bloom of this
part of Rome’s golden age was due to Gaius Cilnius Maecenas
(ca. 70–8 b.c.e.), a long-time adviser to Augustus and a pa-
tron of the arts. Maecenas supported many young poets, thus
allowing them to write full time. Among Maecenas’s clients
was Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 b.c.e.), better known as
Virgil. Born in Andes, just south of the Alps, Virgil spent his
childhood on his father’s farm. Beginning at age 12, Virgil
was educated fi rst in Cremona, then in Milan, and fi nally in
Rome, where he studied philosophy and rhetoric.
Virgil’s fi rst important work was the Ecologues, a collec-
tion of 10 short pastoral poems written between 42 and 37
b.c.e. Th e collection’s title means “selections from a larger
work,” though the Ecologues is complete in itself. Th e poems
are full of star-crossed lovers who live in an idealized rural
setting. However, among the traditional pastoral concerns
are more contemporary ones. Ecologues 2 and 9 deal with the
policy of land confi scation that Mark Antony and Augustus
(still named Octavian at the time of the Ecologues) enacted as
a way to give land in payment to their soldiers. Th e desire to
see the end of the strife of the decades of civil war also infl u-
ences the fourth eclogue, which predicts the arrival of a new
age of peace.
Virgil met Maecenas soon aft er the publication of the
Ecologues. Maecenas urged the poet to take on a new proj-
ect that would present country life more realistically than the
conventional idealized pastoral. Both he and Augustus be-
lieved that Romans needed to return to their old traditions,
which included farming. Virgil obliged his patron by writing
the Georgics (On Farming), which he composed between 37
and 29 b.c.e. Th e poem’s four books are fi lled with practi-
cal farming instructions on such matters as the cultivation
of crops and the raising of livestock. It also contains many
passages about the satisfactions of the farming life as well as
the beauty and restfulness of being surrounded by the natural
world.
Th e last 10 years of Virgil’s life was consumed in writing
his masterpiece, the 12-book Aeneid, which alone among Ro-
man epic poems came to stand as an equal to Homer’s Iliad
and Odyssey. Th e hero of Virgil’s epic is Aeneas, of whom
Ennius wrote in his Annales and who gives his name to the
poem. Virgil’s Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus, is the fi rst
Roman and indeed a model one, devoted to duty and resolute
in pursuit of his destiny, which is to seek Italy, where his de-
scendants will found Rome.
Th e fi rst six books of the Aeneid are a mini-Odyssey as
Aeneas sails from Troy to Italy. Th e highlight of this section
is his arrival in Carthage, where he falls in love with its queen,
Dido. Tempted to remain, Aeneas is forcefully reminded of
his destiny in Italy by the god Mercury, so he leaves Carthage.
In despair at her abandonment by her lover, Dido commits
suicide. In the fi nal six books Aeneas becomes involved in
a struggle between the early Latin states. In single combat,
reminiscent of that between Achilles and Hector in the Iliad,
Aeneas slays the enemy of his Latin allies and sets the stage
for the eventual appearance of Rome.
Maecenas had originally hoped that Virgil would write
an epic about Augustus, but the poet believed that he could
serve the emperor better with an older story. Still, Virgil did
not forget Ausgustus. Upon arriving in Italy, Aeneas travels
to Hades, where the dead go and where he is shown a shield
that contains a pictorial record of future Roman history. Th e
last picture on the shield is of a peaceful, unifi ed Rome under
the rule of Augustus.HORACE
It was Virgil who introduced the poet Quintus Horatius Flac-
cus (65–8 b.c.e.), or Horace, to Maecenas. Although Horace
came from a landed family, he had fought on the losing side of
a civil war and had had all his property confi scated. Maecenas
set Horace up with a small farm whose income allowed the
poet to live comfortably. An extremely prolifi c writer, Hor-
ace produced a substantial body of work, beginning around
40 b.c.e. with the writing of the 17 poems that made up the
Epodes, published in 30 b.c.e. (In verse, an epode is the third
part of a three-part lyric ode.) Using a variety of lengths and
meters, Horace specialized in lyric poetry and satires that his
contemporaries and later generations considered unequaled
in quality. He also coined a number of phrases that remain
in use to this day, such as “the golden mean” and “seize the
day.”
Th e verse in the Epodes is minor, and Horace’s fi rst major
work were the Sermones (Conversations), two books of sat-
ire, the fi rst being published in 35 b.c.e. and the second in
30 b.c.e. Horace’s satires are not vicious and do not attack
public fi gures. Instead, in a colloquial, conversational style,
he pokes fun at the foibles of his fellow citizens. For instance,
he writes about those who wish to be in the country and, once
there, desire to be back in Rome. He even includes himself
in these humorous musings, ridiculing his own short temper
and indecisiveness.
Next followed the four books of the Carmina, or Odes,
which contain Horace’s major lyric poetry. Th e fi rst three
books were published around 23 b.c.e. and the fourth about
13 b.c.e. In 103 poems Horace covers love, the gods, and
friendship, among other subjects. Ever mindful of his patron
Maecenas’s loyalties, Horace takes pains to celebrate Augus-
tus’s victory over Antony at Actium in 31 b.c.e. and voices
approval of the emperor’s campaign to restore traditional Ro-
man virtues. Around 20 b.c.e. Horace published his Epistles
(Letters). Th ese are letters written in verse that cover many of
the topics found in the satires and lyric poetry. Th e Ars po-
etica (Th e Art of Poetry) (ca. 18 b.c.e.) is another verse letter
that off ers detailed advice on writing poetry.literature: Rome 663