Why I did this

I chose to work with the writer Virgil because I was curious about his work. I had only read about his story, the Aeneid, in my class and how he had other works. When I didn't find any information about his work in our classroom textbook, I decided to use him and his work in this project to learn more about them. Once I started the project, I learned he only had the three works, the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid, but there was a lot to be said about all three. For example, how the Eclogues and the Georgics were stories relating to his farming background and how they were his first works, but they didn't give him quite the reputation the Aeneid did. I also learned that the Aeneid wasn't just a story to try to outdo Homer's work, but it was also intended to be a sequel to Homer's the Iliad. His work became very popular in ancient Rome and gave historians many insights about that time. Without Virgil's work, history of ancient Rome would probably been written differently than what it is now. His work was sold all over the lands Augustus Caesar had conquered, and has been translated into other languages so people from our time can enjoy his stories too. Authors like Virgil are the reason the "Age of Augustus" is also known as Rome's "Golden Age of Literature".

Time frame of the stories and some background

Virgil's Eclogues took about eight years to write. From 45 B.C., when he first started writing, to 37 B.C., when all of the stories were published. Right after that, he started the Georgics and those books took him about seven years to complete. From 37 B.C. to 30 B.C. he worked on the books dedicated to the Maecenas, who used a lot of the agricultural techniques Virgil described in his books. The Georgics also celebrated nature and how humans should live in harmony with it. His Aeneid took him about 12 years to almost complete the story, from 30 B.C. to 19 B.C. After his death, Virgil's friends,Varius Rufus and Plotius Tucca, added the finishing touches and completed the Aeneid in 18 B.C. Virgil's Eclogues were written while he was in Mantova. His Georgics were written while he was in Naples, the city he apparently loved the most. With the Aeneid, Virgil traveled to complete the story and fell ill in between Athens and Brundisium (modern day Brindisi) where he died almost at the age of 51.

Georgics and the Aeneid

Virgil started working on the Georgics right after he published the Eclogues, and started his work on the Aeneid when he was finishing up the Georgics. His four Georgics were basically instructional agriculture books. The first one is how to use the weather to your advantage and how to protect the crops when that's not possible. The second and third books are about actual crops and livestock. The fourth book is about bee keeping and how to encourage the insects to help the garden, and what dangers there are with bee keeping. Virgil's Aeneid is 12 books long, and is thought to be a sequel to Homer's story the Iliad. Before he finished the story, he traveled to visit Augustus Caesar to show him the work he had gotten done on the story. However, on the trip to other cities to work on the Aeneid, he caught a disease and died before he could complete the Aeneid. It is said that he ordered it to be burned, but his friends added in some details and edited the work some so the story could be completed. Virgil's best work wasn't even completed when he died, and people still thought it outdid Homer's Iliad.

Virgil's ten Eclogues

Virgil's ten Eclogues, in order, include "The Dialogue of Meliboeus and Tityrus", "Corydon's Love for Alexis", "The Dialogue of Menalcas and Damoetas", "The Golden Age", "The Dialogue of Menalcas and Mopsus (Daphnis)", "The Song of Silenus", "Corydon and Thyrsis Compete", "Damon and Alphesiboeus Compete", "The Dialogue of Lycidas and Moeris", and "Gallus's Love". These ten stories are about the lives of shepherds/shepherdesses. The stories of the shepherds/shepherdesses are about what they did in their daily lives, and some of the conversations they would've had. These led to love stories and competition stories between these shepherds/shepherdesses (Virgil: The Eclogues). Virgil's Eclogues took him about five years to complete (Biography of Virgil). These stories have given historians great insights about lives for shepherds in ancient Rome. Virgil's background of farmers and shepherds in the family gave him first-hand knowledge about this. Virgil's work was entertaining in his time and useful to ours. Virgil is known as one of the greatest writers in ancient Rome because of these writings. He's Aeneid was his last work and did give him a good reviews as a writer, but his work with his ten Eclogues started his fame in ancient Rome.

Citations

Link to my bibliography. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rNePR_iK4MsoaUpTEnesUCVKZWwI_sC53l0OQFr84dw/edit

Virgil and some of his work

Virgil was born and raised on a farm and was an author of many books and poems including the ten Eclogues, the four Georgics,and the Aeneid. At first, Virgil wanted to take up law, but ended up going into philosophy instead. It took him a total of 13 years to write all of his work, and he still didn't have the Aeneid finished when he died almost 51 years old in October of 19 B.C. Even though Virgil did not finish his story, the Aeneid, people thought it was a greater story than the Iliad, the work of Homer. Both are stories about what they thought were the ideal people of the land and how they should act. Virgil's character, Aeneas, was the idea of the ideal Roman. He had the virtues of duty, piety, and faithfulness. His work inspired many people and uplifted many spirits in the Age of Augustus, and gave historians an idea of what the Roman people idealized. His other works, the ten Eclogues and the four Georgics, gave historians an idea what is was like back then on farms and life for shepherds because that's what they were about (Virgil).