After studying at Cremona and Rome, he returned to his father's small estate and wrote pastoral poetry; but being obliged to flee when the lands of Italy were assigned by the Triumvirs to their adherents, he again visited Rome, where he speedily became a favorite of Augustus. The liberality of Augustus and his own thrift enabled him to live in comparative opulence. Most of his life he spent in retirement on his estate in Campania. Here his time was given wholly to his art, except in so far as he was taken up with scientific and antiquarian studies, which he thought essential to elevate his thought and strengthen his grasp of profound subjects. His character is universally commended. He was gentle, innocent, modest, and of a singular sweetness of disposition. He is generally conceded to be the greatest Roman poet and the most patriotic. Like other epic poets he was of a philosophic nature, and unlike the generality of Roman writers, he was reserved as to his personal feelings. He never married. Before coming to Rome he had written his "Eclogues," the first of Latin pastorals, in imitation of Theocritus. His next poems, the "Georgics," were written to create fresh interest in agriculture, which had been the mainstay of republican Rome but was fast falling into decay. But his enduring fame rests upon the "Æneid," written at the request of Augustus, which treats of the founding of Rome by a colony from ancient Troy under the leadership of Æneas. In it Vergil sums up the glory of Rome and its culmination under Augustus. The "Æneid," the "Divine Comedy," and "Paradise Lost" enjoy the distinction of being the only great epics written in the full light of civilized society, and the inspiration of the latter works was largely drawn from Vergil. He was a master of literary form, seen at its best in the "Georgics" and the "Æneid," though the latter is an unfinished work with which Vergil was so little satisfied that in his will he directed its destruction. This wish was rightly regarded as the fastidious, nervous whim of the poet and was therefore unheeded. The "Messianic Eclogue" prophesies the birth of a child under whose rule the Golden Age with prosperity and happiness should be restored to the earth. It is not certain what child the poet had in mind, though the phrase, "a world by righteous father tamed," would indicate a flattering reference to Antony or Augustus, who then shared the control of the world. In the Middle Ages it was firmly believed by the scholars that Vergil had been divinely inspired with the knowledge of the coming of Christ, and his fame as a magician was partly based on this idea. THE MAN 1. In what part of Italy was the childhood of Vergil spent? 2. Why do subsequent epic poets refer to him as 'the Mantuan' and 'father Vergil'? 3. Of what court may we call him the poet laureate? 4. Did Vergil realize that in the reign of Augustus the Roman world had reached its zenith? XII, 188, 189.