Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 7.djvu/30

 13 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS VIRGIL (7O-I9 B.C.) N 1 ext to Homer on the roll of the world's epic poets stands the name of Virgil. Acknowledged by all as the greatest of Roman poets, he entered, as no other Roman writ- er did, into Christian history and mediaeval legend. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, professed to have been converted by the perusal of one of Virgil's "Eclogues," and Dante owned him as his master and model, and his guide through all the circles of the other world, while Ital- ian tradition still regards him a great necromancer, a prophet, and a work- er of miracles. From the date of his death till to-day, in every country, his works have been among the com- monest of school-books, and editions, commentaries and translations are countless. Publius Vergilius Maro for the manuscripts and inscriptions of antiquity spell his name Vergilius, not Virgilius, as is customary was born near the pres- ent city of Mantua, in Upper Italy, in the year 70 B.C., at a little village called Andes, which has been identified with the modern Italian hamlet of Pietola. At the time of his birth this region was not included in the term " Italy," but was a part of Cisalpine Gaul, where the inhabitants did not obtain Roman citizenship till the year b.c. 49. Thus the writer whose greatest work is devoted to immor- talizing the glories of Rome and the deeds of its founder, was not a Roman by birth, and was over twenty before he became a citizen. His father seems to have been in possession of a small property at Andes which he cultivated himself, and where the poet acquired his love for nature, and the intimate practical acquaintance with farm labors and farm management, which he used so effectively in his most carefully polished work, his " Georgics." His first education was received at the town of Cremona, and the larger city of Milan, and he was at the former place in his sixteenth year on the day when the poet Lucretius died. Greek in those days was not only the language of poetry and philosophy, but the language of polite society and commercial usage. It'was the common me- dium of communication throughout the Roman world, and a knowledge of it was