Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/26

14 that of Seven Years, as appears by his First Pastoral, and other places; it is reasonable to set the Date of it something backward: And the Writer of his Life having no certain Memorials to work upon, seems to have pitched upon the two most Illustrious Consuls he could find about that time, to signalize the Birth of so Eminent a Man. But it is beyond all Question, that he was Born on, or near the Fifteenth of October. Which Day was kept Festival in honour of his Memory, by the Latin, as the Birth-Day of Homer was by the Greek Poets. And so near a resemblance there is, betwixt the Lives of these two famous Epic Writers, that Virgil seems to have follow'd the Fortune of the other, as well as the Subject and manner of his Writing. For Homer is said to have been of very mean Parents, such as got their Bread by Day-labour; so is Virgil. Homer is said to be Base Born; so is Virgil. The former to have been born in the open Air, in a Ditch, or by the Bank of a River; so is the