Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/35

 at this time. And it will appear yet the more, if we consider that he assures him of his being receiv'd into the Number of the Gods, in his First Pastoral, long before the thing came to pass; which Prediction seems grounded upon his former mistake. This was a secret, not to be divulg'd at that time, and therefore it is no wonder that the slight Story in Donatus was given abroad to palliate the matter. But certain it is, that Octavius dismissed him with great Marks of esteem, and earnestly recommended the Protection of Virgils Affairs to Pollio, then Lieutenant of the Cis-Alpine Gaule, where Virgils Patrimony lay. This Pollio from a mean Original, became one of the most Considerable Persons of his time: A good General, Orator, States-man, Historian, Poet, and Favourer of Learned men; above all, he was a Man of Honour in those critical times: He had join'd with Octavius, and Antony, in revenging the Barbarous Assassination of Julius Cæsar: When they two were at variance, he would neither