Atque hic Aeneas; una namque ire videbat
Egregium forma iuvenem et fulgentibus armis,
Sed frons laeta parum, et deiecto lumina vultu:
Quis, pater, ille, virum qui sic comitatur euntem?
Filius, anne aliquis magna de stirpe nepotum?
Qui strepitus circa comitum! quantum instar in ipso!
Sed nox atra caput tristi circumvolat umbra.
Tum pater Anchises, lacrimis ingressus obortis:
O gnate, ingentem luctum ne quaere tuorum;
Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata, neque ultra
Esse sinent. Nimium vobis Romana propago
Visa potens, Superi, propria haec si dona fuissent.
Quantos ille virûm magnam Mavortis ad urbem
Campus aget gemitus! vel quae, Tiberine, videbis
Funera, cum tumulum praeterlabere recentem!
Nec puer Iliaca quisquam de gente Latinos

In tantum spe tollet avos, nec Romula quondam
Ullo se tantum tellus iactabit alumno.
Heu pietas, heu prisca fides, invictaque bello
Dextera! non illi se quisquam impune tulisset
Obvius armato, seu cum pedes iret in hostem,
Seu spumantis equi foderet calcaribus armos.
Heu, miserande puer! si qua fata aspera rumpas,
Tu Marcellus eris. Manibus date lilia plenis,
Purpureos spargam flores, animamque nepotis
His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani

860-886. Vergil read the sixth book of his Aeneid to the Emperor Augustus and his sister Octavia. "When the poet reached the beautiful passage in which he alludes so pathetically to the death of her son Marcellus, the adopted child

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865

870

875

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885

of Augustus, and the universal favorite of Rome, Octavia is said to have swooned away, and, on reviving, to have ordered the poet to be rewarded with ten sestertia for each line."

868. Gnate, 218.— 871. Fuissent, 198.879. Tulisset, 2009. — 882. Rumpas, 199.

Aëris in campis latis, atque omnia lustrant.

Quae postquam Anchises natum per singula duxit,
Incenditque animum famae venientis amore,
Exin bella viro memorat quae deinde gerenda,
Laurentesque docet populos urbemque Latini,
Et quo quemque modo fugiatque feratque laborem.
Sunt geminae Somni portae, quarum altera fertur
Cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus Umbris;
Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto,
Sed falsa ad caelum mittunt insomnia Manes.
His ibi tum natum Anchises unaque Sibyllam
Prosequitur dictis, portaque emittit eburna :
Ille viam secat ad naves sociosque revisit;
Tum se ad Caietae recto fert litore portum.
Ancora de prora iacitur; stant litore puppes.

893. Somni portae. This description is taken from Homer (Od. XIX. 681-686), who says of dreams:

Two portals are there for their [i. e.,

dreams] shadowy shapes,

Of ivory one, and one of horn. The dreams

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900

that Italy, which has so long eluded the grasp of the hero, is actually reached, and he stands upon the fated ground to which prophecy and the visions of his eager fancy have long been pointing him, the poem is complete; and all that follows is another poem actuated by

That come through the carved ivory another spirit. To this point Fate has deceive

led him through the smoke of his burn

With promises that never are made ing city, through storm and shipwreck, good;

and the unceasing opposition of adverse

But those which pass the doors of polished powers, and here she has finally rewarded

horn,

And are beheld of men, are ever true.
900. Caietae. His fifteenth landing.
He makes his final anchorage in the
Tiber in VII. 35, 36.

901. Stant litore puppes. When

his piety and unswerving faith in his destiny. The first six books present the hero as the all-enduring one, the last as the warrior king. The first six books are the story of hope and anticipation; the last, of attainment and realization.

886. Munere, 144.

THE BUCOLICS.

Poet of the happy Tityrus piping underneath his beechen bowers,
Poet of the poet-satyr whom the laughing shepherds bound with flowers,
Chanter of the Pollio, glorying in the blissful years again to be,
Summers of the snakeless meadow, unlaborious earth and oarless sea.

TENNYSON

After the defeat of the anti-Caesarian party at Philippi in B. C. 41, Octavian, the future emperor, rewarded his veterans by grants of land in certain parts of Italy. This necessitated the expulsion of the old occupants, most of whom were supposed to be hostile to the Caesarian party. But in many cases the innocent suffered with the guilty, for "even loyalty to the Caesarian party proved of no avail: the faithful Mantua shared the fate of its neighbor, the disaffected Cremona; and the little township of Andes, Vergil's birth-place, in the Mantuan territory, was involved in the calamities of its metropolis." (Merivale, Hist. Rom. Emp. III. 222.) Among those who suffered in this way was Vergil himself; but through the intercession of his friends, and the indulgence of Octavian, his paternal estate was restored to him.

It is upon these events, historically, that the first Eclogue is based. But it would be pressing the poem too closely to say that Tityrus represents Vergil himself, for in many respects the circumstances do not correspond; it is enough to say that the poet, by representing the gratitude of the shepherd for the kindness of his powerful friend at Rome, delicately conveys his own sense of obligation to his great patron.

In the poem a strong contrast is drawn between the unhappy lot of Meliboeus, who, compelled to leave his home, is driving his flock before him into exile, and the peaceful content of Tityrus, who, secured in the possession of his ancestral estate, is piping a pastoral song at his ease in the shade.

So far, the poet draws a picture of himself and his less fortunate neighbors; in other respects, the poem may be regarded as fiction.