Vergil is generally acknowledged as the greatest of all Latin poets. He was famous in his own lifetime and was the first poet in the history of Latin literature to be the subject of lectures given by a contemporary teacher. There seemed to be a great deal of interest in him and on his rare appearances in Rome he was pointed out in the streets as if he were a celebrity. However, in his private life he was know to be very shy and preferred the quiet countryside to the pandemonium of Rome. He was born as Publius Vergilius Maro in Andes, a small village, near Mantua (Mantova), Italy on October 15, 70 BC. He had two brothers; Silo, who died in his childhood, and Flaccus, who lived to be a young man. Vergil's father, a potter and cattle farmer, worked hard to provide his son with an Aristocratic education. After he completed his studies in Cremona and Milan, Vergil went to Rome to study law and rhetoric at Epidius' academy. It was in Rome that he met Gaius Maecenas, a Roman statesman and patron of the arts, who saw Vergil's promise of greatness and sponsored his education. In addition he developed a friendship with Octavian, who later became Emperor Augustus. While in Rome, he studied alongside many prominent poets including Gaius Cornelius Gallus, Horace, and Lucius Varius Rufus. After leaving Rome, Vergil went to Naples to study under Siro. Here, he studied philosophy and also became a member of a group of Epicurean thinkers outside Naples. This group gathered in Campania, at a retreat known as "the Garden", under the leadership of Siro, Vergil's teacher and friend. Originally, Vergil wanted to study law but he gave up after pleading only one court case and devoted himself to philosophy and literature. He spent most of his life in the countryside of Campania, but kept a house on the Esquiline Hill in Rome, which was given to him by his friend and patron Maecenas. He wrote three major works in his lifetime. Early in his career he wrot...
