 Born: October 15, 70 BC  Tradition says that he was born in the village of Andres, near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul.  Died: September 21: 19 BC  He died from a fever in Brundisium, Italy.

 His father was a wealthy landowner, so he went to prestigious schools in cities such as Naples and Rome.  He was a Roman poet who wrote epic poems during the Augustan literary movement.

 Vergil began writing poetry while in the school of Siro the Epicurean at Naples.  Catalepton and Culex were two of his earliest works which were published in Appendix Vergiliana.

 Vergil began writing them in 42 BC and they were published in 38 BC.  Ten poems make up the Eclogues.  These ten poems discuss many different ideas including the Italian countryside, love, child-birth, myths, and songs.

 Vergil began writing them right after the completion of the Eclogues in 38 BC.  The theme of the Georgics is instruction in the methods of running a farm.  The four books are about raising crops, growing trees, livestock, and beekeeping.

 Vergil worked on the Aeneid from 29 – 19 BC.  The epic poem consists of 12 books that describe the journey of Aeneas from Troy to Rome.  Aeneas went on to become the “founder of the Roman race.”

1 I sing of arms and the man, he who, exiled by fate, 2 first came from the coast of Troy to Italy, and to 3 Lavinian shores – hurled about endlessly by land and sea, 4 by the will of the gods, by cruel Juno’s remorseless anger, 5 long suffering also in war, until he founded a city 6 and brought his gods to Latium: from that the Latin people 7 came, the lords of Alba Longa, the walls of noble Rome. 1 Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris 2 Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit 3 litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto 4 vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram; 5 multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem, 6 inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum, 7 Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.