Publius Virgĭlius Marco

, called the prince of the Latin poets , was born at Andes, a village near Mantua, about 70 years before Christ, on the 15th of October. His first years were spent at Cremona, where his taste was formed, and his rising talents first exercised. The distribution of the lands of Cremona to the soldiers of August us, after the battle of Philippi, nearly proved fatal to the poet, and when he attempted to dispute the po e ion of his fields with a soldier, Virgil was obliged to save his life from the resentment of the lawle veteran, by swimming acro a river. This was the beginning of his greatne ; he with his father repaired to Rome, where he soon formed an acquaintance with Mecænas, and recommended himself to the favours of August us. The emperor restored his lands to the poet, whose modest muse knew so well how to pay the tribute of gratitude, and his first bucolic was written to thank the patron, as well as to tell the world that his favours were not unworthily bestowed. The 10 bucolics were written in about three years. The poet showed his countrymen that he could write with graceful simplicity, with elegance, delicacy of sentiments, and with purity of language. Some time after, Virgil undertook the Georgics , a poem the most perfect and finished of all Latin compositions. The Æneid was begun, as some suppose, at the particular request of August us, and the poet, while he attempted to prove that the Julian family was lineally descended from the founder of Lavinium, visibly described in the pious and benevolent character of his hero the amiable qualities of his imperial patron. The great merit of this poem is well known, and it will ever remain undecided which of the two poets, either Homer or Virgil, is more entitled to our praise, our applause, and our admiration. The writer of the Iliad stood as a pattern to the favourite of August us. The voyage of Æneas is copied from the Ody ey; and for his battles, Virgil found a model in the wars of Troy, and the animated descriptions of the Iliad. The poet died before he had revised this immortal work, which had already engaged his time for 11 succe ive years. He had attempted to attend his patron in the east, but he was detained at Naples on account of his ill health. He, however, went to Athens, where he met August us in his return, but he soon after fell sick at Megara, and though indisposed, he ordered himself to be removed to Italy. He landed at Brundusium, where a few days after he expired, the 22nd of September, in the 51st year of his age, B.C. 19. He left the greatest part of his immense po e ions to his friends, particularly to Mecænas, Tucca, and August us, and he ordered, as his last will, his unfinished poem to be burnt. These last injunctions were disobeyed; and according to the words of an ancient poet, August us saved his favourite Troy from a second and more dismal conflagration. The poem was delivered by the emperor to three of his literary friends. They were ordered to revise and to expunge whatever they deemed improper; but they were strictly enjoined not to make any additions, and hence, as some suppose, the causes that so many lines of the Æneid are unfinished, particularly in the last books. The body of the poet, according to his own directions, was conveyed to Naples, and interred with much solemnity in a monument, erected on the road that leads from Naples to Puteoli. The following modest distich was engraved on the tomb, written by the poet some few moments before he expired: Mantua me genu it; Calabri rapuere; tenet nunc Par the nope: cecini pascua, rura, duces. The Romans were not insensible of the merit of their poet. Virgil received much applause in the capital, and when he entered the theatre, he was astonished and delighted to see the crowded audience rise up to him as to an emperor, and welcome his approach by reiterated plaudits. He was naturally modest, and of a timorous disposition. When people crowded to gaze upon him, or pointed at him with the finger with rapture, the poet blushed, and stole away from them, and often hid himself in shops to be removed from the curiosity and the admiration of the public. The most liberal and gratifying marks of approbation he received were from the emperor and from Octavia. He attempted in his Æneid to paint the virtues, and to lament the premature death of the son of Octavia, and he was desired by the emperor to repeat the lines in the presence of the afflicted mother. He had no sooner begun O nate , . , than Octavia burst into tears; he continued, but he had artfully suppre ed the name of her son, and when he repeated in the 16th line the well-known words, Tu Mar cell us eris , the prince swooned away, and the poet withdrew, but not without being liberally rewarded. Octavia presented him 10 sesterces for every one of his verses in praise of her son, the whole of which was equivalent to 2000 l. English money. As an instance of his modesty, the following circumstance has been recorded. Virgil wrote this distich, in which he compared his patron to Jupiter, Nocte plu it totâ, redeunt spectacula mane, Divisum imperium cum Jove Cæsar habet, and placed it in the night on the gates of the palace of August us. Inquiries were made for the author by order of August us, and when Virgil had the diffidence not to declare himself, Bathyllus, a contemptible poet of the age, claimed the verses as his own, and was liberally rewarded. This displeased Virgil; he again wrote the verses near the palace and under them Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores ; with the beginning of another line in these words, Sic vos non vobis , four times repeated. August us wished the lines to be finished. Bathyllus seemed unable, and Virgil at last, by completing the stanza in the following order— Sic vos non vobis nid if i cat is aves; Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves; Sic vos non vobis mellific at is apes; Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves; proved himself to be the author of the distich, and the poetical usurper became the sport and ridicule of Rome. In the works of Virgil we can find a more perfect and satisfactory account of the religious ceremonies and customs of the Romans, than in all the other Latin poets, Ovid excepted. Everything he mentions is founded upon historical truth, and though he borrowed much from his predece ors, and even whole lines from Ennius, yet he has had the happine to make it all his own. He was uncommonly severe in revising his own poetry, and he used often to compare himself to a bear that licks her cubs into shape. In his connections, Virgil was remarkable; his friends enjoyed his unbounded confidence, and his library and po e ions seemed to be the property of the public. Like other great men, he was not without his enemies and detractors in his lifetime, but from their aspersions he received additional lustre. Among the very numerous and excellent editions of Virgil, these few may be collected as the best: that of Masvicius, 2  vols. , 4to, Leovardiæ, 1717; of Baskerville, 4to, Birmingham, 1757; of the Variorum, in 8vo, Leiden, 1661; of Heyne, 4  vols. , 8vo, Lipscomb, 1767; of Edinburgh, 2  vols. , 12mo, 1755; and of Glasgow, 12mo, 1758. Paterculus , bk. 2 , ch. 36 .— Horace , bk. 1 , satire 5, li. 40 .— Pro pert i us , bk. 2 , poem 34, li. 61 .— Ovid , Tristia , bk. 4 , poem 10, li. 51 .— Martial , bk. 8 , ltr. 56 .— Juvenal , satire 11, li. 178 .— Quintilian , bk. 10 , ch. 1 .— Pliny , bk. 3 , ltr. 21 .――Caius, a pretor of Sicily, who, when Cicero was banished, refused to receive the exiled orator, though his friend, for fear of the resentment of Clodius. Cicero , Letters to his brother Quintus .