VIRGILIO

VIRGILIO. - Publius Vergilius Maro (ancient form: Vergilius, cf. F. Ritschl, *Opuscula philologica*, II, pp. 779 sq.) is the greatest poet of the Augustan age, born at Andes (Mantua), now Pietole Virgilio (A. Dal Zotto, *Vicus Andicus*, Mantua 1930), on 15 October 70 BC, and died at Brindisi on 21 September 19 AD. The tradition handed down through the centuries, though subject to doubt, places his tomb at Naples on the Puteolan Way *intra lapidem secundum* (Donatus, *Vita Verg.*, 36), based on readings and recollections of poets and humanists (Statius, *Silvae*, IV, V. 54; Silius Italicus in Pliny, *Ep.*, III, 7; Petrarch in the *Itinerarium Syriacum*; Boccaccio in the *Genealogiae*, etc.). According to the information common to ancient biographers (E. Diehl, *Die vitae vergilianae und ihre antiken Quellen*, Bonn 1911), his life unfolded in harmony with the tranquil character of the poet. Naturally, this excludes those omens which ideally anticipated his birth—indications of the early popular wonder aroused by his work (his father a farmer and skilled beekeeper, his mother *Magia* giving birth to him without pain and after a strange dream, etc.).

Virgil’s literary formation is linked to the problem of the authenticity of the works collected in the *Appendix Vergiliana*. This contains, among other items under the title *Catalepton*, i.e., “miscellaneous verses,” fourteen poems of varied metrical composition. Some of these poems still show a Catullan style, notably poem V: *Ita hinc, inanes, ite, rhetorum ampullae*, which seems to allude to the poet’s move to Naples and his encounter with Siro and Philodemus, the leading representatives of the Epicurean school in Campania. In the *Catalepton* and generally in the *Appendix*, scholars have sought to trace the evolutionary line of Virgil’s poetry, first as a follower of the *poetae novi* and then of Lucretius’ and Epicurus’ system during his stay in Naples (A. Rostagni, *Virgilio minore*, Turin 1933). Among the components of the *Appendix*, the attribution to Virgil of the *Aetna*, a poem on volcanic phenomena, the *Copa*, and the *Moretum* remains controversial. Worthy of attention, if indeed they belong to the poet, are the remaining works: the *Ciris* and the *Culex*. While the former is an epyllion of Alexandrian technique and craftsmanship, the *Culex* transcends the lightness of its subject matter and similar epicedia on other animals (a mosquito accidentally killed by a shepherd appears to him in a dream and recounts its journey beyond the grave). It is significant that this composition foreshadows the series of visions of the afterlife, a theme so deeply felt and eagerly pursued by our poet.

The *Eclogues* represent the first revelation of Virgil’s individuality. The reading of Theocritus’ *Idylls* helped to sharpen and make more immediate his first poetic initiation. In the *Eclogues*, motifs of varied inspiration are found, with two elements prevailing: the realistic tone, as in the first and third (especially in the opening section), and the mythical and symbolic, which idealizes reality and echoes Eastern beliefs and aspirations. The nature depicted in the *Bucolics*, though occasionally tinged with preciosity derived from Arcadian taste (P. Grimal, *Les jardins romains*, Paris 1943, pp. 404 sqq.), is something real and deeply felt, as in *Ecl.* I, where Virgil alludes to the misfortune that befell him when his land was confiscated in favour of veterans in 41 BC (J. Liegle, *Die Tityrusekloge*, in *Hermes*, 78 [1943], pp. 209 sqq.). The melancholy of the sunsets lends a quasi-religious solemnity to this countryside. Those who disturb this scene are a *barbarus* and an *impius*. The symbolic motif finds its concrete expression in the much-debated *Ecl.* IV with its mysterious allusions to the *virgo* and the *puer*. Christian commentators of the 4th century AD, struck by the messianic inspiration dominating the entire eclogue (v. below), credited it with Christian prophetic value, despite the vigorous opposition of St Jerome, who deemed such interpretations *puerilia* (*Ep.*, LIII, 7).

That Arcadian world, which in the *Eclogues* acquires a certain reality in places, is fully realized in the *Georgics*. This poem in four books and 2,188 hexameters deals with the cultivation of herbs (I), trees (II), livestock breeding (III), and beekeeping (IV). The poem portrays the farmer, his life, and his world with a seriousness and depth that reflect Lucretian inspiration. The *Georgics* aim to present a precise picture of the work a family of farmers must undertake without the aid of slaves. Its pre-existing models can be found in Hesiod’s *Works and Days*, Nicander of Colophon’s *Georgica* and *Melissurgica*, and Aratus’ *Phaenomena*, but the didactic purpose of the poem is surpassed by the atmosphere and suggestive poetry that envelop it (B. Croce, *Poesia antica e moderna*,

The *Aeneid* is the culmination of Virgil’s poetic achievement. It is a work of vast scope, in which the poet elevates the founding of Rome to a myth of universal significance. The poem opens with the storm that drives Aeneas to the shores of Libya, a storm that symbolizes the tragic destiny of the hero and his companions, who are fleeing the ruins of Troy. The theme of *fatum* and *pietas* runs through the entire work, intertwining with the portrayal of human suffering and the inevitability of destiny. The *Aeneid* is not merely an epic of war and conquest; it is also a meditation on the cost of empire, the price of glory, and the burden of leadership. The poem’s structure is carefully crafted, with each book contributing to the overall narrative arc. The second book, with its vivid account of the fall of Troy, is a masterpiece of dramatic tension, while the fourth book, with its exploration of Dido’s tragic love, delves into the complexities of human emotion and the conflict between duty and desire.

The *Aeneid* also serves as a celebration of Roman history and culture, weaving together legends, myths, and historical events to create a tapestry that reflects the grandeur of Rome. The poem’s religious dimension is evident in its portrayal of the gods and their influence on human affairs. Aeneas, the hero, is guided by divine will, and his journey is marked by encounters with the supernatural, from the prophecies of the Sibyl to the interventions of Venus and Juno. The *Aeneid* is thus not only an epic of foundation but also a spiritual journey, a quest for identity and purpose in a world shaped by divine and human forces.

The *Aeneid* concludes with the tragic death of Turnus, a moment that underscores the poem’s themes of sacrifice, loss, and the inevitability of fate. The final lines of the poem, with their haunting evocation of the unfinished struggle and the unfulfilled dreams of the hero, leave a lasting impression on the reader. Virgil’s masterpiece is a testament to the power of poetry to capture the essence of human experience, to explore the depths of emotion, and to illuminate the mysteries of destiny and the divine.

V. IN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES: ANTHROPOLOGY

It is true that only the greatest writers, from Prudentius to Dante, can be said to have drawn poetically from him; yet the extent of his fame is demonstrated by the many echoes of his expressions and the elaborate cento compositions based on his verses (the most famous being that of Proba Faltonia, composed in the 4th century,

(from *Virgilio nel Medioevo*, Turin (1968) — *Studi aridussani*, n.s. 3 (1918), tav. after p. 361) Virgil — V. CRISTO. Relief from the early 16th century. Detail from the wooden choir stalls of Zamora Cathedral.
3rd ed., Bari 1950, pp. 37-54). That the subject was suggested by

after the noblewoman’s conversion to Christianity) and above all by the fantastic myths that developed around his personality, originating in learned circles before becoming distorted through contact with popular imagination. Only an author of such vast renown as V. (a fame reinforced by the interest of biographers and by the exegetical and lexical teaching of grammarians) could become the protagonist of such a multifarious, absurd, and picturesque legend, in which all the salient features of the Middle Ages can be discerned.

The first impulse came from the classical world, specifically Roman Africa: in the 2nd century CE, Apuleius, drawing on certain passages from *Eclogue* VIII (cf. V. 64 ff.), provides the earliest testimony (in *De magia*, chap. 30) of the image of V. as a magician, which gained wide acceptance in late antiquity. This was fostered by the atmosphere of exaltation for occult practices created by the syncretism between Roman paganism and the mystery religions of the East, and it took firm root in medieval credulity, later gaining new vigor with the emergence of a second myth—that of V. CRISTO. At the beginning of the 4th century, Lactantius, in the *Divinae institutiones*, first attests the Christological interpretation of *Eclogue* IV, though in a millenarian sense, referring it to a second coming of Christ to earth. A few years later, however, Constantine himself, in his Easter Oration (whether delivered or merely written by the Emperor after the Council of Nicaea), sanctioned with the authority of his high office the decidedly messianic meaning of the famous bucolic poem. It is noteworthy that the spread of this interpretation was, unwittingly, furthered by St. Augustine himself, who, by admitting the possibility of divine inspiration in the Cumaean Sibyl, implicitly acknowledged it also in V. when he traced the prophetic vision of the bucolic poem back to her (cf. *De civit. Dei*, X, 27; *Epist.* 258, 5). From then on, the figures of V. the magician and V. the prophet were almost constantly conflated, even though the imaginary episodes attributed to his intervention in a flourishing body of biographical anecdotes highlight one aspect or the other. Even in the 4th and 5th centuries, Africa remained the most fertile ground for the consolidation of these beliefs, with the legendary *Passiones* from the Alexandrian milieu and the appearance of the first allegorical interpretation of the *Aeneid* in Fulgentius’ *De continentia Vergiliana* (probably a namesake and fellow countryman of the famous Fulgentius of Ruspe [cf.]), in which the poem is explained in a moralizing sense as a metaphor for human life. But already in the early Middle Ages and then up to the Renaissance, the entire Western world contributed new material to the legend of V., aided not only by the mentality of the age but also by the subject matter of some of his passages, which were destined to deeply impress the people of that time: foremost among these were the palingenesis of *Eclogue* IV and the underworld of *Aeneid* Book VI. The glosses in manuscripts provide frequent examples of this and sometimes allow us to trace certain traditions (from Naples to Gaul, to Ireland); the *Mysteries*, especially the French ones (Limoges, Laon), but also Italian ones (cf. the *Lectio in Nativitatis nocte* of Salerno), show the Roman poet in the procession of the Prophets alongside the Sibyl, probably drawing their original inspiration from a pseudo-Augustinian sermon (*PL* 42, 1117 ff.). Countless medieval treatises on alchemy were outright attributed to V.; chronicles, little poems, encyclopedias, and romances added new tiles to this phantasmagoric mosaic, culminating in the 12th century with the episodes narrated in John of Salisbury’s *Policraticus*, with the moral allegory of Bernard Silvestris’ *Commentum super sex libros Eneidos Virgilii*, and with the chivalric transposition of the *Aeneid* in the *Roman d’Eneas*.

With Dante, the interpretation of the figure of VIRGIL shifts to another plane: while not renouncing the medieval legend, Dante elevates the Virgilian allegory to poetic transfiguration (cf. Purgatorio, XXI, vv. 94-99), even when he alludes to the prophetic gifts of his “duke” (cf. ibid., XXVIII, vv. 139-44). Yet in the wholly distinctive stamp that Dante’s genius impresses upon the portrayal of VIRGIL, one may also discern a motif destined to be taken up by Petrarch in the Africa and in the Canzone to Cola di Rienzo: that of the singer of Aeneas as a symbol of revived nationalism. The close of the Middle Ages tempers enthusiasm for VIRGIL the prophet: the christological interpretation of the Fourth Eclogue is rejected, not only by Petrarch and Boccaccio but also by Benvenuto da Imola, who in his Virgiliana reads the Bucolics as a historical allegory in which the life of their author is shadowed forth with moral significance. The Renaissance rediscovers in VIRGIL the poet, makes him the object of learned lectiones (from A. Decembrio to Pontano, Scaliger, and Castelvetro), recreates his bucolic themes in Boccaccio’s Ameto or Sannazzaro’s Arcadia, and studies his language and verse; yet it does not fully free itself from the legend. The crystallization wrought by medieval exegesis and imagination around the figure of VIRGIL would be definitively shattered only by the philological criticism of the last century—and perhaps with too much vehemence, since while it is true that a representation of the poet of Rome as a messianic prophet is untenable, one must not exclude the possibility that the fanciful images of that vision, whose occasion lay in the birth of Pollio’s son, sink their roots—through the Orphism of the mysteries of Sabazius—into Jewish prophecy.