There are reminiscences of Theocritus of
course, any edition of the _Eclogues_ will give them in full, but Vergil,
so long as he lived at Naples, did not have to go to Sicilian books for
these details. He who knows the social customs of Campania, the magical
charms scribbled on the walls of Pompeii, the deadly curses scratched on
enduring metal by forlorn lovers,--curses hidden beneath the threshold
or hearthstone of the rival to blight her cheeks and wrinkle her silly
face,--knows very well that such folks are the very singers that Vergil
might meet in his walks about the hills of the golden bay.
The eighth _Eclogue_ claims to have been written at the invitation of
Pollio, who had apparently learned thus early that Vergil was a
poet worth encouraging. That the poem has nothing to do with the
confiscations, in so far at least as we are able to understand the
historical situation, has been suggested above. It is usually dated in
the year of Pollio's Albanian campaign in 39, that is a year after his
consulship. Should it not rather be placed two years earlier when Pollio
had given up the Cisalpine province and withdrawn to the upper Adriatic
coast preparatory to proceeding on Antony's orders against the Illyrian
rebels? In the spring of 41 Pollio camped near the Timavus, mentioned in
line 6; two years later the natural route for him to take from Rome would
be via Brundisium and Dyrrhachium.
Pages:
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145