known through the Jews in the dispersion.[1] Pope's Messiah, a Sacred Eclogue, should be read in connection with this fourth Eclogue of Virgil.
The four books of the Georgics are the best didactic production in Roman literature. They have been styled poetical essays on the dignity of labor, as set against the warlike glory, that was the popular theme of the day. This is Virgil's most characteristic work, which breathes the genuine air of Italy. The language is magnificent, superior to that of the Aeneid. The work abounds in beautiful descriptions and contains charming episodes. It is not advisable to read the whole work, as the student will not be satisfied with such a topic. Select passages, however, may be studied in class, especially from book II, and book IV (the life of the bees: their little state, character, pursuits, and wars).
Virgil's greatest work, the Aeneid, is in many points an imitation of both Iliad and Odyssey; but in its spirit it is a national poem in the best sense of the word, "a reflection and an echo of all the grandeur of the history of Rome,"[2] a prophetia post factum. By a most ingenious device, the poet succeeded in exhibiting, and, as it were, foreshadowing the greatness of historical Rome in its legendary history. How bold and successful, for instance, is it to connect the legendary ancestor of the Roman rulers with Dido,
- ↑ See Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische Altertum etc., 1898, vol. I, pp. 105-128: "Every unbiased mind must admit that Hellenistico Jewish sources furnish the best explanation of this eclogue." Cf. Isaias 11, 6-8. Lactautius, Div. Inst., VII, 24, 11. – Josephus, Bell. Jud., VI, 312. – Suetonius, Vesp., 4.
- ↑ Nägelsbach.
