Vergil's Eclogues

Best remembered for his unfinished epic, the Aeneid , the poet Vergil was celebrated in his time both for the perfection of his art and for the centrality of his ideas to Roman culture. The Eclogues , his earliest confirmed work, were composed in part out of political considerations: when the Roman authorities threatened to seize his family’s land, Vergil’s appeal in the form of Eclogue IX won a stay. Eclogue I appears to be a thank-you for that favor. Barbara Hughes Fowler provides scholars and