and flourished in the first century of the
Christian era. He suffered from the civil
wars of the time, though he never meddled
with politics himself, and laments his losses
in his poetry. For the rest he seems to
have abandoned himself to the passion of
love, and had at least two mistresses, Delia
and Nemesis, who both united in their
regards for him at his funeral. He, too, died
young, much lamented by his mother and
sister, who closed the eyes of the dying
poet. These circumstances are mentioned
by Ovid, who commends him as a fine
writer and good critic, and intimates his
favourable opinion of the sweetness and
elegance of his elegies by describing Cupid
and Venus mourning at his death. By
some Tibullus is preferred to Ovid himself.
His hexameters are remarkably sweet and
flowing, and critics have ruled that " he
has left us in his works the most perfect
form of the true elegiac style."

With Tibullus is usually associated
Propertius, a poet who lost his father in youth,
but gained the patronage of Mæcenas and
Gallus. Beyond these few particulars are
known of him, except that he died young,
it is supposed about the age of forty-one.
He sought to imitate Callimachus, the great
Greek elegiac poet.

We speedily reach the culminating point.
In Virgil, whom in due course we next
mention, Latin poetry at once attains to
excellence. Virgil, like Homer, is by his
earliest biographers esteemed a miraculous
person: wonders accompanied his birth,
and he was also illegitimate. He was
probably born at Andes, near Mantua. His
mother's name was Maja. Previously to
his birth, she is said to have dreamed that
she brought forth an olive branch, which as
soon as set in the ground took root, sprang
up into a full-grown tree, and abounded
with fruit and blossom. Next day she was
delivered of him by the way-side, and was
surprised by the child not crying like other
new-born babes, but appearing with a
smiling countenance. A branch of poplar,
called after his name, was set on the spot,
according to the custom of the country,
and grew so fast that it soon arrived at the
size and height of the other trees that had
been set long before, and was the occasion
of much superstition in the neighbouring
country. Certain it is, that the great poet's
birthday was kept in after times with much
solemnity. Statius tells us that he was
accustomed to celebrate it. Heathen
mythology, indeed, admitted of a kind of worship
being paid to the souls of departed heroes.
Statius probably had a sincere devotion for
the genius of Virgil, in the hope that he
might thereby obtain from him assistance
in the composition of his own poems.

Virgil was at seven years of age sent to
Cremona, and thence to Milan; and was
there educated in the Greek language,
physics, mathematics, and the Epicurean
philosophy. The last he ultimately
forsook for the Platonic. Having finished his
studies, he travelled through Italy into
Naples, and probably visited Rome. At a
later date he lost his patrimony through
the divisions of lands made by Augustus to
his soldiers; and for its restoration he
depended on the interest of Varus, in whose
name he wrote a tragedy. Varus, in
return, used his interest with Pollio, to whom
were confided the most important
employments and honours in the empire. Virgil's
application at court succeeded. Pollio
himself was a poet, having written several
tragedies. Virgil had now acquired a name
by his Pastorals and Georgics. The latter
he began to read to Augustus at Atella, a
town in Campania, but from the weakness
of his lungs failed near the end, when
Mæcenas condescendingly supplied his place.
Virgil was in his forty-second year, when
he began the Æneid. Into this work it was
his design to weave all that was then known
of Roman history, and that of the several
nations of Italy. On this account he has
been called the Roman historian as well as
poet. He rehearsed his sixth book to
Augustus and Octavia, and so touched the
sympathies of the latter that she swooned
at the recital. On her recovery, the
empress rewarded the poet with ten thousand
sesterces for every line of the passage that
had so affected her— somewhat less than
thirty lines. The sum amounted to about
two thousand one hundred pounds of our
money. The Æneid was finished about
four years afterwards, but still needed
correction. Many lines, indeed, were left
incomplete. Virgil then set out for his
travels in Greece, and was seized at
Megara with a languishing distemper, of
which he died at Brundusium. He was
buried at Naples. His poem was published
as he had left it, not even a hemistich being
filled up. He died very rich, leaving, by
his will, nearly seventy- five thousand
pounds among his relatives and patrons,
besides a considerable legacy to Augustus.

The merit of Virgil's poetry lies in its
exquisite finish and perfection.
Everywhere we recognise not only genius but
taste. Thus it has conciliated the