Vergilius Romanus, fol. 11 r. (Eclogue 6, ll. 80–6)

Eclogue 6 (Ecloga VI; Bucolica VI) is a pastoral poem by the Latin poet Virgil. In BC 40, a new distribution of lands took place in North Italy, and Alfenus Varus and Cornelius Gallus were appointed to carry it out.[1] At his request that the poet would sing some epic strain, Virgil sent Varus these verses.[1]

The poet speaks as though Varus had urged him to attempt epic poetry and excuses himself from the task, at the same time asking Varus to accept the dedication (line 12) of the pastoral poem which follows, and which relates how two shepherds caught Silenus and induced him to sing a song containing an account of the creation and many famous legends.[2]

Context

Silver denarius of the Second Triumvirate: 41 BC. Octavian (right, obv.); Antony (left, rev.)

After the Perusine war (41 BC) Pollio, who had been legate in Transpadane Gaul and aided Virgil to recover his farm (see Eclogue 1), had been superseded, as being a partisan of Antony, by an adherent of Octavian called Alfenus Varus.[2] This change of circumstances seems to have caused some difficulty to Virgil, and he is said to have nearly lost his life in a contest with Arrius, a centurion, to whom his farm had been assigned.[2] Also, in BC 40, a new distribution of lands took place in North Italy, and Alfenus Varus, with the poet Cornelius Gallus, was appointed to carry it out (compare Eclogue 9).[1] Varus and his friend Gallus (see Eclogue 10) helped Virgil, who addresses this Eclogue to his patron.[2]

Summary

Virgil begins by explaining that his first poems were "Syracusan" (i.e. imitating those of Theocritus, who came from Syracuse, Sicily); when he attempted to write epic poetry ("kings and battles") Apollo checked him with the words, "Tityrus, a herdsman ought to pasture fat sheep, but sing thin poetry". He says he will therefore leave the task of singing Varus's military exploits to others, but nonetheless wishes to honour Varus by inscribing his name at the top of his poem.

He then goes on to tell a story of how two boys, Chromis and Mnasyllus, came across the mythical figure Silenus sleeping drunk in a cave and tied him up in his own garlands. Soon they were joined by a naiad called Aegle. Then Silenus woke up, laughed, and agreed to sing them a song.

Silenus then recounts a cycle of the old Greek myths, beginning with a materialistic view of the origin of things, — a favourite speculation with many Romans at this period, Varus among the rest, as well as a favourite subject for poetry (cf. Aeneid I. 740 et seq.).

Acrostic

In the introduction to Silenus's song (lines 14–24) Neil Adkin discovered an acrostic, consisting of the word LAESIS 'for those who have been harmed' twice, reading both upwards and downwards from the same letter L. It is thought that this refers to the landholders in Mantua who had been harmed by Alfenus Varus's land confiscations in 41 BC. The last line of the acrostic (24) solvite me, pueri; satis est potuisse videri 'release me, boys; it is enough to be seen to have been able' could also be interpreted as 'solve me, boys; it is enough to have been able to be seen', a possible pointer to the presence of the acrostic.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Greenough, ed. 1883, p. 16.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Page, ed. 1898, p. 139.
  3. ↑ Adkin (2014), pp. 46–47.

Sources and further reading

  • Adkin, N. (2014). "Read the edge: Acrostics in Virgil's Sinon Episode". Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis.
  • Courtney, E. (1990). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/20547031 "Vergil's Sixth Eclogue". Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, New Series, Vol. 34, No. 1 (1990), pp. 99–112.
  • Elder, J. P. (1961). "Non Iniussa Cano: Virgil's Sixth Eclogue". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. 65: 109–125.
  • Greenough, J. B., ed. (1883). Publi Vergili Maronis: Bucolica. Aeneis. Georgica. The Greater Poems of Virgil. Vol. 1. Boston, MA: Ginn, Heath, & Co. pp. 16–18. (public domain)
  • Page, T. E., ed. (1898). P. Vergili Maronis: Bucolica et Georgica. Classical Series. London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. pp. 131–9. (public domain)
  • Paschalis, M. (1993). "Two Implicit Myths in Virgil's Sixth Eclogue". Vergilius (1959–). 39: 25–29.
  • Putnam, Michael C. J. (1970). Virgil's Pastoral Art: Studies in the Eclogues. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 195–221.
  • Rutherford, R. B. (1989). "Virgil's Poetic Ambitions in Eclogue 6". Greece & Rome. 36 (1): 42–50.
  • Segal, C. (1969). "Vergil's Sixth Eclogue and the Problem of Evil". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 100: 407–435.
  • Seider, A. M. (2016). "Genre, Gallus, and Goats: Expanding the limits of pastoral in Eclogues 6 and 10". Vergilius (1959-) , Vol. 62 (2016), pp. 3-23.
  • Wilkinson, L. P. (1966). "Virgil and the Evictions". Hermes, 94(H. 3), 320–324.


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