210 



DISCOVERY 



two Eclogues concerned with Vergil's farm. In the 

 First we learn that the farmers of the district generalh- 

 have been turned out to make waj' for soldiers who 

 have been fighting in the Civil Wars. One named 

 Meliboeus has just been evicted and takes a sad leave 

 of TitjTus, who has been permitted to remain in his 

 farm because he went to Rome and secured the favour 

 of a gracious 3'oung ruler. There has never been any 

 doubt that b}- this young ruler Vergil meant Octa\aan, 

 who seems to have done his best to protect the poet. 



enough, and a great part of the land of Mantua was 

 seized also. This is indicated in the Ninth Eclogue, in 

 which we learn that Mantua had suffered because it 

 was " too near a neighbour to unhappy Cremona." 

 And this same passage shows that Vergil himself (for 

 " Menalcas " in this poem means Vergil, as Quintilian 

 tells us) finally had to leave his farm, though it seems 

 clear also that Octavian had not left him in want.' 

 One of the speakers says that he had heard that Menalcas 

 had saved his property by his poetry ; but the other 



-THE SOC.\I,I,ED FONDO VERGILIO .\T PIETOLE. 



But why were the farmers round Mantua being 

 turned out ? Because the troops of Antony, in the 

 year after the battle of Philippi in 42 B.C., in which 

 they had helped to defeat Brutus and Cassius, demanded 

 that Antony and Octavian should fulfil the promises 

 which they had made of liberal pensions. (At this 

 time Vergil was twenty-nine years old.) Now the only 

 form of military pension which the Romans knew was 

 a grant of land, and to these soldiers land had been 

 promised in North Italy. For this purpose the territory 

 of Cremona, a town which had offended .\ntony, had 

 been entirely confiscated. But even so there was not 



replies that the report was untrue, and that in fact 

 both Menalcas and his servant had barely escaped 

 with their lives. Nevertheless the poem goes on to 

 other subjects, and seems to describe Menalcas as 

 being in a fairh' cheerful condition and expecting to 

 " sLng better songs," that is to write more ambitious 

 poetry. 



His Description of the Farm 

 Now in the course of the story, as it appears in the 



1 Not long afterwards we find him in an estate near Naples, 

 given to him by his friend Maecenas, the wealthy minister of 

 Octavian. 



