Publius Vergilius Maro

Reading notes

• Consolation to Polybius §8 Virgil

  Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC), author of the Aeneid; paired with Homer as the supreme poets Polybius rendered between Greek and Latin.

• On Benefits §4.6.4 A god gave us this ease

  The opening of Virgil's first Eclogue (the shepherd Tityrus on the god — i.e. the young Octavian — who secured his peace); Seneca redirects it to the true God.

• On the Shortness of Life §9.2 greatest of bards

  Virgil (70–19 BC); the 'saving song' Seneca quotes is from the Georgics (3.66–67), on the flight of life's best days.

• On Leisure §1.4 that most eloquent man

  Virgil; the half-line quoted, 'we press the helmet down upon our grey hairs,' is Aeneid 9.612, where Numanus boasts of Italian hardihood.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §2.18.12 Dare, my guest, to despise wealth

  Virgil, Aeneid 8.364-365: King Evander's words welcoming Aeneas to his humble dwelling on the future site of Rome, here quoted unattributed as a maxim on poverty.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §7.66.2 a fair body

  A hexameter line adapted from Virgil, Aeneid 5.344 (of the youth Euryalus): 'and worth is the more pleasing coming from a fair body.' Seneca quotes it to mark how rare Claranus's case is --- a great mind in an ungainly frame.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §7.67.8 high walls of Troy

  Virgil, Aeneid 1.94--96: Aeneas in the storm cries that those who fell at Troy before their fathers' eyes were the blessed ones. Seneca quotes it for a death met honorably in plain sight.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §8.70.2 The lands and the cities fall away

  Virgil, Aeneid 3.72: 'we are carried out of harbor, and lands and cities fall away.' Seneca turns the image of setting sail into a figure for departing from life.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §108.24 Virgil

  P. Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC); the quoted lines are from the Georgics (3.66–68 and 3.284).

• Natural Questions §1.8.8 our Virgil

  Virgil, quoted (Georgics 1.380) for the ``great bow'' that ``drinks'' before rain; ``our'' marks him as the national poet.

• Natural Questions §3.1.1 as Virgil says

  The lines on a river bursting through nine mouths are from Virgil's Aeneid; Seneca cites the poets only to set aside their fancy for a physical account.

• Natural Questions §3.26.6 Virgil

  Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC); quoted addressing Arethusa (Eclogue 10).

• Natural Questions §4.pr.19 Virgil

  Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC), quoted ("nowhere is faith safe").