ption of the Triumvirate, the lands of Cremona and
Mantua were distributed amongst the veteran soldiers, Virgil had the good
fortune to recover his possessions, through the favour of Asinius Pollio,
the deputy of Augustus in those parts; to whom, as well as to the
emperor, he has testified his gratitude in beautiful eclogues.

The first production of Virgil was his Bucolics, consisting of ten
eclogues, written in imitation of the Idyllia or pastoral poems of
Theocritus. It may be questioned whether any language which has its
provincial dialects, but is brought to perfection, can ever be well
adapted, in that state, to the use of pastoral poetry. There is such an
apparent incongruity between the simple ideas of the rural swain and the
polished language of the courtier, that it seems impossible to reconcile
them together by the utmost art of composition. The Doric dialect of
Theocritus, therefore, abstractedly from all consideration of simplicity
of sentiment, must ever give to the Sicilian bard a pre-eminence in this
species of poetry. The greater part of the Bucolics of Virgil may be
regarded as poems of a peculiar nature, into which the author has happily
transfused, in elegant versification, the native manners and ideas,
without any mixture of the rusticity of pastoral life. With respect to
the fourth eclogue, addressed to Pollio, it is avowedly of a nature
superior to that of pastoral subjects:

Sicelides Musae, paullo majora canamus.
Sicilian Muse, be ours a loftier strain.

Virgil engaged in bucolic poetry at the request of Asinius Pollio, whom
he highly esteemed, and for one of whose sons in particular, (167) with
Cornelius Gallus, a poet likewise, he entertained the warmest affection.
He has celebrated them all in these poems, which were begun, we are told,
in the twenty-ninth year of his age, and completed in three years. They
were held in so great esteem amongst the Romans, immediately after their
publication, that it is said they were frequently recited upon the stage
for the entertainment of the audience. Cicero, upon hearing some lines
of them, perceived that they were written in no common strain of poetry,
and desired that the whole eclogue might be recited: which being done, he
exclaimed, "Magnae spes altera Romae." Another hope of mighty Rome!
[273]

Virgil's next work was the Georgics, the idea of which is taken from the
Erga kai Hmerai, the Works and Days of Hesiod, the poet of Ascra.