al years after the main body of the poem.
The most probable date is 43 B.C., when the young nobleman, then only
about twenty-one, went with Cicero's blessing[1] to join Brutus and
Cassius in their fight for the Republic. Messalla had then, besides
making himself an adept at philosophy--at Naples perhaps, since Vergil
knew him--and stealing away student hours at Athens for Greek verse
writing, gained no little renown by taking a lawsuit against the most
learned lawyer of the day, Servius Sulpicius. Cicero's letter of
commendation, which we still have, is unusually laudatory.

[Footnote 1: Cicero, _Ad Brutum_, I, 15.]

The dedication of the _Ciris_ reveals Vergil still eager to win his place
as a rival of Lucretius. We may paraphrase it thus:

"Having tried in vain for the favor of the populace, I am now in the
'Garden' seeking a theme worthy of philosophy, though I have spent many
years to other purpose. Now I have dared to ascend the mountain of wisdom
where but few have ventured. Yet I must complete these verses that I
have begun so that the Muses may cease to entice me further. Oh, if only
wisdom, the mistress of the four sages of old, would lead me to her tower
whence I might from afar view the errors of men; I should not then honor
one so great with a theme so trifling, but I should weave a marvelous
fabric like Athena's pictured robe ... a great poem on Nature, and into
its texture I should weave your name. But for that my powers are still
too frail. I can only offer these verses on which I have spent many hours
of my early school-days, a vow long promised and now fulfilled."

It is apparent that the student still throbs with a desire to become
a poet of philosophy, and that he is willing to appease the muses of
lighter song only because they insist on returning. But there is another
poem addressed to Messalla that is equally full of personal interest.

Messalla, as we know from Plutarch's _Brutus,_ drawn partly from the
young man's diary, joined Cassius in Asia, and did noteworthy service in
helping his general win the Eastern provinces from the Euxine to Syria
for the Republican cause. Later at Philippi he led the cavalry charge
which broke through the triumvirate line and captured Octavius' camp.
That was the famous first battle of Philippi, prematurely reported in
Italy as a decisive victory for the Republican cause. Three weeks later
the forces clashed again and the triumvirs won a complete victory.
Messal