plays with those of Sophocles.

This _Eclogue_ presents one of the most striking studies in primitive
custom that Latin poetry has produced, a bit of realism suffused with a
romantic pastoral atmosphere. The first shepherd's song is of unrequited
love cherished from boyhood for a maiden who has now chosen a worthless
rival. The second is a song sung while a deserted shepherdess performs
with scrupulous precision the magic rites which are to bring her
faithless lover back to her. There are reminiscences of Theocritus of
course, any edition of the _Eclogues_ will give them in full, but Vergil,
so long as he lived at Naples, did not have to go to Sicilian books for
these details. He who knows the social customs of Campania, the magical
charms scribbled on the walls of Pompeii, the deadly curses scratched on
enduring metal by forlorn lovers,--curses hidden beneath the threshold
or hearthstone of the rival to blight her cheeks and wrinkle her silly
face,--knows very well that such folks are the very singers that Vergil
might meet in his walks about the hills of the golden bay.

The eighth _Eclogue_ claims to have been written at the invitation of
Pollio, who had apparently learned thus early that Vergil was a
poet worth encouraging. That the poem has nothing to do with the
confiscations, in so far at least as we are able to understand the
historical situation, has been suggested above. It is usually dated in
the year of Pollio's Albanian campaign in 39, that is a year after his
consulship. Should it not rather be placed two years earlier when Pollio
had given up the Cisalpine province and withdrawn to the upper Adriatic
coast preparatory to proceeding on Antony's orders against the Illyrian
rebels? In the spring of 41 Pollio camped near the Timavus, mentioned in
line 6; two years later the natural route for him to take from Rome would
be via Brundisium and Dyrrhachium.[1] The point is of little interest
except in so far as the date of the poem aids us in tracing Pollio's
influence upon the poet, and in arranging the _Eclogues_ in their
chronological sequence.

[Footnote 1: Antony's province did not extend beyond Scodra; the roads
down the Illyrian mountain from Trieste were not easy for an army to
travel; if the _Eclogues_ were composed in three years (Donatus) the year
39 is too late. Finally, Vellius, II, 76.2, makes it plain that in 41
Pollio remained in Venetia contrary to orders. He had apparently been
ordered to proc