Suetonius: DE POETIS

P. VERGILIUS MARO Mantuanus parentibus modicis fuit ac praecipue patre, quem quidam opificem figulum, plures Magi cuiusdam viatoris initio mercennarium, mox ob industriam generum tradiderunt, egregieque substantiae silvis coemendis et apibus curandis auxisse reculam. Natus est Gn. Pompeio Magno M. Licinio Crasso primum conss. Iduum Octobrium die in pago qui Andes dicitur et abest a Mantua non procul.

P. Vergilius Maro, a Mantuan, was of modest parents, and especially of a father, whom some handed down as an artificer, a potter; more people, as at first a hired man of a certain wayfarer named Magus, soon, on account of his industry, as his son-in-law; and that he notably increased his substance by buying up woodlands and tending bees, managing a smallholding. He was born in the first consulship of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus, on the day of the Ides of October, in the district which is called Andes and is not far from Mantua.

Praegnas eo mater somniavit enixam se laureum ramum, quem contactu terrae coaluisse et excrevisse ilico in speciem maturae arboris refertaeque variis pomis et floribus, ac sequenti luce cum marito rus propinquum petens ex itinere devertit atque in subiecta fossa partu levata est. Ferunt infantem ut sit editus neque vagisse et adeo miti vultu fuisse, ut haud dubiam spem prosperioris geniturae iam tum daret. Et accessit aliud praesagium, siquidem virga populea more regionis in puerperiis eodem statim loco depacta ita brevi evaluit tempore, ut multo ante satas populos adaequavisset, quae arbor Vergilii ex eo dicta atque etiam consecrata est summa gravidarum ac fetarum religione suscipientium ibi et solventium vota.

Pregnant at that time, his mother dreamed that she had brought forth a laurel branch, which, upon contact with the earth, had cohered and at once grown up into the form of a mature tree, laden with various fruits and flowers; and on the following light, as she was making for the nearby countryside with her husband, she turned aside from the road and, in a ditch below, was relieved by childbirth. They relate that, when the infant was brought forth, he did not cry, and that he was of so mild a visage that already then he gave no doubtful hope of a more prosperous nativity. And another presage was added, since a poplar rod, after the custom of the region in childbeds, having been at once driven into the same place, so grew tall in a short time that it equaled poplars planted long before; which tree from that time was called Vergil’s and was even consecrated, with the highest religious reverence of pregnant and parturient women who there take up and discharge vows.

Initia aetatis Cremonae egit usque ad virilem togam, quam XV anno natali suo accepit iisdem illis consulibus iterum duobus, quibus erat natus, evenitque ut eo ipso die Lucretius poeta decederet. Sed Vergilius a Cremona Mediolanum et inde paulo post transiit in urbem. Corpore et statura fuit grandi, aquilo colore, facie rusticana, valetudine varia; nam plerumque a stomacho et a faucibus ac dolore capitis laborabat, sanguinem etiam saepe reiecit.

He spent the beginnings of his youth at Cremona up to the virile toga, which he received in his 15th natal year under those same two consuls again under whom he had been born; and it fell out that on that very day the poet Lucretius passed away. But Vergil went from Cremona to Mediolanum, and from there a little later crossed over into the City. In body and stature he was large, of dark complexion, with a rustic face, and of variable health; for he was for the most part afflicted in the stomach and the throat and with pain of the head; he even often brought up blood.

Cibi vinique minimi; libidinis in pueros pronioris, quorum maxime dilexit Cebetem et Alexandrum, quem secunda "Bucolicorum" egloga Alexim appellat, donatum sibi ab Asinio Pollione, utrumque non ineruditum, Cebetem vero et poetam. Vulgatum est consuesse eum et cum Plotia Hieria. Sed Asconius Pedianus adfirmat, ipsam postea maiorem natu narrare solitam, invitatum quidem a Vario ad communionem sui, verum pertinacissime recuasse.

Of food and wine he took the least; in libido toward boys he was rather more prone, of whom he most loved Cebes and Alexander, whom the second eclogue of the "Bucolics" calls Alexis, given to him by Asinius Pollio—each not unlearned, and Cebes indeed a poet. It was commonly reported that he was also intimate with Plotia Hieria. But Asconius Pedianus affirms that she herself later, older in years, used to relate that he had indeed been invited by Varius to the communion of her person, but had most stubbornly refused.

Cetera sane vitae et ore et animo tam probum constat, ut Neapoli Parthenias vulgo appellatus sit, ac si quando Romae, quo rarissime commeabat, viseretur in publico, sectantis demonstrantisque se subterfugeret in proximum tectum. Bona autem cuiusdam exsulantis offerente Augusto non sustinuit accipere. Possedit prope centiens sestertium ex liberalitatibus amicorum habuitque domum Romae Esquiliis iuxta hortos Maecenatianos, quamquam secessu Campaniae Siciliaeque plurimum uteretur.

The rest of his life is agreed to have been so upright both in speech and in spirit, that at Naples he was commonly called Parthenias,
and if ever at Rome, where he very rarely went, he was seen in public,
he would slip away from those following and pointing him out into the nearest roofed shelter. The goods
of a certain exile, though offered by Augustus, he could not bring himself to accept. He possessed nearly ten million sesterces from the liberalities of friends and had
a house at Rome on the Esquiline next to the gardens of Maecenas, although he made very great use of retreat
in Campania and Sicily.

Parentes iam grandis amisit, ex quibus patrem captum oculis, et duos fratres germanos, Silonem inpuberem, Flaccum iam adultum, cuius exitum sub nomine Daphnidis deflet. Inter cetera studia medicinae quoque ac maxime mathematicae operam dedit. Egit et causam apud iudices unam omnino nec amplius quam semel; nam et in sermone tardissimum eum ac paene indocto similem fuisse Melissus tradidit.

Already of mature years he lost his parents, of
whom his father, deprived of sight, and two full brothers, Silo
underage, and Flaccus, already adult, whose end he laments under the name of Daphnis.
Among his other studies he devoted effort to medicine also and especially to mathematics.
He likewise pled a case before the judges only a single one and not more than
once; for Melissus has transmitted that he was very slow in speech and almost similar to an unlearned man.

Poeticam puer adhuc auspicatus in Ballistam ludi magistrum ob infamiam latrociniorum coopertum lapidibus distichon fecit:

Having begun poetry while still a boy, he made a distich against Ballista, the schoolmaster, covered with stones on account of the infamy
of latrociny:

"Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Ballista sepultus;
Nocte die tutum carpe, viator, iter."

"Under this mound of stones Ballista lies covered, buried;
By night and by day, traveler, take a safe way."

Deinde "Catalepton" et "Priapea" et "Epigrammata" et "Diras," item "Cirim" et "Culicem," cum esset annorum XVI. Cuius materia talis est. Pastor fatigatus aestu cum sub arbore condormisset et serpens ad eum proreperet, e palude culex provolavit atque inter duo tempora aculeum fixit pastori. At ille continuo culicem contrivit et serpentem interemit ac sepulchrum culici statuit et distichon fecit:

Then the "Catalepton" and the "Priapeia" and the "Epigrams" and the "Curses," likewise the "Ciris"
and the "Gnat," when he was 16 years old. The subject-matter of which is of this sort. A shepherd,
wearied by the heat, when he had fallen asleep beneath a tree and a serpent was creeping toward him,
a gnat flew out from the marsh and fixed its sting between the two temples of the shepherd. But he
straightway crushed the gnat and slew the serpent, and he set up a tomb for the gnat and made a distich:

"Parve culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti
Funeris officium vitae pro munere reddit."

"Little gnat, guardian of the cattle, to you, deserving it,
he repays such a funeral office in return for the gift of life."

Scripsit etiam de qua ambigitur "Aetnam." Mox cum res Romanas inchoasset, offensus materia ad "Bucolica" transiit, maxime ut Asinium Pollionem, Alfenum Varum et Cornelium Gallum celebraret, quia in distributione agrorum, qui post Philippensem victoriam veteranis triumvirorum iussu trans Padum dividebantur, indemnem se praestitissent. Deinde scripsit "Georgica" in honorem Maecenatis, qui sibi mediocriter adhuc noto opem tulisset adversus veterani cuiusdam violentiam, a quo in altercatione litis agrariae paulum afuit quin occideretur. Novissime "Aeneidem" inchoavit, argumentum varium ac multiplex et quasi amborum Homeri carminum instar, praeterea nominibus ac rebus Graecis Latinisque commune, et in quo, quod maxime studebat, Romanae simul urbis et Augusti origo contineretur.

He also wrote “Aetna,” about which there is dispute. Soon, when he had begun Roman affairs, displeased with the material he passed over to the “Bucolics,” chiefly to celebrate Asinius Pollio, Alfenus Varus, and Cornelius Gallus, because in the distribution of lands, which after the Philippian victory were being divided to the veterans by order of the triumvirs across the Po, they had shown him unharmed. Then he wrote the “Georgics” in honor of Maecenas, who, when as yet only moderately known to him, had brought him aid against the violence of a certain veteran, by whom, in an altercation of an agrarian suit, he was a little short of being killed. Most recently he began the “Aeneid,” a varied and manifold argument and, as it were, in the likeness of both of Homer’s songs, moreover common in Greek and Latin names and things, and in which, what he was most intent upon, the origin of the Roman city and of Augustus might be contained together.

Cum "Georgica" scriberet, traditur cotidie meditatos mane plurimos versus dictare solitus ac per totum diem retractando ad paucissimos redigere, non absurde carmen se more ursae parere dicens et lambendo demum effingere. "Aeneida" prosa prius oratione formatam digestamque in XII libros particulatim componere instituit, prout liberet quidque, et nihil in ordinem arripiens. Ac ne quid impetum moraretur, quaedam inperfecta transmisit, alia levissimis verbis veluti fulsit, quae per iocum pro tibicinibus interponi aiebat ad sustinendum opus, donec solidae columnae advenirent.

While he was writing the "Georgics," he is reported to have been accustomed every day in the morning to dictate very many premeditated verses, and through the whole day, by reworking, to reduce them to very few, not inaptly saying that he brought forth a poem in the manner of a she-bear and by licking at last shaped it. The "Aeneid," first fashioned in prose oration and arranged into 12 books, he set himself to compose piecemeal, as each thing pleased him, taking up nothing in order. And lest anything should delay his impulse, he left certain things unfinished, others he, as it were, shored up with the lightest words, which, by way of jest, he used to say were inserted as props to sustain the work, until the solid columns should arrive.

"Bucolica" triennio, "Georgica" VII, "Aeneida" XI perfecit annis. "Bucolica" eo successu edidit, ut in scena quoque per cantores crebro pronuntiarentur. "Georgica" reverso post Actiacam victoriam Augusto atque Atellae reficiendarum faucium causa commoranti per continuum quadriduum legit, suscipiente Maecenate legendi vicem, quotiens interpellaretur ipse vocis offensione.

He completed the "Bucolics" in a three-year span, the "Georgics" in 7 years, the "Aeneid" in 11 years. He published the "Bucolics" with such success that on the stage too they were frequently recited by singers.
The "Georgics" he read, after the Actian victory, to Augustus who had returned and was lingering at Atella for the sake of refreshing his throat, for a continuous four-day period,
Maecenas taking up the turn of reading whenever he himself was interrupted by an offense of the voice (hoarseness).

Pronuntiabat autem cum suavitate et lenociniis miris. Ac Seneca tradidit, Iulium Montanum poetam solitum dicere, involaturum se Vergilio quaedam, si et vocem posset et os et hypocrisin; eosdem enim versus ipso pronuntiante bene sonare, sine illo inanes esse mutosque. "Aeneidos" vixdum coeptae tanta exstitit fama, ut Sextus Propertius non dubitaverit sic praedicare:

He used to pronounce, moreover, with suavity
and with wondrous allurements. And Seneca has handed down that the poet Julius Montanus used to
say that he would steal away certain things from Vergil, if he could also have his voice and his face and
his delivery; for the same verses, when he himself pronounced them, sounded well; without him they were
empty and mute. "Aeneid" scarcely begun, such great fame arose that
Sextus Propertius did not hesitate to proclaim thus:

"Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite Grai:
Nescio quid maius nascitur Iliade."

"Cede, Roman writers, cede, Greeks:
I know not what greater is being born than the Iliad."

Augustus vero—nam forte expeditione Cantabrica aberat—supplicibus atque etiam minacibus per iocum litteris efflagitarat, ut "sibi de 'Aeneide,'" ut ipsius verba sunt, "vel prima carminis hupographe vel quodlibet kolon mitteretur." Cui tamen multo post perfectaque demum materia tres omnino libros recitavit, secundum, quartum et sextum, sed hunc notabili Octaviae adfectione, quae cum recitationi interesset, ad illos de filio suo versus, "tu Marcellus eris," defecisse fertur atque aegre focilata est. Recitavit et pluribus, sed neque frequenter et ea fere de quibus ambigebat, quo magis iudicium hominum experiretur. Erotem librarium et libertum eius exactae iam senectutis tradunt referre solitum, quondum eum in recitando duos dimidiatos versus complesse ex tempore.

But Augustus—for by chance he was away on the Cantabrian expedition—had demanded by letters, both supplicatory and even menacing in jest, that “to him from the ‘Aeneid,’” as his very words are, “either the first hupographe of the song or any kolon be sent.” To him, however, much later, and only when the material was at last perfected, he recited three books in all—the second, the fourth, and the sixth—this last with a notable emotion of Octavia, who, since she was present at the recitation, at those verses about her son, “you will be Marcellus,” is said to have fainted and was with difficulty revived. He also recited to more people, but not frequently, and for the most part those parts about which he was in doubt, so that he might the more test the judgment of men. They relate that Eros the librarian, his freedman, already in advanced old age, used to report that once, while he was reciting, he completed on the spot two half-verses (hemistichs).

Nam cum hactenus haberet: "Misenum Aeoliden" adiecisse: "quo non praestantior alter," item huic: "aere ciere viros," simili calore iactatum subiunxisse: "Martemque accendere cantu," statimque sibi imperasse ut utrumque volumini ascriberet.

For when he had thus far: "Misenus, the Aeolid," he added: "than whom none more preeminent," likewise to this: "to stir men with bronze," and, carried away by similar ardor, he subjoined: "and to inflame Mars with song," and straightway commanded himself to ascribe both to the volume.

Anno aetatis quinquagesimo secundo inpositurus "Aeneidi" summam manum statuit in Graeciam et in Asiam secedere triennioque continuo nihil amplius quam emendare, ut reliqua vita tantum philosophiae vacaret. Sed cum ingressus iter Athenis occurrisset Augusto ab Oriente Romam revertenti destinaretque non absistere atque etiam una redire, dum Megara vicinum oppidum ferventissimo sole cognoscit, languorem nactus est eumque non intermissa navigatione auxit ita ut gravior aliquanto Brundisium appelleret, ubi diebus paucis obiit XI Kal. Octobr.

In the fifty-second year of his age, being about to put the final hand to the "Aeneid," he resolved to withdraw into Greece and Asia and for a continuous three-year period to do nothing more than revise, so that the remainder of his life might be devoted only to philosophy. But when, having entered upon the journey, he met at Athens with Augustus returning to Rome from the East and determined not to desist and even to return together, while he was surveying Megara, a neighboring town, in the most scorching sun, he contracted a languor and, by not interrupting the navigation, increased it, so that he put in at Brundisium somewhat more gravely ill, where in a few days he died on the 11th day before the Kalends of October.

Cn. Sentio Q. Lucretio conss. Ossa eius Neapolim translata sunt tumuloque condita qui est via Puteolana intra lapidem secundum, in quo distichon fecit tale:

In the consulship of Cn. Sentius and Q. Lucretius, consuls. His bones were transferred to Naples and laid in a tomb which is on the Puteolan Way within the second milestone, in which he composed such a distich:

"Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc
Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces. "

"Mantua bore me, the Calabrians snatched me away; now
Parthenope holds me; I sang of pastures, fields, and leaders. "

Heredes fecit ex dimidia parte Valerium Proculum fratrem alio patre, ex quarta Augustum, ex duodecima Maecenatem, ex reliqua L. Varium et Plotium Tuccam, qui eius "Aeneida" post obitum iussu Caesaris emendaverunt. De qua re Sulpicii Carthaginiensis exstant huiusmodi versus:

He made heirs from a half-share Valerius Proculus, a brother by another father, from a fourth Augustus, from a twelfth Maecenas, from the remainder L. Varius and Plotius Tucca, who emended his "Aeneid" after his death by the command of Caesar. On which matter there exist of Sulpicius the Carthaginian of this sort verses:

"Iusserat haec rapidis aboleri carmina flammis
Vergilius, Phrygium quae cecinere ducem.
Tucca vetat Variusque; simul tu, maxime Caesar,
Non sinis et Latiae consulis historiae.
Infelix gemino cecidit prope Pergamon igni,
Et paene est alio Troia cremata rogo."

"He had ordered these songs to be abolished by rapid flames
Vergil had, which sang of the Phrygian leader.
Tucca vetoes, and Varius; at the same time you too, greatest Caesar,
do not allow it, and you consult for the Latian history.
Unlucky Pergamum almost fell by a twin fire,
and Troy was almost cremated on another pyre."

Egerat cum Vario, priusquam Italia decederet, ut siquid sibi accidisset, "Aeneida" combureret; at is ita facturum se pernegarat; igitur in extrema valetudine assidue scrinia desideravit, crematurus ipse; verum nemine offerente nihil quidem nominatim de ea cavit. Ceterum eidem Vario ac simul Tuccae scripta sua sub ea condicione legavit, ne quid ederent, quod non a se editum esset. Edidit autem auctore Augusto Varius, sed summatim emendata, ut qui versus etiam inperfectos sicut erant reliquerit; quos multi mox supplere conati non perinde valuerunt ob difficultatem, quod omnia fere apud eum hemistichia absoluto perfectoque sunt sensu, praeter illud: "quem tibi iam Troia." Nisus grammaticus audisse se a senioribus aiebat, Varium duorum librorum ordinem commutasse, et qui tunc secundus esset in tertium locum transtulisse, etiam primi libri correxisse principium, his versibus demptis:

He had transacted with Varius, before he departed from Italy, that if anything befell him, he should burn the "Aeneid"; but he most emphatically denied that he would so act; therefore, in his last illness he continually called for his document-chests, intending to cremate it himself; but since no one brought them, he made indeed no specific provision about it by name. However, he bequeathed his writings to that same Varius and at the same time to Tucca under this condition: that they should publish nothing which had not been published by himself. Varius, moreover, with Augustus as authorizer, did publish it, but edited only summarily, as one who even left verses imperfect just as they were; which many soon tried to fill in, but did not succeed to the same degree, because almost all his hemistichs have a complete and perfected sense, except that one: "whom now Troy to you." Nisus the grammarian used to say that he had heard from his elders that Varius had changed the order of two books, and had transferred what was then the second into the third place, and had even corrected the beginning of the first book, with these verses removed:

"Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena
Carmina et egressus silvis vicina coegi,
Ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono,
Gratum opus agricolis, at nunc horrentia Martis—
Arma virumque cano."

"I am he who once modulated songs on a slender reed,
and, having gone forth from the woods, compelled the neighboring fields,
so that, though to a greedy colonist-farmer, the fields might obey—
a work pleasing to agriculturists, but now the bristling things of Mars—
I sing of arms and the man."

Obtrectatores Vergilio numquam defuerunt, nec mirum; nam nec Homero quidem. Prolatis "Bucolicis" Numitorius quidam rescripsit "Antibucolica," duas modo eglogas, sed insulsissime parodesas quarum prioris initium est:

Detractors to Vergil have never been lacking, nor is it a wonder; for not even to Homer. After the "Bucolics" were brought out, a certain Numitorius wrote in reply "Antibucolics," only two eclogues, but most tastelessly as parodies, the beginning of the former of which is:

"Tityre, si toga calda tibi est, quo tegmine fagi?"
sequentis:
"Dic mihi Damoeta: 'cuium pecus' anne
Latinum?
Non. Verum Aegonis nostri, sic rure locuntur."

"Tityrus, if your toga is warm, with what covering of the beech?"
of the following:
"Tell me, Damoetas: 'cuium pecus'—is that
Latin?
No. Rather of our Aegon; thus they speak in the countryside."

Alius recitante eo ex "Georgicis": "nudus ara, sere nudus" subiecit: "habebis frigore febrem." Est et adversus "Aeneida" liber Carvili Pictoris, titulo "Aeneomastix." M. Vipsanius a Maecenate eum suppositum appellabat, novae cacozeliae repertorem, non tumidae nec exilis, sed ex communibus verbis, atque ideo latentis. Herennius tantum vitia eius, Perellius Faustus furta contraxit. Sed et Q. Octavi Aviti omoioteton octo volumina quos et unde versus transtulerit continent.

Another, while he was reciting from the “Georgics”: “naked plough, naked sow,” added: “you will have a fever from the cold.” There is also, against the “Aeneid,” a book of Carvilius Pictor, with the title “Aeneomastix.” M. Vipsanius, on Maecenas’s authority, used to call him a supposititious creature of Maecenas, the finder of a new cacozelia, not swollen nor meager, but out of common words, and therefore lurking. Herennius compiled only his vices, Perellius Faustus his thefts. And the Omoioteton of Q. Octavius Avitus, in eight volumes, contains which verses he transferred and from where.

Asconius Pedianus libro, quem "Contra obtrectatores Vergilii" scripsit, pauca admodum obiecta ei proponit eaque circa historiam fere et quod pleraque ab Homero sumpsisset; sed hoc ipsum crimen sic defendere adsuetum ait: cur non illi quoque eadem furta temptarent? Verum intellecturos facilius esse Herculi clavam quam Homero versum subripere. Et tamen destinasse secedere ut omnia ad satietatem malevolorum decideret.

Asconius Pedianus, in the book which he wrote "Against the Detractors of Vergilius," brings forward very few charges against him, and these
for the most part concerning history and that he had taken many things from Homer; but he says that he was accustomed thus to defend this very charge: why did they not likewise attempt the same thefts?
Truly, they would understand that it is easier to filch the club from Hercules than to steal a verse from Homer.
And yet he had resolved to withdraw, so that everything might be settled to the satiety of the malevolent.