Augustus was uncertain whether he was the son of Octavius or of another, and be believed Virgil could divine this for him, inasmuch as he had known the qualifications of the dogs and horses, as well as their pedigrees. He summoned Virgil into a remote quarter of his residence and asked him privily if he knew who he was, and whether or not he possessed qualities which would confer happiness upon mankind.
“I know,” said Maro, “that you, Caesar Augustus, possess almost the same power to confer happiness as do the immortal gods, if such be your wish.”
“I intend to make you very happy,” replied Augustus, “if you can give me the true answer to my question.”
“Oh,” exclaimed Maro, “that I may be able to answer you truly!”
Whereupon Augustus: “Everyone believes me to be the son of another man.”
Maro said, smiling: “It will be easy to tell you this if you order me to speak as I think, without fear of punishment.”
Caesar vowed he would take nothing amiss, and furthermore that Virgil would not be permitted to leave until he had so spoken.
Thereupon said Maro, looking the Augustus straight in the eyes: “It is comparatively easy to discern the characteristics and lineage of the other creatures by means of mathematics and philosophy; in the case of man it is impossible. But in your case I have a close surmise of the truth, so that I am able to know who your father was.”
Augustus waited attentively for what Virgil was about to say.
However, the latter: “In so far as I am able to judge,” he said, “you are the son of a miller.”
Caesar was astonished, and pondered how this could have come about.
Virgil interrupted him and said: “Listen, this is how I came to my conclusion. When I pronounced and foretold what could be known by none but the most experienced and learned men, you, Lord of the World, ordered time and time again that bread be given me as payment. That was the conduct of a miller and his sons.”
This retort pleased Caesar. “At last,” he said, “you will receive gifts not from a miller but from a generous monarch.”
He held Virgil in high esteem.
Virgil was of stately carriage, dark coloring, rustic appearance and uncertain health, for he suffered constantly with pains in his head and throat; he spat blood frequently; he partook sparingly of food and wine.
It was said of him that he had a passionate leaning toward young boys. But kindly people thought he loved the youths as Socrates had loved Alcibiades, as Plato his young followers. But most of all he loved Cebes and Alexander. In the Bucolic Eclogues he calls the latter Alexis. Both youths were presented to him by Asinius Pollio, and he discharged neither of them until they were educated; Alexander as a grammarian, Cebes as a poet.
It was known that he loved Plotia Hieria. But Ascanius maintained that later he took care to tell the youths that while it was true he had been invited by Varius to live intimately with the woman, he had resisted most stubbornly.
As for the rest, it is certain that in his life, his way of thinking, his appearance, he was so upright that in Naples he was commonly called “Parthenias.” And when he appeared publicly in Rome, where he came but seldom, he took care to flee into a neighboring house from those who followed after him.
When Augustus offered him the estates of an exile, he remained firm in refusing them. He possessed almost a hundred sesterces through the generosity of his friends, and had a house in Rome on the Esquiline near the Maecenas-Gardens. Yet, for the most part, he enjoyed the seclusion of the Campagna and of Sicily. Whatever he asked of Augustus was never refused him.
Of all his studies, as mentioned above, he continued to give his greatest devotion to medicine, and above all to mathematics.”
This legend apparently derives from the Middle Ages, as may be inferred from the monastical character of the Latin text, and was found by the author in a seventeenth century translation of the Aeneid.
“The Death of Virgil” contains almost a hundred passages from the Virgilian writings; for the most part they have been incorporated as part of the narrative, many, however, are inserted as distinct quotations. A list of the most important of these follows, with indication of the page numbers in this book:
1 Easy the pathway that leads down to Hades, and the gateway of Pluto stands ever open …
Aeneid VI, 126/52
2 But the Ciconean women, whom he had offended out of love for her who was dead, had torn the man into pieces …
Georgics IV, 520/27
3 Now are the waves of the sea set to foaming, churned by the oar-strokes …
Aeneid VIII, 689/90
4 Charmed is Aeneas, and letting his eyes rove in quick admiration …
Aeneid VIII, 310/69
5 Lying down on the dry sea sand, wearily we care for the body …
Aeneid III, 510/11
6 Nevermore shall I sing songs, and no longer am I your guardian …
Eclogue I
7 Now there arises a new line, one of a loftier order …
Eclogue IV
8 Twofold the portals of sleep, and twofold ’tis said in their nature …
Aeneid VI, 893/901
9 Thou shalt not escape me today; whither thou callest, there shall I appear! …
Eclogue III
10 All that Apollo once sang and Eurotas heard enraptured, all of this was sung by that one …
Eclogue VI
11 Henceforth let it be the wolf who flees the sheep, let the rugged oaks bear golden apples …
Eclogue VIII
12 Actium’s strand shall be honored by contests at Ilium …
Aeneid III, 280
13 There on the shield was the bronze-armored fleet in the Attic encounter …
Aeneid VIII, 675/88
14 Others, I doubt not, will hammer the flexible bronze to soft features …
Aeneid VI, 847/53
15 The glory of the ages …
Eclogue IV
16 Oh, it was Lucifer rising, and washed by the waves of the ocean …
Aeneid VIII, 589/91
17 Even the moon’s shining orb, even the sun’s very fire …
Aeneid VI, 725/27
18 To thee, thou new star, as thou joinest slow months in their passing, where Erigone leads on the Scorpion …
Georgics I, 32/35
19 In heaven the thunderer, Zeus, is reigning, but on earth you are the visible god, oh Augustus …
Quoted from Horace
Carmina, Book III, 5
20 Behold Caesar there and his issue, all of the Julian line that is destined to mount to the heavens …
Aeneid IV, 789/800
21 Look at the rising star, the star of Aeneas, the star that is Caesar’s …
Eclogue IX
Confronted with the Latin verses, the translator looked for an English version of the Virgilian writings in dactylic hexameter from which to draw quotations. None that was available suited her purpose, and after consulting with several classical scholars she took the advice of Dr. Werner Jaeger, distinguished professor at Yale University, and made her own versification, relying heavily on Fairclough’s prose translation. When incorporated in the narrative, the meter was sometimes ignored, but in most of the larger quotations the translator essayed a contrived hexameter, although fully aware how seldom this meter has found felicitous expression in English poetry, and of its inadequacy when compared to its classic original.
VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL
POSSESSION
by A. S. Byatt
An intellectual mystery and a triumphant love story of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets.
“Gorgeously written … a tour de force.
—The New York Times Book Review
Winner of the Booker Prize
Fiction/Literature/0-679-73590-9
THE REMAINS OF THE DAY
by Kazuo Ishiguro
A profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, ins
ular world in postwar England.
“One of the best books of the year.”
—The New York Times Book Review
Fiction/Literature/0-679-73172-5
ALL THE PRETTY HORSES
by Cormac McCarthy
At sixteen, John Grady Cole finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself. With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey, to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.
“A book of remarkable beauty and strength, the work of a master in perfect command of his medium.”
—Washington Post Book World
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction
Fiction/Literature/0-679-74439-8
THE ENGLISH PATIENT
by Michael Ondaatje
During the final moments of World War II, four damaged people come together in a deserted Italian villa. As their stories unfold, a complex tapestry of image and emotion is woven, leaving them inextricably connected by the brutal circumstances of war.
“It seduces and beguiles us with its many-layered mysteries, its brilliantly taut and lyrical prose, its tender regard for its characters.”
—Newsday
Winner of the Booker Prize
Fiction/Literature/0-679-74520-3
VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL
AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE, OR CALL TOLL-FREE TO ORDER: 1-800-793-2665 (CREDIT CARDS ONLY).
Death of Virgil Page 50