(2) Georgica, in four Books, written 37-30 B.C., at the suggestion of Maecenas, ‘the Home Minister of Augustus, and public patron of art and letters in the interest of the new government.’—Mackail. ‘The details of his subject Vergil draws mainly from his Greek predecessors, Hesiod, Xenophon, Aratus, and Nicander, but it is to Lucretius he is chiefly indebted. The language of Lucretius, so bold, so genial, so powerful, and in its way so perfect, is echoed a thousand times in the Georgics.’—Nettleship.
Book I treats of agriculture, Book II of the cultivation of trees, Book III of domestic animals, Book IV of bees (including the Myth of Aristaeus, ll. 315-558).
The purpose of the Georgics is to ennoble the annual round of labour in which the rural life was passed and to help the policy of Augustus by inducing the people to go back to the land.
‘The motto of the Georgics might well be said to be Ora et labora.’—Tyrrell.
‘The Georgics represent the art of Vergil in its matured perfection, and in mere technical finish are the most perfect work of Latin literature.’—Mackail.
(3) The Aeneid, in twelve Books, written 29-19 B.C.
The choice of the subject was influenced by the wish of Augustus to establish the legendary tradition of the connection of the gens Iulia with Aeneas through his son Iulus, and by Vergil’s own desire to write an epic on the greatness of Rome, in the manner of Homer. Thus ‘the centre of the mythical background was naturally Aeneas, as Augustus was the centre of the present magnificence of the Roman Empire. We surpass all other nations, says Cicero (De Nat. Deor. ii. 8), in holding fast the belief that all things are ordered by a Divine Providence. The theme of the Aeneid is the building up of the Roman Empire under this Providence. Aeneas is the son of a goddess, and his life the working out of the divine decrees.’—Nettleship.
Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento;
Hae tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem.
Aen. vi. 851-2.