‘optimus olim
Vergilius, post hunc Varius dixere quid essem.’
By Maecenas he was introduced to Augustus,[48] who treated him with liberality. Cf. Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 246,
‘Munera quae multa dantis cum laude tulerunt
dilecti tibi Vergilius Variusque poetae.’
He was on intimate terms with Horace, who addresses Od. i. 3 to him on the occasion of a proposed visit to Greece. Cf. ll. 5-8,
‘Navis, quae tibi creditum
debes Vergilium, finibus Atticis
reddas incolumem, precor,
et serves animae dimidium meae.’
In B.C. 37 he formed one of the party who travelled with Horace to Brundisium: Hor. Sat. i. 5, 40 (see under ‘Horace,’ [p. 167]).
For the rest of his life we hear little of Virgil in any public connexion. In B.C. 19 he started on a voyage to Greece and Asia, intending to spend three years on the revision of the Aeneid, but returned from Athens in bad health, and died at Brundisium on 21st September. His remains were buried near Naples. The epitaph quoted by Donatus is obviously not by Virgil: ‘Anno aetatis lii. impositurus 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. Cn. Sentio Q. Lucretio coss. (21st September, B.C. 19). Ossa eius Neapolim translata sunt tumuloque condita ... in quo distichon fecit tale:
“Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc
Parthenope: cecini pascua, rura, duces.”’
His personal appearance and character are thus described by Donatus: ‘Corpore et statura fuit grandis, aquilo colore, facie rusticana, valetudine varia: nam plerumque a stomacho et a faucibus ac dolore capitis laborabat, sanguinem etiam saepe reiecit.’ (Cf. Hor. Sat. i. 5, 48,
‘Lusum it Maecenas, dormitum ego Vergiliusque;
namque pila lippis inimicum et ludere crudis.’)