So, to my mind, Amyntas yields to you.[55]
The Eclogues were published not later than 38 B. C. In 29 B. C. the four books of the Georgics were completed. The Georgics. One of the most important tasks of the new government, now that the civil strife was ended, was to ensure the continuance of tranquility by settling the veterans in the country and encouraging agriculture, which had been sadly neglected in Italy for many years. It was therefore with a practical end in view that Mæcenas suggested to Virgil the composition of a poem on agriculture. This was a subject which Virgil was especially qualified to treat with success, and the poem, to which he devoted seven years, is the most perfect of his works. It is a very free imitation of the Works and Days of Hesiod, and contains many passages derived from Aratus and other Greek poets, but in its composition and its poetic beauty it is independent of all but Virgil’s own genius. It is dedicated to Mæcenas. The first book treats of the tilling of the soil, the beginning of agriculture, the instruments needed by the farmer, the tasks appropriate to the different seasons, and the signs of the weather, ending with a splendid passage describing the portents at the time of Cæsar’s death, and a prayer that Augustus may put an end to the wars and disorders of the times. This passage is closely connected with the preceding lines in which the signs of the weather given by the appearance of the sun are described. It begins:
And last, what evening brings, and when the wind
Bears placid clouds, and also with what thoughts
The wet south wind is moved, of all these things
The sun will give thee signs. Who dares to say
The sun is false? He even warns ofttimes
That strife unseen and treason are at hand
And hidden wars are swelling to break forth.
He even, pitying Rome for Cæsar’s fall,