My Mantua, Idumæan palms, and in
Thy verdant mead will build a marble fane
Beside the water, where the mighty stream
Of Mincius wanders slow with winding curves
And clothes with tender reeds the river banks.
There in the midst for me shall Cæsar stand
And hold the temple. Then to him will I
As victor, clad in Tyrian purple garb,
Drive to the stream a hundred four-horse cars.[59]
The fourth book treats of the culture of bees. It contains several passages of singular beauty, one of the most striking of which is the description of the life of the hive.[60] The poem ends with an epic description of the visit of Aristæus, the mythical founder of bee culture, to his mother, the sea-nymph Cyrene. This includes an account of the struggle of Aristæus with the sea-god Proteus and the death of Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus. A tradition exists that the poem originally ended with a passage in praise of Gallus; but before its publication Gallus had died in disgrace, and the present ending was substituted. In its final form the close of the Georgics shows that Virgil was already tending to become an epic poet.