Virgil stands as the greatest poet of the Roman Empire, a man whose words defined the glory of Rome for millennia. While students today struggle through his Latin verses in classrooms, the real man was a shy, rustic perfectionist who would have hated the fame he achieved. For instance, he spent the Middle Ages not being remembered as a writer, but as a wizard who built magical defenses for the city of Naples. Furthermore, he famously tried to destroy his life's work on his deathbed. Prepare to sing of arms and the man.
Virgil
He tried to burn the Aeneid before he died. As he lay dying from a fever in Brindisi, he begged his friends to burn the manuscript of his epic poem because he considered it unfinished. He even tried to get up and burn it himself, but his servants stopped him.
People used his book to predict the future. For centuries, kings and emperors practiced “Sortes Vergilianae,” or Virgilian Lottery. They would open the Aeneid to a random page and read the first line they saw to determine their fate, much like a horoscope.
Medieval legends claimed he was a powerful sorcerer. Long after his death, folklore transformed him into a wizard rather than a poet. Stories claimed he built a bridge of air, created a bronze fly that stopped real flies from entering Naples, and protected the city with magical statues.
He supposedly hid a magical egg under a castle in Naples. Legend says Virgil placed a magical egg into the foundations of the Castel dell’Ovo (Castle of the Egg). The locals believed that if the egg ever broke, the castle would collapse and disasters would befall the city.
Christians believed he predicted the birth of Jesus. In his fourth Eclogue, he wrote about a “wonder child” who would bring a new Golden Age. While he likely meant a Roman official’s son, early Christians interpreted this as a pagan prophecy of Christ, which kept his books safe from censorship.
His nickname was “The Maiden.” In his youth, he was so shy, socially awkward, and virtuous that people in Naples nicknamed him “Parthenias,” which means “The Maiden” or “Virgin.” He often ran into the nearest building to avoid fans who tried to follow him on the street.
He claimed he “licked” his verses into shape. He was a notoriously slow perfectionist who wrote only a few lines a day. He compared his process to a mother bear licking her cubs into their proper form, slowly molding the rough poetry into perfection.
A woman once humiliated him by leaving him hanging in a basket. A popular medieval tale called “Virgil in the Basket” describes how he fell in love with a woman who promised to pull him up to her tower room. Instead, she left him hanging halfway up in the basket, exposing him to the mockery of the entire town the next morning.
The Aeneid contains nearly sixty unfinished lines. Because he died before finishing the final revision, the poem contains half-lines that stop in the middle of the meter. Scholars call these tibicines or “props,” assuming he intended to go back and fix them later.
He lost his family farm to soldiers. After the civil war, the government confiscated land to give to military veterans, including Virgil’s estate. He had to use his connections with powerful friends like Maecenas to eventually get compensation, though he never forgot the trauma of displacement.
Dante made him the official guide to Hell. In The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri chose Virgil to lead him through the nine circles of the Inferno. He viewed Virgil as the ultimate symbol of human reason and the greatest master of poetry.
He suffered from bad health his entire life. Unlike the rugged heroes he wrote about, Virgil was often sick, suffering from stomach ailments, headaches, and likely tuberculosis. He lived a quiet, ascetic life to manage his frail constitution.
His epitaph summarizes his life in two lines. The tomb in Naples bears the famous Latin inscription: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua, rura, duces. (Mantua bore me, Calabria took me, now Naples holds me; I sang of pastures, fields, and leaders.)
Augustus disobeyed his dying wish. The Emperor Augustus refused to let the Aeneid be burned. He ordered Virgil’s literary executors to publish the poem exactly as it was, with no additions or changes, which is why we still have the masterpiece today.
Finally, he died a very wealthy man. Despite his humble beginnings and “starving artist” persona, his patronage from the Emperor made him incredibly rich. At the time of his death, his estate was worth approximately ten million sesterces, a fortune in ancient Rome.
