{"id":48,"date":"2025-05-18T03:31:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T07:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mwwhy27-spring2025\/?page_id=48"},"modified":"2025-05-20T05:09:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T09:09:30","slug":"eclogue-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mwwhy27-spring2025\/eclogue-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Eclogue 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Illustration<\/a> by Michael van der Gucht\/CC BY<\/a> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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Nos patriae finis et dulcia linquimus arua. Nos patriam fugimus; tu, Tityre lentus in umbra formonsam resonare doces Amaryllida siluas. Vergil, Eclogues I.3-5<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are leaving our country\u2019s bounds and sweet fields. We are outcasts from our country; you, Tityrus, at ease beneath the shade, teach the woods to re-echo \u2018fair Amaryllis.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Eclogue is a dialogue between two herdsmen, Meliboeus and Tityrus. Similar to Eclogue 9, it references the land confiscation in 41 BCE that occurred after the battle of Philippi for veterans of the civil war, that Vergil experienced in his hometown of Mantua. Meliboeus is to lose his property in the the redistribution while Tityrus, having visited Rome, has secured his property and will remain on his land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Setting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To understand the backdrop of Mantua it is important to learn about the conflict behind first and ninth Eclogue. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, members of the second triumvirate, Mark Antony, and Octavian, sought to avenge him by attacking the forces of the lead conspirators, Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus in the Liberator\u2019 Civil War. After defeating the conspirators at the Battle of Philippi, Mark Antony stayed to calm the East while Octavian returned to Italy to settle veteran\u2019s on confiscated land.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the areas that would be confiscated would be Vergil\u2019s home near Mantua. The loss of his family plot then becomes the impetus for the composition of the Eclogues. This poem contrasts the harsh reality of land expropriations with the idyllic descriptions of the countryside common in bucolic poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Geography<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rome<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
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Marcok – it.wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 3.0 https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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Et quae tanta fuit Romam tibi caussa uidendi? Libertas! Vergil, Eclogues I.26<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd what was the great occasion of your seeing Rome? Liberty!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first location mentioned in the Eclogues, and the capital of the Roman Republic. In Eclogue 1, Tityrus speaks of his journey to Rome for freedom. While there, he meets a young man, likely Octavian, whom he regards as close to a god.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hic illum uidi iuuenem, Meliboee, quot annis bis senos quoi nostra dies altaria fumant. Vergil, Eclogues I.42-45<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, Meliboeus, I saw that youth for whom our altars smoke twice six days a year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The location of the word in these lines of the poem is also notable. Eclogue 1, there are 83 lines, so by placing iuuenem<\/em> in the middle of line 42, Vergil indicates the importance of Octavian making him literally the center of the poem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tityrus\u2019 visit to Rome references events occurring in 41 BCE when land confiscations reached a boiling point. These events, described in Book 48 of Dio Cassius’ Roman History <\/em>tell of both veterans, dissatisfied with the speed of the settlements, and threatened occupants, marched through Rome demanding compensation or for the latter, the return of their properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n