Virgil: A Life (Understanding Classics)

About this book

Born in 70 BC in a small village near Mantua Publius Vergilius MaroVirgilgrew up to be hailed as the greatest Roman poet. And although his work has influenced Western literature for two millennia little is known about the man himself. Who was the man who created the Aeneidone of the most important poems in Western literatureand such universal phrases as love conquers all and fortune favors the bold? Peter Levi here reconstructs the poets life from a childhood largely shrouded in mystery to his work as a great literary genius and revolutionary poet by examining archaeological and historical evidence from Augustan Rome as well as through close readings of the poets own work. Virgil is an intensely personal poet yet he is anonymous . . . My aim is not so ambitious as to try and restore his prestige single-handed. It has simply been to try to understand him in his original context. In this highly acclaimed nowclassic biography Peter Levi discards the myths and brilliantly reveals the life of Virgil and the extraordinary times during which he lived.