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Updated: May 1, 2025
At what time of his life Virgil turned his thoughts to epic poetry is not known. Probably like most gifted poets he felt from his earliest years the ambition to write a heroic poem. He expresses this feeling in the Eclogues more than once; Pollio's exploits seemed to him worthy of such a celebration.
We are not poor; although we have No roofs of cedar, nor our brave Baiae, nor keep Account of such a flock of sheep, Nor bullocks fed To lard the shambles; barbles bred To kiss our hands; nor do we wish For Pollio's lampreys in our dish.
It is usually dated in the year of Pollio's Albanian campaign in 39, that is a year after his consulship. Should it not rather be placed two years earlier when Pollio had given up the Cisalpine province and withdrawn to the upper Adriatic coast preparatory to proceeding on Antony's orders against the Illyrian rebels?
To suit such purposes Pollio is at times made governor of Cisalpine Gaul, and at times placed on the commission to colonize Cremona, Alfenus is made Pollio's "successor" in a province that does not exist, and Gallus is also made a colonial commissioner.
We are not poor; although we have No roofs of cedar, nor our brave Baiae, nor keep Account of such a flock of sheep, Nor bullocks fed To lard the shambles; barbles bred To kiss our hands; nor do we wish For Pollio's lampreys in our dish.
When the triumvirate was formed in 43, Pollio was made Antony's legatus in Cisalpine Gaul and promised the consulship for the year 40. After Philippi, however, in the autumn of 42, Cisalpine Gaul was declared a part of Italy and, therefore, fell out of Pollio's control.
Virgil, if he understood as much about Theosophy as he wrote into the Sixth Aeneid, would also have known, from whatever source he learnt it, the truth about cycles and Adept Messengers. There has been much speculation as to who the child born in the year of Pollio's consulship, who was to bring in the new order of ages, could have been.
If his tragedies bore the same relation to those of Sophocles, which this bold, wild, but somewhat overwrought group does to the calm sublimity of the Niobe, we have every reason to regret their loss. But Pollio's political influence might easily blind his contemporaries to the true value of his poetical labours.
They doubtless owe their origin to Pollio's position as a poet, and Pollio's interest in young men of letters. With regard to Alfenus and Gallus, the scholiasts remained somewhat nearer the truth, for they had at hand a speech of Callus criticizing the former for his behavior at Mantua.
If, however, we examine these statements in the light of facts provided by independent sources we shall find that the whole structure based upon the subjective inferences of the scholiasts falls to the ground. We must first follow Pollio's career through this period.
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