Virgil was born on 15 October 70 BCE in Andes. A Roman poet of the Augustan age, Virgil was born near Mantua and, with the support of the patron Maecenas, became the leading poet of Rome. His works include the Eclogues, pastoral poems, the Georgics, a poem on farming, and the Aeneid, the national epic that tells how the Trojan hero Aeneas escaped from the fall of Troy and founded the line that led to Rome. He died before he could finish it, and asked that it be destroyed, but Augustus ordered it to be published. Virgil's influence on later literature is immense, and in Dante's Divine Comedy he serves as the poet's guide.
Before and after
- 78 BCEOrigins of Tabularium
- from 74 BCE to 72 BCEThe slave revolt of Spartacus
- from 73 BCE to 63 BCEThird Mithridatic War
- from 73 BCE to 71 BCEThird Servile War
- 15 October 70 BCEBirth of Virgil
- 13 January 69 BCEBirth of Cleopatra
- from 66 BCE to 217 CERoman–Parthian Wars
- 8 December 65 BCEBirth of Horace
- 63 BCEBirth of Strabo
More in Art, literature & culture
- c. 3,000 BCECuneiform
- c. 1,500 BCERigveda
- c. 750s BCEThe Homeric epics are composed
- from 448 BCE to 433 BCEConstruction of the Parthenon begins
- 196 BCERosetta Stone
- 42 CEOrigins of Coptic Orthodox Church
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 1st century BCE.