Re: VIRGIL: What others say about Virgil

[David Wilson-Okamura]

Hieronymus Prechtl is right, and so is Leofranc Holford-Strevens. The
problem is that the Donatus vita was expanded in early the fifteenth
century. My translation, from which Prechtl cites, includes the expansions
but puts them in angle brackets:

>90. The success of the Bucolics was such when he published it, that the
>      cantores recited them frequently, even on stage. <As for Cicero, when
>he
>      had heard some of the verses, his piercing judgement immediately
>      perceived that these were productions of uncommon vigor, and ordered
>the
>      whole eclogue to be recited from the beginning. Having familiarized
>himself
>      with its every nuance, he declared it "the second great hope of Rome,"
>as
>      if he himself were the first hope of the Latin language and Maro the
>      second. These words Virgil later inserted in the Aeneid [12.168].>

As you can see, the bit about Cicero does not appear in the original vita,
for the reason that Holford-Strevens gave yesterday. (The same goes for the
passage in which Virgil helps Augustus decide not to abdicate: according to
Dio, Augustus discussed the matter with Maecenas and Agrippa, but there is
no evidence that he consulted Virgil on the matter.)

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David Wilson-Okamura        http://virgil.org          [EMAIL PROTECTED]
East Carolina University    Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c
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