Roman Poets of the Augustan Age
Virgil

William Young Sellar's meticulous work of scholarship on the poetry of Virgil in its literary and historical context.

William Young Sellar (Author)

9781108012447, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 June 2010

440 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.5 cm, 0.56 kg

This work by William Young Sellar (1825–1890) was first published in 1877, when Sellar was well established as Professor of Humanity at the University of Edinburgh. It is a companion volume to his equally acclaimed Roman Poets of the Republic and the later continuation Horace and the Elegaic Poets, all three of which remain of value to scholars today. The book's ten chapters give an overview of the Augustan Age and Virgil's life and work in context (chapters 1-3), then moving to the Eclogues (chapter 4) and the Georgics (chapters 5-7), before devoting the remaining chapters to the Aeneid. A detailed table of contents allows the reader to navigate between analysis of the historical context, Virgil's literary forms and motives, and general literary interpretation. This work is both a meticulous work of scholarship, and, as the affectionate dedication shows, a tribute to the author's passion for his subject.

1. General introduction
2. Virgil's place in Roman literature
3. Life and personal characteristics of Virgil
4. The Eclogues
5. Motives, form, substance, and sources of the Georgics
6. Relation of the Georgics to the poem of Lucretius
7. The Georgics: a poem representative of Italy
8. The Roman epic before the time of Virgil
9. Form and subject of the Aeneid
10. The Aeneid as the epic of the Roman empire
11. The Aeneid as an epic poem of human life.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]