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70 – 19 B.C.
Virgil
Worth knowing
- Rome's national poet, writing under Augustus. The Aeneid gives Rome a founding story running back to Troy.
- He asked on his deathbed for the poem to be burned, since it was unfinished. Augustus overruled him.
- Later Christians read his fourth Eclogue, about a child whose birth begins a golden age, as an unwitting prophecy — a habit Constantine himself indulged.
The book
Who else was alive
Virgil against everyone else in the game.