Section XIII.

[a] The rural delight of Virgil is described by himself: 

     Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes;
     Flumina amem, sylvasque inglorius.  O ubi campi,
     Sperchiusque, et virginibus bacchata Lacaenis
     Taygeta!  O quis me gelidis sub montibus Haemi
     Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra? 
                        GEORGICA, lib. ii. ver. 485.

Me may the lowly vales and woodland please,
And winding rivers, and inglorious ease;
O that I wander’d by Sperchius’ flood,
Or on Taygetus’ sacred top I stood! 
Who in cool Haemus’ vales my limbs will lay,
And in the darkest thicket hide from day? 

          
                                              WHARTON’S VIRG.

Besides this poetical retreat, which his imagination could command at any time, Virgil had a real and delightful villa near Naples, where he composed his Georgics, and wrote great part of the AEneid.

[b] When Augustus, or any eminent citizen, distinguished by his public merit, appeared in the theatre, the people testified their joy by acclamations, and unbounded applause.  It is recorded by Horace, that Maecenas received that public honour.

——­Datus in theatro
Cum tibi plausus,
Care Maecenas eques, ut paterni
Fluminis ripae, simul et jocosa
Redderet laudes tibi Vaticani
Montis imago. 
Lib. i. ode 20.

When Virgil appeared, the audience paid the same compliment to a man whose poetry adorned the Roman story.  The letters from Augustus, which are mentioned in this passage, have perished in the ruins of ancient literature.

[c] Pomponius Secundus was of consular rank, and an eminent writer of tragedy.  See Annals, b. ii. s. 13.  His life was written by Pliny the elder, whose nephew mentions the fact (book iii. epist. 5), and says it was a tribute to friendship.  Quintilian pronounces him the best of all the dramatic poets whom he had seen; though the critics whose judgement was matured by years, did not think him sufficiently tragical.  They admitted, however, that his erudition was considerable, and the beauty of his composition surpassed all his contemporaries. Eorum, quos viderim, longe princeps Pomponius Secundus, quem senes parum tragicum putabant, eruditione ac nitore praestare confitebantur. Lib. x. cap. 1.

[d] Quintilian makes honourable mention of Domitius Afer.  He says, when he was a boy, the speeches of that orator for Volusenus Catulus were held in high estimation. Et nobis pueris insignes pro Voluseno Catulo Domitii Afri orationes ferebantur. Lib. x. cap 1.  He adds, in another part of the same chapter, that Domitius Afer and Julius Africanus were, of all the orators who flourished in his time, without comparison the best.  But Afer stands distinguished by the splendour of his diction, and the rhetorical art which he has displayed in all his compositions.