A poem by the Latin author Virgil called The Georgics was probably released around 29 BCE. The poem's focus is agriculture, as implied by its title, but it is far from being a serene country poem; rather, it is a work marked by conflicts in both theme and aim. The Georgics, which came after Virgil's Eclogues and before the Aeneid, is regarded as his second significant work. The poem incorporates a number of earlier sources, and from antiquity to the present, it has impacted numerous authors. The yearly timings determined by the rising and setting of specific stars were accurate during Virgil's time because of precession, but they are not always accurate today. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod, whose poem Works and Days shares with the Georgics the themes of man's relationship to the land and the value of hard effort, serves as Virgil's model for writing a didactic poem in hexameters. The lost Georgics of the Hellenistic poet Nicander might perhaps have had a significant impact. Other Greek authors served as Virgil's inspiration and technical informational sources, including the Hellenistic poet Aratus for astronomy and meteorology.
An ancient Roman poet of the Augustan era, Publius Vergilius Maro (traditional dates: 15 October 70-21 September 19 BC), who is popular with his pen name ''Virgil or Vergil.'' He wrote the epic Aeneid, the Eclogues (or Bucolics), and the Georgics, three of the most well-known poetry in Latin literature. Ancient writers gave him credit for a few small poems that are included in the Appendix Vergiliana, but contemporary researchers doubt his claim to these pieces' authorship. Western literature has been greatly influenced by Virgil's works, particularly Dante's Divine Comedy, in which Virgil serves as the author's guide through Hell and Purgatory. Traditional rankings of Rome's best poets include Virgil. His Aeneid is regarded as the national epic of ancient Rome, a designation it has retained ever since it was written. Virgil joined the group of Maecenas, Octavian's able agent d'affaires, sometime after the Eclogues' publication in 1603. Maecenas worked to challenge Antony's support among the powerful families by enlisting the support of prominent Roman authors. In addition to Horace, whose poetry frequently references him, Virgil also got to meet Varius Rufus, who later assisted in the completion of the Aeneid.
