Patterns of Redemption in Virgil's Georgics [Paperback]

This 1999 study seeks to understand Virgil's Georgics in terms of the cultural and political upheavals in Rome.This book is a study of one of the most famous poems of Roman literature, Virgil's Georgics. By close reading of selected passages in the poem it seeks to understand the work in terms of the cultural and political upheavals which were afflicting Rome at the time of its composition. The poem, it argues, constitutes an audacious attempt to explain and justify the violent civil wars which had recently brought Octavian (the future Augustus, with whom Virgil was closely associated) to power in Rome.This book is a study of one of the most famous poems of Roman literature, Virgil's Georgics. By close reading of selected passages in the poem it seeks to understand the work in terms of the cultural and political upheavals which were afflicting Rome at the time of its composition. The poem, it argues, constitutes an audacious attempt to explain and justify the violent civil wars which had recently brought Octavian (the future Augustus, with whom Virgil was closely associated) to power in Rome.This book is a study of one of the most famous poems of Roman literature, Virgil's Georgics. By close reading of selected passages in the poem it seeks to understand the work in terms of the cultural and political upheavals that were afflicting Rome at the time of its composition. The poem, it argues, constitutes an audacious attempt to explain and justify the violent civil wars that had recently brought Octavian (the future Augustus, with whom Virgil was closely associated) to power in Rome.Introduction; Part I. Prima ab Origine: 1. The Old Man of the Sea; 2. Aristeia; Part II. Mirabile Dictu: 3. Ox and paradox; 4. Poeta creatus; Postscript: Sphragis; Appendix I. Proteus and Proteus; Appendix II. 4.400; Appendix III. Sparsere per agros. This is clearly a learned book and I have learned a lot from reading it... Robert Cramer, Universitaet Bonn, email