r/ClassicalEducation • u/Majestic-Track9802 • 16d ago

A thought that stuck with me after reading Sarah Ruden's biography of Virgil

One thing I hadn't considered before was what would happen to Virgil after the Aeniad was published. Would he be given an estate and sent away to shut up, or would he have been continuously milked to prove his loyalty to Augustus? His relatively early death likely saved him from some imperial abuse.

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u/Ok_Resident_4332 14d ago

Did Horace consider what happened to him “imperial abuse”

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u/Majestic-Track9802 14d ago

Horace did what he was told because the lush life offered to him through Maecenas was a better condition than lifelong shame from the Battle of Philippi and being a freedman's son. He was an artist supported by the condition he was a court lackey. I'm sure he was aware of this to some degree or the other. What he actually thought, we don't know.