Best remembered for his unfinished epic the Aeneid the poet Vergil wascelebrated in his time both for the perfection of his art and for thecentrality of his ide... » 

Best remembered for his unfinished epic the Aeneid the poet Vergil wascelebrated in his time both for the perfection of his art and for thecentrality of his ideas to Roman culture. The Eclogues his earliestconfirmed work were composed in part out of political considerations when theRoman authorities threatened to seize his familys land Vergils appeal in theform of Eclogue IX won a stay. Eclogue I appears to be a thankyou for thatfavor. Barbara Hughes Fowler provides scholars and students with a new Americanverse translation of Vergils Eclogues. An accomplished translator Fowlerrenders the poets words into an English that is contemporary while remainingclose to the spirit of the original. In an introduction to the text shecompares the treatment of the pastoral form by Vergil and Theocritusilluminating the ways in which Vergil borrowed from and built upon the earlierpoets work and thereby moved the genre in a new direction. «