Virgil,
the foremost of all Roman epic poets likewise wrote on
agriculture. Although he cultivated his own estate
until 30 years of age, he was generally unfamiliar
with agricultural problems. He spent the remainder of
his life at the court of Emperor Augustus. He had read
Xenophon, Hesiod, Cato, and
Varro. His Georgics is considered a
"poetical compendium of agriculture taken from Greek
and Roman writers then extant but particularly from
Varro" (Loudon). He depicted the beauty and peace of
country life.
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