The Eclogues

Written between about 42 and 35 BC, "The Eclogues" (also called the Bucolics) is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. "The Eclogues" is a remarkable achievement of Virgil’s late twenties and shows that the poet, even at this early age, intended to develop a style distinct from those of his Greek and Roman predecessors. The ten-poem collection falls into three major categories: Theocritean, non-Theocritean and the Daphnis poems.

Virgil invites the reader to bear witness to life in “Arcadia,” a place created by poetry, an idealized rural scene where people live in harmony with nature.