by the Lives regarding the persons who seized his land.[47]

Servius, _vit. Verg._, 'Postea ortis bellis civilibus inter Antonium
et Augustum, Augustus victor Cremonensium agros, quia pro Antonio
senserant, dedit militibus suis. Qui cum non sufficerent, his addidit
agros Mantuanos, sublatos non propter civium culpam, sed propter
vicinitatem Cremonensium: unde ipse in Bucolicis (9, 28), "Mantua vae
miserae nimium vicina Cremonae."'

Virgil and his household found refuge on an estate which had once
belonged to his old master Siron: _Catal._ 10,

'Villula, quae Sironis eras, et pauper agelle ...
Tu nunc eris illi [patri]
Mantua quod fuerat quodque Cremona prius.'

Whether he recovered his old farm is uncertain: at all events he spent
most of his time in the south of Italy. Besides a house in Rome, he
seems to have had a country house near Nola, and we know that the
_Georgics_ (cf. iv. 563) were written at Naples.

Donatus, 'Habuit domum Romae Esquiliis iuxta hortos Maecenatis,
quamquam secessu Campaniae Siciliaeque plurimum uteretur.'

Gell. vi. 20, 1, 'Scriptum in quodam commentario repperi ... Vergilium
petivisse a Nolanis, aquam uti duceret in propinquum rus.'

He lived a retired life, seldom visiting Rome, and devoting most of
his time to poetical composition, in which he was regular and
painstaking.

Tac. _Dial._ 13, 'Securum et quietum Vergilii secessum, in quo tamen
neque apud divum Augustum gratia caruit neque apud populum Romanum
notitia: testes Augusti epistulae, testis ipse populus, qui auditis in
theatro Vergilii versibus surrexit universus et forte praesentem
spectantemque Vergilium veneratus est sic quasi Augustum.'

Quint. x. 3, 8, 'Vergilium paucissimos die composuisse versus auctor
est Varius.'

Cf. his own expression, quoted by Gell. xvii. 10, 2, 'parere se versus
more atque ritu ursino' (alluding to the notion that the bear licked
its young into shape).

He was already an influential member of Maecenas' literary circle, to
which, in B.C. 39, he introduced Horace. Cf. Hor. _Sat._ i. 6, 54,

'optimus olim
Vergilius, post hunc Varius dixere quid essem.'

By Maecenas he was introduced to Augustus,[48] who treated him with
liberality. Cf. Hor. _Ep._ ii. 1, 246,

'Munera quae multa dantis cum laude tulerunt
dilecti tibi Vergilius Variusque poetae.'

He was on intimate terms with Horace, who addresses _Od._ i. 3 to him
on the occasion of