Secondary sourceBook1877 (this edition 1897, reprinted 1941)
The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil
W. Y. Sellar · 1877 (this edition 1897, reprinted 1941)
A 19th-century scholarly study of Virgil and his poetry by the classicist W. Y. Sellar.
A later scholar's critical study of Virgil's poetry and its place in Roman history.
About this source
What it is
This book is a work of literary criticism written by W. Y. Sellar, a professor of Humanity at the University of Edinburgh. It examines Virgil's poetry and his place in the age of the emperor Augustus. The book was first published in 1877, with later editions printed by Oxford University Press.
Why it matters
This is not something Virgil wrote himself, but a later scholar's attempt to explain and judge his work. It shows how, nearly two thousand years after his death, Virgil was still studied closely in universities, and how his poetry was tied by later historians to the politics of Augustus's Rome.
Look closer
- Why might a 19th-century professor want to write a whole book about a Roman poet?
- How could a scholar's own time and training shape how he explains an ancient poet?
- What is the difference between reading Virgil's own words and reading someone else's opinion of them?
This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Virgil on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.
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