Bucolics

Under the persona of the one who says he came to Rome driven by the love of liberty original: "amore libertatis Romā venit impulsus". And likewise, he subtly criticizes the times in which there was no liberty in the City of Rome; as often as we might correctly and similarly understand in this passage that the shepherd has spoken from the very source of his inspiration. For Virgil wishes to imitate Theocritus; he dresses the character in this way, and to put it briefly, he calls the way of life "to be pastured" original: "via pasci". Because he looked back upon his own idleness—"Liberty, which though late, looked upon the slothful" quoting Eclogue 1.27: "Libertas, quae sera tamen respexit inertem"—looking back at himself, he wishes to blame his own inactivity for not having come to Rome sooner. And thus, without liberty, the boy likely referring to a slave or servant status is without that which rules this state of advancement.

"Whiter, after..." quoting Eclogue 1.28: "Candidior postquam tondenti barba cadebat" — "Whiter, after the beard fell for me as I was shearing it." Or joined to the persona, it is as a young man speaking again of bitter things in the Bucolics through allegory. For as we have said, after [so many] years, he wrote the Bucolics. Or should the punctuation original: "distinctio" be correctly changed? So that it is not the beard that is "whiter," but liberty. For after the years... the beard which he had begun to harvest was not grey, and "whiter" fits liberty well. Or we may understand that Virgil was in a state of liberty before, but not of such a kind.

And after a long time... The text uses abbreviations for the verse: "Et longo post tempore venit" — "And it came after a long time." This whole matter must be investigated, for he mentions a "double time"; he shows when he was moved by liberty, that is, when he began to trim his beard. And having left Galatea, he was held by a most bitter love. Allegorically, however, he says this: "After leaving Mantua Virgil's hometown, I betook myself to Rome." For he wishes Galatea to represent Mantua, and Amaryllis to represent Rome. And he rightly discusses the "times" as if through physical signs original: "quasi instrumentis", from the beard, in a long discourse after a duration of time.