The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil

part in the civil war, describes himself, a few years later, as ‘weak and

unfit for war(12),’ and Tibullus pleads his effeminacy and timidity as a justification of a life devoted to indolent enjoyment(13). The works of that age, composed between the dates of the battles of Philippi and Actium, express the deep longing of the world for rest: those written later express the deep thank...