Virgil, called the Eclogues, a series of bucolic poems about the peaceful lives of shepherds who dreamily walk about all day in the Mediterranean countryside thinking about love and drowsily singing poetry for their lovers while reclining in the shade of plane trees. But the fourth of these poems has a different tone. In that poem, Virgil briefly sets aside “humble” matters to make bold, world-historical predictions, cryptically hinting at some hoped-for Roman savior who would end the brutal period of civil wars that were shredding Virgil’s Italy.
