An industrious, meticulous writer, Virgil was not prolific. In addition to the ten Eclogues, which apparently took at least five years to publish, Virgil wrote the four Georgics, which took seven years (37–30 B.C.), and the Aeneid, his great masterwork. Virgil worked on the Aeneid for eleven years, until his death in 19 B.C. Feeling, apparently, that the epic was still unfinished, he directed in his will that the manuscript be destroyed. To the great fortune of succeeding generations, the emperor, Virgil’s most prominent friend and admirer, intervened to countermand this provision. He turned
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