Born a peasant, Virgil was raised on a farm before being educated in the Greek and Roman authors. His rural upbringing influenced all his poetry, especially his earlier work, like the “Eclogues”.

According to legend, long before the Romans founded Rome, there was a Greek city called Pallantium in the same area.

The idea of Rome as the Eternal City started in ancient Roman literature. Poets like Virgil and Ovid wrote about Rome’s eternal future. Rome’s role as the center of a vast empire made it the ...