A critical study of the hexameter of Virgil's Ecologues and Aeneid I-VI, and a Comparison with that of the Culex and Ciris

Abstract

The object of this paper is two-fold: to discuss the structure of Virgil's Hexameter, giving some of the peculiarities and metrical licenses; and to compare it with his doubtful poems, the Culex and Ciris, noticing whether the general form of each is sufficiently alike to justify us in attributing them to the same author. In order to make the comparison more accurate, in addition to the Aeneid, the Bucolics have been scanned, which show the work of Virgil in a different style and at a different period of his literary activity.