Appendix Vergiliana

The Appendix Vergiliana is a collection of Latin poems traditionally ascribed as being the juvenilia (work written as a youth) of Virgil (70–19 BC).^[1]

Many of the poems in the Appendix were considered works by Virgil in antiquity. However, recent studies suggest that the Appendix contains a diverse collection of minor poems by various authors from the 1st century AD.

Scholars are almost^[2] unanimous in considering the works of the Appendix spurious, primarily on grounds of style, metrics, and vocabulary.^[3]

Mosaic of a person sitting between two muses — A mosaic of Virgil and two Muses. The mosaic, which dates from the 3rd century AD, was discovered in the Hadrumetum in Sousse, Tunisia and is now on display in the Bardo Museum in Tunis, Tunisia.

^ Régine Chambert "Vergil's Epicureanism in his early poems" in "Vergil, Philodemus, and the Augustans" 2003: "Vergil's authorship of at least some of the poems in the Appendix is nowadays no longer contested. This is especially true of the Culex ... and also of a collection of short epigrams called the Catalepton."
^ H. Rushton Fairclough: "The Poems of the Appendix Vergiliana", Transactions of the American Philological association, 1922: "In the light of nineteenth-century criticism all of these poems were pronounced non-Virgilian, and Gudeman voices the general verdict of the age when he says that 'their spuriousness is established by incontrovertible proofs' (cited by Rand). With the twentieth century the pendulum has swung in the other direction". The discussion is ongoing, see e.g. F. Moya del Baño (1984), "Virgilio y la Appendix Vergiliana" in Simposio virgiliano commemorativo del bimilenario de la muerte de Virgilio (Murcia), 59-99, concerning authorship: "Hay un tercer grupo que adopta una postura intermedia, aceptan unas y rechazan otras", eng.:"There is a third group of scholars that adopt an intermediate position, accepting some and rejecting others". Regarding Culex, St. Louis, Lisa. "Laying the Foundation for a New Work on the Pseudo-Virgilian Culex" Comparative Literature and Culture 8.1 (2006):"In my view, it seems likely that Virgil did not write the Culex which has come down to us, and, in fact, never wrote a Culex at all. Most believes that the forger 'knew that Virgil had written the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid, in that order and nothing else, and was making reference to that fact in the structure of his poem.' According to Most, if one defends Virgilian authorship of the Culex, then one is making the ludicrous claim that 'Virgil ... as a young man unknowingly anticipated his whole future career' (208-09). It is impossible to be certain when the poem was written, but one can safely rule out the lifetimes of Virgil, his executors, and Augustus. That puts us at least in the reign of Tiberius (began A.D. 14) on the early end of the scale." Still, the recent graphometric analysis by Stephan Vonfelt, referenced below, supports Vergilian authorship: "Le Culex, authentifié par les témoignages les plus anciens, ressort du corpus et se voit attribué à Virgile." eng.:"Culex, authenticated by the oldest witnesses, stands out from the corpus and is thus attributed to Vergil."
^ Conte, G. Latin Literature a History trans. J. Solodow (Baltimore, 1994)pp.430ff.

[chambert-1] Régine Chambert "Vergil's Epicureanism in his early poems" in "Vergil, Philodemus, and the Augustans" 2003: "Vergil's authorship of at least some of the poems in the Appendix is nowadays no longer contested. This is especially true of the Culex ... and also of a collection of short epigrams called the Catalepton."

[2] H. Rushton Fairclough: "The Poems of the Appendix Vergiliana", Transactions of the American Philological association, 1922: "In the light of nineteenth-century criticism all of these poems were pronounced non-Virgilian, and Gudeman voices the general verdict of the age when he says that 'their spuriousness is established by incontrovertible proofs' (cited by Rand). With the twentieth century the pendulum has swung in the other direction". The discussion is ongoing, see e.g. F. Moya del Baño (1984), "Virgilio y la Appendix Vergiliana" in Simposio virgiliano commemorativo del bimilenario de la muerte de Virgilio (Murcia), 59-99, concerning authorship: "Hay un tercer grupo que adopta una postura intermedia, aceptan unas y rechazan otras", eng.:"There is a third group of scholars that adopt an intermediate position, accepting some and rejecting others". Regarding Culex, St. Louis, Lisa. "Laying the Foundation for a New Work on the Pseudo-Virgilian Culex" Comparative Literature and Culture 8.1 (2006):"In my view, it seems likely that Virgil did not write the Culex which has come down to us, and, in fact, never wrote a Culex at all. Most believes that the forger 'knew that Virgil had written the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid, in that order and nothing else, and was making reference to that fact in the structure of his poem.' According to Most, if one defends Virgilian authorship of the Culex, then one is making the ludicrous claim that 'Virgil ... as a young man unknowingly anticipated his whole future career' (208-09). It is impossible to be certain when the poem was written, but one can safely rule out the lifetimes of Virgil, his executors, and Augustus. That puts us at least in the reign of Tiberius (began A.D. 14) on the early end of the scale." Still, the recent graphometric analysis by Stephan Vonfelt, referenced below, supports Vergilian authorship: "Le Culex, authentifié par les témoignages les plus anciens, ressort du corpus et se voit attribué à Virgile." eng.:"Culex, authenticated by the oldest witnesses, stands out from the corpus and is thus attributed to Vergil."

[3] Conte, G. Latin Literature a History trans. J. Solodow (Baltimore, 1994)pp.430ff.

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