Virgil's Eclogues and Social Memory

This article analyzes the Eclogues from the perspective of social memory. Discussion begins with examination of the anxieties regarding memory expressed by different authors in the late Republic. Subsequent analysis argues that similar concerns about memory and its relationship with social and political stability, cohesion and community are key elements of Eclogues 1, 5, and 9. In these poems, Virgil similarly taps into important contemporary debates about memory connected with figures such as Caesar and Octavian. The depiction of memory in the collection is, the article argues, shifting and fluid and is consequently representative of the triumviral period.