SOURCE: An introduction to Vergil: “Eclogues”, Cambridge University Press, 1977, pp. 1-40.
In the following essay, Coleman identifies elements of Theocritus's pastoral poetry that would later influence Vergil and discusses the chronology and arrangement of the Eclogues. Coleman concludes his overview of the Eclogues by observing that although Vergil's range of themes is somewhat conventional, his details are almost entirely original, and his poetic technique is mature.
