special predictions of this nature as existing in the heathen world, it is at least certain that there prevailed very largely, about the date of the Christian era, a vague expectation of some personal advent which should in some way regenerate society.
The new "cycle of centuries," which the poet supposes to begin with the birth of the Child, refers to the doctrine held by Plato and his disciples (possibly of Etruscan origin) of an "Annus Magnus," or Great Year. It was believed that there were certain recurring periods at long intervals, in which the history of the world repeated itself.[1] A curious story in illustration of this belief is told by Plutarch in his life of Sulla.
"While the horizon was clear and cloudless, there was heard suddenly the sound of a trumpet, shrill, prolonged, and as it were wailing, so that all men were startled and awed by its loudness. The Etruscan soothsayers declared that it foreboded the coming of a new generation and the revolution of the world. For that there were eight generations of man in all, differing from each other in habits and ways of life, and each had its allotted space of time, when heaven brought round again the recurrence of the Great Year, and that when the end of one and the rise of another was at hand, some wondrous sign appeared in earth or heaven."—Plutarch, Sulla, c. 7.
Enough has perhaps been said to give some idea of the genius and character of Virgil's pastoral poetry.
- ↑ The duration is variously estimated—from 2489 to 18,000 years. See Conington's note.
other "Sibylline" verses from the Greek of Lactantius, referring to the crucifixion.—De Civ. Dei, xviii. 23.
