Gaius Asinius Pollio ( consul 40 BC ) Gaius Asinius Pollio ( sometimes wrongly called Pollius or Philo ; 75 BC – AD 4 ) was a Roman soldier , politician , orator , poet , playwright , literary critic and historian , whose lost contemporary history provided much of the material for the historians Appian and Plutarch . Pollio was most famously a patron of Virgil and a friend of Horace and had poems dedicated to him by both men . Biography . Early life . Asiunius Pollio was born in " Teate Marrucinorum " , the modern current Chieti in Abruzzi , central Italy . According to an inscription , his father was called Gnaeus Asinius Pollio . He had a brother called Asinius Marrucinus , known for his tasteless practical joke s , whose name suggests a family origin among the Marrucini . He may therefore have been the grandson of Herius Asinius , a plebeian , General of the Marrucini who fought on the Italian side in the Social War . Pollio moved in the literary circle of Catullus , and entered public life in 56 by supporting the policy of Lentulus Spinther . In 54 BC he unsuccessfully impeach ed Gaius Cato , a distant relative of the more famous Cato the younger , who , in his tribunate in 56 BC , had acted as the tool of the triumvirs Pompey , Crassus and Caesar . Political career . Despite his initial support of Lentulus Spinther , in the civil war between Caesar and Pompey , Pollio sided with Caesar . He was present while Caesar deliberated whether to cross the Rubicon and start the war . After Pompey and the Senate had fled to Greece , Caesar sent Pollio to Sicily to relieve Cato of his command . He and Gaius Scribonius Curio were sent to Africa to fight the province ' s governor , the Pompeian Publius Attius Varus . Curio defeated Varus at Utica , despite the Africans having poisoned the water supply . Curio marched to face Pompey ' s ally King Juba of Numidia , but was defeated and killed , along with all his men , on the Bagradas River . Pollio managed to retreat to Utica with a small force . He was present as Caesar ' s legate at the Battle of Pharsalus ( 48 BC ) , and recorded Pompeian casualties at 6 , 000 . In 47 BC he was probably tribune , and resisted the efforts of another tribune , Publius Cornelius Dolabella , to cancel all debts . It was rumoured at the same time that Dolabella had cuckolded him . The following year returned to Africa , this time with Caesar himself , in pursuit of Cato and Scipio . Time in Hispania . When Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC , Pollio was leading his forces in Hispania against Sextus Pompeius , distinguishing himself early on . He had accepted the commission reluctantly because of a personal enmity with another of Caesar ' s allies . Marcus Aemilus Lepidus was appointed the new governor of the province , but Pollio , while remaining loyal to Caesar ' s supporters , held out against him , announcing at Corduba that he would not hand over his province to anyone who did not have a commission from the Senate . A few months later his quaestor , Lucius Cornelius Balbus , absconded from Gades with the money intended to pay the soldiers , and fled to Mauretania . Pollio was then so severely defeated by Pompeius that he had to escape the battlefield in disguise . Role in the Civil War . Pollio vacillated between Mark Antony and Octavian as civil war between them brewed , but ultimately threw in his lot with Antony . Antony , Lepidus and Octavian soon joined forces in the Second Triumvirate . In their series of bloody proscription s , Pollio ' s father - in - law , Lucius Quintius , was one of the first to be marked for murder . He fled by sea , but committed suicide by throwing himself overboard . In the division of the provinces , Gaul fell to Antony , who entrusted Pollio with the administration of Gallia Transpadana ( the part of Cisalpine Gaul between the Po and the Alps ) . In superintending the distribution of the Mantuan territory amongst the veterans , he used his influence to save from confiscation the property of the poet Virgil . In 40 BC he helped to arrange the peace of Brundisium by which Octavian and Antony were for a time reconciled . In the same year Pollio entered upon his consulship , which had been promised him in 43 BC by the Second Triumvirate . Virgil addressed the famous fourth " eclogue " to him , though there is uncertainty regarding whether Virgil composed the poem in anticipation of Pollio ' s consulship or celebrating his part in the Treaty of Brundisium . Virgil , like other Romans , hoped that peace was at hand and looked forward to a Golden Age under Pollio ' s consulship . However , Pollio did not complete his consular year . He and his co - consul were removed from office by Antony and Octavian in the final months of the year . The following year Pollio conducted a successful campaign against the Parthini , an Illyrian people who adhered to Marcus Junius Brutus , and celebrated a triumph on October 25 . Virgil ' s eighth " eclogue " was addressed to Pollio while he was engaged in this campaign . In 31 BC Octavian asked him to take part in the Battle of Actium against Antony , but Pollio , remembering kindnesses Antony had shown him , remained neutral . Life after the Civil War . From the spoils of the war he constructed the first public library at Rome , in the " Atrium Libertatis " , also erected by him , which he adorned with statue s of the most celebrated heroes . The library had Greek and Latin wings , and reportedly its establishment posthumously fulfilled one of Caesar ' s ambitions . There was a magnificent art collection attached to this library . Pollio loved Helenistic art at its most imaginative , even including the rather extravagant group known as the Farnese Bull , etc . like the library , the art gallery was open to the public . After his military and political successes , he appears to have retired into private life as a patron of literary figures and a writer . He was known as a severe literary critic , fond of an archaic style and purity . In retirement , Pollio organized literary readings where he encouraged authors to read their own work , and he was the first Roman author to recite his own works . One of the most dramatic such readings brought the poet Virgil to the attention of the imperial family , when Virgil read from his work - in - progress the Aeneid , and flattered the imperial family by his portrayal of Aeneas , whom the Julii Caesares believed to be their direct patrilineal ancestor . As a result , Virgil was praised by Augustus himself . Pollio may have died in his villa at Tusculum . He was apparently a staunch republican , and thus held himself somewhat aloof from Augustus . Married to Quinctia , daughter of Lucius Quinctius , who was executed in 43 BC , Pollio is also notable as the father of Gaius Asinius Gallus Saloninus , the second husband of Vipsania Agrippina , daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa , Augustus ' s partner , second - in - command and second son - in - law . The son Gallus and Vipsania had several sons together , of whom two were full consuls and a third was consul suffect . Legacy . Pollio ' s contemporary history , though itself lost , provided much of the material for the historians Appian and Plutarch . As such , he significantly influenced posterity ' s perception of his time - a key moment in Roman history . According to the poet Horace ( " Odes " 2 . 1 . 1 - 4 ) , he dated the start of the Civil Wars to the consulship of Q . Metellus Celer in 60 BC . Johan Rudolph Thorbecke , a Dutch statesman of the 19th Century , wrote a thesis about Pollio at the University of Leiden . Pollio makes a cameo appearance in Robert Graves ' s novel " I , Claudius , " where he discusses the ethics of writing history with young Claudius and Titus Livy . Sources . < BR >