Virgil, the Roman poet, with his patron Maecenas standing behind beehives. The man on the left is giving the "swarm warning" on a cymbal, a means used by ancient peoples to intimidate a swarm of bees to flight so as to be able to bring them in more easily. Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BC), called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet. Virgil is ranked as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome. Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (70 BC-8 BC) was an ally, friend and political advisor to Octavian as well as an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets. His name has become a byword for a wealthy, generous and enlightened patron of the arts. Under Maecenas' patronage Virgil spent wrote the Georgics (On Working the Earth) a didactic poem in hexameters in four books, written from 37-30 BC and dedicated to his patron. Book 1 treats the farming of land; book 2 is about growing trees, especially the vine and the olive; book 3 concerns cattle raising; and 4, beekeeping.