A life-size statue of Virgil, the Roman Poet, above the entrance to the Great Hall of the University of Birmingham is one of 9 great men of the arts and science/engineering whose statues adorn the entrance.
Virgil’s statue along with the other eight figures was carved by Henry Pegram, and together personify the Joseph Chamberlain’s vision for the University’. Joseph Chamberlain was the University’s first Chancellor and had a vision of ‘a school of universal instruction, not confined to any particular branch of knowledge but taking in its province. These guardians watch over those who pass beneath reminding all that the University is an integral part of a living international academic and cultural tradition.’ (
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The statue of Virgil is carved from Darley Dale stone and is actual life-sized. In the statue Virgil, who is dressed in a toga, is shown standing with his left arm across his chest. In his left hand he holds a scroll. He is looking to his left and wears a laurel leaf crown and has bare feet.
Virgil is perhaps best known as the author of the ‘Aeneid’.
Below is an extract from "The Victorian Web" website which describes the 9 Statues as follows:
"Nine cultural icons in a "Pantheon of the Immortals" Foster/Dungawell 243) carved over the entrance to the University of Birmingham's Great Hall. Henry Alfred Pegram (1862-1937). 1907. Life-size statues in Darley Dale stone. Chancellor's Court, the University of Birmingham, Edgbaston."
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Publius Vergilius Maro ("Virgil")"Among the greatest of the Roman poets, Virgil was the author of the 'Aeneid'.
Publius Vergilius Maro, known in English as Virgil (or sometimes Vergil) was born near Mantua in northern Italy in October 70 BC. He spent his early life in northern Italy. His first work was the 'Eclogues', published in the mid-30s BC. They give an artificial, idealised picture of a world of singing shepherds - the Arcadia of a later European pastoral ideal - but are also filled with references to contemporary political figures.
Virgil's next work was the 'Georgics', published in 29 BC and was a didactic poem, in four books, on farming. It looks back ultimately to the work of the archaic Greek poet Hesiod (c.700 BC). It was dedicated to Roman statesman Gaius Maecenas, who had become Virgil's patron. His support enabled Virgil to dedicate himself full time to study and writing. As well as Maecenas, Virgil's friends included Octavian, who became the Emperor Augustus after establishing himself in power in 27 BC, and many prominent writers and poets.
Virgil's last work was the 'Aeneid', an epic poem in 12 books which looks back to Homer's two epic poems the 'Odyssey' and the 'Iliad', of the eighth century BC. It describes the journey of the Trojan hero Aeneas to Italy and the wars he undertook once he had arrived there. But the poem does not merely give a version of Rome's earliest origins - it alludes to the whole course of Roman history, which will culminate in the reign of Augustus. Thus, the tragedy of Dido, the queen of Carthage, who was driven to kill herself by her passion for Aeneas, is the ultimate origin of the Punic Wars - Rome's later wars against Carthage for control of the western Mediterranean. Similarly, the struggle of Aeneas, as he attempted to find a city for his people, also in some respects prefigures that of Augustus in re-establishing Rome.
Virgil himself died of a fever in 19 BC. On his deathbed he is supposed to have ordered the 'Aeneid' to be destroyed, but on Augustus's orders it was published." (
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