Summary: Varro Atacensis was the first Latin poet who adapted the Argonautica of Apollonius
Rhodius in the Latin language. In this work (46 BC), he referred to the war Caesar
meant to wage against the Parthians, just as he had celebrated Caesar’s Gallic war (after 51
BC). Virgil wrote the Fourth Eclogue when Marcus Antonius took up Caesar’s plan again
(40/39 BC) to which he referred at the verses 34-36. Virgil thus followed Varro’s example,
because both poets supported the Roman imperialism (of Cesar and his heirs). Varro Atacensis
was among the Latin poets, like Lucretius and Catullus, who influenced Virgil’s poetic
beginnings.