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How do the first and ninth Eclogues portray people forced from their farms?

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Ancient Roman mosaic showing the poet Virgil seated and writing, flanked by the muses Clio and Melpomene, displayed in a decorative border. — Virgil Virgil (centre) holding a scroll with a quotation from the *Aeneid* and flanked by the muses Clio and Melpomene, mosaic, early 3rd century ce; in the Bardo National Museum, Tunis, Tunisia.

In the Eclogues, the first and ninth poems serve as poignant lamentations regarding the expulsion of shepherds from their farms. These works depart from the purely escapist, idealized pastoral tradition to engage with the harsh realities of the era, specifically the displacement of rural populations.1

Historically, these poems are widely believed to allegorize the loss of Virgil’s own family farm, which occurred when veteran soldiers of Mark Antony and Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) were resettled following the Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE. Whether reflecting his personal experience or the plight of his friends, the poems express the sorrow of the dispossessed with a deep, characteristic pathos. By grounding these pastoral laments in the real-world consequences of civil war, Virgil highlights the suffering of individuals caught in the wake of political and military upheaval, contrasting their private loss with the broader, often turbulent, currents of Roman history.1