Edizione di riferimento:

 F. Stok, Vitae Vergilianae antiquae, recc. G. Brugnoli et F. Stok, Romae 1997.

The Vita Vergili is the only Vergilian biography that has been transmitted in verse.  Its sole witness is a codex that remained unknown until the 16^th c. (Par. Lat. 8093).   [F. Stok; tr. C. L. Caterine].  

The Vita contains 107 hexameters, preceded by six Sapphic strophes; according to Brugnoli, it derives directly from Donatus’ Vita Vergiliana.  The Life begins with an invocation of Clio, then the following elements are presented in the voice of Phocas himself: the identification of Vergil as an Etruscan poet, citation of Polla as Vergil’s mother, identification of Siro as Vergil’s teacher, and insertion of the fairy-tale in which honey was placed on the infant Vergil’s lips. [A. Balbo; tr. C. L. Caterine].