<P> Fields knew no taming hand of husbandmen To mark the plain or mete with boundary - line . Even this was impious; for the common stock They gathered, and the earth of her own will All things more freely, no man bidding, bore . </P> <P> ante Iouem nulli subigebant arua coloni ne signare quidem aut partiri limite campum fas erat; in medium quaerebant, ipsaque tellus omnia liberius nullo poscente ferebat . (Georgics, Book 1: 125--28) </P> <P> This view, which identifies a State of Nature with the celestial harmony of which man's nature is (or should be, if properly regulated) a microcosm, reflects the Hellenistic cosmology that prevailed among literate classes of Virgil's era . It is seen again in Ovid's Metamorphoses (AD 7), in which the lost Golden Age is depicted as a place and time when, because nature and reason were harmoniously aligned, men were naturally good: </P> <P> The Golden Age was first; when Man, yet new, No rule but uncorrupted Reason knew: And, with a native bent, did good pursue . Unforc'd by punishment, un-aw'd by fear . His words were simple, and his soul sincere; Needless was written law, where none opprest: The law of Man was written in his breast . </P>

Why do they call it the golden age