What made Virgil special was the artisanship behind his work (which was political, but gracefully and passionately evoked the soul) and the way in which he shaped his borrowed material to his and Augustus's and Rome's purposes.
Publius Vergilius Maro; October 15, 70 BC – September 21, 19 BC, usually called Virgil or Vergil, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He wrote three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. (Wikipedia)