No More Learning

ad Fam. x. 7, 12. )
Lat. Reliquiae (8vo. Lips. 1830, p. 203—240), VARIUS. ). Q. VARIUS HYBRIDA, tribune
who in p. 233, foll. has collected a few mutilated of the plebs, B. c. 90, was a native of Sucro in
fragments bearing the name of Valgius. ) [W. R. ] Spain, and receired the surname of Hybrida, be-
VA'LLIUS SYRIACUS. (SYRIACUS. ] cause his mother was a Spanish woman. He is
VA'NGIO. (VANNIUS. ]
called by Cicero vastus homo atque focdus, but
VA’NNIUS, a chief of the Quadi, was made nevertheless obtained considerable power in the
king of the Suevi by Germanicus in A. D. 19 ; but state by his eloquence. In his tribuneship he
after holding the power for thirty years he was proposed a lex de majestate, in order to punish all
driven out of his kingdom in the reign of Claudius, those who had assisted or advised the Socii to
A. D. 50, by Vibillius the king of the Hermunduri, take up arms against the Roman people. He
and his own nephews Vangio and Sido, the sons of brought forward this law at the instigation of the
his sister. Vannius received from Claudius a set. equites, who made common cange with the people
tlement in Pannonia, and his kingdom was divided against the reforms of Drusus ; and as they pos-
between Vangio and Sido. (Tac. Ann. ii. 63, xii. sessed the judicia at this time, they hoped by
29, 30 ; Vannianum regnum, Plin. H. N. iv. 25. ) banishing the most distinguished senators to get
VARANES, the name of six Persian kings of the whole power of the state into their hands.
the dynasty of the Sassanidae. (SASSANIDAE, The senators used all their influence to prevent
the proposition from passing into a law. The
L. VARE'NUS. 1. Was accused, probably other tribunes put their veto upon it, but the
about B. c. 80 or 79 under the Cornelia law de equites with drawn swords compelled them to
Sicuriis, of the murder of C. Varenus, and of an give way, and the law was carried. The cquites
he made a tre
might comma
is afterwards
Mithridates
Mitkr. 68,7
Oros. vi. 2. )
3, P. VA
of Atticus, of
il. )
4. Q. VA
Verres. (CO
5. P. VA
been ill-trea
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---


## p. 1221 (#1237) ##########################################

VARIUS RUFUS.
1221
VARIUS RUFUS.
He was defended
ingin but was com
vii. 1. 89 :
Ore 2; Drumars,
. . 245. )
1
army distinguished
Ly a daring ac d
Q. Cicero was being
54. Caes
. B. G.
Julius Caesar Scuba
Inai. I. . U. )
L'ARGUNTEITS, a
consorators ance-
Comenis, te u
man was tresrated by
To througa Fira
tria, but cok fand
en Horteras, v
casion when it
U 11, 8, 7,
of Crasses, in the
perished, B. Co
i. 1. )
Roman rasan,
Annais of Asia
mentioned on criss,
exed. The break
with x. Tutae
with ROXA best
quickly put the law into execution. Bestia and 2. He enjoyed the friendship of Maecenas from
Cottn went voluntarily into exile, and other dis a very early period, since it was to the recommend.
tinguished men were condemned.
Varius even
ation of Varius in conjunction with that of Virgil,
accused M. Scaurus, the princeps senatus, who that Horace was indebted for an introduction to the
was then seventy-two years of age, but was minister, an event which took place not later than
obliged to drop this accusation.
SCAURUS, P. B. C. 39, for we know that the three poets accom-
736, b. ) Varius himself was condemned under panied the great man upon his mission to Brundi-
his own law in the following year, and was put to sium B. C. 38.
death. (Appian, B. C. j. 37 ; Val. Max. viii. 6. 3. He was alive subsequent to B. c. 19. This
§ 4 ; Cic. de Orat. i. 25, Brnt. 62 ; Val. Max. iii. cannot be questioned, if we believe the joint testi-
7. & 8 ; Cic. pro Scaur. i ; Ascon. in Scaur. p. 22, mony of Hieronymus (Chron. Euseb. Olymp. cxc. 4)
ed. Orelli ; Cic. Brut. 56, de Nat. Deor. iii. 33. ) and Donatus (Vit
. Viry. xiv. § 53, 57), who as-
Cicero in the passage last quoted accuses Varius sert that Virgil on his death bed appointed Plotius
of the murder of Drusus and Metellus.
Tucca and Varius his literary executors, and that
2. M. VARIUS, or M. MARIUs, as he is called they revised the Aeneid, but in obedience to the
by Plutarch and Orosius, a Roman senator, was strict injunctions of its author made no additions.
sent by Sertorius to Mithridates in B. C. 75, when It has been supposed from a passage of Horace
he made a treaty with him, in order that Varius in the Epistle to Augustus (Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 247),
might command the forces of the king. Varius that Varius was dead at the time when it was
is afterwards mentioned as one of the generals of published, that is, about B. c. 10, but the words do
Mithridates in the war with Lucullus. (Appian, not warrant the conclusion.
Mithr. 68, 76, ſoll. ; Plut Sert. 24, Lucull. 8 ; The only works by Varius of which any record
Oros, vi. 2. )
has been preserved are :
3. P. Varius, defrauded Caecilius, the uncle I. De Morte. Macrobius (Sat. vi. 2) informs us
of Atticus, of a large sum of money. (Cic. ad Att. that the eighty-eighth line of Virgil's eighth eclogue
was borrowed from a poem by Varius, bearing the
4. Q. Varius, one of the witnesses against singular title De Morte. Hence this production
Verres. (Cic. Verr. ii. 48. )
must have been written in heroic verse, and it
5. P. VARIUS, a judex at the trial of Milo, had seems highly probable that the chief subject was a
been ill-treated by P. Clodius. (Cic. pro Mil. 27. ) lamentation for the death of Julius Caesar on
VARIUS COTYLA. (Coryla. ]
whose glories, John of Salisbury assures us (Poli-
VARIUS LIGUR. (LIGUR. )
crat. viii. 14), the muse of Varius shed a brilliant
VA'RIUS MARCELLUS. [MARCELLUS. ] lustre. Four fragments have been preserved by
L. VA'RIUS RUFUS, one of the most dis- Macrobius (Sat. vi. 1, 2), in all of which Varius
tinguished poets of the Augustan age, the com- had been copied or imitated by Virgil. The
panion and friend of Virgil and Horace.
By the longest, extending to six lines, contains a descrip-
latter he is placed in the foremost rank among the tion of a bound couched in highly spirited and
epic bards, and Quintilian has pronounced that his sonorous language.
tragedy of Thyestes might stand a comparison with II. Panegyricus in Caesarem Octavianum, from
any production of the Grecian stage. But notwith which Horace, according to the Scholiasts, bor-
standing the bigh fame which he enjoyed among rowed the lines inserted by him in the sixteenth
his contemporaries, and which was confirmed by Epistle of his first book (27, foll. ).
the deliberate judgment of succeeding ages, there
“ Tene magis salvum populus velit, an populum tu,
is scarcely any ancient author of celebrity concem-
Servet in ambiguo, qui consulit et tibi et urbi
ing whose personal history we are more completely
Jupiter. "
ignorant. We cannot determine the date of his
birth, nor of his death, nor are we acquainted with No other specimen has been preserved.
any of the leading events of his career. This has III. Thyestes. The admiration excited by this
arisen partly from the absolute silence of those drama, the last probably of the works of Varius,
from whom we might reasonably have hoped to was so intense that it seems to have overshadowed
glean some information, partly from the circum- the renown which he had previously acquired in
stance that he upon no occasion mingled in the epic poetry, and this may account for the omission
business of public life, and partly from the confu- of his name by Quintilian when enumerating those
sion which prevails in MSS. between the names who had excelled in this department. A strange
Varius, Varro, and Varus, the last especially story grew up and was circulated among the me.
being an appellation borne by several remarkable diaeval scholiasts, that Varius was not really the
personages both political and literary towards the author of the Thyestes, but that he stole it, ac-
downfal of the republic, and under the early em- cording to one account (Schol. ad Hor. Ep. i. 4. 4),
perors. If we dismiss mere fanciful conjectures from Cassius of Parma, according to another from
ibe sum total of our actual knowledge may be ex. Virgil. (Serv. ad l'irg. Ed. iii. 20 ; comp. Schol.
pressed in a very few words.
ad Virg. Ecl. vi. 3 ; Donat. Vit. Virg. xx. & 21. )
1. We may conclude with certainty that he was Weichert has with much ingenuity devised a
senior to Virgil. This seems to be proved by the theory to account for the manner in which the
well-known lines of Horace (Sat. i. 10. 44), mistake arose, but it is scarcely worth while to re-
“ forte epos acer
fute a fable which has ever been regarded as ridi-
Ut nemo Varius ducit: molle atque facetum
culous. No portion of the tragedy has descended
Virgilio adnuerunt gaudentes rure Camoenae,”
L'NTEITS
14. (APPELDICS
[GABIA
uman eppes, a friend
of Cicero (Pascas,
$ HIBRIDA, te bez
i native of Sari
ude of Hronida bu
rish woman bei
notyw be, bat
erabie poser in
i hus trituneshim bo
in order to per
adrised the soci
Romas peale
he instigating en hoe
Lise with che pour
and a ibernate
side, ther forectement
abed senatos
te in to be ad
influence to pretes:
to us except a few words, and one sentence quoted
by Marius Victorinus (A. G. p. 2503, ed. Putsch. ),
for from these we may at once infer that Varins had which critics have in vain endeavoured to mould
already established his reputation in hergic song into verse. It appears from a Codex rescriptus in
while Virgil was known only as a pastoral bard. the royal library of Paris, of which Schneidewin
*13
into a las
to uron it the
compiled therr
zried. The aj


## p. 1222 (#1238) ##########################################

1222
VARRO.
VARRO.
era.
has given an account (Rheinisches Museum, vol. i. I mly returned consul, but returned alone, in order
p. 106, fol. Neue Folge, 1842), that a MS. of the that he might preside at the comitia for the elec-
Thyestes was extant in the eighth century of our tion of his colleague. The other congul chosen
It is from this Codex that we learn that was L. Aemilius Paulus, one of the leaders of the
Hufis was the cognomen of Varius ; and it is fur- aristocratical party. The history of their campaign
ther stated that the Thyestes was performed after against Hannibal, which was terminated by the
the return of Augustus from the battle of Actium, memorable defeat at Cannac, is related elsewhere.
and that the poet received a million of sesterces (HANNIBAL, p. 336. ) The battle was fought by
(sestertium decics) for it. (Hor. Sat. i. 9. 23, Carm. Varro against the advice of Paulus. The Roman
i. O, Ar. Poct, 55 ; Martial, viji. 18, Quintil. x. l. army was all but annihilated. Paulus and almost
$ 98; Macrob. Sat. ii. 4 ; Porphyr. ad Horat. all the officers perished. Varro was one of the
Carm. i. 6 ; Donat. Vit. Virg. xv. $ 56. ) Weichert few who escaped, and reached Venusia in safety,
has collected with much industry, and combined with about seventy horsemen. His conduct after
with much ingenuity all that can be fixed with the battle seems to have been deserving of high
certainty, or surmised with probability concerning praise. He proceeded to Canusium, where the
Varius, but he is obliged to acknowledge that remnant of the Roman army had taken rcfuge, and
with the exception of the few facts detailed above there, with great presence of mind, adopted every
ererything which has been advanced, rests upon precaution which the exigencies of the case re-
simple conjecture. See his essay, “ De Lucii Varii quired. (Dion Cass. Fragm. xlix. p. 24, Reim. )
et Cassii Parmensis Vita et Carininibus," 8vo. His conduct was appreciated by the senate and
Grim. 1836.
[W. R. ) the people, and his defeat was forgotton in the
VA'RRIUS, K. AEMI'LIUS K. P. QUI- services he had lately rendered. On his return to
RINA, an architect, known by an extant inscrip- the city all classes went out to meet hiin, and the
tion, in which he is described as Architectus senate returned him thanks because he had not
Exercit. , from which it appears that he devoted despaired of the commonwealth. (Liv. xxii. 25,
especial attention to military engineering, which, 26, 35-61; Polyb. iii. 106–116; Plut. Fab. 14
among the ancients, was always considered a -18; Appian, Annib. 17–26 ; Zonar. ix. 1 ; Val.
branch of architecture. (Donati, Supplem. vol. i. Max. iii. 4. § 4 ; Oros. iv. 16 ; Eutrop. iii. 10;
p. 38, No. 1 ; Sillig, Catal. Artific. Appendix, Cic. Brut. 19, Cato, 20. )
s. v. ; R. Rochette, Lettre à M. Schorn, p. 422, 2d Varro continued to be employed in Italy for
ed. )
[P. S. ] several successive years in important military com-
VARRO, ATACINUS. (See below, VARRO, mands till nearly the close of the Punic war. In
P. TERENTIUS. )
B. c. 203, he was one of the three ambassadors
VARRO, CINGO'NIUS, a Roman senator sent to Philip in Macedonia, and three years after-
under Nero, supported the claims of Nymphidius wards (B. C. 200) was agnin sent on an embassy to
to the throne on the death of Nero, and was put | Africa to arrange the terms of peace with Vermina,
to death in consequeuce by. Galba, being at the the son of Syphax. On his return in the course of
time consul designatus. (Tac. Ann. xiv. 45, Hist. the same year, Varro was appointed one of the
i. 6, 37; Plut. Galb. 14, 15. )
triumvirs for settling new colonists at Venusia.
VARRO, RU'BRIUS. [RUBRIUS, No. 2. ] (Liv. xxiii. 32, xxv. 6, xxvii. 35, XXX. 26, xxxi.
VARRO, TERENTIUS. 1. C. TERENTIUS 11, 49. )
VARRO, consul B. c. 216 with L. Aemilius Paulus. 2. A TERENTIUS VARRO, served in Greece ir
Varro is said to have been the son of a butcher, B. c. 189, and was elected praetor in B. c. 184,
to have carried on business himself as a factor in when he obtained Nearer Spain as his province.
his early years, and to have risen to eminence by He carried on the war with success, defeated the
pleading the causes of the lower classes in opposi- Celtiberi in several battles, and on his retum to
tion to the opinion of all good men. (Liv. xxii. Rome in B. c. 182, received the honour of an ovation,
25, foll. ; Val. Max.