62, and was adopted alone
appeared
to have found refuge in a secure
by A.
by A.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - c
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. jii. 4. § 4. ) Whether these which is recorded in the Triumphal Fasti. In
tales are true or exaggerated, cannot be ascer- B. C. 172, Varro was sent on an embassy to the
tained; but it may be regarded as certain that he Illyrian king Gentius, and in B. c. 167 was one of
sprung from the lower classes, and was looked the ten comniissioners appointed to settle the affairs
upon as the leading champion of the popular party. of Macedonia, conjunction with Aemilius Paulus
He cannot have been such a despicable person as after the conquest of Perseus. (Liv. xxxvii. 48,
Livy represents, for otherwise the senate would 49, xxxix. 32, 38, 41, 56, xl. 2, 16. )
not have gone out to meet him after the battle of 3. M. TERENTIUS VARRO, the celebrated an-
Cannae to return him thanks because he had not tiquary. See below.
despaired of his country ; nor would he have been 4. M. TERENTIUS VARRO LUCULLUs, consul B. C.
employed, as we shall find to have been the case, 73, was brother of L. Lucullus, the conqueror of
during the remainder of the war in important Mithridates, and was adopted by M. Terentius
military commands. Varro is first mentioned in Varto. An account of him is given under Lu-
B. c. 217, when he supported the bill for giving to CULLUS, No. 6.
M. Minncius Rufus, the master of the horse, power 5. A. TERENTIUS VARRO MURENA, is first
equal to that of the dictator Q. Fabius Maximus. mentioned in B. C. 69, when he was a witness in
Varro bad been praetor in the year before, and the case of A. Caecina, whom Cicero defended in
had previously filled the offices of quaestor and of that year. Cicero mentions him in his correspond.
plebeian and curule aedile. The people now re- ence as one of his friends. He belonged to the
solved to raise him to the consulship, thinking that aristocmtical party, and served under Pompey in
it only needed a man of energy and decision at the Greece, in B. c. 48. (Cic. pro Cacc. 9, ad Fam.
head of an overwhelming force to bring the war | xiii. 22, xvi. 12; Caes. B. C. ii. 19. )
to a close. The aristocracy offered in vain the 6. A TERENTIUS VARRO Murena, consul
greatest opposition to his election ; he was not B. C. . 23, is spoken of under MURENA, No. 7.
;
## p. 1223 (#1239) ##########################################
VARRO.
1223
VARRO.
ned aloge, in sicer
comita for the eles-
other conse choren
of the leaders of the
or other arma
1 terrinated by the
is related eises bert
battle was joogar bis
Pau a The Room
Paulas 250 alast
arro ras one of the
ved Venusa i saker,
2. His conduct at
en deserving of met
Canosam, rere te
had taken retares, a
mind, acepted esery
Dcies of the 24 -
alis. p. 2, Res
by the sente and
was forgotten in the
ed Oa his retens
to meet him, and
because he had su
malih. LTD
-116; Pies Find
26; Zonar. 11 1;5a
16; Eutrop i 10;
implored in Italy fir
sportadt :127 cm
of the Paaie van
be three antaasia
, and three reases
seni on a
of peace with permis
retare in the cours
appointed obe et ube
colonists at least
rii 35, un 2,
Drumann conjectures that he was the son of L. that while the storm was raging all around, he ·
Licinius Murena, consul B. C.
62, and was adopted alone appeared to have found refuge in a secure
by A. Terentius Varro ; but as A. Varro is also haven. (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 6. ) Upon the formation
called Murena (No. 5), he may have been own of the second triumvirtc, although now upwards
son of A. Varro, as Manutius supposed.
of seventy years old, his name appeared along with
7. M. TERENTIUS Varro GIBBA, in conjunc. that of Cicero upon the list of the proscribed, but
tion with Cicero, defended Sanfeius when he wils more fortunate than his friend he succeeded in
accused of vis in B. c. 52. He was a young man, making his escape, and, after having rumained for
whom Cicero had trained in oratory and in the some time concealed (Appian, B. C. iv 47), in $c-
civil war he passed over from Brundusium to Asin curing the protection of Octavianus. The remainder
in order to carry a letter of Cicero's to Caesar. In of his career was passed in tranquillity, and he
B. C. 46, he was quaestor of M. Brutus in Cisalpine continued to labour in his favourite studies, although
Gaul, to whom Cicero gave him a letter of re- his magnificent library bad been destroyed, a Joss
commendation. He died in ihe course of this year to him irreparablc. llis death took place B. c. 28,
or the following. (Ascon. in Cic. Mil. p. 55, when he was in his eighty-ninth year (Plin. I.
Orelli ; Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 10, ad Att. xiii. 48. ) N. xxix. 4 ; llieronym. in Euseb. Chron. Olymp.
VARRO, M. TERE'NTIUS, whose vast and 108. 1). It is to be observed that M. Terentius
varied erudition in almost every department of Varro, in consequence of his having possessed cx-
literature earned for him the title of the “most tensive estates in the vicinity of Reate, is stylcd
leamed of the Romans ” (Quintil. x. I. $ 95; Reatinus by Symmachus (Ep. i. ), and probably by
Cic. Acad. i. 2, 3 ; Augustin. de Civ. Dci, vi. 2), Sidonius Apollinaris also (Lp. iv. 32), a designa-
was born B. c. 116, being exactly ten years senior tion which has been very frequently adopted by
to Cicero, with whom he lived for a long period later writers in order to distinguish him from Varro
on terms of close intimacy and warm friendship. A lacinus.
(Cic. ad Fam. ix. 148. ) He was trained under Not only was Varro the most learned of Roman
the superintendence of L. Aelius Stilo Praeconinus, scholars, but he was likewise the most voluminous
a member of the equestrian order, a man, we are of Roman authors (homo no vypapáratos, Cic. ad
told (Cic. Brut. 56), of high character, familiarly | Att. xiv. 18). He bad read so much, sys St.
ecquainted with the Greek and Latin writers in Augustine, that we must feel astonished that he
general, and especially deeply versed in the anti- found time to write any thing, and he wrote so
quities of his own country, some of which, such as much that we can scarcely believe that any one could
the hymns of the Salii and the Laws of the Twelve find time to read all that he composed. We have
Tables, he illustrated by commentaries. Varro, his own authority for the assertion that he had com-
having imbibed from this preceptor a taste for posed no less than four hundred and ninety books
these pursuits, which he cultivated in after life (septuaginta hcbdomadas librorum, Gell. iii
. 10),
with so much devotion and success, completed his several of which, however, were never published,
education by attending the lectures of Antiochus having perished with his library. The disappearance
(Acad. iii. 12), a philosopher of the Academy, of many more may be accounted for by the topics
with a leaning perhaps towards the Stoic school, of which they treated being such as to afford little
and then embarked in public life. We have no interest to general readers, and by the somewhat
distinct record of his regular advancement in the repulsive character of the style in which they were
service of the state, but we know that he held a couched, for the warmest admirers of Varro admit
high naval command in the wars against the that he possessed little eloquence, and was more
pirates and Mithridates (Plin. H. N. ii. 11, vii. distinguished by profundity of knowledge than by
30; Appian, Mithr. 95 ; Varr. R. R. ii. praef. ), felicity of expression. Making every allowance
that he served as the legatus of Pompeius in for these circumstances, it must still be considered re-
Spain on the first outbreak of civil strife, and markable that only one of his works has descended
that, although compelled to surrender his forces to to us entire, and that of one more only have con-
Caesar, he remained sted fast to the cause of the siderable fragments been preserved. The remainder
senate, and passing over into Greece shared the have either totally disappeared or present merely a
fortunes of his party until their hopes were finally few disjointed scraps from which we are unable to
crushed by the battle of Pharsalia. When further form any estimate of their contents or their merits.
resistance was fruitless, he yielded himself to the I. De Re Rustica Libri III. , written when the
clemency of the conqueror, by whom he was most author was eighty years old.
graciously received, and employed in superintend- tionably the most important of all the treatises upon
ing the collection and arrangement of the great ancient agriculture now extant, being far superior
library designed for public use. (Caes. B. C. i. 38, to the more voluminous production Columella,
ii. 17–20; Cic. ad Fam. ix. 13, de Div. i. 33; with which alone it can be compared. The one is
Suet. Jul. Caes. 34, 44. ) Before, however, it was the well-digested system of an experienced and
known that he had secured the forgiveness and successful farmer who had seen and practised all
favour of the dictator, his villa at Casinum had been that he records, the other is the common-place
seized and plundered by Antonius, an event upon book of an industrious compiler, who had collected
which Cicero dwells with great effect in his second a great variety of information from a great variety
Philippic (cc. 40, 41), contrasting the pure and of sources, but was incapable of estimating justly
lofty pursuits which its walls were in the habit of the value or the accuracy of the particulars which
witnessing with the foul excesses and coarse de he detailed. The work before us exhibits to a re-
bauchery of its captor. For some years after this markable extent, perhaps to excess, the methodical
period Varro remained in literary seclusion, passing arrangement, the technical divisions, and laborious
his time chiefly at his country seats near Cumae classifications in which Varro appears to have
and Tusculum, occupied with study and composi- taken such delight. Thos, in the first book, ad-
tion, and so indifferent to the state of public affairs dressed to his wife Fundiinia, which is occupied
414
1, serred in Green
praeter in c. 4
Sain a hur
be sacres, defeated the
, and on his retur
De bonoar of 20
Triomphal Fasti
on an enhet n the
in B C 167 sa mer
ated to settle tike za
A with Semua Pica
ens (Lir, 14
L 2 16)
BQ, Le cetakan
This is unques-
Lrerlers conce's
L'las, the wees
pied or . v. Teresa
in is given nne La
RO Vrasna i ho
i ne 2
om Cicer deler
bim in £cames-
He became *
Ted under Poexti
por Car: are
C. u 19 )
SRO V REV. Ond
luar VTAEV, Nai
## p. 1224 (#1240) ##########################################
1224
VARRO.
VARRO.
1
Inshion of a
o ditñculty
not pushed :
to most impo
to the actuai
of folly white
his country.
subject of ety
and we find
within the a
CURIS is taket
at night and
gire signals
s is o ៥
that certi con
cause stags
gutun is fron
3
with agriculture proper, that is, with the cultivation / very shattered condition, disfigured by numerous
of the ground in order to render it susceptible of blanks, corruptions and interpolations. It secins
producing abundantly and profitably various crops, clear from the researches of Müller that the whole
we are told that the science of tilling the earth of the MSS. now extant were derived from one
(agricultura) may be reduced to four great heads. common archetype, which at the period when the
A. A knowledge of the farm itself (cognitio different copies were made, was itself in a very
fundi), that is, of the locality which is to be the confused and mutilated state, many of the leaves
scene of the operations to be performed, including having been lost, others displaced, and even the
the situation, soil, climate, and buildings.
most entire full of defects, arising partly from the
B. A knowledge of the instruments requisite for ignorance of transcribers, and partly from the
performing the necessary operations (quae in eo ravages of time. This work, judging from sundry
fundo opus sint ac debcant esse culturae causa). repetitions and contradictions which may be here
C. A knowledge of the operations to be per- and there detected, and from the general want of
formed (quae in eo fundo colendi causa sint fa- polish, was never finally revised by the author ; and
cionda).
may perhaps, as Müller conjectures, never have
D. A knowledge of the time when each oper- been published under bis sanction. We gather
ation ought to be performed (quo quidquid tempore from Cicero (ad Att. xiii. 12, Acad. i. 1) and
in eo fundo fieri convcniat).
from internal evidence (v. 100, vi. 13, 22, ed.
Each of these four heads must be divided into Müller) that it must have been in progress during
two.
the years B. C. 46–45, and must have been finished
ra. The things appertaining to the soil itself before the death of the orator, to whom the last
(quac ad solum pertinent terrae). twenty books are inscribed (v. ), vi. 97, vii. 109,
6. The things appertaining to the buildings 110). It was portioned out into three great divi-
(ad villas et stabula).
sions.
ra. The human instruments.
B. {
(I. ) De Impositione Vocabulorum, the origin of
words and terms, formed the subject of the first
C.
Sa, The various crops to be cultivated. seven books. The first was introductory and treated
16. The localities suitable for each.
of the history of the Latin language (De Origine
ca. The time when with reference to the course Linguae Latinae. See Priscian, i. 7). The second,
of the sun.
D.
third, and fourth of etymology considered as a
b. The time when with reference to the course science (De Etymologica Arte), what might be said
of the moon.
for, against, and concerning it (contra eam pro
Again, each of these divisions is split up into a ea-de ea); the author then entered fairly on the
i
number of subdivisions, as for example
origin of words (a quibus rebus vocabula imposita
rl. The outward aspect of the ground. sunt), considering, in the fifth, the names of places
2. The qualities of soil.
and of things in these places (De Vocabulis Locorum
3. The quantity of ground.
et
quae in his sunt), the primary division of places
4. The security of the farm.
being into Heaven and Earth (De Coelo De
1. Their situation.
Terra), and of the things in these places into
A. b. 2. Their size.
things immortal and things mortal (De Iinmortalibus
3. The arrangement of the different parts. - De Mortalibus), things mortal being again dis-
Si. Free labourers.
$ 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. jii. 4. § 4. ) Whether these which is recorded in the Triumphal Fasti. In
tales are true or exaggerated, cannot be ascer- B. C. 172, Varro was sent on an embassy to the
tained; but it may be regarded as certain that he Illyrian king Gentius, and in B. c. 167 was one of
sprung from the lower classes, and was looked the ten comniissioners appointed to settle the affairs
upon as the leading champion of the popular party. of Macedonia, conjunction with Aemilius Paulus
He cannot have been such a despicable person as after the conquest of Perseus. (Liv. xxxvii. 48,
Livy represents, for otherwise the senate would 49, xxxix. 32, 38, 41, 56, xl. 2, 16. )
not have gone out to meet him after the battle of 3. M. TERENTIUS VARRO, the celebrated an-
Cannae to return him thanks because he had not tiquary. See below.
despaired of his country ; nor would he have been 4. M. TERENTIUS VARRO LUCULLUs, consul B. C.
employed, as we shall find to have been the case, 73, was brother of L. Lucullus, the conqueror of
during the remainder of the war in important Mithridates, and was adopted by M. Terentius
military commands. Varro is first mentioned in Varto. An account of him is given under Lu-
B. c. 217, when he supported the bill for giving to CULLUS, No. 6.
M. Minncius Rufus, the master of the horse, power 5. A. TERENTIUS VARRO MURENA, is first
equal to that of the dictator Q. Fabius Maximus. mentioned in B. C. 69, when he was a witness in
Varro bad been praetor in the year before, and the case of A. Caecina, whom Cicero defended in
had previously filled the offices of quaestor and of that year. Cicero mentions him in his correspond.
plebeian and curule aedile. The people now re- ence as one of his friends. He belonged to the
solved to raise him to the consulship, thinking that aristocmtical party, and served under Pompey in
it only needed a man of energy and decision at the Greece, in B. c. 48. (Cic. pro Cacc. 9, ad Fam.
head of an overwhelming force to bring the war | xiii. 22, xvi. 12; Caes. B. C. ii. 19. )
to a close. The aristocracy offered in vain the 6. A TERENTIUS VARRO Murena, consul
greatest opposition to his election ; he was not B. C. . 23, is spoken of under MURENA, No. 7.
;
## p. 1223 (#1239) ##########################################
VARRO.
1223
VARRO.
ned aloge, in sicer
comita for the eles-
other conse choren
of the leaders of the
or other arma
1 terrinated by the
is related eises bert
battle was joogar bis
Pau a The Room
Paulas 250 alast
arro ras one of the
ved Venusa i saker,
2. His conduct at
en deserving of met
Canosam, rere te
had taken retares, a
mind, acepted esery
Dcies of the 24 -
alis. p. 2, Res
by the sente and
was forgotten in the
ed Oa his retens
to meet him, and
because he had su
malih. LTD
-116; Pies Find
26; Zonar. 11 1;5a
16; Eutrop i 10;
implored in Italy fir
sportadt :127 cm
of the Paaie van
be three antaasia
, and three reases
seni on a
of peace with permis
retare in the cours
appointed obe et ube
colonists at least
rii 35, un 2,
Drumann conjectures that he was the son of L. that while the storm was raging all around, he ·
Licinius Murena, consul B. C.
62, and was adopted alone appeared to have found refuge in a secure
by A. Terentius Varro ; but as A. Varro is also haven. (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 6. ) Upon the formation
called Murena (No. 5), he may have been own of the second triumvirtc, although now upwards
son of A. Varro, as Manutius supposed.
of seventy years old, his name appeared along with
7. M. TERENTIUS Varro GIBBA, in conjunc. that of Cicero upon the list of the proscribed, but
tion with Cicero, defended Sanfeius when he wils more fortunate than his friend he succeeded in
accused of vis in B. c. 52. He was a young man, making his escape, and, after having rumained for
whom Cicero had trained in oratory and in the some time concealed (Appian, B. C. iv 47), in $c-
civil war he passed over from Brundusium to Asin curing the protection of Octavianus. The remainder
in order to carry a letter of Cicero's to Caesar. In of his career was passed in tranquillity, and he
B. C. 46, he was quaestor of M. Brutus in Cisalpine continued to labour in his favourite studies, although
Gaul, to whom Cicero gave him a letter of re- his magnificent library bad been destroyed, a Joss
commendation. He died in ihe course of this year to him irreparablc. llis death took place B. c. 28,
or the following. (Ascon. in Cic. Mil. p. 55, when he was in his eighty-ninth year (Plin. I.
Orelli ; Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 10, ad Att. xiii. 48. ) N. xxix. 4 ; llieronym. in Euseb. Chron. Olymp.
VARRO, M. TERE'NTIUS, whose vast and 108. 1). It is to be observed that M. Terentius
varied erudition in almost every department of Varro, in consequence of his having possessed cx-
literature earned for him the title of the “most tensive estates in the vicinity of Reate, is stylcd
leamed of the Romans ” (Quintil. x. I. $ 95; Reatinus by Symmachus (Ep. i. ), and probably by
Cic. Acad. i. 2, 3 ; Augustin. de Civ. Dci, vi. 2), Sidonius Apollinaris also (Lp. iv. 32), a designa-
was born B. c. 116, being exactly ten years senior tion which has been very frequently adopted by
to Cicero, with whom he lived for a long period later writers in order to distinguish him from Varro
on terms of close intimacy and warm friendship. A lacinus.
(Cic. ad Fam. ix. 148. ) He was trained under Not only was Varro the most learned of Roman
the superintendence of L. Aelius Stilo Praeconinus, scholars, but he was likewise the most voluminous
a member of the equestrian order, a man, we are of Roman authors (homo no vypapáratos, Cic. ad
told (Cic. Brut. 56), of high character, familiarly | Att. xiv. 18). He bad read so much, sys St.
ecquainted with the Greek and Latin writers in Augustine, that we must feel astonished that he
general, and especially deeply versed in the anti- found time to write any thing, and he wrote so
quities of his own country, some of which, such as much that we can scarcely believe that any one could
the hymns of the Salii and the Laws of the Twelve find time to read all that he composed. We have
Tables, he illustrated by commentaries. Varro, his own authority for the assertion that he had com-
having imbibed from this preceptor a taste for posed no less than four hundred and ninety books
these pursuits, which he cultivated in after life (septuaginta hcbdomadas librorum, Gell. iii
. 10),
with so much devotion and success, completed his several of which, however, were never published,
education by attending the lectures of Antiochus having perished with his library. The disappearance
(Acad. iii. 12), a philosopher of the Academy, of many more may be accounted for by the topics
with a leaning perhaps towards the Stoic school, of which they treated being such as to afford little
and then embarked in public life. We have no interest to general readers, and by the somewhat
distinct record of his regular advancement in the repulsive character of the style in which they were
service of the state, but we know that he held a couched, for the warmest admirers of Varro admit
high naval command in the wars against the that he possessed little eloquence, and was more
pirates and Mithridates (Plin. H. N. ii. 11, vii. distinguished by profundity of knowledge than by
30; Appian, Mithr. 95 ; Varr. R. R. ii. praef. ), felicity of expression. Making every allowance
that he served as the legatus of Pompeius in for these circumstances, it must still be considered re-
Spain on the first outbreak of civil strife, and markable that only one of his works has descended
that, although compelled to surrender his forces to to us entire, and that of one more only have con-
Caesar, he remained sted fast to the cause of the siderable fragments been preserved. The remainder
senate, and passing over into Greece shared the have either totally disappeared or present merely a
fortunes of his party until their hopes were finally few disjointed scraps from which we are unable to
crushed by the battle of Pharsalia. When further form any estimate of their contents or their merits.
resistance was fruitless, he yielded himself to the I. De Re Rustica Libri III. , written when the
clemency of the conqueror, by whom he was most author was eighty years old.
graciously received, and employed in superintend- tionably the most important of all the treatises upon
ing the collection and arrangement of the great ancient agriculture now extant, being far superior
library designed for public use. (Caes. B. C. i. 38, to the more voluminous production Columella,
ii. 17–20; Cic. ad Fam. ix. 13, de Div. i. 33; with which alone it can be compared. The one is
Suet. Jul. Caes. 34, 44. ) Before, however, it was the well-digested system of an experienced and
known that he had secured the forgiveness and successful farmer who had seen and practised all
favour of the dictator, his villa at Casinum had been that he records, the other is the common-place
seized and plundered by Antonius, an event upon book of an industrious compiler, who had collected
which Cicero dwells with great effect in his second a great variety of information from a great variety
Philippic (cc. 40, 41), contrasting the pure and of sources, but was incapable of estimating justly
lofty pursuits which its walls were in the habit of the value or the accuracy of the particulars which
witnessing with the foul excesses and coarse de he detailed. The work before us exhibits to a re-
bauchery of its captor. For some years after this markable extent, perhaps to excess, the methodical
period Varro remained in literary seclusion, passing arrangement, the technical divisions, and laborious
his time chiefly at his country seats near Cumae classifications in which Varro appears to have
and Tusculum, occupied with study and composi- taken such delight. Thos, in the first book, ad-
tion, and so indifferent to the state of public affairs dressed to his wife Fundiinia, which is occupied
414
1, serred in Green
praeter in c. 4
Sain a hur
be sacres, defeated the
, and on his retur
De bonoar of 20
Triomphal Fasti
on an enhet n the
in B C 167 sa mer
ated to settle tike za
A with Semua Pica
ens (Lir, 14
L 2 16)
BQ, Le cetakan
This is unques-
Lrerlers conce's
L'las, the wees
pied or . v. Teresa
in is given nne La
RO Vrasna i ho
i ne 2
om Cicer deler
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He became *
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SRO V REV. Ond
luar VTAEV, Nai
## p. 1224 (#1240) ##########################################
1224
VARRO.
VARRO.
1
Inshion of a
o ditñculty
not pushed :
to most impo
to the actuai
of folly white
his country.
subject of ety
and we find
within the a
CURIS is taket
at night and
gire signals
s is o ៥
that certi con
cause stags
gutun is fron
3
with agriculture proper, that is, with the cultivation / very shattered condition, disfigured by numerous
of the ground in order to render it susceptible of blanks, corruptions and interpolations. It secins
producing abundantly and profitably various crops, clear from the researches of Müller that the whole
we are told that the science of tilling the earth of the MSS. now extant were derived from one
(agricultura) may be reduced to four great heads. common archetype, which at the period when the
A. A knowledge of the farm itself (cognitio different copies were made, was itself in a very
fundi), that is, of the locality which is to be the confused and mutilated state, many of the leaves
scene of the operations to be performed, including having been lost, others displaced, and even the
the situation, soil, climate, and buildings.
most entire full of defects, arising partly from the
B. A knowledge of the instruments requisite for ignorance of transcribers, and partly from the
performing the necessary operations (quae in eo ravages of time. This work, judging from sundry
fundo opus sint ac debcant esse culturae causa). repetitions and contradictions which may be here
C. A knowledge of the operations to be per- and there detected, and from the general want of
formed (quae in eo fundo colendi causa sint fa- polish, was never finally revised by the author ; and
cionda).
may perhaps, as Müller conjectures, never have
D. A knowledge of the time when each oper- been published under bis sanction. We gather
ation ought to be performed (quo quidquid tempore from Cicero (ad Att. xiii. 12, Acad. i. 1) and
in eo fundo fieri convcniat).
from internal evidence (v. 100, vi. 13, 22, ed.
Each of these four heads must be divided into Müller) that it must have been in progress during
two.
the years B. C. 46–45, and must have been finished
ra. The things appertaining to the soil itself before the death of the orator, to whom the last
(quac ad solum pertinent terrae). twenty books are inscribed (v. ), vi. 97, vii. 109,
6. The things appertaining to the buildings 110). It was portioned out into three great divi-
(ad villas et stabula).
sions.
ra. The human instruments.
B. {
(I. ) De Impositione Vocabulorum, the origin of
words and terms, formed the subject of the first
C.
Sa, The various crops to be cultivated. seven books. The first was introductory and treated
16. The localities suitable for each.
of the history of the Latin language (De Origine
ca. The time when with reference to the course Linguae Latinae. See Priscian, i. 7). The second,
of the sun.
D.
third, and fourth of etymology considered as a
b. The time when with reference to the course science (De Etymologica Arte), what might be said
of the moon.
for, against, and concerning it (contra eam pro
Again, each of these divisions is split up into a ea-de ea); the author then entered fairly on the
i
number of subdivisions, as for example
origin of words (a quibus rebus vocabula imposita
rl. The outward aspect of the ground. sunt), considering, in the fifth, the names of places
2. The qualities of soil.
and of things in these places (De Vocabulis Locorum
3. The quantity of ground.
et
quae in his sunt), the primary division of places
4. The security of the farm.
being into Heaven and Earth (De Coelo De
1. Their situation.
Terra), and of the things in these places into
A. b. 2. Their size.
things immortal and things mortal (De Iinmortalibus
3. The arrangement of the different parts. - De Mortalibus), things mortal being again dis-
Si. Free labourers.
