Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1235

Rh VARRO. Drumaim conjectures that he was the son of L. Licinius Murena, consul b. c. 62, and Avas adopted by A. Terentius Varro ; but as A. Varro is also called Murena [No. 5], he may have been own son of A. Varro, as Manutius supposed. 7. M. Terentius Varro Gibba, in conjunc- tion with Cicero, defended Sanfeius when he was accused of vis in B. c. 52. He was a young man, whom Cicero had trained in oratory ; and in the civil war he passed over from Brundusiura to Asia in order to carry a letter of Cicero's to Caesar. In B. c. 46, he was quaestor of M. Brutus in Cisalpine Giiul, to whom Cicero gave him a letter of re- commendation. He died in the course of this year or the following. (Ascon. in Cie. Mil. p. 55, Orelli ; Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 10, ad Att. xiii. 48.) VARRO, M. TERE'NTIUS, whose vast and varied erudition in almost every department of literature earned for him the title of the " most learned of the Romans " (Quintil. x. 1 . § 95 ; Cic. Acad. i. 2, 3 ; Augustin. de Civ. Dei, vi. 2), was born B. c. 11 6, being exactly ten years senior to Cicero, with whom he lived for a long period on terms of close intimacy and warm friendship. (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 1 — 8.) He was trained under the superintendence of L. Aelius Stilo Praeconinus, a member of the equestrian order, a man, we are told (Cic. Brut. 56), of high character, familiarly acquainted with the Greek and Latin writers in general, and especially deeply versed in the anti- quities of his own country, some of which, such as the hymns of the Salii and the Laws of the Twelve Tables, he illustrated by commentaries. Varro, having imbibed from this preceptor a taste for these pursuits, which he cultivated in after life with so much devotion and success, completed his education by attending the lectures of Antiochus {Acad. iii. 12), a philosopher of the Academy, with a leaning perhaps towards the Stoic school, and then embarked in public life. We have no distinct record of his regular advancement in the service of the state, but we know that he held a high naval command in the wars against the pirates and Mithridates (Plin. H.N. iii. 11, vii. i^O ; Appian, Mithr. 95 ; Varr. R. R. ii. praef.), that he served as the legatus of Pompeius in Spain on the first outbreak of civil strife, and that, although compelled to surrender his forces to Caesar, he remained stedfast to the cause of the senate, and passing over into Greece shared the fortunes of his party until their hopes were finally crushed by the battle of Pharsalia. When further resistance was fruitless, he yielded himself to the clemency of the conqueror, by whom he was most graciously received, and employed in superintend- ing the collection and arrangement of the great library designed for public use. (Caes. B. C i. 38, ii. 17—20 ; Cic. ad Fam. ix. 13, de Div. i. 33 ; Suet. Jul. Caes. 34, 44.) Before, however, it was known that he had secured the forgiveness and favour of the dictator, his villa at Casinum had been seized and plundered by Antonius, an event upon which Cicero dwells with great effect in his second Philippic (cc. 40, 41), contrasting the pure and lofty pursuits which its walls were in the habit of witnessing with the foul excesses and coarse de- bauchery of its captor. ^ For some j^ears after this period Varro remained in literary seclusion, passing his time chiefly at his country seats near Curaae and Tusculum, occupied with study and composi- tion, and so indifferent to the state of public affairs VARRO. 1223 that while the storm was raging all around, he alone appeared to have foimd refuge in a secure haven. (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 6.) Upon the formation of the second triumvirate, although now upwards of seventy years old, his name appeared along with that of Cicero upon the list of the proscribed, but more fortunate than his friend he succeeded in making his escape, and, after having remained for some time concealed (Appian, B. C. iv 47), in se- curing the protection of Octavianus. The remainder of his career was passed in tranquillity, and he continued to labour in his favourite studies, although his magnificent library had been destroyed, a loss to him irreparable. His death took place b. c. 28, when he was in his eighty-ninth year (Plin. H. N. xxix. 4 ; Hieronym. in Euseb. Chron. Olymp. 188. 1). It is to be observed that M. Terentius Varro, in consequence of his having possessed ex- tensive estates in the vicinity of Reate, is styled Reatinus by Symmachus {Ep. i.), and probably by Sidonius ApoUinaris also {Ep. iv. 32), a designa- tion which has been very frequently adopted by later writers in order to distinguish him from Varro Atacinus. Not only was Varro the most learned of Roman scholars, but he was likewise the most voluminous of Roman authors Qiomo TroXvypacpdoTaros, Cic. ad Att. xiv. 18). He had read so much, says St. Augustine, that we must feel astonished that he found time to write any thing, and he wrote so much that we can scarcely believe that any one could find time to read all that he composed. We have his own authority for the assertion that he had com- posed no less than four hundred and ninety books (septuaginta hebdomadas librorum, Gell. iii. 1 0), several of which, however, were never published, having perished with his library. The disappearance of many more may be accounted for by the topics of which they treated being such as to afford little interest to general readers, and by the somewhat repulsive character of the style in which they were couched, for the warmest admirers of Varro admit that he possessed little eloquence, and was more distinguished by profundity of knowledge than by felicity of expression. Making every allowance for these circumstances, it must still be considered re- markable that only one of his works has descended to us entire, and that of one more only have con- siderable fragments been preserved. The remainder have either totally disappeared or present merely a few disjointed scraps from which we are unable to form any estimate of their contents or their merits. I. De Re Rustica Libri III., written when the author was eighty years old. This is unques- tionably the most important of all the treatises upon ancient agriculture now extant, being far superior to the more voluminous production of Columella, with which alone it can be compared. The one is the well-digested system of an exnerienced and successful fanner who had seen and practised all that he records, the other is the common-place book of an industrious compiler, who had collected a great variety of information from a great variety of sources, but was incapable of estimating justly the value or the accuracy of the particulars which he detailed. The work before us exhibits to a re- markable extent, perhaps to excess, the methodical arrangement, the technical divisions, and laborious classifications in which Varro appears to have taken such delight. Thus, in the first book, ad- dressed to his wife Fundania, which is occupied 4 I 4