Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1239

Rh VARRO. 307 ; Syramach. Ep. i. 2, 4 ; and the dissertation of Creuzerj Die Bildpersonalien des Varro in the Zeitschrifi fur Alterthuniswissenseha/t, 1843. In criticism, De Proprietate Scriptorum — De Poetis Libri, of which the first is quoted — De Poe- viatis Libri, of which the second is quoted — The- atrales s. De A ctionibus scenicis Lihri^ of which the second and fifth are quoted — De scenicis Originibus Libri, of which the first and third are quoted — Dc Plautinis Comoediis Liber — De Plautinis Quaes- tionibus Libri, of which the second is quoted — Rhetoricorum Libri, of which the twentieth is quoted — Dc Utilitate Sermonis Libri, of which the fourth is quoted — De Compositiotie Saiurarum. In philosophy, De PhiJosophia Liber, containing, it would appear, a sketch of the different schools and of the peculiar doctrines by which they were characterised. (See Augustin, de Civ. Dei, xii. 4, xix. 1 .) To this Cicero may refer when he ob- serves {Acad. i. 3), " philosophiam multis locis inchoasti, ad impellendum satis, ad edocendum parura," although these words seem to point not so mtich to any single work as to passages scat- tered up and down in various works. Charisius quotes the second book De Forma Philosophiae, and Servius a treatise entitled Atrial s. Causae, of the same nature as those by Callimachus, Butas, Plutarch, and others. In geography, Ephemeris Navalis — Epkemeris — Libri Navales — De Ora maritima — Litoralia — De Aestuariis — Prognostica — but all of these belong, it would appear, to a single essay, a sort of Mariner's Directory to the coast of Spain, drawn up for the use of Pompeius when about to proceed thither and assume the command. See the Itine- rarium Alexandri, c. 3, published by Angelo Mai in the fifth volume of the Classici Auctores e Vaticanis Codicibus editi, 8vo. Rom. 1835, and compare Cic. ad Att. v. 11. For the treatise by Varro entitled Chorographia, see Varro Ata- CINUS. Of a miscellaneous character were Epistolicarum Quaestionum Libri, of which the eighth is quoted — ■ Discipli7iarum Libri, one of which treated of Archi- tecture and another of Arithmetic — Complexionum Libri, of which the sixth is quoted — Epistolae, ad- dressed to C. Caesar, Fabius, Ser. Sulpicius, Mar- cellus, and others — Ad Lihonem, of which the first book is quoted — De Dibliotheds, of which the second book is quoted — De Gradibus Neces- situdinum — liepi xapaKT-^pwu, of which the third book is quoted — Mensuralia s. De Mensuris — and many others, of which several, as remarked above, ought to be classed under the Saturae. A collection of the fragments of Varro was first printed by Robert and Henry Stephens in their Fragmenta Poetarum veterum Latinorum, Paris, 1564. Ausonius Popma, after having edited (1591) a collection of fragments from the Menippean Satires, the Libri Logistorici and the De Philosophia, pub- lished a very extensive collection of fragments from all the works of Varro, at Franeker {Franquerae) in 1599, which was reprinted at Leyden in 1601, and has served as the basis of all subsequent col- lections, such as that appended to the Bipont edi- tion of the books De Lingua Ljxtina, 8vo. 1788, which is the most convenient for general refer- ence. The annexed coin was struck by Varro, when he served under Pompeius in the war against the pirates ; and we learn froTn the coin that he was VARRO. 1227 at that time the proquaestor of Pompeius. (Eckhei, vol. V. p. 322.) [W. 11.1 COIN OF M. TERENTIUS VARRO. VARRO, P. TERE'NTIUS, a Latin poet of considerable celebrity, surnamed ATACINUS, from the Atax, a river of Gallia Narbonensis, his native province, was born, according to Hiero- nymus, B.C. 82, and in the thirty-fifth year of his age applied himself with the greatest zeal to the study of Greek literature. Of his personal history nothing further is known. He is believed to have been the composer of the following works, of which a few inconsiderable fragments only have come down to us, but it must be remarked that considerable doubt prevails with regard to several of the pieces commonly ascribed to this writer in consequence of the difficulty experienced in dis- tinguishing between P. Terentius Varro Atacinus and his illustrious contemporary M. Terentius Varro Reatinus, when the cognomen alone is men- tioned without the characteristic epithet. Hence it is highly probable that several relics assigned to the latter may in reality belong to the former and vice versa. I. Argonautiea, or, as it is termed by Probus {ad Virg. Georg. i. 4), Corpus Argonautarum, a free translation, it would seem, with, perhaps, ad- ditions and variations, of the well-known poem by ApoUonius Rhodius. Upon this piece the fame of Varro chiefly rested, as we may gather from the criticism of Quintilian (x. 1. § 87). " Atacinus Varro in iis, per quae nomen est assecutus, inter- pres operis alieni, non spernendus quidem, verum ad augendam facultatem dicendi parum locuples." It is referred to by Propertius (ii. 25. 85), by Ovid {Amor. i. 15. 21, Art. Am. iii. 335, Trist. ii. 439), and by Statins {Sih. ii. 7. 77). Seven lines and a half, in all, have been preserved in five fragments (Serv. ad Virg. Eel. i. 66, Aen. x. 396 ; Senec. Controv. xvi. ; comp. Senec. Ep. Ivi. ; Charia, p. 70, ed. Putsch. ; Quintil. i. 5. § 18). II. Chorographia s. Cosmographia, the same probably with what is sometimes termed Varronis Iter, appears to have been a metrical system of astronomy and geography. Hence Varro Atacinus is named by Pliny as one of his authorities in Books iii — vi. of the Historia Natural is. About twenty lines, supposed to belong to this poem, have been preserved in six fragments. (Marius Victorin. p. 2503, ed. Putsch. ; Isidorus, Orig. xvii. 7. § 58 ; Priscian, pp. 609, 709, ed. Putsch. ; Charis. p. 45, ed. Putsch. ; Philargyr. et Serv. ad Virg. Georg. iii. 1 75 ; Burmann, Anthol. Lot. v. 48, foil.) III. Libri Navales. Vegetius {de Re Mil. v. 11), when speaking of the prognostics of the weather afforded by animals, gives as one of his authorities, " Varro in Navalibus Libris," and John of Salisbury {Policrat. ii. 2) employs almost the same words. Wemsdorf endeavours to prove that the work spoken of was a voluminous poem upon navigation, including a description of various coasts and islands, and that the Varro here indicated wag