Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1240

Rh 1-228 VARRO. not, as has been generally supposed, M. Terentius Varro, but Varro Atacinus. He believes, more- over, that we must interpret the couplet in Ovid {ex Pont. iv. 16. 21), Carmina coeruleos composuisse deos," as an allusion to this production, and that Solinus (JPolyldst. 11), when he quotes " Varro de Litora- libus," had in his eye either the Chorographia or the Libri Navales. Eight lines adduced by Ser- vius {ad Virg. Georg, i. 375, ii. 404), as the words of " Varro," he supposes to be extracted from these books. (Anthol Lat. v. 48, 49, ed. Burmann, or No. 78, ed. Meyer.) IV. A. Gellius (x. 7) notices a book in which from " Varro in Europa," the expression tutum sub sedefuissent, which lead us to conclude that it was in verse. If we admit that Varro Atacinus is the individual here designated, we may conjecture that the " Europa " formed a portion either of the Chorographia or of the Libri Navales. V. Bellum Sequanicum, an heroic poem in not less than two books (Priscian. p. 377, ed. Putsch.) on the campaign of Julius Caesar against the league formed by Vercingetorix, the details of which are given in the seventh book of the Gallic War. One line remains. (See Priscian. I. c.) VI. Amatory elegies, the title of the collection being, .it has been conjectured, Leiicadia. Thus Propertius has (ii. 25. 85) " Haec quoque perfecto ludebat Jasone Varro, Varro Leucadiae maxima fama suae." (al. leg. max. cura al. max. Jlamma and Ovid {Trist. ii. 439), " Is quoque, Phasiacas Argo qui duxit in undas, Non potuit Veneris furta tacere suae." VIT. Epigrammata. One of these survives, an epitaph on Licinus, the freedman of Augustus. See Anthol. Lat. ii. 37, ed. Burmann, or No. 77, ed. Meyer. IX. Saturae. These, we are assured by Horace {Sat i. 10. 46), were a failure. " Hoc erat, experto frustra Varrone Atacino." If we can trust the old commentators on this passage, Varro was sensible of his own deficiencies, and never formally published his essays in this department, so that we need feel no surprise that no trace of them should have remained. We may observe that several of the fragments of this author have been quoted by the grammarians, in consequence of the phraseology having been imitated by Virgil, who has appropriated some lines entire without change. (Hieron. Chron. Euseb. Olymp. clxxiv. 3 ; Porphyr. ad Hor. Sat. i. 10. 46 ; Ruhnken. in Horn. hymn, in Cerer. &c., epist. crit. ii. ; Wemsdorf, Poetae Lat. Min. vol. v. pt. iii. p. 1385, foil. 7 ; WUllner, Commentatio de P. Tcrentii Varronis Vita et Scriptis, 4to. Monaster. 1829. See also the notes of Meyer, in his edition of the Anthologia Latina, No. 77, 78.) [W. R.] VARRO, VIBI'DIUS, expelled from the senate by Tiberius, in A. D. 17, on account of having lost his property by extravagance. (Tac. Ann. ii. 48.) VARRO, VISE'LLIUS. 1. C. Visellius Varro, the son of the jurist C. Aculeo, who married Helvia, the sister of Cicero "'s mother. VARUS. Varro was consequently the first cousin of Ciccra He was trained by his father in a knowledge of the civil law. He served as tribune of the soldiers in Asia about B. c. 79, and during Cicero's banish- ment he drew up the rogatio which the tribune T. Fadius Gallus intended to bring forward to recall the orator. Varro died after holding the office of curule aedile. (Cic. Br-ut. 76, Verr. i. 28, ad Att. iii. 23, where some editions have T. Visel- lius.) Varro had an intrigue with Otacilia, of which Valerius Maximus (viii. 2. § 2) relates a tale, but it is not mentioned by Cicero. (Comp. Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. v. p. 214.) 2. C. Visellius C. f. C. n. Varro, son appa- rently of No. 1, consul suifectus A. d: 12, two years before the death of Augustus. (Fasti Capit.) He appears to be the same as the Visellius Varro, who was legatus of Lower Germany in a. d. 21. (Tac. Ann. iii. 41.) 3. L. Visellius C. f. C. n. Varro, son of No. 2, was consul a. n. 24 with Ser. Cornelius Cethegus. In order to please Sejanus, Varro in his consulship accused C. Silius, who had commanded in Germany at the same time as his father, and he covered his disgraceful compliance with the wishes of Sejanus by the pretext of his father's enmity against Silius. (Tac. Ann. iv. 17, 19.) [Silius, No. 5.] VARRONIA'NUS, son of the emperor Jovianus, was consul with his father in A. D. 364. (Eutrop. X. 18 ; Amm. Marc. xxv. 10 ; Socrat. H. E. iii. 26, iv. 1.) VARUS, a cognomen in many Roman gentes, was indicative, like many other Roman cognomens, of a bodily defect or peculiarity ; such as Capito^ Naso^ Paetus, Strabo, Scaurus, &c. Varus signified a person who had his legs bent inwards {varum distortis cmribus, Hor. Sat. i. 3. 47), and was op- posed to Valgus, which signified a person having his legs turned outwards. VARUS. 1. L. Varus, an Epicurean, and a friend of Caesar, mentioned by Quintilian (vi. 3. § 78). See Varus, Atius, No. 2, sub finem. ^ 2. Varus, a friend and patron of Virgil, to whom he dedicated his sixth eclogue, and whom he men- tions in the ninth (ix. 27). He is perhaps the same as Q. Atius Varus, one of Caesar's officers. [Varus, Atius, No. 2.] -^ 3. Varus, to whom Horace addresses one of his odes (i. 1 8), is perhaps the same as the critic Quin- tilius (Hor. Ar. Pott. 438), whose death Horace deplores. {Carm. i. 24.) Respecting him see Varus, Quintilius, No. 12. VARUS, ALFE'NUS, whose praenomen may have been Publius, was a pupil of Sei-vius Sul- picius, and the only pupil of Servius from whom there are any excerpts in the Digest. Nothing is known about him except from a story preserved by the scholiast Acron, in his notes on the Satires of Horace. (Sat. i. 3. 130.) The scholiast assumes the " Alfenus Vafer " of Horace to be the lawyer, and says that he was a native of Cremona, where he carried on the trade of a barber or a botcher of shoes (for there are both readings, sutor and ton- sor) ; that he came to Rome, where he became a pupil of Servius Sulpicius, attained the dignity of the consulship, and was honoured with a public funeral. Pomponius also states that Varus at- tained the consular dignity ; but this will not prove the rest of the scholiast's story to be true. The P. Alfenius Varus, who was consul in A. d. 2, can hardly be the jurist who was the pupil of Servius ;
 * ' Velivolique maris vates, cui credere possis
 * ' Varro " descanted upon Europe, and Festus cites