Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1261

Rh VESTA. Gracchus into the Tiber and thus to have obtained the surname of Vespillo. (Anrel. Vict, de Vir. III. 64 ; respecting the Vespillones, see Diet, of Antiq. p. 559, a, 2d ed.) 2. Q. Lucretius Vespillo, an orator and a jurist, was proscribed by Sulla and put to death. (Cic. Brut. 48 ; Appian, B. C. iv. 44.) 3. Q. Lucretius Vespillo, the son of No. 2, served in the Pompeian fleet in b. c. 48. He was proscribed by the triumvirs in b. c. 43, out more fortunate than his father, was concealed by his wife Thuria in his own house at Rome, till his friends obtained his pardon. In b. c. 20, he was one of the deputation which the senate sent to Augustus at Athens to request the latter to assume the consulship for the following year, but he de- clined the honour, and appointed Vespillo, who was accordingly consul with C. Sentius Satuminus in B. c. 19. (Caes. B.C. iii. 7 ; Appian, B. G. iv. 44; Val. Max. vi. 7. § 2 ; Dion Cass. liv. 10.) VESTA, one of the great Roman divinities, identical with the Greek Hestia both in name and import. She was the goddess of the hearth, and therefore inseparably connected with the Penates, for Aeneas was believed to have brought the eternal fire of Vesta from Troy, along with the images of the Penates ; and the praetors, consuls, and dicta- tors, before entering upon their official functions, sacrificed not only to the Penates, but also to Vesta at Lavinium. (Virg. Aen. ii. 296, &c., x. 259, v. 744 ; Macrob. Sat. iii. 4.) In the ancient Roman house, the hearth was the central part, and around it all the inmates daily assembled for their com- mon meal (coena, /cojj'^), and every meal thus taken was a fresh bond of union and affection among the members of a family, and at the same time an act of worship of Vesta combined with a sacrifice to her and the Penates. CO v. Fast. vi. 305 ; Virg. Georg. iv. 384 ; Serv. ad Am. i. 734.) Every dwelling house therefore was, in some sense, a temple of Vesta (August. De Civ. Dei, iv. 11), but a public sanctuary united all the citizens of the state into one large family. This sanctuary stood in the Forum, between the Capitoline and Pala- tine hills, and not far from the temple of the Penates. (Dionys. ii. 65.) That temple was round with a vaulted roof, like the impluvium of private houses, so that there is no reason to regard that form as an imitation of the vault of heaven (Ov. Fast. vi. 269, &c., 282 ; Plut. Nu7n. 11.) The god- dess Avas not represented in her temple by a statue, but the eternal fire burning on the hearth or altar was her living symbol, and was kept up and at- tended to by the Vestals, her virgin priestesses. As each house, and the city itself, so also the coimtry had its own Vesta, and the latter was worshipped at Lavinium, the metropolis of the Latins, where she was worshipped and received the regular sa- crifices at the hands of the highest magistrates. The goddess herself was regarded as chaste and pure like her symbol, the fire, and the Vestals, who kept up the sacred fire, were likewise pure maidens. Respecting their duties and obligations, see Did. of Ant. s. v. Vestales. As regards her worship, it is stated, that every year, on the 1st of March her sacred fire, and the laurel tree which shaded her hearth, were renewed (Macrob, Sat. i. 12 ; Ov. Fabt. iii. 143), and that on the 15th of June her temple was cleaned and purified. The dirt was carried into an angiportus behind the temple, which was locked by a gate that no one VOL. III. VETRANIO. 1249 might enter it. (Ov. Fast. vi. 227, &c. ; Fest. p, 344, ed, Miiller.) The day on which this took place was a dies nefastus, the first half of which was thought to be so inauspicious, that the priestess of Juno was not allowed to comb her hair, to cut her nails, or to approach her husband, while the second half was very favourable to contracting a marriage or entering upon other important undertakings. A few days before that solemnity, on the 9th of June, the Vestalia was celebrated in honour of the goddess, on which occasion none but women walked to the temple, and that with bare feet. On one of these occasions an altar had been dedicated to Ju- piter Pistor. (Ov. Fast. vi. 3. 50 ; comp. Hartung, DieRelig. der Rom. vol. ii. p. Ill, &c.) [L. S.J VE'STIA O'PPIA. [Oppia, No. 2.] VESTI'LIUS, SEX., a man of praetorian rank, put to death, a. d, 32. (Tac. Ann. vi. 9.) VESTPNUS A'TTICUS. [Atticus.] VESTPNUS, JU'LIUS, a sophist, made an abridgment of the lexicon of Pamphilus [Pam- PHiLus, No. 4], and a selection of words from Demosthenes, Thucydides, Isaeus, Isocrates and others. (Suidas, s. v. Ov'i](Tt1vos.) The name of Julius Vestinus ought to be substituted for that of Julius Justinus, which is prefixed as the name of one of the lexicographers to the work of Suidas. C. VESTO'RIUS, of Puteoli, a money-lender, with whom Cicero had large dealings, and who was also a friend of Atticus. (Cic. ad Att. iv. 6, 14, 16, vi. 2, V. 2, ad Att. xiv. 9, 12, 14, et alibi.) VESTRFTIUS SPURINNA. [Spurinna.1 P. VE'STRIUS, a Roman eques and a Pom- peian, was taken prisoner in Africa in b. c. 46, and pardoned by Caesar. (Hirt. B. Afr. 64.) VETFLIUS. 1. C. or M. Vetilius, praetor B.C. 147, was defeated in Spain by Viriathus, taken prisoner and put to death. For an account of his defeat, and the authorities, see Viriathus. 2. Vetilius, a leno, was refused by Q. Me- tellus, the praetor, the bonorum possessio in accord- ance with the will of Juventius, on account of hia infamous mode of life. (Val. Max. vii. 7. § 7.) 3. P. Vetilius, a relation of Sex. Aebutius, and a witness in the case of Caecina. (Cic. pro Caecin. 9.) VETRA'NIO, an officer far advanced in years, who had long served with high reputation, and who was much and generally beloved on account of hia simple manners and amiable temper, commanded the legions in lllyria and Pannonia, at the period (a. d. 350), when Constans was treacherously de- stroyed, and his throne seized by Magnentius. The first impulse of the veteran induced him to write a letter to Constantius promising firm alle- giance, and urging him to advance with all speed that he might in person chastise the usurper. Soon afterwards, however, he was prevailed upon by the solicitations of his troops, and by the pressing representations of the notorious Constantina [Constantina], eldest sister of Constantino the Great, himself to assume the purple at Sirmiura, about the beginning of March, a. d. 350. Being now courted by both of the contending parties, he concluded a treaty with Constantius whom he soon abandoned ; he next entered into close alli- ance with Magnentius, and finally, as detailed in a former article [Constantius], was constrained by dextrous management at the famous confer- ence held on the 25th December near Sardica to abdicate the power which he had exercised for 4 l