Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1274

Rh 1262 VINICIUS. Vindicianus is preserved by Marcellus Empiricus, De Medicam. c. 16. p. 316. [W.A.G.] VINDFCIUS, the name of a slave, who is said to have given information to the consuls of the con- spiracy, which was formed for the restoration of the Tarquins, and who was rewarded in consequence with liberty and the Roman franchise. He is said to have been the first slave manumitted by the Vindicta, the name of which was derived by some persons from that of the slave ; but it is unnecessary to point out the absurdity of this etymology. (Liv. iii. 4, 5 ; comp. Did. of Antiq. s. v. Manumissio.) VINDULLUS, POMPEIUS, a freedman of Cn. Pompev, died at Laodiceia in b. c. 50. (Cic. ad Jtt.i.. §25.) VINICIA'NUS, A'NNIUS, was accused of treason (majestas) together with his father Annius Pollio, towards the latter end of Nero's reign, but was not brought to trial. He afterwards conspired with Camillus Scribonianus against the emperor Claudius, and, when the conspiracy was detected, put an end to his own life. (Tac. Ann. vi. 9; Dion Cass. Ix. 14.) VINiciA'NUS, M.CAE'LIUS, tribune of the plebs, B. c. 5.3, exerted himself to raise Pompey to the dictatorship, and was in consequence defeated when he became a candidate for the curule aedile- ship in B. c. 51. In the civil war he espoused the cause of Caesar, who left him behind in Pontus with two legions after the conquest of Pharnaces in B. c. 48. (Caelius, ap. Cic. ad Fam. viii. 4. § 3 ; Hirt. B. Alex. 77.) VINI'CIUS, or VINU'CIUS. The latter form occurs in inscriptions and in the Fasti, but the former in MSS. and editions, 1. L. Vinicius, tribune of the plebs B. c. 51, put his veto upon a senatusconsultum, directed against Caesar. (Caelius, ap. Cic. ad Fam. viii. 8. § 6.) 2. L. Vinicius, L. f., consul suffectus b. c. 33, was perhaps the same person as the preceding. The accompanying coin was struck by this Vinicius, since we learn from other coins bearing on the ob- verse the head of Augustus, that L. Vinicius was triumvir of the mint under Augustus. The coin annexed has on tlie obverse the head of Concordia, and on the reverse a figure of Victory with l. VINICL (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 343.) COIN OP L. VINICIUS. 3. M. Vinicius, P. f., consul suffectus b. c. 19, commanded in Germany in b. c. 25, and in con- sequence of his successes received the triumphal ornaments ; but as he declined these, an arch was erected to his honour in the Alps. (Dion Cass. liii. 27.) He again commanded in Germany in A. d. 2, and again received the triumphal ornaments and an inscription to his honour, perhaps on his statue in the forum. (Veil. Pat. ii. 104.) 4. P. Vinicius M. f. P. n., the son of No. 3, was consul a. d. 2 with P. Alfenius Vanis, when Tiberius returned to Rome from Rhodes. (Veil. Pat. ii. 10.3.) Seneca mentions this P Vinicius and his brother Lucius as two celebrated orators. VINIUS. (M. Senec. Controv. 2, 3, 4, 20, 21, &c. ; comn L. Senec. Ep. 40.) 5. M. Vinicius, P. p. M. n., the son of No. 4, was bom at Cales, a town in Campania, and is spoken of by Tacitus as " mitis ingenio et comptae facundiae." He was consul in A. D. 30 with C. Cassius Longinus, and it was in this year that the historian Velleius Paterculus dedicated his work to him. [Paterculus.] In a. d. 33 Tiberius gave Julia Livilla, the daughter of Germanicus, in mar- riage to Vinicius ; and as Germanicus was by adoption the son of Tiberius, Vinicius is called the progener of Tiberius. Vinicius was consul a second time in the reign of Claudius, a. d. 45, with Taurus Statilius Corvinus. He was put to death by Mes- salina in the following year, to whom he had be- come an object of suspicion, because she had pre- viously put to death his wife [Julia, No. 8], and likewise an object of hatred because he had refused her embraces. (Tac. Ann. vi. 15, 45 ; Dion Cass. Ix. 25, 27.) 6. Vinicius, the author of a conspiracy against Nero, detected and crushed at Beneventum. (Suet. Ner. 36.) 7. T. Vinicius Julianus, consul suffectus under Titus, A. D. 80. (Fasti.) VILNIUS. L T. ViNius was proscribed by the triumvirs b. c. 43, and owed his life to his wife Tanusia, who concealed him in a chest at the house of his freedman Philopoemen, and gave out that he was dead. She afterwards obtained his pardon from Octavian, who raised Philopoemen to the equestrian rank for his fidelity to his former master. (Dion Cass, xlvii. 7 ; Suet. Oct. 27 ; Appian, B. C. iv. 44, where Vmius is erroneously called Junius, and Philopoemen is also erroneously called Phile- mon.) [Philopoemen, p. 321, a.] 2. T. ViNius, consul in a. d. &9 with the em- peror Galba. Tacitus says that his father was of a praetorian family, and that his maternal grand- father was one of the proscribed ; but as he bears the same name as No. 1, it is probable that the historian has made a mistake, unless he had by adop- tion taken the name of his maternal grandfather.! He first served under Calvisius Sabinus ; and on6 night he accompanied the wife of his commander,! who was dressed as a common soldier, through thoj camp, and committed adultery with her in th« Principia, which was reckoned a sacred spot by the] Romans, because the eagles and standards wer«i| deposited there. For that offence he was put inj irons by order of Caligula, but by the change times was released and obtained successively thej praetorship and the command of a legion. He wag! subsequently exposed to the imputation of having] stolen a gold goblet at the table of the emperor] Claudius. He was notwithstanding appointed, probably during the reign of Nero, to the govern- I ment of Gallia Narbonensis, with the title of pro- i consul, where he ruled with justice and integrity, and he was afterwards in Spain as the legatus of 1 Galba. Through his friendship with Galba he was ■ raised to the consulship on the accession of the latter ; to the empire. During the short reign of Galba | the government devolved almost entirely upon Vinius and Cornelius Laco, the praefect of the praetorian troops. The possession of such great | power developed his evil passions, and he is called by Tacitus "deterrimus raortalium." Vinius recom- mended Galba to choose Otho as his successor, and he was supposed by some to have been privy to the