Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1275

Rh conspiracy against Galba, He was notwithstanding killed by Otho's soldiers after the death of Galba, his head cut oif and carried in triumph to Otho. He was buried by his daughter Crispina, who pur- chased his head of his murderers ; but his testa- ment was disregarded on account of the large wealth which he left behind him. (Tac. Hist. i. 1, 6, 11, 12, 13, 32, 37, 42, 48 ; Suet. Galb. 14, ViteU. 7; Plut. Galb. 12, foil, 27.) VI'OLENS, an agnomen of L. Volumnius Flarama, consul B. c. 307 and 296. [Flamma.]  VIPSA'NIA AGRIPPl'NA. 1. The daughter of M. Vipsanius Agrippa by his first wife Pom- ponia, the daughter of T. Pomponius Atticus, the friend of Cicero. [Pomponia, No. 3.] Augustus gave her in marriage to his step-son Tiberius, by whom she was much beloved ; but after she had borne him a son, Drusus, and at a time when she was pregnant, Tiberius was compelled to divorce her by the command of the emperor, in order to marry Julia, the daughter of the latter. Vipsania afterwards married Asinius Gallus, whom Tiberius always disliked in consequence, more especially as Gallus asserted that he had previously carried on an adulterous intercourse with Vipsania, and that Drusus was his son. Vipsania died a natural death in A. B. 20. (Dion Cass. liv. 31, Ivii. 2 ; Suet. Tib. 7 ; Tac. Ann. i. 12, iii. 19.)

2. The daughter of M. Vipsanius Agrippa by his second wife Julia, is better known by the name ofAgrippina. [Agrippina.]  M. VIPSA'NIUS AGRIPPA. [Agrippa.]  VIPSA'NIUS LAENAS, condemned in a. d. 56 on account of his mal-administration of the pro- vince of Sardinia. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 30.)  VIPSTA'NUS APRONIA'NUS. [Aproni- anus.]  VIPSTA'NUS GALLUS, praetor a.d. 17, died in his year of office. (Tac. Ann. ii. 51.)  VIPSTA'NUS MESSALLA. [Messalla, No. 14, p. 1053, a.]  VIPSTA'NUS PUBLFCOLA. [Publi- COLA.] <section end="Vipstanus Publicola" /> <section begin="Virbius" />VI'RBIUS, an ancient mythical king of Aricia and a favcfurite of Diana (dea Nemorensis)^ who, when he had died, called him to life and intrusted him to the care of the nymph Aegeria. (Serv. ad Aen. vii. 761.) The fact of his being a favourite of Diana (the Taurian goddess) seems to have led the Romans to identify him with Hippolytus who, ac- cording to some traditions, had established the worship of Diana. (Ov. Met. xv. 545.) [L. S.] <section end="Virbius" /> <section begin="Virgilianus, Q. Fabius" />VIRGILIA'NUS, Q. FA'BIUS, the legatus of App. Claudius Pulcher in Cilicia in B. c. 51. He espoused the cause of Pompey on the breaking out of the civil Avar in B. c. 49. (Cic. ad Fam. iii. 3, 4, ad Ait. viii. 1 1, a.) <section end="Virgilianus, Q. Fabius" /> <section begin="Virgilianus Juncus" />VIRGILIA'NUS JUNCUS. [Juncus.] <section end="Virgilianus Juncus" /> <section begin="Virgilianus Pedo" />VIRGILIA'NUS PEDO. [Pedo.] <section end="Virgilianus Pedo" /> <section begin="Virgilius" />VIRGFLIUS, or VERGFLIUS. The latter appears to be the more correct orthography, as in the name of Virginius or Verginius, but custom has given the preference in modern times to Vfr- gilius.

1. M, ViRGiLius, the f rater or first cousin of T. Aufidius, was tribune of the plebs in B. c. 87, when, at the instigation of the consul Cinna, he brought an accusation against Sulla, when the latter was on the point of crossing over to Greece to conduct the war against Mithridates; but Sulla left Rome without paying any attention to Virgilius or his accusation. He is called Virginius by Plutarch. (Cic. Brut. 48; Plut. Sull 10.)

2., was praeter B. C. 62, and had Q. Cicero, the brother of the orator, as one of his colleagues. In the following year, B. C. 61, he governed Sicily as propraetor, where P. Clodius served under him as quaestor. He was still in Sicily in B. C. 58, when Cicero was banished; and notwithstanding his friendship with Cicero, and his having been a colleague of his brother in the praetorship, he refused to allow Cicero to seek refuge in his province. (Cic. pro Planc. 40, ad Q. Fr. i. 2. § 2; Schol. Bob. in Clod. p. 333, ed. Orelli; Plut. Cic. 32.) In the civil war Virgilius espoused the Pompeian party, and had the command of Thapsus, together with a fleet, in B. C. 46. After the battle of Thapsus, Virgilius at first refused to surrender the town; but when he saw that all resistance was hopeless, he subsequently surrendered the place to Caninius Rebilus, whom Caesar had left to besiege it. (Hirt. B. Afr. 28, 86, 93.)

3., legatus of Piso in Macedonia in B. C. 57, must probably have been a different person from the preceding, since the propraetor of Sicily could hardly have returned to Rome in time to accompany Piso to his province. (Cic. de Prov. Cons. 4.) <section end="Virgilius" /> <section begin="P. Virgilius" />P. VIRGI′LIUS, or VERGI′LIUS MARO, was bom on the 15th of October, B. C. 70 in the first consulship of Cn. Pompeius Magnus and M. Licinius Crassus, at Andes, a small village near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul. The tradition, though an old one, which identifies Andes with the modern village of Pietola, may be accepted as a tradition, without being accepted as a truth. The poet Horace, afterwards one of his friends, was born B. C. 65; and Octavianus Caesar, afterwards the emperor Augustus, and his patron, in B. C. 63, in the consulship of M. Tullius Cicero. Virgil's father probably had a small estate which he cultivated: his mother's name was Maia. The son was educated at Cremona and Mediolanum (Milan), and he took the toga virilis at Cremona on the day on which he commenced his sixteenth year in B. C. 55, which was the second consulship of Cn. Pompeius Magnus and M. Licinius Crassus. On the same day, according to Donatus, the poet Lucretius died, in his forty-first year. It is said that Virgil subsequently studied at Neapolis (Naples) under Parthenius, a native of Bithynia, from whom he learned Greek (Macrob. Sat. v. 17); and the minute industry of the grammarians has pointed out the following line (Georg. i. 437) as borrowed from his master:

(Compare Gellius xiii. 26; and ).

He was also instructed by Syron an Epicurean, and probably at Rome. Virgil's writings prove that he received a learned education, and traces of Epicurean opinions are apparent in them. The health of Virgilius was always feeble, and there is no evidence of his attempting to rise by those means by which a Roman gained distinction, oratory and the practice of arms. Indeed at the time when he was born, Cisalpine Gaul was not included within the term "Italy," and it was not till B. C. 89 that a Lex Pompeia gave even the Jus Latii to the inhabitants of Gallia Transpadana, and the privilege of obtaining the Roman civitas by <section end="P. Virgilius" />