Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/1007

 mentioned by Macrobius (Saturnalia, iii. 6, 6) and Servius (on Aen. x. 245) as a commentator on Virgil.

VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, MARCUS (c. 19 –c. 31), Roman historian. Although his praenomen is given as Marcus by Priscian, some modern scholars identify him with Gaius Velleius Paterculus, whose name occurs in an inscription on a north African milestone (C.I.L. viii. 10, 311). He belonged to a distinguished Campanian family, and early entered the army. He served as military tribune in Thrace, Macedonia, Greece and the East, and in 2 was present at the interview on the Euphrates between Gaius Caesar, grandson of Augustus, and the Parthian king. Afterwards, as praefect of cavalry and legatus, he served for eight years (from 4) in Germany and Pannonia under Tiberius. For his services he was rewarded with the quaestorship in 7, and, together with his brother, with the praetorship in 15. He was still alive in 30, for history contains many references to the consulship of M. Vinicius in that year. It has been conjectured that he was put to death in 31 as a friend of Sejanus, whose praises he celebrates in a most fulsome manner.

He wrote a compendium of Roman history in two books dedicated to M. Vinicius, from the dispersion of the Greeks after the siege of Troy down to the death of Livia ( 29). The first book brings the history down to the destruction of Carthage, 146 ; portions of it are wanting, including the beginning. The later history, especially the period from the death of Caesar, 44, to the death of Augustus, 14, is treated in much greater detail. Brief notices are given of Greek and Roman literature, but it is strange that no mention is made of Plautus, Horace and Propertius. The author is a vain and shallow courtier, and destitute of real historical insight, although generally trustworthy in his statements of individual facts. He may be regarded as a courtly annalist rather than an historian. His knowledge is superficial, his blunders numerous, his chronology inconsistent. He labours at portrait-painting, but his portraits are daubs. On Caesar, Augustus and above all on his patron Tiberius, he lavishes praise or flattery. The repetitions, redundancies, and slovenliness of expression which disfigure the work may be partly due to the haste with which (as the author frequently reminds us) it was written. Some blemishes of style, particularly the clumsy and involved structure of his sentences, may perhaps be ascribed to insufficient literary training. The inflated rhetoric, the straining after effect by means of hyperbole, antithesis and epigram, mark the degenerate taste of the Silver Age, of which Paterculus is the earliest example. He purposed to write a fuller history of the later period, which should include the civil war between Caesar and Pompey and the wars of Tiberius; but there is no evidence that he carried out this intention. His chief authorities were Cato’s Origines, the Annales of Q. Hortensius, Pompeius Trogus, Cornelius Nepos and Livy.

VELLETRI (anc. Velitrae), a town and episcopal see of the province of Rome, Italy, at the south-east foot of the outer ring wall of the Alban crater, 26 m. S.E. of Rome by rail, 1155 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 14,243 (town), 18,734 (commune). It is the seat of the bishop of Ostia, and has a statue of Pope Clement VIII. Good wine is made in the fertile vineyards of the district, and there is a government experimental station for viticulture. Velletri is the junction of the Terracina line and a branch to Segni on the main line to Naples. Velletri has a fine view of the Volscian mountains and over the Pomptine Marshes to the Circeian promontory. The town contains a few objects of interest; at the highest point is the prominent municipal palace, containing a few ancient inscriptions, among them one relating to a restoration of the amphitheatre under Valentinian and Valens. The internal façade of the Palazzo Ginetti is finely decorated with stucco, and has a curious detached baroque staircase by Martino Lunghi the younger, which Burckhardt calls unique if only for the view to which its arched colonnades serve as a frame. The lofty campanile of S. Maria in Trivio, erected in 1353 in gratitude for the liberation of the city from a plague which devastated it in 1348, is in the style of contemporary brick campanili in Rome, but built mainly of black selce, with white marble columns at the windows. The cathedral (the see of the titular bishop of Ostia) was reconstructed in 1660, but contains traces of the older structure. Of the ancient town nothing practically remains above ground; scanty traces of the city walls have been excavated (and covered again) near the railway station, and the present walls are entirely medieval.

The ancient city of Velitrae was Volscian in Republican times, and it is the only Volscian town of which an inscription in that language is preserved (4th century ). It mentions the two principal magistrates as medix. It was, however, a member of the Latin League in 499, so that in origin it may have been Latin and have fallen into Volscian hands later. It was important as commanding the approach to the valley between the Alban and Volscian mountains. In 494 it was taken from the Volscians and became a Roman colony. This was strengthened in 404, but in 393 Velitrae regained its freedom and was Rome’s strongest opponent; it was only reduced in 338, when the freedom of Latium finally perished. Its resistance was punished by the destruction of its walls and the banishment of its town councillors to Etruria, while their lands were handed over to Roman colonists. We hear little or nothing of it subsequently except as the home of the gens Octavia, to which the Emperor Augustus belonged. The neighbourhood contains some remains of villas, but not proportionately very many; there are more on the side towards Lanuvium (W.). The Via Appia passed considerably below the town (some 5 m. away), which was reached by a branch road from it, diverging at the post station of Sublanuvio. During the whole of the middle ages it was subject to the papacy.

VELLORE, a town of British India, in the North Arcot district of Madras, on the river Palar and the South Indian railway, 87 m. W. of Madras city. Pop. (1901) 43,537. It has a strongly built fortress, which was famous in the wars of the Carnatic. It dates traditionally from the 13th century, but more probably only from the 17th. It is a fine example of Indian military architecture, and contains a temple adorned with admirable sculptures. In 1780 it withstood a siege for two years by Hyder Ali. After the fall of Seringapatam (1799) Vellore was selected as the residence of the sons of Tippoo Sahib, and to their intrigues has been attributed the mutiny of the sepoys here in 1806. An American: mission manages a high school, raised to the rank of a college in 1898; and the police training school for the presidency is also situated here. Vellore has a large grain trade, and flowers are cultivated in the vicinity.

VELVET, a silken textile fabric having a short dense piled surface. In all probability the art of velvet-weaving originated in the Far East; and it is not till about the beginning of the 14th century that we find any mention of the textile. The peculiar properties of velvet, the splendid yet softened depth of dye-colour it exhibited, at once marked it out as a fit material for ecclesiastical vestments, royal and state robes, and sumptuous hangings; and the most magnificent textures of medieval times were Italian velvets. These were in many ways most effectively treated for ornamentation, such as by varying the colour of the pile, by producing pile of different lengths (pile