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 appears that in the 12th century the image began to be identified with one preserved at Rome, and in the popular speech the image, too, was called Veronica. It is interesting to note that the fanciful derivation of the same Veronica from the words Vera icon “true image”—is not, as has been thought, of modern origin, since it occurs in the Otia Imperialia (iii. 25) of Gervase of Tilbury (fl. 1211), who says: “Est ergo Veronica pictura Domini vera.” In several churches the office of St Veronica, matron, is observed on various dates.

VERRES, GAIUS (c. 120–43 ), Roman magistrate, notorious for his misgovernment of Sicily. It is not known to what gens he belonged. He at first supported Marius and the popular party, but soon went over to the other side. Sulla made him a present of land at Beneventum, and secured him against punishment for embezzlement. In 80, Verres was quaestor in Asia on the staff of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella, governor of Cilicia. The governor and his subordinate plundered in concert, till in 78 Dolabella had to stand his trial at Rome, and was convicted, mainly on the evidence of Verres, who thus secured a pardon for himself. In 74, by a lavish use of bribes, Verres secured the city praetorship, and, as a creature of Sulla, abused his authority to further the political ends of his party. He was then sent as governor to Sicily, the richest of the Roman provinces. The people were for the most part prosperous and contented, but under Verres the island experienced more misery and desolation than during the time of the first Punic or the recent servile wars. The corn-growers and the revenue collectors were ruined by exorbitant imposts or by the iniquitous cancelling of contracts; temples and private houses were robbed of their works of art; and the rights of Roman citizens were disregarded. Verres returned to Rome in 70, and in the same year, at the request of the Sicilians, Cicero prosecuted him. Verres entrusted his defence to the most eminent of Roman advocates, Q. Hortensius, and he had the sympathy and support of several of the leading Roman nobles. The court was com- posed exclusively of senators, some of whom might have been his personal friends. But the presiding judge, the city praetor, M'. Acilius Glabrio, was a thoroughly honest man, and his assessors were at least not accessible to bribery. Verres vainly tried to get the trial postponed till 69 when his friend Metellus would be the presiding judge, but in August Cicero opened the case. The effect of the first brief speech was so overwhelming that Hortensius refused to reply, and recommended his client to leave the country. Before the expiration of the nine days allowed for the prosecution Verres was on his way to Massilia. There he lived in exile till 43, when he was proscribed by Antony, the reason alleged being his refusal to surrender some of his art treasures which Antony coveted. Verres may not have been quite so black as he is painted by Cicero, on whose speeches we depend entirely for our knowledge of him, but there can hardly be a doubt that he stood pre-eminent among the worst specimens of Roman provincial governors. Of the seven Verrine orations only two were actually delivered; the remaining five were compiled from the depositions of witnesses, and published after the flight of Verres.

VERRIUS FLACCUS, MARCUS (c. 10 ), Roman grammarian and teacher, flourished under Augustus and Tiberius. He was a freedman, and his manumitter has been identified with Verrius Flaccus, an authority on pontifical law; but for chronological reasons the name of Veranius Flaccus, a writer on augury, has been suggested (Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Lit. 199, 4). He gained such a reputation by his methods of instruction that he was summoned to court to bring up Gaius and Lucius, the grandsons of Augustus. He removed there with his whole school, and his salary was greatly increased on the condition that he took no fresh pupils. He died at an advanced age during the reign of Tiberius (Suetonius, De Grammaticis, 17), and a statue in his honour was erected at Praeneste, in a marble recess, with inscriptions from his Fasti. Flaccus was also a distinguished philologist and antiquarian investigator. For his most important work (De Verborum Significatu) see Festus, Sextus. Of the calendar of Roman festivals (Fasti Praenestini) engraved on marble and set up in the forum at Praeneste, some fragments were discovered (1771) at some distance from the town itself in a Christian building of later date, and some consular fasti in the forum itself (1778). The collection was subsequently increased by two new fragments.

Other lost works of Flaccus were: De Orthographia: De Obscuris Catonis, an elucidation of obscurities in the writings of the elder Cato; Saturnus, dealing with questions of Roman ritual; Rerum memoria dignarum libri, an encyclopaedic work much used by Pliny the elder; Res Etruscae, probably on augury.

VERROCCHIO, ANDREA DEL (1435–1488), Italian goldsmith, sculptor and painter, was born at Florence. He was the son of Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, and took his name from his master, the goldsmith Giuliano Verrocchi. Except through his works, little is known of his life. As a painter he occupies an important position from the fact that Leonardo da Vinci and Lorenzo di Credi worked for many years in his bottéga as pupils and assistants. Only one existing painting can be attributed with absolute certainty to Verrocchio’s hand, the celebrated “Baptism of Christ,” originally painted for the monks of Vallombrosa, and now in the academy of Florence. The figures of Christ and the Baptist are executed with great vigour and refinement of touch, but are rather hard and angular in style. The two angels are of a much more graceful cast; the face of one is of especial beauty, and Vasari is probably right in saying that this head was painted by the young Leonardo. Other pictures from Verrocchio’s bottéga probably exist, as, for example, two in the National Gallery of London formerly attributed to Ant. Pollaiuolo—“Tobias and the Angel” (No. 781) and the very lovely “Madonna and Angels” (No. 296), both very brilliant and jewel-like in colour. This exquisite painting may possibly have been painted from Verrocchio’s design by Lorenzo di Credi while he was under the immediate influence of his wonderful fellow-pupil, Da Vinci.

In examining Verrocchio’s work as a sculptor we are on surer ground. One of his earliest works was the beautiful marble medallion of the Madonna, over the tomb of Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo in the church of Santa Croce at Florence. In 1472 Verrocchio completed the fine tomb of Giovanni and Piero de' Medici, between the sacristy and the lady chapel of San Lorenzo at Florence. This consists of a great porphyry sarcophagus enriched with magnificent acanthus foliage in bronze. Above it is a graceful open bronze grill, made like a network of cordage. In 1474 Verrocchio began the monument to Cardinal Forteguerra at the west end of Pistoia cathedral. The kneeling figure of the cardinal was never completed, and now lies in a room of La Sapienza, but the whole design is shown in what is probably Verrocchio’s original clay sketch, now in the South Kensington Museum. Though this work was designed by Verrocchio, the actual execution of it was entrusted to his assistant, the Florentine Lorenzetto. In 1476 Verrocchio modelled and cast the fine but too realistic bronze statue of David, now in the Bargello (Florence); and in the following year he completed one of the reliefs of the magnificent silver altar-frontal of the Florentine baptistery, that representing the “Beheading of St John.” Verrocchio’s other works in the precious metals are now lost, but Vasari records that he made many elaborate pieces of plate and jewelry, such as morses for copes, as well as a series of silver statues of the Apostles for the pope’s chapel in the Vatican. Between 1478 and 1483 he was occupied in making the bronze group of the “Unbelief of St Thomas,” which still stands in