A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1222 VARRO. VARRO.
has given an account (Rheinisches Museum, vol. i. only returned consul, but returned alone, in order
p. 106, fol. Neue Folge, 1842), that a MS. of the that he might preside at the comitia for the elecThyestes was extant in the eighth century of our tion of his colleague. The other consul chosen
era. It is from this Codex that we learn that was L. Aemilius Paulus, one of the leaders of the
Rufus was the cognomen of Varius; and it is fur- aristocratical party. The history of their campaign
ther stated that the Tlhyestes was performed after against Hannibal, which was terminated by the
the return of Augustus from the battle of Actium, memorable defeat at Cannae, is related elsewhere.
and that the poet received a million of sesterces [HANNIBAL, p. 336.] The battle was fought by
(sestertium decies) for it. (Hor. Sat. i. 9. 23, Carm. Varro against the advice of Paulus. The Roman
i. 6, Ar. Poet, 55; Martial, viii. 18, Quintil. x. 1. army was ail but annihilated. Paulus and almost
~ 98; Macrob. Sat. ii. 4; Porphyr. ad Horat. all the officers perished. Varro was one of the
Carm. i. 6; Donat. Fit. ViJrg. xv. ~ 56.) Weichert few who escaped, and reached Venusia in safety,
has collected with much industry, and combined with about seventy horsemen. His conduct after
with much ingenuity all that can be fixed with the battle seems to have been deserving of high
certainty, or surmised with probability concerning praise. He proceeded to Canusium, where the
Varius, but he is obliged to acknowledge that remnant of the Roman army had taken refuge, and
with the exception of the few facts detailed above there, with great presence of mind, adopted every
everything which has been advanced, rests upon precaution which the exigencies of the case resimple conjecture. See his essay, " De Lucii Varii quired. (Dion Cass. Fragm. xlix. p. 24, Reim.)
et Cassii Parmensis Vita et Carminibus," 8vo. His conduct was appreciated by the senate and
Grim. 1836. [W. R.] the people, and his defeat was forgotten in the
VA'RRIUS, K. AEMI'LIUS K. F. QUI- services he had lately rendered. On his return to
RINA, an architect, known by an extant inscrip- the city all classes went out to meet him, and the
tion, in which he is described as Architectus senate returned him thanks because he had not
Exereit., from which it appears that he devoted despaired of the commonwealth. (Liv. xxii. 25,
especial attention to military engineering, which, 26, 35-61; Polyb. iii. 106-116; PIut. Fab. 14
among the ancients, was always considered a -18; Appian, Annib. 17-26; Zonar. ix. 1; Val.
branch of architecture. (Donati, Supple/m. vol. i. Max. iii. 4. ~ 4; Oros. iv. 16; Eutrop. iii. 10
p. 38, No. 1; Sillig, Catal. Artific. Appendix, Cic. Brut. 19, Cato, 20.)
s. v.; R. Rochette, Lettre a M. Sc7orn, p. 422, 2d Varro continued to be employed in Italy for
ed.) [P. S.] several successive years in important military comVARRO, ATACI'NUS. [See below, VARRO, mands till nearly the close of the Punic war. In
P. TERENTIUS.] B. C. 203, he was one of the three ambassadors
VARRO, CINGO'NIUS, a Roman senator sent to Philip in Macedonia, and three years afterunder Nero, supported the claims of Nymphidius wards (B. C. 200) was again sent on an embassy to
to the throne on the death of Nero, and was put Africa to arrange the terms of peace with Vermina,
to death in consequence by Galba, being at the the son of Syphax. On his return in the course of
time consul designatus. (Tac. Ann. xiv. 45, Hist. the same year, Varro was appointed one of the
i. 6, 37; Plut. Galb. 14, 15.) triumvirs for settling new colonists at Venusia.
VARRO, RU'BRIUS. [RBrJs us, No. 2.] (Liv. xxiii. 32, xxv. 6, xxvii. 35, xxx. 26, xxxi.
VARRO, TERE'NTIUS. 1. C. TERENTIUS 11, 49.)
VARRO, consul B. C. 216 with L. Aemilius Paulus. 2. A TERENTIUS VARRO, served in Greece ir
Varro is said to have been the son of a butcher, B.C. 189, and was elected praetor in B.C. 184,
to have carried on business himself as a factor in when he obtained Nearer Spain as his province.
his early years, and to have risen to eminence by He carried on the war with success, defeated the
pleading the causes of the lower classes in opposi- Celtiberi in several battles, and on his return to
tion to the opinion of all good men. (Liv. xxii. Rome in B. C. 182, received the honour of an ovation,
25, foll.; Val. Max. iii. 4. ~ 4.) Whether these which is recorded in the Triumphal Fasti. In
tales are true or exaggerated, cannot be ascer- B. c. 172, Varro was sent on an embassy to the
tained; but it may be regarded as certain that he Illyrian king Gentius, and in B. c. 167 was one of
sprung from the lower classes, and was looked the ten commissioners appointed to settle the affairs
upon as the leading champion of the popular party. of Macedonia, in conjunction with Aemilins Paulus
He cannot have been such a despicable person as after the conquest of Perseus. (Liv. xxxvii. 48,
Livy represents, for otherwise the senate would 49, xxxix. 32, 38, 41, 56, xl. 2, 16.)
not have gone out to meet him after the battle of 3. M. TERENTIUS VARRO, the celebrated anCannae to return him thanks because he had not tiquary. See below.
despaired of his country; nor would he have been 4. M.TERENTIUS VARRO LUCULLUS, consul B.C.
employed, as we shall find to have been the case, 73, was brother of L. Lucullus, the conqueror of
during the remainder of the war in important Mithridates, and was adopted by M. Terentius
military commands. Varro is first mentioned in Varro. An account of him is given under LuB. C. 217, when he supported the bill for giving to CULLUS, No. 6.
M. Minucius Rufus, the master of the horse, power 5. A. TERENTIUS VARRO MURENA, is first
equal to that of the dictator Q. Fabius Maximus. mentioned in B. C. 69, when he was a witness in
Varro had been praetor in the year before, and the case of A. Caecina, whom Cicero defended in
had previously filled the offices of quaestor and of that year. Cicero mentions him in his correspondplebeian and curule aedile. The people now re- ence as one of his friends. He belonged to the
solved to raise him to the consulship, thinking that aristocratical party, and served under Pompey- in
it only needed a man of energy and decision at the Greece, in B. c. 48. (Cic. pro Caec. 9, ad Fans.
head of an overwhelming force to bring the war xiii. 22, xvi. 12; Caes. B. C. iii. 19.)
to a close. The aristocracy offered in vain the 6. A TERENTIUS VARRO MUTRENA, Consul
greatest opposition to his election; he was not I B. A. 23, is spoken of laider MIURENA, No. 7.