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

1'226 VARRO. VARRO.
though they had eluded his eager researches at a commencement of the fifth century at all events,
later period of life when he was more fillly aware since they are'freely quoted not only by Gelliuls
of their value. But the words of the poet, although and Nonius Marcellus, to the latter of whom we
to a certain extent ambiguous, certainly do not are indebted for a large proportion of the relics
warrant the interpretation generally assigned to preserved, but are spoken of and cited by Macrothem, nor does there seem to be any good found- bius, Charisius, Diomedes, Priscian, Atilius Fortuation for the story that these and other works of natianus, and the older scholiasts upon Horace and
Varro were destroyed by the orders of Pope Gre- Virgil, in such terms that we can scarcely doubt
gory the Great, in order to conceal the plagiarism that the collection was in their hands.
of St. Augustine. There is no sure evidence that By far the most complete and satisfactory edithey survived the sixth century, and it is by no tion of the fragments of the Menippean Satires and
means improbable that they may have fallen a Libri Logistorici is contained in the volume recently
sacrifice to the fanatic zeal of ignorant churchmen, published by Franc. Oehler, M. Terentii Varronis
who could behold in them nothing save a reposi- Saturarum Menippearnm Reliquiae, 8vo. Quedtory of idle and blasphemous superstition. (See lingb. 1844, to which is prefixed a series of excelL. 1. Krahner, Commentatio de M. Terentii Var- lent dissertations on the Satires of Varro, and the
ronis Antiquitatum Rerum Humanarum atqae Divi- relation in which they stood to the productions of
narum. Libris, 8vo. Hal. Sax. 1834; Franeken, Menippus. Consult Casaubon, De Satura RoDissertatio exlhibens fragmenta Terentii Varronis manorum, lib. ii. cap. ii. See also F. Ley, Comqzae inveniuntur in libris S. Augustini de C. D., mentatio de Vita Scriptisque Menippi Cynici et (te
8vo. Lug. Bat. 1836.) Satura M. Terentii Varronis, 8vo. Colon. AgripV. Saturae. We gather from Quintilian (x. 1. pin. 1843.
~ 95) that the Satires of Varro differed in form As to the remaining prose works of Varro we
from those of earlier writers, such as Ennius, in- can present little except a mere catalogue of titles.
asmuch as they were composed not only in a In verse, however, we possess eighteen short
variety of metres, but contained an admixture of effusions, some of them mere fragments, which
prose also. From the words placed by Cicero in were probably included in his Saturae, or attached
the mouth of Varro (Cic. Acad. i. 2), compared to his Imagines, but they can scarcely belong to
with the statements of later critics (Gell. ii. 18; the piece or pieces to which Cicero alludes when
Macrob. Sat. i. I1), we learn that in these pieces he says (Acad. i. 3), "plurimumque poetis nostris
he copied to a certain extent the productions of omninoque Latinis et literis luminis attulisti et verMenippus the Gadarene [MENIPPUS]. Hence he bis, atque ipse varium et elegans omni fJre nuzmero
designated them as Saturae Menippeae s. Cynicae, poenza fecisti." Quintilian (i. 4. ~ 4) mentions
and is himself styled Var-ro Menippeus by Arno- "Varronem ac Lucretium in Latinis qui praecepta
bius (adv. Gentes, vi. 23), and Cynicus Romanus sapientiae versibus tradiderunt," words by no
by Tertullian (Apolog. 14). They appear to have means explicit, and which moreover leave 1si in
been a series of disquisitions on a vast variety of ignorance whether Terentius Varro or Varro Atasubjects, frequently if not uniformly couched in cinus is the individual indicated. See Eicbstaedt,
the shape of dialogue, the object proposed being De T. Lucretii Cari Vita et Carmine, prefixed to the
the inculcation of moral lessons and serious truths first volume of his edition of Lucretius, p. lxxxvi.
in a familiar, playful, and even jocular style not. 50. 8vo. Lips. 1801. The eighteen " epi(... quadam hilaritate conspersinzus multa admista grams," as they are generally denominated, will
ex intima philosophia, multa dialectice dicta). The be found in Burmann's Anthologia Latina, i. 50,
names of eighteen Satires, mentioned as such, are to 54, 59, 78, ii. 18, 207, 211, iii. 9, 71, 72, 83, 100,
be found in ancient writers, but the titles of ninety- 107, 147, 148, v. 50, or No. 34-51, ed. Meyer.
six pieces by Varro have been collected from the On Historico-Antiquarian topics we hear of De
grammarians and other sources, of which the whole COltu Deorwm Liber- De Vita Popzli Ronzani,
or the greater number ought to be ranked under this otherwise, De Vita Patrum, dedicated to Atticus,
head. Among those, concerning which no doubt of which the eleventh book is quoted —De Gente
exists, we find one inscribed Als 7raeas of yipozm'er Populi Romani Libri IV.-rDe Initiis Urbis Romae
- another Nescis quid serus vesper vehat —a third Liber - De Republica, of which the twentieth book
- r r7 7 a dlcp cv~poV —all of them apparently is quoted-De Familiis Trojanis-Annales, of
illustrations of popular proverbs —the nEIsp iseE- which the third book is quoted - Belluma PunitUeWrwv would dwell upon the luxurious indulgences cure secundum, of which the second book is quoted
of the table, while the TpUKdprvos (Appian, B. C. - but although we find the whole of the above
ii. 9), which, however, we are not specially told titles in the grammarians, it seems probable that
was a satire, may have been an exposure of the several of them belong to particular sections of the
schemes of the first triumvirate. Antiquitates.
The Libri Logistorici, although written entirely In biography, De Vita sua Liber, and a producin prose, bore some affinity to the Saturae, being tion of a very singular character, Hebdomnades vel
intended to expose and correct the vices and follies De Imaginibus, which, according to the most natural
of the day, by contrasting them with the pure and explanation of the obscure description in Pliny
simple manners and sentiments of the most dis- compared with the allusions found elsewhere, must
tinguished sages of the olden time. Four essays have been a sort of album containing (engraved?)
are quoted under this name. 1. Catus, de Liberis portraits of seven hundred remarkable personages
educandis. 2. Marius, de Iortuna. 3. Messala, from Homer and Hesiod downwards, with a biode Valetudine. 4. Tubero, de Origine husmana; but graphical notice and an epigram attached to each.
at least twelve more may be added to the list. How these representations were executed and mulOf the Saturae and Libri Logistorici nothing tiplied is a problem very hard to solve, and one
now remains but a few short mutilated fragments, which has excited much discussion. (See Plin.
but they appear to have existed entire until the I iV. xxxv. 2; Gell. iii. 10, 11; Auson. Alonell