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

1228 VARRO. VARUS.
not, as has been generally supposed, M. Terentius Varro was consequently the first cousin of Cicero.
Varro, but Varro Atacinus. He believes, more- He was trained by his father in a knowledge of
over, that we must interpret the conplet in Ovid the civil law. He served as tribune of the soldiers
(ex Pont. iv. 16. 21), in Asia about B. C. 79, and during Cicero's banish" Velivolique maris vates, cui credere possis ment he drew up the rogatio which the tribune
Carmina coeruleos composuisse deos," 5 T. Fadius Gallus intended to bring forward to
recall the orator. Varro died after holding the
as an allusion to this production, and that Solinus office of curule aedile. (Cic. Brut. 76, Verr. i. 28,
(Polyhist. 1 1), when he quotes " Varro de Litora- ad Att. iii. 23, where some editions have T. Visellibus," had in his eye either the Chorographia or lius.) Varro had an intrigue with Otacilia, of
the Libri Navales. Eight lines adduced by Ser- which Valerius Maximus (viii. 2. ~ 2) relates a
vius (ad Virg. Georg, i. 375, ii. 404), as the words tale, but it is not mentioned by Cicero. (Comp.
of " Varro," he supposes to be extracted from these Drumann, Geschickte Roms, vol. v. p. 214.)
books. (Anthol. Lat. v. 48, 49, ed. Burmann, or 2. C. VISELLIUS C. F. C. N. VARRO, son appaNo. 78, ed. Meyer.) rently of No. 1, consul suffectus A. D: 12, two years
IV. A. Gellius (x. 7) notices a book in which before the death of Augustus. (Fasti Capit.) I-e
"Varro " descanted upon Europe, and Festus cites appears to be the same as the Visellius Varro, who
from " Varro in Europa," the expression futurt sub was legatus of Lower Germany ill A. D. 21. (Tac.
sedefuissent, which lead us to conclude that it was Ann. iii. 41.)
in verse. If we admit that Varro Atacinus is 3. L.VISELLIUS C. F. C. N. VARRO, son of No. 2,
the inldividual here designated, we may conjecture was consul A. nD. 24 with Ser. Cornelius Cethegus.
that the " Europa " formed a portion either of the In order to please Sejanus, Varro in his consulship
Chorographia or of the Libri Navales. accused C. Silius, who had commanded in Germany
V. Belunt Sequanicuam, an heroic poem in not at the same time as his father, and he covered his
less than two books (Priscian. p. 377, ed. Putsch.) disgraceful compliance with the wishes of Sejanus
on the campaign of Julius Caesar against the league by the pretext of his father's enmity against Silius.
formed by Vercingetorix, the details of which are (Tac. Ann. iv. 17, 19.) [SILUS, No. 5.]
given in the seventh book of the Gallic War. One VARRONIA'NUS, sonof the emperor Jovianus,
line remains. (See Priscian. 1. c.) was consul with his father in A. D. 364. (Eutrop.
VI. Amatory elegies, the title of the collection x. 18; Amm. Marc. xxv. ]0; Socrat. I. E. iii.
being, it has been conjectured, Leucadia. Thus 26, iv. 1.)
Propertius has (ii. 25. 85) VARUS, a cognomen in many Roman gentes,
" Haec quoque perfecto ludebat Jasone Varro, was indicative, like many other Roman cognomens,
Varro Leucadiae maxima fama suae." of a bodily defect or peculiarity; such as Capito,
Naso, Paetus, Strabo, Scau-rus, &c. Yarus signified
(al. leg. max. csura al. mnax. flammna), and Ovid a person who had his legs bent inwards (varun
(Trist. ii. 439), distortis csuribus, Hor. Sat. i. 3. 47), and was op" Is quoque, Phasiacas Argo qui duxit in undas, posed to Valgus, which signified a person having
Non potuit Veneris furta tacere suae. his legs turned outwards.
VARUS. 1. L. VARUS, an Epicurean, and a
VII. Epigrammata. One of these survives, an friend of Caesar, mentioned by Quintilian (vi. 3.
epitaph on Licinus, the freedman of Augustus. See ~ 78). See VARUS, ATIUS, No. 2, sub finem.
znthol. Lat. ii. 37, ed. Burmann, or No. 77, ed. 2. VARUS, a friend and patron of Virgil, to whom
Meyer. he dedicated his sixth eclogue, and whom he menIX. Saturae. These, we are assured by Horace tions in the ninth (ix. 27). He is perhaps the
(Sat. i. 10. 46), were a failure. same as Q. Atius Varus, one of Caesar's officers.
"Hoc erat, experto frustra Varrone Atacino." [VARUS, ATIUS, NO. 2.]
3. VARUS, to whom Horace addresses one of his
If we can trust the old commentators on this odes (i. 18), is perhaps the same as the cr'tic Quinpassage, Varro was sensible of his own deficiencies, tilius (Hor. Ar. Poet. 438), whose death Horace
and never formally published his essays in this deplores. (Caron. i. 24.) Respecting him see
department, so that we need feel no surprise that VARUS, QUINTILIUS, No. 12.
no trace of them should have remained. VARUS, ALFE'NUS, whose praenomen may
We may observe that several of the fragments have been Publius, was a pupil of Servius Sulof this author have been quoted by the grammarians, picius, and the only pupil of Servilus from whom
in consequence of the phraseology having been there are any excerpts in the Digest. Nothing
imitated by Virgil, who has appropriated some is known about him except from a story preserved
lines entire without change. (Hieron. C/Iron. by the scholiast Acron, in his notes on the Satires
Euseb. Olymp. clxxiv. 3; Porphyr. ad Hor. Sat. of Horace. (Sat. i. 3. 130.) The scholiast assumes
i. 10. 46; Ruhnken. ins lion. hymn. in Cerer. &c., the " Alfenus Vafer " of Horace to be the lawyer,
epist. crit. ii.; Wernsdorf, Poetae Lat. MKin. vol. v. and says that he was a native of Cremona, where
pt. iii. p. 1385, foll. 7; Wiillner, Commesntatio de he carried on the trade of a barber or a botcher of
P. Terentii Varronis Vita et Scriptis, 4to. Monaster. shoes (for there are both readings, sutor and ton1829. See also the notes of Meyer, in his edition sor); that he came to Rome, where he became a
of the Anthloloqia Lcrtina, No. 77, 78.) [W. R.] pupil of Servius Sulpicius, attained the dignity of
VARRO, VIBI'DIUS, expelled from the senate the consulship, and was honoured with a public
by Tiberius, in A. D. 17, on account of having lost funeral. Pomponius also states that Varus athis property by extravagance. (Tac. Ann. ii. 48.) tained the consular dignity; but this will not prove
VARRO, VTSE'LLIUS. 1. C. VISELLIUS the rest of the scholiast's story to be true. The
VARRO, the son of the jurist C. Aculeo, who P. Alfenius Varus, who was consul in A. D. 2, call
married Helvia, the sister of Cicero's mother. hardly be the jurist who was the pupil of Servius;