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

VERRES. VERUS. 1245
partly by curiosity to behold a criminal who had Cicero's own division of the impeachment is the
scourged and crucified Roman citizens, who had following:
respected neither local nor national shrines, and who (1. In Q. Caecilium or Divinatio.
boasted that wealth would even yet rescue the 1. Preliminary 2. Proemium —Actio Primamurderer, the violator, and the temple-robber from Statement of the Case.
the laws of man and from the nemesis of the Gods. These alone were spoken.
The provincials scrupled not to avow that if Verres 3. Verres's official life to B. C. 73.
were acquitted, they would petition the senate to fouratded ons 4 Jurisdictio Siciliensis.
rescind at once the laws against malversation, that the Deposi- 5. Oratio Frumentaria.
so for the time to come provincial governors might tions. 6. De Signis.
plunder, merely to enrich themselves, and not also 7. — De Suppliciis.
to provide the means of averting penalties which These were circulated as documents or manifestoes
were never enforced. of the cause after the flight of Verres. A good
The fact that of the seven Verrine orations- abstract of the Verrine Impeachment is given by
for the Divinatio in Caecilium belongs to them - Drumann (Geschicdte Roms, vol. v. p. 263-328,
two only, the Divinatio and the Actio Prima, were Tullii.) [W. B. D.]
spoken, while the remaining five were compiled VE'RRIUS FLACCUS, [FLACCUS.]
from the depositions after the verdict, may seem at VERRUCOSUS, an agnomen of Q. Fabius
first sight to detract from their oratorical if not Maximus [MAxIMus, No. 4], and of Asinius
from their literary value. But so perfectly has Pollio, consul A. D. 81. [POLLIO, No. 4.]
Cicero imparted to the entire series the semblance VERTICO'RDIA. [VENUS.]
of delivery, and so rarely did the orators of anti- VERTUMNUS or VORTUMNUS, is said
quity pronounce extempore speeches, that we pro- to have been an Etruscan divinity whose worship
bably lose little by the course which necessity im- was introduced at Rome by an ancient Vulsinian
posed on the orator. For while following the colony occupying at first the Caelian hill, and
various moods and evolutions of this great impeach- afterwards the vicus Tuscus. (Propert iv. 2. 6,
ment, it seems almost impossible to believe that &c.; Ov. Met. xiv. 642.) The name is evidently
Verres was not actually writhing beneath the connected with verto, and formed on the analogy
scourge, that Hortensius was not listening in im- of alumnus from alo, whence it must signify " the
potent dismay, that the judices were not hurried god who changes or metamorphoses himself." For
along by the burning words and the glowing pic- this reason the Romans connected Vertumnus with
tures of vice, ignominy, and crime, that the senate all occurrences to which the verb verto applies,
was not panic-struck, that the equites and the such as the change of seasons, purchase and sale,
plebs were not hailing the dawn of retribution, the return of rivers to their proper beds, &c. (Comp.
and that the provincials were not gazing in fear and Horat. Sat. ii. 7. 14.) But in reality the god was
wrath upon the panorama of malversation exhibited connected only with the transformation of plants,
by Cicero. In the Catilinarian orations the in- and their progress from being in blossom to that
vective is perhaps more condensed, and the tone of bearing fruit. (Schol. ad J-Iorat. Epist. i. 20. 1;
of the speech more strictly forensic: in the Phi- Ascon. in Cic. Verr. i. 59; Propert. iv. 2. 10, &c.)
lippics the assault is deadlier since the struggle Hence the story, that when Vertumnus was in
was internecine. But in neither does the imagin- love with Pomona, he assumed all possible forms,
ntion of the orator embrace so wide a range of until at last he gained his end by metamorphosing
topics, expatiate so genially on whatever was col- himself into a blooming youth. (Propert iv. 2. 21,
lateral to the cause, or wield with such absolute &c.; Ov. I. c.) Gardeners accordingly offered to
sway the powers of language and rhetoric as in him the first produce of their gardens and garlands
the Verrine orations.. It is almost needless to point of budding flowers. (Propert. iv. 2. 18 and 45.)
out instances of satire, invective, argument, and But the whole people celebrated a festival to Verdescription which have ever since furnished works of tumnus on the 23d of August, under the name of
rhetoric with examples and the practical orator with the Vortumnalia, denoting the transition from the
studies in his art. A few of the most striking in beautiful season of autumn to the less agreeable
each kind may be ranged under the following heads. one. He had a temple in the vicus Ttuscus, and a
1. Sacrilege. The details of this crime are statue of him stood in the vicus Jugarius near the
summed up in the peroration of the 5th book.of the altar of Ops. (Propert. 1. c.; Cic. in Verr. i. 59.)
2d. Pleading. The peroration itself may be com- The story of the Etruscan origin seems to be suffipared with Burke's conclusion to his general ciently refuted by his genuine Roman name, and
charge against Warren Hastings. Special nar- it is much more probable that the worship of Verratives of sacrilege are found (ii. 1. 18, 19, 20), tumnus was of Sabine origin, which in fact is imand throughout the oration De Signis. plied in his connection with T. Tatius. (Varro, De
2. Tamnpering with law and ignorance of pre- L. L. v. 75.) The importance of the worship of
cedents. Vertumnus at Rome is evident from the fact, that
See the whole account De Praetura Urbana it was attended to by a special flamen (flamen
(ii. 1. 40-60); the introduction to Jurisdictio Vortumnalis; see Varro, De L. L. vii. 45, with
Siciliensis (ii. 2. 7 —if.) and (ii. 3) Leges Decu- Miller's note; Festus, p. 379; Plin. H. N. xxiii.
manae Hieronicae. 1; Muller, Anc. Art and its Rem. ~ 404). [L. S.]
3. Extortion of money, works of art, &c. (ii. 1. VERULA/NA GRACI/LIA. [GRACILmA.]
17, 34, 2. 6. 22-28); and the oration de Signis VERULA'NUS SEVE'RUS. [SEVERUS.]
generally. VERUS, ATTI'LIUS, a primipili centurio,
4. Corruption of morals (ii. 1 24), and the A. D. 69. (Tac. Hist. iii. 22.)
oration (e Suppliciis generally. VERUS, whose other name is sometimes writ5. Negcligence in adlninistration (ii. 5. 23-46), ten VMIDIUS (Capitol. Anton. Pius, c. 12), and
and " Praetura Urbana." sometimes VINIDUS, which different modes of