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

1258 VICTORINUS. VICTORINUS.
the usurpers who in succession ruled Gaul while it he was originally a rhetorician (Victorious, de orawas dismembered from the empire during the reign tore episcopus, Inst. Div. 5). The difficulty, howof the imbecile son of Valerian. Victorinus, how- ever, will be removed if we suppose that Greek was
ever, had previously been assumed as a colleague his native language, but that he felt himself conby Postumus to whom he afforded important aid in strained to write in Latin, with which lie was less
the war against Gallienus, and after the destruction conversant, because it was the tongue spoken in the
of GallienIus alone enjoyed the sovereignty. He is province where he exercised his episcopal functions.
said to have possessed many of the highest qualities It is to be remarked that this Victorillus was long
both of a general and a statesman, but was un- supposed to have been bishop of Poitiers, an error
happily a slave to his passions, which eventually first dissipated by the dissertation of Launoy, who
proved his ruin, for he was assassinated at Agrip- demonstrated that Petabiumn in upper Pannonia,
pina by one of his own officers whose honour he and not Pictavium, was the see from which he dehad wounded. This event seems to have taken rived his designation.
place in A. D. 268 after he had reigned for some- St. Jerome informs us that he wrote commenwhat more than a year. (Trebell. Pollio, Trig. taries In Genesin; In Exodumn; In Leviticume;
Tyrann. v.; Aurel. Vict. de Caes. xxxiii.; Eutrop. In Iesaiam; In Ezechielen; In A bacuc; In Ecix. 7; it would be a vain task however to at- clesiasten; In Canticea C(nticorum; In Apocalypsin
tempt to reconcile these authorities with each Joannis adversus omnes haereses (some editors
other.) place a stop after Joannis and suppose Adversus
omnes haeereses to be the name of a separate tract);
and many otherpieces. Of all these it is doubtful
~/';~y~ E whether any one remains. In the third volume of
v~2~ &d y o, < the Bibliotheca Patrzunz llaxicna (fol. Lugdun.' t'; 1677) we find a Conlmentarius in Apocalypsinz
o bearing his name; but the best judges have for
-sS _G by r)S\ the most part either rejected it altogether or re~_~_~/~~~ o / S @ 44do garded it as much altered and interpolated by
different hands, both on account of the discrepancies in style which may be here and there detected, and also from the circumstance that the
millenarian doctrine is here directly impugned,
VICTORINUS JUNIOR, son of the foregoing ac- while we know that it was advocated by Victocording to Pollio, by whom alone he is mentioned, rinus. The prologue is given -up by all. The
being numbered among the thirty tyrants, was fragment published by Cave (II. L. vol. i. p. 147),
proclaimed Caesar immediately before the death of from a MS. in the archiepiscopal library at Lamhis father whose fate he shared. (Trebell. Pollio, beth, entitled De Fabrica MZundi, has, with better
Triq. Tyrann. vi.) [W. R.] reason, been supposed to be an extract from the
VICTORI'NUS, literary and ecclesiastical. annotations on Genesis or on the Apocalypse, and
The subjects of the three following articles have here the opinions of the Chiliasts are avowedly
proved a source of considerable embarrassment to the supported.
historian of literature. Both the first and second ap- Various foundling poems have been fathered
pear to have been rhetoricians before they became upon this Victorinus without any evidence direct
theologians, both wrote commentaries on the Scrip- or circumstantial. Such are De Jesu (Glristo in
tures and both are believed to have been Christian 137 hexameters and llyzpzus de Pasclha Doneini
poets, a series of coincidences which, combined with s. De Lzgqno Vitae in 70 hexameters, both contained
identity of name, rendered confusion almost inevi- in the collection of Fabricius; the De Cruce Domini
table, while the second and third, if we admit the found among the works of Cyprian (see Bed. de
existence of the third, having both compiled essays locis sanct. c. 2.); and the five books Adversus
upon the same departments of grammar, became in Marcionemn generally appended to editions of Terlike manner mixed up with each other. The diffi- tullian.
culties connected with the subject have been in (Our chief ancient authority for everything consome degree removed by Rivinus in a book en- nected with Victorinus of Pettaw is St. Jerome,
titled Sanctae Relequiae duum Viectorinoruin, Pic- who speaks of him in a great number of passages,
taviensis unius Episcopi Martlyris, Af/i alterins e. g. De Viris Ill. 74, comp. 187, Praef in Iesai.,
Caii Marii, &c. 8vo. Goth. 1652, and by Launoy in In Ezech. c. 36, Praef. in MlAatt., Ad Danmas. vol. ii.
his dissertation De Victorinzo Episcopo et Martyre, p. 569, Ad Paulin. vol. iv. gP 567, ed. Bened. &c.;
Par. 1664, in the appendix to which we find a see also Cassiodor. Inst. Div. 5, 7, 9; Lardner,
discussion on five distinguished persons who bore Credibility of'Gospel Historyl, c. lvi.; Schoenemann,
the name of Victorinus; but several points are Bibl. Patrinum Lat. vol. i. cap. 3. ~ 8; Baehr,
still involved in much obscurity. Geschicte dee R tm. Litterat. Suppl. Band. lte Ab1. VICTORINUS, bishop of Pettaw on the Drave theil. ~ 14, 2te Abtheil. ~ 33.)
in Styria, hence distinguished by the epithet Peta- 2. C. (or according to some MSS. Fabius) MAvionensis, or Pictaviensis, flourished towards the RIUS VICTORINUS, surnamed AJfer from the country
close of the third century (A. D. 270-290), and of his birth, taught rhetoric at Rome in the middle
suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Dio- of the fourth century, with so much reputation that
cletian, probably in A.D. 303. St. Jerome tells us his statue was erected in the forum of Trajan.
that he understood Greek better than Latin; and Convinced by diligent study of the Scriptures, he,
that, in consequence, his works, though pregnant in old age, openly embraced the true faith; and
with great thoughts, were couched in poor lan- when the edict of Julian, prohibiting Christians
guage; a criticism which has been thought incon- from giving instruction in polite literature, was
sistent with the fact recorded by Cassiodorus that promulgated, Victorinus chose to shut up his school