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

VISCELLINU S. VISCELLINUS. 1271
ficence, his soldiers elected Tantalus as their ge. on war against the Aurunci, and took Pometia.
nieral; -but the latter was no match for a Roman But as the war against the Aurunci aud the capture
consul, and before the end of the year was obliged of Pometia is repeated by Livy (ii. 22, 25, 26)
to submit to Caepio. [CAEPIO, No. 6.] The war under B. c. 495, these events ought probably to be
with Viriathus lasted eight years, according to placed in the latter year, in accordance with
Appian (JHisp. 75), who dates its commencement Dionysius (vi. 29).
from the time that Viriathus became the leader of In the following year, B. c. 501, Cassius was
the Lusitanians. Other writers, however, say that appointed first magister equitum to the first dictator,
the war lasted fourteen years, which must be com- T. Larcius Flavus; but in some authorities a difputed from the beginning of the Celtiberian war, ferent year is given for the first dictatorship. After
B. c. 153. (Appian, Hisp. 60-75; Eutrop. iv. the battle of the lake Regillus in B. c. 498 or 496,
16; Oros. v. 4; Flor. ii. 17; Liv. Epit. 54; Cassius is said to have urged in the senate the deFrontin. ii. 5. ~ 7, ii. 13. ~ 4, iii. 10. ~ 6, iii. 11. struction of the Latin towns. (Liv. ii. 18; Dionys.
~ 4, iv. 5. ~ 22; Vell. Pat. ii. 1; Aurel. Vict. de v. 75, vi. 20.) In B. c. 493 he was consul a second
Vir. 111. 71; Val. Max. ix. 6. ~ 4; Diod. Exe. ex time with Postumus Cominius Auruncus; and they
xxxii. pp. 591, 597, ed. Wess.; Dion Cass. Fragm. entered upon their consulship during the secession
78, p. 33, ed. Reimar.) of the plebeians to the Sacred Mount. The second
VIRIDOMARUS. 1. Or BRITOMARTUS, the consulship of Cassius is memorable by the league
leader of the Gauls, slain by Marcellus. [MAR- which he formed with the Latins. As soon as the
CELLUS, No. 4, p. 928, a.] plebeians had become reconciled to the patricians,
2. Or VIRDUMARUS, a chieftain of the Aedui, and had returned to Rome, Cominius marched
whom Caesar- had raised from a low rank to the against the Volscians, while his colleague remained
highest honour. He and Eporedorix came with at Rome to ratify the league with the Latins. Acthe cavalry of the Aedui to the assistance of cording to Niebuhr the campaign of Cominius
Caesar in his war against Vercingetorix in B. c. 52, against the Volscians is only an inference adopted
and they at first used their influence to prevent the by Livy from the absence of the consul, who, he
Aedui from joining the rest of the Gauls in the supposes, had left Rome in order to take the oath
general revolt from Rome. Shortly afterwards, to the treaty among the Latins. In the same year
however, both Viridomarus and Eporedorix revolted Cassius consecrated the temple of Ceres, Bacchus,
themselves, but were much mortified when the and Proserpine, which the dictator A. Postumius
Gauls chose Vercingetorix as their commander-in- Albus had vowed in B. c. 498. (Liv. ii. 33; Cic.
chief, as they had hoped to obtain that honour for de Rep. ii. 33, pro Bulb. 23; Dionys. vi. 49, 94,
themselves. (Caes. B. G. vii. 38-40, 54, 55, 63.) 95; respecting the league with the Latius, see
VIRIDOVIX, the chieftain of the Unelli, was Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. p. 38, foll.)
conquered by Q. Titurius Sabinus, Caesar's legatus, In B. C. 486 Cassius was consul a third time
in B. c. 56. (Caes. B. G. iii. 17-19; Dion Cass. with Proculus Virginius Tricostus Rutilus. He
xxxix. 45.) marched against the Volscians and Hernicans, but
VIRIPLACA, "the goddess who soothes the no battle took place as the enemy sued for a peace.
anger of man," was a surname of Juno, describing Notwithstanding he obtained a triumph over these
her as the restorer of peace between married people on his return to Rome, which is recorded in
people. She had a sanctuary on the Palatine, the triumphal Fasti. Whether he really marched
into which women went when they thought them- against these people or not, may be doubted; but
selves wronged by their husbands. They frankly that he formed a league with the Hernicans, adtold the goddess their grief, and the latter disposed mits of no question. By his league with the
their minds to become reconciled to their husbands. Latins in his second consulship, and with the Her(Fest. p. 62; Val. Max. ii. 1. ~ 6.) [L. S.] nicans in his third, he had again formed that conVI'RIUS LUPUS. [LuPus.] federacy to which Rome owed her power under the
VIRTUS, the Roman personification of manly later kings. Livy says (ii. 41) that Cassius devalour. She was represented with a short tunic, prived the Hernicans of two thirds of their land;
her right breast uncovered, a helmet on her head, but this is a complete misconception. It is much
a spear in her left hand, a sword in the right, and more probable that by this treaty the Hernicans
standing with her right foot on a helmet. There were placed on equal terms with the Romans and
was a golden statue of her at Rome, which Alaricus, the Latins, and that each of the three nations was
king of the Goths, melted down. (Liv. xxvii. 25, entitled to a third part of the lands conquered in
xxix. 11; Val. Max. i. 1. ~ 8; Cic. de Nat. Deor. war by their mutual arms. After the treaty with
ii. 23; Zosim. v. 21.) [L. S.] the Hernicans Cassius proposed his celebrated
VISCELLI'NUS, SP. CA'SSIUS, celebrated agrarian law. The account of this law given by
as the author of the first agrarian law at Rome, to Dionysius cannot be safely trusted: according to
which he fell a martyr. He was thrice consul and Niebuhr it betrays distinct marks of a writer of
twice triumphed. His first consulship was in B. C. the second half of the seventh century of the city,
502, in the eighth year of the republic, when he and is compiled with great ignorance of the ancient
had Opiter Virginius Tricostus as a colleague. Ac- times. The law must have been simply a restoracording to Dionysius (v. 49) Cassius carried on war tion of the old law of Servius Tullius, and must
against the Sabines, whom he defeated with such have directed that the portion of the patricians in
great loss near Cures, that they were obliged to sue the public land should be strictly defined, that the
for peace, and surrender to the Romans a large remainder should be divided among the plebeians,
portion of their land. Cassius in consequence ob- and that the tithe should again be levied from the
tained a triumph on his return to Rome, which is lands possessed by the patricians. The patricians,
confirmed by the Capitoline Fasti. Livy, on the headed by the other consul, Virginius, made the
other hand, says (ii. 17) nothing about a war with most vehement opposition to the law; but it seems
the Sabines, but relates that the two consuls carried almost certain that it was legally passed, though
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