reconcile these two opinions by admitting that the | 2, p. 51, seq.) Ceres and Pomona were associated Cenomanni made this settlement in the territory pre- with him. The Vortumnalia were in October. (Varviously possessed by the Rhæti and Euganei. Under ro, L. L., 5, p. 57.-Keightley's Mythology, p. 534.) the dominion of the Romans it soon became a large VERUS, L. ELIUS, father of the Emperor Verus, and flourishing city. (Strab., 212.) It is supposed was adopted by the Emperor Hadrian, and received to have been colonized by Pompeius Strabo. Tacitus from him the title of Cæsar, A.D. 136. He died, howspeaks of it in later times as a most opulent and im- ever, a few months before Hadrian. Verus appears to portant colony, the possession of which enabled Ves- have been of but moderate abilities, and too much adpasian's party to begin offensive operations against the dicted to the pleasures of the table, as well as other forces of Vitellius, and to strike a decisive blow. indulgences. (Spartian., Vit. Ver.)-II. L. Ælius, (Tacit., Hist., 3, 8.) The celebrity of Verona is still Aurelius, Ceionius, Commodus, son of the preceding, farther established as being the birthplace of Catullus was adopted by Antoninus Pius, along with Marcus (Ov., Am., 3, 14.-Martial, 14, 193) and of Pliny Aurelius, in accordance with the express wish of Hathe naturalist, who, in his preface, calls himself the drian. At the time of his adoption he was only in the countryman of Catullus. It was in the neighbour-seventh year of his age, and he afterward married Luhood of Verona that the famous Rhætic wine, so high-cilla, the daughter of his adoptive parent. After the ly commended by Virgil, was grown. (Georg., 2, 94.-Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 1, p. 70.) VERRES, C., a Roman who governed the province of Sicily as prætor. The oppression and rapine of which he was guilty while in office were of the most flagrant description, and he was accused by the Sicilians of extortion on the expiration of his office. Cicero managed the prosecution, Hortensius appeared for the defence. . Of Cicero's six orations against Verres that have come down to us, only one was pronounced. Driven to despair by the depositions of the witnesses after the first oration, he submitted, without awaiting his sentence, to a voluntary exile. The other five orations of Cicero, forming the series of harangues which he intended to deliver after the proof was completed, were subsequently published in the same shape as if Verres had actually stood his trial, and had made a regular defence. He perished afterward in the proscription of Antony, whom he had offended by refusing to share with him his Corinthian vases. Verres appears during his exile to have lived in great affluence on his ill-gotten gains. (Cic. in Verr.) VERRIUS FLACCUs, a freedman and grammarian, famous for his powers in instructing. He was appointed tutor to the grandchildren of Augustus, and also distinguished himself by his writings, which were historical and grammatical. Suetonius also informs us that he caused to be incrusted on a semicircular building at Præneste twelve tablets of marble, on which was cut a Roman calendar, which Suetonius and Macrobius often cite. Four of these tablets, or, rather, fragments of them, were discovered in 1770, and published by Foggini in 1779. They contain the months of January, March, April, and December, and throw great light on the Fasti of Ovid. Verrius Flaccus was at the head of a celebrated school of grammarians. His principal work in this line was entitled de Verborum Significatione. It was abridged by Festus, a grammarian of the fourth century. The abridgment has reached us, but the original work is lost. (Vid. Festus.-Aul. Gell., 4, 5.-Sueton., Illustr. Gram., 17.) death of Antoninus Pius, the senate declared Marcus Aurelius sole emperor; but this good prince hastened to share the throne with his adopted brother Verus. The dissimilarity between the characters of these two emperors, Aurelius all purity and excellence, and Verus most profligate and licentious, was, perhaps, the cause of the cordial harmony which subsisted between them during the course of their common reign. Verus took the command of the army which was sent against the Parthians, over whom, by the skill and valour of his generals, he obtained several considerable victories, and captured several towns, while he himself was revelling in debaucheries at Antioch. At the conclusion of this war, Verus returned to enjoy the honours of a triumph which he had no share in obtaining. Not long after this, when the war of the Marcomanni and other tribes of similar origin broke out, the two emperors left Rome to take the field in person against these dangerous antagonists. Verus died, however, of apoplexy soon after the commencement of the war, at the age of 39. In licentiousness and debauchery, Verus equalled the worst Roman emperors, but he was altogether free from the charge of cruel or tyrannical acts. (Capitol., Vit. Ver.) VESEVUS. Vid. Vesuvius. VESPASIANUS, TITUS FLAVIUS, & Roman emperor, descended from an obscure family at Reate. His valour and prudence, but, above all, the influence of Narcissus, the freedman of Claudius, obtained him the consulship, A.D. 52, for the last three months of the year. Some years after this, during the reign of Nero, he fell into disgrace with that emperor for having suffered himself to be overcome by sleep during the reading of some of that prince's poetry. The Jews having revolted towards the close of the year 64, Nero, who did not wish to place at the head of his forces a man whose birth or talents might win the favour of the soldiery, gave the command to Vespasian. While the latter was prosecuting the war with great success, and was engaged in the siege of Jerusalem, Nero was cut off; Galba hardly reached the capital before he lost his crown and life; Otho, his successor, slew himself after the defeat at Bedriacum; and, amid the ferment VERTUMNUS OF VORTUMNUS, a deity among the Ro- and agitation that everywhere prevailed, the ardour of mans. According to some, he was, like Mercury, a his troops, and the wishes of a large portion of the deity presiding over merchandise. (Ascon. ad Cic. East, induced Vespasian to contest the crown with in Verr,, 2, 1, 59.-Schol. ad Horat., Epist., 1, 20, Vitellius. He was proclaimed emperor by his legions, 1.) Varro, in one place, says he was a Tuscan god, July 1st, A.D. 69, and on the 20th December of the and that, therefore, his statue was in the Tuscan street same year, his general Antonius Primus made himself at Rome (L. L., 4, 4, p.14); in another, he sets him master of Rome. Vespasian obtained possession of among the gods worshipped by the Sabine king Ta- the throne in his fifty-ninth year, and became the foundtius. (L. L., p. 22.) Horace uses Vertumni in the er of a dynasty which gave three emperors to Rome. plural number (Epist., 2, 7, 14), and the scholiast ob- He was a man of rare and excellent virtues, thoroughserves that his statues were in almost all the munici-ly matured by a life spent in the exercise of public dupal towns of Italy. - Vertumnus (from verto, "to ties, and with no object superior to that of promoting turn" or change") is probably the translation of a the public welfare. Being well aware of the glaring Tuscan name; and the most rational hypothesis re- abuses which had long been perpetrated with impuni specting this god is, that he was a deity presiding over ty in all branches of the administration, he set himself the seasons, and their manifold productions in the ve- vigorously to the dangerous task of effecting a thor getable world. (Propert., 4, 2.-Müller, Etrusk., vol.ough reform. He restored the privileges of the sen ate, and gave it once more an actual power in the gov- | dued by this distinguished commander, but even the ernment. The courts of law were also subjected to a more remote regions of Caledonia, hitherto impervious most salutary reform, and rendered again, what they to the Roman legions, were laid open. The gallant had long ceased to be, courts of justice. The insub-resistance of the brave Caledonians, under their leader ordination of the army, which had been the cause of Galgacus, was ineffectual; their untaught valour could so many bloody revolutions, he repressed with a firm not withstand the steady discipline of the Roman army, and steady hand; and restored, in a great measure, and they sustained a severe overthrow at the base of the discipline which had made it so powerful in its bet- the Grampians. The Roman fleet, coasting the shore, ter days. He directed his attention also to the treas- ascertained the insular character of Britain; but so ury, which had been quite exhausted by the prodigal formidable were the mountain-fastnesses of Caledonia, and corrupt expenditure of his predecessors; and, that Agricola did not attempt to penetrate farther into in order to replenish its coffers, he regulated anew the the country, contenting himself with constructing a tribute and custom-dues of the provinces, and imposed chain of forts between the Friths of Clyde and Forth, a number of taxes; by which means, though he was to defend the southern districts, and to restrain the reaccused of avarice, he placed once more the revenues coil and assaults of the unconquered Caledonians. of the empire on a stable basis, and restored them to a Thus glorious abroad and beloved at home, Vespaflourishing condition. The large sums thus raised sian's life began to draw near its termination. FeelVespasian did not expend in revelry, neither did he ing the effects of age and weakness, he retired to Camhoard up in useless masses. He rebuilt the temple pania, to enjoy the benefits of a purer air than that of of Jupiter Capitolinus, which had been destroyed du- Rome, together with some relaxation from the cares ring the tumults that accompanied the fall of Vitellius; of state. There he was seized with a malady which and adorned the city with many other public buildings his own sensations told him would speedily prove morof great elegance and splendour; thus evincing, that, tal. His anticipations proved true; and he expired though rigorous and exact in his methods of amassing in the arms of his attendants, in the seventieth year of treasure, he knew, on proper occasions, how to use it his age and the tenth of his reign. It is worthy of with no parsimonious hand. Under him the empire remark, that Vespasian was the second of the Roman began to breathe with fresh life, and to exhibit signs of emperors that died a natural death, and the first that prosperity and happiness, such as it had not known was succeeded by his son. (Hetherington's History since the reign of Augustus. His son Titus being of Rome, p. 187, seqq.) raised to the dignity of Cæsar, by which name the suc- VESTA, a goddess among the Romans, the same cessor to the throne was designated, the peace and with the Greek Hestia ('Eoría). An idea of the sancwelfare of the empire seemed secured on a stable ba- tity of the domestic hearth (toría), the point of assemsis. During the reign of Vespasian, the arms of Rome bly of the family, and the symbol of the social union, were prosperous in various parts of the world. Sev- gave the Greeks occasion to fancy it to be under the eral states bordering on the Roman dominions were guardianship of a peculiar deity, whom they named, reduced by his generals to the condition of provinces. from it, Hestia. This goddess does not appear in the But the most celebrated, though not the most formi- poems of Homer, though he had abundant opportunidable war which distinguished his reign, was that in ties of noticing her. By Hesiod (Theog., 454) she is which he was engaged when he was called to the said to have been the daughter of Saturn and Rhea. throne, the war against the Jews. This was conduct- The hymn to Venus relates that Hestia, Diana, and ed by his son Titus after his departure to Rome to Minerva were the only goddesses that escaped the enter on the possession of imperial power. The events power of the queen of love. When wooed by Nepof this memorable war are so well known that they tune and Apollo, Hestia, placing her hand on the head need not here be detailed. Suffice it to state, that af- of Jupiter, vowed perpetual virginity. Jupiter, in place ter Jerusalem had been closely invested, the Jews re- of marriage, gave her "to sit in the middle of the manfused all terms of capitulation, blindly trusted in some sion, receiving the choicest portions of the sacrifice, terrible interposition of divine power to save them and and to be honoured in all the temples of the gods.' consume their enemies, butchered each other with in- (Hymn. in Ven., 22, seqq.) In the Prytaneum of evconceivable barbarity during every temporary cessation ery Grecian city stood the hearth, on which the sacred of warfare, enduring the wildest extremes of famine, fire flamed, and where the offerings were made to Hesand, after suffering every form and kind of misery, to tia. (Pind., Nem., 11, 1, seqq.) In that of Athens a degree unparalleled in the world's history, their city there was a statue of the goddess.-The same obscuwas taken, and, together with their celebrated temple, rity involves the Vesta of the Romans as the correwas reduced to heaps of shapeless ruins; and such of sponding Hestia of the Greeks, with whom she is identhem as survived these awful calamities were scatter- tical in name and office ('Eoria, Fɛoria, Vesta). ed over the face of the earth, and rendered a mockery, There is every reason to believe her worship to have a proverb, and a reproach among nations. In conse- formed part of the religion of the ancient Pelasgian quence of this victory over the Jews, Titus and the population of Latium (Dion. Hal., 2, 66), as it is by emperor enjoyed together the honours of a splendid all testimony carried back to the carliest days of the triumph, while the rich vessels of the temple of Jeru- state, and its introduction is ascribed to Numa. (Liv., salem were in gorgeous procession borne in the train 1, 20.—Plut., Vit. Num., 9, seqq.) Like Hestia, she of the conquerors. Soon after this trimph, the Bata- was a deity presiding over the public and private hearth: vian war broke out, caused by the civil wars for the a sacred fire, tended by six virgin-priestesses, called empire, and threatening Rome with the loss of a prov- Vestals, flamed in her temple at Rome. As the safeince. It was at length brought to a propitious conclu- ty of the city was held to be connected with its consion by Cerealis, after several sharp encounters, and servation, the neglect of the virgins, if they let it go by a treaty rather than a conquest. The Roman arms out, was severely punished, and the fire was rekindled were more successful in Britain during the reign of from the rays of the sun. —' -The temple of Vesta was Vespasian and his immediate successor than they had round: it contained no statue of the goddess. (Ovid, previously been. In his younger days, the emperor Fast., 6, 295, seq.) Her festival, celebrated in June, had himself been engaged in British wars; and, being was called Vestatia: plates of meat were sent to the desirous of reducing the island completely under the Vestals to be offered up; the millstones were wreathed Roman yoke, he gave the command to Cneius Julius with garlands of flowers, and the mill-asses, also crownAgricola, a man of extraordinary merit, a general ed with violets, went about with cakes strung round and a statesman worthy of the best days of Rome. their necks. (Ovid, Fast., 6, 311, seqq. — Propert., Not only the southern division of the island was sub-4, 1, 23.) In the forum at Rome there was a statue VESTALES, priestesses among the Romans consecrated to the service of Vesta. They are said to have been first established by Numa, who appointed four. Tarquinius Priscus added two more; and the number continued to be six ever after. The Vestal virgins were bound to their ministry for thirty years. After thirty years' service they might leave the temple and marry; which, however, was seldom done, and was always reckoned ominous. (Dion. Hal., 2, 67.) These priestesses were bound to observe the strictest purity of morals. If any one of them violated her vow of chastity, she was buried alive in the Campus Sceleratus, and her paramour was scourged to death in the Forum. (Vid. Vesta.) of the Stata Mater, placed there that she might pro- | their enemies, and succeeded in eluding their search. tect the pavement from the effect of the fires which (Plut., Vit. Crass.-Flor., 3, 20.-Cramer's Ancient used to be made on it in the nighttime. The people Italy, vol. 2, p. 176.)-The first great eruption on recfollowed the example, and set up similar statues in ord took place on the 24th of August, A.D. 79, and several of the streets. Stata Mater is generally sup- on the same day the towns of Herculaneum, Pompeii, posed to have been Vesta. (Keightley's Mythology, and Stabia were buried under showers of volcanic p. 95, 513, seq.) sand, stones, and scoriæ. Such was the immense quantity of volcanic sand (called ashes) thrown out during this eruption, that the whole country was involved in pitchy darkness; and, according to Dion, the ashes fell in Egypt, Syria, and various parts of Asia Minor. This eruption proved fatal to the elder Pliny. He had the command of the Roman fleet on the coast of Campania, and, wishing to succour those persons who might want to escape by sea, and also to observe this grand phenomenon more nearly, he left the Cape of Misenum, and approached the side of the bay nearest to Vesuvius. He landed, and advanced towards it, but was suffocated by the sulphureous vapour.-After this, Vesuvius continued a burning mountain for nearly a thousand years, having eruptions at intervals. The fire then appeared to become nearly extinct, and continued so from the beginning of the 12th to that of the 16th century. Since the eruption of 1506, it has remained burning to the present time, with eruptions of lava and ashes at intervals. Vesuvius rises to the height of 3600 feet above the sea. It has two summits, the more northern one of which is called Somma, the other is properly called Vesuvius. Somma is supposed to have been part of the cone of a larger volcano, nearly concentric with its present cone, which, in some great eruption, has destroyed all but this fragment. VETTONES, a nation of Lusitania, lying along the eastern boundary. The city of Augusta Emerita (now Merida) took from them the name of Vettoniana Colonia. (Cas., Bell. Civ., 1, 38.-Plin., 4, 20.) VETULONII, one of the most powerful and distin VESTINI, a mountaineer race of Italy, whose territory was bounded on the south and southwest by the Peligni and Marsi, on the east by the Adriatic, and on the north and northwest by the Prætutii and Sabines. The history of the Vestini offers no circumstances of peculiar interest: they are first introduced to our notice in the Roman annals as allies of the Samnites, to whom they are said not to have been inferior in valour; but, being separately attacked by the Romans, the Vestini, too weak to make any effectual resistance, were soon compelled to submit, A.U.C. 451. (Liv., 8, 29.-Id., 10, 3.) This people, however, were not behind-hand with their neighbours in taking up arms on the breaking out of the Social war. They bore an active part in the exertions and perils of that fierce and sanguinary contest, and received their share of the rights and privileges which, on its termination, were granted to the confederates. Their chief city was Pin-guished of the twelve cities of Etruria, a few miles to na, now Civita di Penna. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 1, p. 335.) VESVIUS. VESULUS, now Monte Viso, a mountain at the termination of the Maritime, and commencement of the Cottian, Alps. It is celebrated in antiquity as giving rise to the Padus or Po. Pliny (3, 16) mentions the source as being a remarkable sight. The Po flows from two small lakes, the one situate immediately below the highest peak of Monte Viso, the other still higher up, between that peak and the lesser one called Visoletto. The waters of this second lake find vent in a great cavern; and this, probably, is the source to which Pliny alludes. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 1, p. 28.) Vid. Vesuvius. VESUVIUS, a mountain of Campania, about six miles southeast of Naples, celebrated for its volcano. It appears to have been first known under the name of Vesevus (Lucr., 6, 747.-Virg., Georg., 2, 224.—Stat., Sylv., 4, 8, 4); but the appellations of Vesvius and Vesbius are no less frequently applied to it. (Sil. Ital., 17, 594.-Val. Flacc., 3, 208.-Mart., 4, 44.) Strabo describes this mountain as extremely fertile at its base, an account in which many ancient writers agree, but as entirely barren towards the summit, which was mostly level, and full of apertures and cracks, seemingly produced by the action of fire; whence Strabo was led to conclude that the volcano, though once in a state of activity, had been extinguished from want of fuel. (Strabo, 246.) Diodorus Siculus (4, 21) represents it also as being in a quiescent state, since he argues, from its appearance at the time he was writing, that it must have been on fire at ⚫ some remote period. The volcano was likewise apparently extinct, when, as Plutarch and Florus relate, Spartacus, with some of his followers, sought refuge in the cavities of the mountain from the pursuit of the southwest of Veterna. Its position was long a matter of uncertainty, until an Italian antiquary, Ximenes, proved the ruins of the place to exist in a forest still called Selva di Vetleta.-If we may believe Silius Italicus (8, 488), it was Vetulonii that first used the insignia of magistracy common to the Etruscans, and with which Rome afterward decorated her consuls and dictators. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 1, p. 187.) VETURIA, the mother of Coriolanus. (Vid. Coriolanus.) UFENS, I. the Aufente, a river of Latium, rising in the Volscian Mountains, above Setia and Privernum, and, in consequence of the want of a sufficient fall in the Pontine plains, through which it passed, contributing, with other streams, to form the Pontine marshes. It communicated its name, which was originally written Oufens, to the tribe Oufentina, according to Lucilius, as quoted by Festus (s. v. Oufens). Virgil alludes to its sluggish character. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 2, p. 97.)-II. A prince who assisted Turnus against Æneas, and was slain by Gyas. He was leader of the Nursian forces. (Virg., En., 7, 745.—Id. ib., 10, 518, &c.) UFENTINA, or, more correctly, OUFENTINA, a Roman tribe, first created A.U.C. 435, with the tribe Faleri na, in consequence of the great increase of population at Rome. (Liv., 9, 20.—Festus, s. v. Oufens.— Vid. Ufens.) VIA, I. EMILIA. (Vid. Emilia V. and VI.)-II. Appia. (Vid. Appia Via, &c.) VIADRUS OF VIADUS, a river of Germany, generally regarded as answering to the modern Oder. Reichard, however, considers the Viadus as the same with the Wipper. (Bischoff und Möller, Wörterb. der Geogr., p. 1005.) VIBIUS, I. Crispus, a Latin rhetorician, to whom some ascribe the declamation against Cicero which has come down to us. (Vid. Porcius.)-II. Sequester, a VIBO, Valentia. Vid. Hipponium. VICA POTA, a goddess at Rome, who presided over victory ("polis vincendi atque potiundi."-Cic., de Leg., 2, 11.-Consult Goerenz, ad loc.-Senec., Apocolocynth.-Liv., 2, 7.) VICENTIA, a town of Gallia Cisalpina, in the territory of Venetia, and situate between Patavium and Verona. The name is sometimes written Vicetia. (Strab., 214.-Elian, V. H., 14, 8.) It is now Vi cenza. are that of Pitiscus, c. n. variorum, Traj. ad Rh., 1696, 8vo, and that of Arntzenius, Amst., 1733, 4to. II. Surnamed, for distinction' sake, the Younger, a contemporary of Orosius, who made an abridgment of one of the works of the elder Victor (the third above mentioned), which he entitled " Epitome de Casaribus," or, according to others, "De Vita et Moribus Imperatorum Romanorum," and which he continued down to the death of Theodosius the Great. He made some changes also in the original work, and added some new facts and circumstances. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Rom., vol. 3, p. 171.) VICTORIA, one of the deities of the Romans, called by the Greeks Nikη. The goddess of Victory was sister to Strength and Valour, and was one of the attendants of Jupiter. Sylla raised her a temple at Rome, and instituted festivals in her honour. She was represented with wings, crowned with laurel, and holding the branch of a palm-tree in her hand. A golden statue of this goddess, weighing 320 pounds, was presented to the Romans by Hiero, king of Syracuse, and deposited in the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. (Varro, de L. L.-Hygin., praf. fab.) VICTORINUS, an African philosopher, who became a convert to Christianity, and flourished in the fourth century. He gained such a degree of reputation by teaching rhetoric at Rome, that a statue was erected to him in one of the public places. He was led to the perusal of the Scriptures by the study of Plato's works. He was the author of several works of no great value contained in the Bibliotheca Patrum. VIDUCASSES, a people of Gallia Lugdunensis Secunda, on both sides of the river Olina or Orne. Their chief city was Arægenus, now Bayeux. (Plin., 4, 18.) VILLIA LEX, Annalis or Annaria, by L. Villius, the tribune, A.U.C. 574, defined the proper age required for holding offices. There seems, however, to have been some regulation of the kind even before this. (Livy, 40, 43.—Id., 25, 2.) VIMINĀLIS, one of the seven hills on which Rome was built, so called from the number of osiers (vimina) which grew there. Servius Tullius first made it part of the city. Jupiter had a temple there, whence he was called Viminalis. (Livy, 1, 44.-Varro, L. L., 4, 8.-Festus, s. v. Viminal.) VICTOR, SEXT. AURELIUS, I. a Latin historian, born in Africa of very humble parents, but who raised himself by his merit to some of the highest offices in the state. The Emperor Julian, who became acquainted with him at Sirmium, A.D. 360, gave him the govern- VIENNA, a city of the Allobroges, in Gallia Transment of the second Pannonia, and erected in honour alpina, on the banks of the Rhone, famed for its wealth of him a statue of bronze. Ammianus Marcellinus, and the civilization of its inhabitants. At a later pewho states this fact, informs us also that Aurelius V ic-riod it became the capital of the province of Vientor was conspicuous for the purity of his moral char- nesis, and in the fifth century the residence of the Buracter (21, 10). Sixteen years after this, Theodosius gundian kings. It is now Vienne. The classical name the Great appointed him prefect of Rome. The pe- of this place must not be confounded with the modern riod of his death is not ascertained. The manner in appellation of the ancient Vindobona, on the Danube. which he speaks of the apotheosis of Antinous, the fa- (Cas., B. G., 7, 9.-Tac., Ann., 11, 1.—Mela, 2, 5. vourite of Hadrian, shows that he was not a Christian.-Pliny, 3, 4.—Amm. Marc., 15, 11.) Three works are ascribed to this writer. The first bears the title of Origo gentis Romana, to which a long additional title has been given by the copyists. What we have remaining of this work comprises only the first year of Rome : it contains extracts from works now lost, and makes us acquainted with several circumstances of which no other writer speaks. The opinion which assigns this work to Aurelius Victor, however, has no historical fact whatever to serve as a basis; it is contrary, also, to the conviction of the grammarians, to whom we owe the long additional title already mentioned. These grammarians regard the work as subsequent to the time of Aurelius Victor.-called Vindelicia, extended from the city of Brigantia, The second work is entitled "De Viris illustribus Rome," and contains the lives of various illustrious Romans, commencing with the seven kings of Rome, and also biographies of some eminent foreigners, such as Hannibal, Antiochus, and Mithradates. This work, inferior in style to the former, has been sometimes ascribed to Cornelius Nepos, to Suetonius, or to Pliny the Younger. It is possible that it is an abridgment merely of Cornelius Nepos, whose work bears a similar title. The third work is entitled "De Casaribus, sive historia abbreviatæ pars altera, ab Augusto Octaviano, id est, a fine Titi Livii usque ad Consulatum decimum Constantii Augusti et Juliani Cæsaris tertium." This production is written in a concise and easy style, and the author has had access to good sources of information, of which he avails himself with impartiality. The best editions of Aurelius Victor VINDELICI, a people of Germany, whose territory, on the Lacus Brigantinus, or Lake of Constance, to the Danube; while the lower part of the Enus or Inn separated it from Noricum. Their country answered, therefore, to part of Wirtemberg and Bavaria. This nation derived their name from the two rivers which water their territory, viz., the Vindo and Licus, now the Wertach and the Lech. In the angle formed by the two rivers was situate their capital, Augusta Vindelicorum, now Augsburg. (Cluver., vol. 1, p. 412, seqq.-Mannert, Geogr., vol. 3, p. 518, seqq.Horat., Od., 4, 4, 18.) VINDEX, JULIUS, a governor of Gaul, who revolted against Nero, and determined to deliver the Roman empire from his tyranny. He wrote to Galba, then in Spain, to take the chief command, and aid him in effecting his purpose; but, before any junction could be effected, he was defeated by the forces of Virginius Rufus, and destroyed himself. (Sueton., Vit. Galb., | shines so conspicuously in the Eneid, and which he 9.-Id. ib., 11.-Plut., Vit. Galb., 4.-Dio Cass., 63, 23, seqq.) employed with so much judgment as richly to merit the eulogy of Macrobius, "Virgilius quem nullius unVINDICIUS, a slave who discovered the conspiracy to quam disciplinæ error involvit." (In Somn., Scip., 2, restore Tarquin to his throne. (Vid. Brutus I.) 8.) During his residence in this city he perused the VINIUS, T., a friend of Galba's, who, on the acces- most celebrated Greck writers, being instructed in sion of the latter to the imperial throne, became con- their language and literature by Parthenius Nicenus sul, commander of the prætorian guards, and principal (Macrob., Sat., 5, 17), well known as the author of a minister of the new monarch. He employed his new-collection of amatory tales, which he wrote for the use ly-acquired power, however, in criminal and oppress- of Cornelius Gallus, in order to furnish him with maive acts, plundering others to enrich himself. Vinius advised Galba to adopt Otho for his successor; but, Galba having nominated Piso, Otho revolted, dethroned Galba, and Vinius perished along with the latter, notwithstanding his vehement protestations to the soldiery that Otho had not ordered his death. It is probable that Vinius was implicated in the conspiracy of Otho itself against his friend and protector. (Tacit., Hist., 1, 11, &c.) VIRBIUS (qui vir bis fuit), a name given to Hippolytus after he had been brought back to life by Esculapius, at the instance of Diana, who pitied his unfortunate end. Virgil makes him son of Hippolytus. (En., 7, 762.—Ovid, Met., 15, 544.) terials for elegies and other poems. Virgil likewise carefully read the Greek historians, particularly Thucydides (Mureti Opera, vol. 2, p. 312, ed. Ruhnk.), and he studied the Epicurean system of philosophy under Syro, a celebrated teacher of that sect. But medicine and mathematics were the sciences to which he was chiefly addicted; and to this early tincture of geometrical knowledge may, perhaps, in some degree, be ascribed his ideas of luminous order and masterly arrangement, and that regularity of thought, as well as exactness of expression, by which all his writings were distinguished.-Virgil, it is well known, was regarded as a wizard during the dark ages. His character as an adept in magic probably originated in his VIRGILIUS, MARO PUBLIUS, a celebrated Latin poet, knowledge of mathematics; in the Pharmaceutria of born at the village of Andes, a few miles distant from his eighth eclogue; in his revelation of the secrets of Mantua, about 70 B.C. It has been disputed whether the unknown world in the sixth book of the Æneid; his name should be Vergilius or Virgilius. De scrip- and in the report that he had ordered his books to be tura nominis," says Heyne, "digladiati sunt inter se burned, which naturally created a suspicion that he had cum veteres tum recentiores grammatici." The let- disclosed in them the mysteries of the black art. In ters e and i were frequently convertible in the old Lat- whatever way it may have originated, the belief in his in language; and sanction may be found for either magic powers appears to have prevailed as soon as manmode of spelling, both in MSS. and inscriptions. At kind lost the refinement of taste which enabled them the revival of letters, Politian contended strenuous- to appreciate his exquisite productions. The current ly for Vergilius; but even his authority was not suffi- fictions concerning the magical operations of Virgil cient to bring this orthography into general practice. were first incorporated about the beginning of the thirThere exist but few authentic materials from which teenth century, in the " Otia Imperialia" of Gervase we can collect any circumstances concerning the life of Tilbury, chancellor of the Emperor Otho IV., to of the poet. We possess only some scattered remarks whom he presented his extravagant compilation. The of ancient commentators or grammarians, and a life fables of Gervase were transcribed by Helinandus the by Donatus, of very dubious authority. It bears the monk, in his “ Universal Chronicle;" and similar tales name of Tiberius Claudius Donatus, who lived in the were related in the work of Neckham, " De Naturis fifth century, some time after Ælius Donatus, so well Rerum," and in "The Seven Wise Masters." Such known as a commentator on Terence. Heyne thinks books supplied materials for the old French romances that the basis of the Life was laid by Donatus, but that of "Vergilius," and the English" Lyfe of Vergilius," it was altered and interpolated from time to time by in which stories are told of miraculous palaces, wonthe grammarians, and librarians of the convents. It derful lamps, and magical statues which he constructis thus apparently written without any arrangement in ed. Vergilius, the sorcerer of the middle ages, is the series of events, and many things are recorded identified and connected with the author of the Eneid, which are manifestly fictitious. The monks, indeed, from several circumstances being related of the forof the middle ages seem to have conspired to accumu- mer in the romances which actually occurred in the late fables concerning Virgil.-It appears that Virgil's life of the poet, particularly his residence at Naples, father was a man of low birth, and that, at one period and the loss of his inheritance, which he recovered of his life, he was engaged in the meanest employ-by the favour of the emperor of Rome. It was also ments. According to some authorities he was a potter or brickmaker; and, according to others, the hireling of a travelling merchant, called Magus or Maius. He so ingratiated himself, however, with his master, that he received his daughter Maia in marriage, and was intrusted with the charge of a farm which his father-in-law had acquired in the vicinity of Mantua. Our poet was the offspring of these humble parents. The cradle of illustrious men, like the origin of celebrated nations, has been frequently surrounded by the marvellous. Hence the dream of his mother Maia, that she had brought forth a branch of laurel, and the prodigy of the swarm of bees which lighted on the lips of the infant. The studies of Virgil commenced at Cremona, where he remained till he assumed the toga virilis; and to this day the inhabitants of Cremona pretend to show a house, in the street of St. Bartholomew, in which Virgil resided when a youth. (Cremona Literata, 2, p. 401, ap. Fabr., Bibl. Lat., lib. 1, c. 12.) At the age of sixteen he removed to Mediolanum, and shortly afterward to Neapolis, where he laid the foundation of that multifarious learning which a common opinion in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as appears from the writings of that age, that the Mantuan bard and the sorcerer were one and the same person. It is somewhat in the same spirit that a learned and ingenious writer of our own days seeks to convert the bard into a member of the Druid priesthood! (Higgins' Celtic Druids, p. 32.) Donatus affirms, that, after Virgil had finished his education at Naples, he went to Rome, where his skill in the diseases of all sorts of animals procured him an appointment in the stables of the emperor. Stories are related concerning his prediction as to the defects of a colt, which, to all the jockeys of the Augustan age, appeared to promise remarkable swiftness and spirit; and concerning a query propounded to him, as if he had been a sorcerer, with regard to the parentage of Augustus; all which are evidently inventions of the middle ages, and bear, indeed, much resemblance to a tale in the Cento Novelle Antiche, as also to the stories of the "Three Sharpers," and the "Sultan of Yemen with his three Sons," published some years ago in Mr. Scott's additional volume to the Arabian |