Vindicianus is preserved by Marcellus Empiricus, De Medicam. c. 16. p. 316. [W. A. G.] VINDICIUS, the name of a slave, who is said to have given information to the consuls of the conspiracy, which was formed for the restoration of the Tarquins, and who was rewarded in consequence with liberty and the Roman franchise. He is said to have been the first slave manumitted by the Vindicta, the name of which was derived by some persons from that of the slave; but it is unnecessary to point out the absurdity of this etymology. (Liv. iii. 4, 5; comp. Dict. of Antiq. s. v. Manumissio.) VINDULLUS, POMPEIUS, a freedman of Cn. Pompey, died at Laodiceia in B. c. 50. (Cic. ad Att. vi. 1. § 25.)

(M. Senec. Controv. 2, 3, 4, 20, 21, &c. ; comp. L. Senec. Ep. 40.)

5. M. VINICIUS, P. F. M. N., the son of No. 4, was born at Cales, a town in Campania, and is spoken of by Tacitus as "mitis ingenio et comptae facundiae." He was consul in A. D. 30 with C. Cassius Longinus, and it was in this year that the historian Velleius Paterculus dedicated his work to him. [PATERCULUS.] In A. D. 33 Tiberius gave Julia Livilla, the daughter of Germanicus, in marriage to Vinicius; and as Germanicus was by adoption the son of Tiberius, Vinicius is called the progener of Tiberius. Vinicius was consul a second time in the reign of Claudius, A. D. 45, with Taurus Statilius Corvinus. He was put to death by Messalina in the following year, to whom he had be come an object of suspicion, because she had previously put to death his wife [JULIA, No. 8], and likewise an object of hatred because he had refused her embraces. (Tac. Ann. vi. 15, 45; Dion Cass. lx. 25, 27.)

VINICIA NUS, A'NNIUS, was accused of treason (majestas) together with his father Annius Pollio, towards the latter end of Nero's reign, but was not brought to trial. He afterwards conspired with Camillus Scribonianus against the emperor Claudius, and, when the conspiracy was detected, | put an end to his own life. (Tac. Ann. vi. 9; Dion Cass. lx. 14.)

VINICIA/NUS, M. CAE'LIUS, tribune of the plebs, B. c. 53, exerted himself to raise Pompey to the dictatorship, and was in consequence defeated when he became a candidate for the curule aedileship in B. c. 51. In the civil war he espoused the cause of Caesar, who left him behind in Pontus with two legions after the conquest of Pharnaces in B. C. 48. (Caelius, ap. Cic. ad Fam. viii. 4. § 3; Hirt. B. Alex. 77.)

VINICIUS, or VINU'CIUS. The latter form occurs in inscriptions and in the Fasti, but the former in MSS. and editions. 1. L. VINICIUS, tribune of the plebs B. C. 51, put his veto upon a senatusconsultum, directed against Caesar. (Caelius, ap. Cic. ad Fam. viii. 8. § 6.)

2. L. VINICIUS, L. F., consul suffectus B. C. 33, was perhaps the same person as the preceding. The accompanying coin was struck by this Vinicius, since we learn from other coins bearing on the obverse the head of Augustus, that L. Vinicius was triumvir of the mint under Augustus. The coin annexed has on the obverse the head of Concordia, and on the reverse a figure of Victory with L. VINICI. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 343.)

6. VINICIUS, the author of a conspiracy against Nero, detected and crushed at Beneventum. (Suet. Ner. 36.)

7. T. VINICIUS JULIANUS, consul suffectus under Titus, A. D. 80. (Fasti.)

VINIUS. 1. T. VINIUS was proscribed by the triumvirs B. c. 43, and owed his life to his wife Tanusia, who concealed him in a chest at the house of his freedman Philopoemen, and gave out that be was dead. She afterwards obtained his pardon from Octavian, who raised Philopoemen to the equestrian rank for his fidelity to his former master. (Dion Cass. xlvii. 7; Suet. Oct. 27; Appian, B. C. iv. 44, where Vinius is erroneously called Junius, and Philopoemen is also erroneously called Philemon.) [PHILOPOEMEN, p. 321, a.]

2. T. VINIUS, consul in A. D. 69 with the emperor Galba. Tacitus says that his father was of a praetorian family, and that his maternal grandfather was one of the proscribed; but as he bears the same name as No. 1, it is probable that the historian has made a mistake, unless he had by adop tion taken the name of his maternal grandfather. He first served under Calvisius Sabinus; and one night he accompanied the wife of his commander, who was dressed as a common soldier, through the camp, and committed adultery with her in the Principia, which was reckoned a sacred spot by the Romans, because the eagles and standards were deposited there. For that offence he was put in irons by order of Caligula, but by the change of times was released and obtained successively the praetorship and the command of a legion. He was subsequently exposed to the imputation of having stolen a gold goblet at the table of the emperor Claudius. He was notwithstanding appointed, probably during the reign of. Nero, to the government of Gallia Narbonensis, with the title of proconsul, where he ruled with justice and integrity, and he was afterwards in Spain as the legatus of Galba. Through his friendship with Galba he was raised to the consulship on the accession of the latter to the empire. During the short reign of Galba the government devolved almost entirely upon Vinius and Cornelius Laco, the praefect of the praetorian troops. The possession of such great power developed his evil passions, and he is called by Tacitus "deterrimus mortalium." Vinius recommended Galba to choose Otho as his successor, and he was supposed by some to have been privy to the

3. M. VINICIUS, P. F., consul suffectus B. c. 19, commanded in Germany in B. C. 25, and in consequence of his successes received the triumphal ornaments; but as he declined these, an arch was erected to his honour in the Alps. (Dion Cass. liii. 27.) He again commanded in Germany in A. D. 2, and again received the triumphal ornaments and an inscription to his honour, perhaps on his statue in the forum. (Vell. Pat. ii. 104.)

4. P. VINICIUS M. F. P. N., the son of No. 3, was consul A. D. 2 with P. Alfenius Varus, when Tiberius returned to Rome from Rhodes. (Vell. Pat. ii. 103.) Seneca mentions this P Vinicius and his brother Lucius as two celebrated orators.

conspiracy against Galba. He was notwithstanding | gilius or his accusation. He is called Virginius by killed by Otho's soldiers after the death of Galba, Plutarch. (Cic. Brut. 48; Plut. Sull. 10.) his head cut off and carried in triumph to Otho. He was buried by his daughter Crispina, who purchased his head of his murderers; but his testament was disregarded on account of the large wealth which he left behind him. (Tac. Hist. i. 1, 6, 11, 12, 13, 32, 37, 42, 48; Suet. Galb. 14, Vitell. 7; Plut. Galb. 12, foll., 27.)

2. C. VIRGILIUS, was praeter B. c. 62, and had Q. Cicero, the brother of the orator, as one of his colleagues. In the following year, B. c. 61, he governed Sicily as propraetor, where P. Clodius served under him as quaestor. He was still in Sicily in B. c. 58, when Cicero was banished; and notwithstanding his friendship with Cicero, and his having been a colleague of his brother in the praetorship, he refused to allow Cicero to seek refuge in his province. (Cic. pro Plane. 40, ad

Orelli; Plut. Cic. 32.) In the civil war Virgilius espoused the Pompeian party, and had the command of Thapsus, together with a fleet, in B. c. 46. After the battle of Thapsus, Virgilius at first refused to surrender the town; but when he saw that all resistance was hopeless, he subsequently surrendered the place to Caninius Rebilus, whom Caesar had left to besiege it. (Hirt. B. Afr. 28, 86, 93.)

VIOLENS, an agnomen of L. Volumnius Flamma, consul B. c. 307 and 296. [FLAMMA.] VIPSA'NIA AGRIPPI'NA. 1. The daughter of M. Vipsanius Agrippa by his first wife Pom-Q. Fr. i. 2. § 2; Schol. Bob. in Clod. p. 333, ed. ponia, the daughter of T. Pomponius Atticus, the friend of Cicero. [POMPONIA, No. 3.] Augustus gave her in marriage to his step-son Tiberius, by whom she was much beloved; but after she had borne him a son, Drusus, and at a time when she was pregnant, Tiberius was compelled to divorce her by the command of the emperor, in order to marry Julia, the daughter of the latter. Vipsania afterwards married Asinius Gallus, whom Tiberius always disliked in consequence, more especially as Gallus asserted that he had previously carried on an adulterous intercourse with Vipsania, and that Drusus was his son. Vipsania died a natural death in A. D. 20. (Dion Cass. liv. 31, Ivii. 2; Suet. Tib. 7; Tac. Ann. i. 12, iii. 19.)

2. The daughter of M. Vipsanius Agrippa by his second wife Julia, is better known by the name of Agrippina. [AGRIPPINA.]

3. C. VIRGILIUS, legatus of Piso in Macedonia in B. c. 57, must probably have been a different person from the preceding, since the propraetor of Sicily could hardly have returned to Rome in time to accompany Piso to his province. (Cic. de Prov. Cons. 4.)

P. VIRGILIUS, or VERGILIUS MARO, was born on the 15th of October, B. c. 70 in the first consulship of Cn. Pompeius Magnus and M. Licinius Crassus, at Andes, a small village near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul. The tradition, though an old one, which identifies Andes with the modern village of Pietola, may be accepted as a tra

M. VIPSA'NIUS AGRIPPA. [AGRIPPA.] VIPSA'NIUS LAENAS, condemned in A. D. 56 on account of his mal-administration of the province of Sardinia. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 30.) VIPSTANUS APRONIA'NUS. [APRONI-dition, without being accepted as a truth. The

ANUS.]

VIPSTA NUS GALLUS, praetor A. D. 17, died in his year of office. (Tac. Ann. ii. 51.) VIPSTA'NUS MESSALLA. [MESSALLA, No. 14, p. 1053, a.]

VIPSTA NUS PUBLI'COLA. COLA.]

[PUBLI

VI'RBIUS, an ancient mythical king of Aricia and a favourite of Diana (dea Nemorensis), who, when he had died, called him to life and intrusted him to the care of the nymph Aegeria. (Serv. ad Aen. vii. 761.) The fact of his being a favourite of Diana (the Taurian goddess) seems to have led the Romans to identify him with Hippolytus who, according to some traditions, had established the worship of Diana. (Ov. Met. xv. 545.) [L. S.] VIRGILIA NUS, Q. FA'BIUS, the legatus of App. Claudius Pulcher in Cilicia in B. c. 51. He espoused the cause of Pompey on the breaking out of the civil war in B. c. 49. (Cic. ad Fam. iii. 3, 4, ad Att. viii. 11, A.)

poet Horace, afterwards one of his friends, was born B. c. 65; and Octavianus Caesar, afterwards the emperor Augustus, and his patron, in B. c. 63, in the consulship of M. Tullius Cicero. Virgil's father probably had a small estate which he cultivated: his mother's name was Maia. The son was educated at Cremona and Mediolanum (Milan), and he took the toga virilis at Cremona on the day on which he commenced his sixteenth year in B. C. 55, which was the second consulship of Cn. Pompeius Magnus and M. Licinius Crassus. On the same day, according to Donatus, the poet Lucretius died, in his forty-first year. It is said that Virgil subsequently studied at Neapolis (Naples) under Parthenius, a native of Bithynia, from whom he learned Greek (Macrob. Sat. v. 17); and the minute industry of the grammarians has pointed out the following line (Georg. i. 437) as borrowed from his master:

Glauco et Panopeae et Inoo Melicertae. (Compare Gellius xiii. 26; and PARTHENIUS).

He was also instructed by Syron an Epicurean, and probably at Rome. Virgil's writings prove that he received a learned education, and traces of Epicurean opinions are apparent in them.

VIRGILIA NUS JUNCUS. [JUNCUS.] VIRGILIA NUS PEDO. [PEDO.] VIRGILIUS, or VERGILIUS. The latter appears to be the more correct orthography, as in the name of Virginius or Verginius, but custom has given the preference in modern times to Vir-health of Virgilius was always feeble, and there is gilius.

1. M. VIRGILIUS, the frater or first cousin of T. Aufidius, was tribune of the plebs in B. c. 87, when, at the instigation of the consul Cinna, he brought an accusation against. Sulla, when the latter was on the point of crossing over to Greece to conduct the war against Mithridates; but Sulla left Rome without paying any attention to Vir

The

no evidence of his attempting to rise by those means by which a Roman gained distinction, oratory and the practice of arms. Indeed at the time when he was born, Cisalpine Gaul was not included within the term "Italy," and it was not till B. c. 89 that a Lex Pompeia gave even the Jus Latii to the inhabitants of Gallia Transpadana, and the privilege of obtaining the Roman civitas by

filling a magistratus in their own cities. The | languishing condition of agriculture in Italy after Roman civitas was not given to the Transpadani till B. C. 49. Virgil therefore was not a Roman citizen by birth, and he was above twenty years of age before the civitas was extended to Gallia Transpadana.

It is merely a conjecture, though it is probable that Virgilius retired to his paternal farm, and here he may have written some of the small pieces, which are attributed to him, the Culex, Ciris, Moretum, and others. The defeat of Brutus and Cassius by M. Antonius and Octavianus Caesar at Philippi B. c. 42, gave the supreme power to the two victorious generals, and when Octavianus returned to Italy, he began to assign to his soldiers lands which had been promised them for their services (Dion Cass. xlviii. 5, &c.). But the soldiers could only be provided with land by turning out many of the occupiers, and the neighbourhood of Cremona and Mantua was one of the districts in which the soldiers were planted, and from which the former possessors were dislodged. (Appian, Bell. Civ. v. 12, &c.) There is little evidence as to the circumstances under which Virgil was deprived of his property. It is said that it was seized by a veteran named Claudius or Clodius, and that Asinius Pollio, who was then governor of Gallia Transpadana, advised Virgil to apply to Octavianus at Rome for the restitution of his land, and that Octavianus granted his request. It is supposed that Virgilius wrote the Eclogue which stands first in our editions, to commemorate his gratitude to Octavianus Caesar. Whether the poet was subsequently disturbed in his possession and again restored, and whether he was not firmly secured in his patrimonial farm till after the peace of Brundusium B. c. 40 between Octavianus Caesar and M. Antonius, is a matter which no extant authority is sufficient to determine.

Virgil became acquainted with Maecenas before Horace was, and Horace (Sat. i. 5, and 6. 55, &c.) was introduced to Maecenas by Virgil. Whether this introduction was in the year B. C. 41 or a little later is uncertain; but we may perhaps conclude from the name of Maecenas not being mentioned in the Eclogues of Virgil, that he himself was not on those intimate terms with Maecenas which ripened into friendship, until after they were written. Horace, in one of his Satires (Sat. i. 5), in which he describes the journey from Rome to Brundusium, mentions Virgil as one of the party, and in language which shows that they were then in the closest intimacy. The time to which this journey relates is a matter of some difficulty, but there are perhaps only two times to which it can be referred, either the events recorded in Appian (Bell. Civ. v. 64), which preceded the peace of Brundusium B. c. 40, or to the events recorded by Appian (Bell. Civ. v. 78), which belong to the year B. c. 38. But it is not easy to decide to which of these two years, B. c. 40 or B. c. 38, the journey of Horace refers. It can hardly refer to the events mentioned in Appian (Bell. Civ. v. 93, &c.) which belong to the year B. C. 37, though even this opinion has been maintained. [HORATIUS FLACCUS.]

The most finished work of Virgil, his Georgica, an agricultural poem, was undertaken at the suggestion of Maecenas (Georg. iii. 41), and it was probably not commenced earlier than B. c. 37. The supposition that it was written to revive the

the civil war, and to point out the best method, may take its place with other exploded notions. The idea of reviving the industry of a country by an ela borate poem, which few farmers would read and still fewer would understand, requires no refutation. Agriculture is not quickened by a book, still less by a poem. It requires security of property, light taxation, and freedom of commerce. Maecenas may have wished Virgil to try his strength on something better than his Eclogues; and though the subject does not appear inviting, the poet has contrived to give it such embellishment that his fame rests in a great degree on this work. The concluding lines of the Georgica were written at Naples (Georg. iv. 559), but we can hardly infer that the whole poem was written there, though this is the literal meaning of the words,

66 Haec

super arvorum cultu pecorumque cane bam." We may however conclude that it was completed after the battle of Actium B. c. 31, while Caesar was in the East. (Compare Georg. iv. 560, and ii. 171, and the remarks of the critics.) His Eclogues had all been completed, and probably before the Georgica were begun (Georg. iv. 565).

The epic poem of Virgil, the Aeneid, was probably long contemplated by the poet. While Augustus was in Spain B. c. 27, he wrote to Virgil to express his wish to have some monument of his poetical talent; perhaps he desired that the poet should dedicate his labours to his glory as he had done to that of Maecenas. A short reply of Virgil is preserved (Macrob. Sat. i. 24), in which he says, "with respect to my Aeneas, if it were in a fit shape for your reading, I would gladly send the poem; but the thing is only just begun; and indeed it seems something like folly to have undertaken so great a work, especially when, as you know, I am applying to it other studies, and those of much greater importance." The inference that may be derived from a passage of Propertius (Ele ii. 34, v. 61), in which he speaks of the Iliad as begun and in progress, and from the recent death of Gallus, also mentioned in the same elegy, is that Virgil was engaged on his work in B. C. 24 (Clinton Fast. B. C. 24). An allusion to the victory of Actium in the same elegy, compared with the pas sage in Virgil (Aeneid, viii. 675 and 704) seems to show that Propertius was acquainted with the poem of Virgil in its progress; and he may have heard parts of it read. In B. c. 23 died Marcellus, the son of Octavia, Caesar's sister, by her first husband; and as Virgil lost no opportunity of gratifying his patron, he introduced into his sixth book of the Aeneid (v. 883) the well-known allusion to the virtues of this youth, who was cut off by a premature death.

"Heu miserande puer, si qua fata aspera rumpas, Tu Marcellus eris."

Octavia is said to have been present when the poet was reciting this allusion to her son and to have fainted from her emotions. She rewarded the poet munificently for his excusable flattery. As Marcellus did not die till B. c. 23, these lines were of course written after his death, but that does not prove that the whole of the sixth book was written so late. Indeed the attempts which modern critics make to settle many points in ancient literary history, are not always managed with due

poets.

ing, which indeed is the characteristic of all Virgil's | indebted to his extensive reading of the Greek Eclogues, whatever they may be in substance. The third, the fifth, the seventh, and the ninth are more clearly modelled on the form of the poems of his Sicilian prototype: and the eighth, the Pharmaceutria, is a direct imitation of the original Greek. The tenth, entitled Gallus, perhaps written the last of all, is a love poem, which, if written in elegiac verse, would be more appropriately called an elegy than a Bucolic. All the Eclogues of Virgil abound in allusions to the circumstances and persons of the time; but these allusions are often obscure. Though the Eclogues contain many pleasing lines, they present very great difficulties arising both from the construction of the poems, and the language. Those who find them easy are not persons who are much alive to the perception of difficulties; and those who bestow upon them very liberal praise, have the merit at least of being easily satisfied. Virgil borrowed many lines from Theocritus; but the adaptation of a few lines does not give to his poems the genuine rustic cast of some of the best pieces of Theocritus. We do not feel that the Eclogues of Virgil represent rural life or rural manners in Italy; and such a representation, even if Virgil could have given it, is incompatible with the leading idea that pervades some of the Eclogues. Julius Caesar Scaliger preferred Virgil's Eclogues to those of Theocritus, a curious instance of perverted judgment.

The "Georgica" or "Agricultual Poem" in four books is a didactic poem, which Virgil dedicated to his patron Maecenas. He treats of the cultivation of the soil in the first book, of fruit trees in the second, of horses and other cattle in the third, and of bees in the fourth. In this poem Virgil shows a great improvement both in his taste and in his versification. If he began this poem before he had finished the Eclogues, he went on working at it and correcting it after he had laid his Eclogues aside. It has been attempted to show that the first book was written before B. c. 35, but there is no conclusive evidence on this point. It has been stated when it was finished. Neither in the Georgics nor elsewhere has Virgil the merit of striking originality; his chief merit consists in the skilful handling of borrowed materials. His subject, which was by no means promising, he treated in a manner both instructive and pleasing; for he has given many useful remarks on agriculture and diversified the dryness of didactic poetry by numerous allusions and apt embellishments, and some occasional digressions without wandering too far from his main matter. In the first book (v. 1, &c.) he enumerates the subjects of his poem, among which is the treatment of bees; yet the management of bees seems but meagre material for one fourth of the whole poem, and the author accordingly had to complete the fourth book with matter somewhat extraneous - the long story of Aristaeus. The Georgica is the most finished specimen of the Latin hexameter which we have; and the rude vigor of Lucretius, and the antiquated rudeness of Ennius are here replaced by a versification, which in its kind cannot be surpassed. The Georgica are also the most original poem of Virgil, for he found little in the Works and Days of Hesiod that could furnish him with hints for the treatment of his subject, and we are not aware that there was any work which he could exactly follow as a whole. For numerous single lines he was

The Aeneid, or adventures of Aeneas after the fall of Troy, is an epic poem on the model of the Homeric poems. It was founded upon an old Roman tradition that Aeneas and his Trojans settled in Italy, and were the founders of the Roman name. In the first books we have the story of Aeneas being driven by a storm on the coast of Africa, and being hospitably received by Dido queen of Carthage, to whom he relates in the episode of the second and third books the fall of Troy and his wanderings. In the fourth book the poet has elaborated the story of the attachment of Dido and Aeneas, the departure of Aeneas in obedience to the will of the gods and the suicide of the Carthaginian queen. The fifth book contains the visit to Sicily, and the sixth the landing of Aeneas at Cumae in Italy, and his descent to the infernal regions, where he sees his father Anchises, and has a prophetic vision of the glorious destinies of his race and of the future heroes of Rome. In the first six books the adventures of Ulysses in the Odyssey are the model, and these books contain more variety of incident and situation than those which follow. The critics have discovered an anachronism in the visit of Aeneas to Carthage, which is supposed not to have been founded until two centuries after the fall of Troy, but this is a matter which we may leave without discussion, or admit without allowing it to be a poetical defect. The last six books, the history of the struggles of Aeneas in Italy, are founded on the model of the battles of the Iliad. Latinus, the king of the Latini, offers the Trojan hero his daughter Lavinia in marriage, who had been betrothed to Turnus, the warlike king of the Rutuli. The contest is ended by the death of Turnus, who falls by the hand of Aeneas. The fortunes of Aeneas and his final settlement in Italy are the subject of the Aeneid, but the glories of Rome and of the Julian house, to which Augustus belonged, are indirectly the poet's theme. In the first book the foundation of Alba Longa is promised by Jupiter to Venus (Aeneid, i. 254), and the transfer of empire from Alba to Rome; from the line of Aeneas will descend the “Trojan Caesar," whose empire will only be limited by the ocean, and whose glory by the heavens. The future rivalry between Rome and Carthage, and the ultimate triumphs of Rome are predicted. The poem abounds in allusions to the history of Rome; and the aim of the poet to confirm and embellish the popular tradition of the Trojan origin of the Roman state, and the descent of the Julii from Venus, is apparent all through the poem. It is objected to the Aeneid that it has not the unity of construction either of the Iliad or of the Odyssey, and that it is deficient in that antique simplicity which characterises these two poems. Aeneas, the hero, is an insipid kind of personage, and a much superior interest is excited by the savage Mezentius, and also by Turnus, the unfortunate rival of Aeneas. Virgil imitated other poets besides Homer, and he has occasionally borrowed from them, especially from Apollonius of Rhodes. If Virgil's subject was difficult to invest with interest, that is his apology; but it cannot be denied that many parts of his poem are successfully elaborated, and that particular scenes and incidents are treated with true poetic spirit. The historical