1000 Classical Characters Briefly Described

Who was Iphigenia? What did Cincinnatus do? A thousand gods, heroes and tyrants of the classical world, each explained in the time it takes to read a text message.

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Verona

An important town in Gallia Cisalpina, on the river Athesis. It was the birthplace of Catullus; and, according to some accounts, of the elder Pliny. There are still many Roman remains at Verona, and among others an amphitheater in a good state of preservation.

Verres, C. A quaestor in B. c. 82 to Cn. Papirius Carbo, and therefore at that period belonged to the Marian party; but he afterwards went over to Sulla. After being legate and proquaestor of Dolabella in Cilicia, Verres became praetor urbanus in 74, and afterwards propraetor in Sicily, where he remained nearly three years (73-71). The extortions and exactions of Verres in the island have become notorious through the celebrated orations of Cicero. Vertumnus or Vortumnus. A god who is said to have been an Etruscan divinity, but this story seems to be refuted by his genuine Roman name, viz., from verto, to change. The Romans connected Vertumnus with all occurrences to which the verb verto applies, such as the change of seasons, purchase and sale, the return of rivers to their proper beds, etc.

But in reality the god was connected only with the transformation of plants and their progress from blossom to fruit.

Vespasianus, Titus Flavius. A Roman emperor of obscure descent. He began the siege of Jerusalem, which was continued by his son Titus. He died A. D. 79, in his seventieth year.

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