Varro
MARCUS TERENTIUS, a Roman author; born probably of equestrian rank in the Sabine town of Reate, in 116 в. c. He studied under L. Ælius Stilo, and at Athens under Antiochus of Ascalon, whose philosophy Cicero makes him expound as an interlocutor in the "Posterior Academics." He saw some service under Pompey, and in the civil war was legate in Spain with Petreius and Afranius. He awaited the result of Pharsalia with Cicero and Cato at Dyrrachium, and was kindly treated by the conqueror, who appointed him to be librarian for his intended collection. The second triumvirate plunged him into danger, and Antony plundered his splendid Cacine villa, burned his beloved books, and placed his name in the list of the proscribed. But he was soon exempted, and Augustus even restored his property, so that he was able to spend his latest years in peace. He survived till 27 в. c. Varro was a man of upright and honorable character, a monument of the old-fashioned Roman virtues, even to their hard and unsympathetic side.
His diction shows qualities of the same kind-it is pithy and vigorous, but harsh, abrupt, without flexibility or charm. The total number of his works amounted to about 620 books, belonging to 74 different works. Of the poetical works (satires, pseudo-tragedies and poems) nothing is known but the names. But of the 150 books of the "Satires of Menippus," a medley of prose and verse, imitated from the Cynic satirist Menippus enough fragments (ed. Riese, 1865; Bücheler, 1882) remain to prove the greatness of the loss. Here are in singular medley grotesque personifications of ideas, ridicule of the philosophers, mythology, erudition, proverbs, bitter satire at the social corruptions of the day, and praise of the homely virtues of the good old times, the whole spirited and rich in humor, if seldom artistic in form.
Varro's prose writings embraced oratory, history both general and literary, jurisprudence, grammar, philosophy, geography, and husbandry. The most important of these were his "Human and Divine Antiquities," a work of vast learning in 41 books, a mine in which burrowed Pliny, Plutarch, Gellius, Festus, Macrobius, as well as the Christian fathers, especially St. Augustine; "The Latin Language," in 25 books, of which only v.-x. are extant (ed. C. O. Müller, 1833; L. Spengel, re-edited by his son, 1885), on the formation and inflection of words, and on syntax, married by arbitrary arrangement, and etymologies due to mere empirical word play; "Rustic Affairs, Part III.," almost entire (ed.
Keil, Leip. 1884), in dialogue form, on VASCULAR SYSTEM agriculture, cattle, bird and fish breeding.
His "Discipline, Part IX.," deserved to live, being an attempt at an encyclopædia of the liberal arts; his "Imagination, Part XV.," or "Hebdomades," was a series of 700 illustrated biographies of Greek and Roman celebrities with a metrical eulogium on each.