A CLASSICAL DICTIONARY, ETC., ETC. (continued 46)

Vatinius, an intimate friend of Cicero, once distinguished for his enmity to the orator. He hated the people of Rome for their great vices and corruption, whence excessive hatred became proverbial in the words Vatinianum odium. Catullus, bk. 14, li. 3.――A shoemaker, ridiculed for his deformities, and the oddity of his character. He was one of Nero’s favourites, and he surpassed the rest of the courtiers in flattery, and in the commission of every impious deed. Large cups, of no value, are called Vatiniana from him, because he used one which was both ill-shaped and uncouth. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 13, ch. 34.—Juvenal.—Martial, bk. 14, ltr. 96.

Ubii, a people of Germany near the Rhine, transported across the river by Agrippa, who gave them the name of Agrippinenses, from his daughter Agrippina, who had been born in the country. Their chief town, Ubiorum oppidum, is now Cologne. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 28; Annals, bk. 12, ch. 27.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 17.—Cæsar, bk. 4, ch. 30.

Ucălĕgon, a Trojan chief, remarkable for his great age, and praised for the soundness of his counsels and his good intentions, though accused by some of betraying his country to the enemy. His house was first set on fire by the Greeks. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 312.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 3, li. 148.

Ucetia, a town of Gaul.

Ucubis, now Lucubi, a town of Spain. Hirtius.

Udina, or Vedĭnum, now Udino, a town of Italy.

Vectis, the isle of Wight, south of Britain. Suetonius, Claudius, ch. 5.

Vectius, a rhetorician, &c. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 150.

Vectones. See: Vettones.

Vedius Pollio, a friend of Augustus, very cruel to his servants, &c. See: Pollio.――Aquila, an officer at the battle of Bebriacum, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 2, ch. 44.

Vegetius, a Latin writer, who flourished B.C. 386. The best edition of his treatise de Re Militari, together with Modestus, is that of Paris, 4to, 1607.

Vegia, an island on the coast of Dalmatia.

Veia, a sorceress, in the age of Horace, epode 5, li. 29.

Veianus, a gladiator, in the age of Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 1, li. 4.

Veientes, the inhabitants of Veii. They were carried to Rome, where the tribe they composed was called Veientina. See: Veii.

Veiento Fabricius, a Roman, as arrogant as he was satirical. Nero banished him for his libellous writings. Juvenal, satire 3, li. 185.

Veii, a powerful city of Etruria, at the distance of about 12 miles from Rome. It sustained many long wars against the Romans, and was at last taken and destroyed by Camillus, after a siege of 10 years. At the time of its destruction, Veii was larger and far more magnificent than the city of Rome. Its situation was so eligible, that the Romans, after the burning of the city by the Gauls, were long inclined to migrate there, and totally abandon their native home; and this would have been carried into execution, if not opposed by the authority and eloquence of Camillus. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 195.—Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 44.—Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 143.—Livy, bk. 5, ch. 21, &c.

Vejŏvis, or Vejupĭter, a deity of ill omen at Rome. He had a temple on the Capitoline hill built by Romulus. Some suppose that he was the same as Jupiter the infant, or in the cradle, because he was represented without thunder, or a sceptre, and had only by his side the goat Amalthæa, and the Cretan nymph who fed him when young. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 3, li. 430.

Velabrum, a marshy piece of ground on the side of the Tiber, between the Aventine, Palatine, and Capitoline hills, which Augustus drained, and where he built houses. The place was frequented as a market, where oil, cheese, and other commodities were exposed to sale. Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 229.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 401.—Tibullus, bk. 2, poem 5, li. 33.—Plautus, bk. 3, Captivi, ch. 1, li. 29.

Velanius, one of Cæsar’s officers in Gaul, &c.

Velauni, a people of Gaul.

Velia, a maritime town of Lucania, founded by a colony of Phoceans, about 600 years after the coming of Æneas into Italy. The port in its neighbourhood was called Velinus portus. Strabo, bk. 6.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Cicero, Philippics, bk. 10, ch. 4.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 366.――An eminence near the Roman forum, where Poplicola built himself a house. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Cicero, bk. 7, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 15.

Velica, or Vellica, a town of the Cantabri.

Velīna, a part of the city of Rome, adjoining mount Palatine. It was also one of the Roman tribes. Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 6, li. 52.—Cicero, bk. 4, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 15.

Velīnus, a lake in the country of the Sabines, formed by the stagnant waters of the Velinus, between some hills near Reate. The river Velinus rises in the Apennines, and after it has formed the lake, it falls into the Nar, near Spoletium. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 517.—Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 36.

Veliocassi, a people of Gaul.

Veliterna, or Velitræ, an ancient town of Latium on the Appian road, 20 miles at the east of Rome. The inhabitants were called Veliterni. It became a Roman colony. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 12, &c.—Suetonius Augustus.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 378, &c.

Vellari, a people of Gaul.

Vellaunodūnum, a town of the Senones, now Beaune. Cæsar, ♦Gallic War, bk. 7, ch. 11.

Velleda, a woman famous among the Germans, in the age of Vespasian, and worshipped as a deity. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 8.

Velleius Paterculus, a Roman historian, descended from an equestrian family of Campania. He was at first a military tribune in the Roman armies, and for nine years served under Tiberius in the various expeditions which he undertook in Gaul and Germany. Velleius wrote an epitome of the history of Greece, and of Rome, and of other nations of the most remote antiquity, but of this authentic composition there remain only fragments of the history of Greece and Rome from the conquest of Perseus, by Paulus, to the 17th year of the reign of Tiberius, in two books. It is a judicious account of celebrated men and illustrious cities; the historian is happy in his descriptions, and accurate in his dates; his pictures are true, and his narrations lively and interesting. The whole is candid and impartial, but only till the reign of the Cæsars, when the writer began to be influenced by the presence of the emperor, or the power of his favourites. Paterculus is deservedly censured for his invectives against Cicero and Pompey, and his encomiums on the cruel Tiberius, and the unfortunate Sejanus. Some suppose that he was involved in the ruin of this disappointed courtier, whom he had extolled as a pattern of virtue and morality. The best editions of Paterculus are those of Ruhnkenius, 8vo, 2 vols., Leiden, 1779; of Barbou, Paris, 12mo, 1777; and of Burman, 8vo, Leiden, 1719.――Caius, the grandfather of the historian of that name, was one of the friends of Livia. He killed himself when old and unable to accompany Livia in her flight.

Velocasses, the people of Vexin, in Normandy. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Venāfrum, a town of Campania near Arpinum, abounding in olive trees. It became a Roman colony. It had been founded by Diomedes. Horace, bk. 2, ode 6, li. 16.—Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 98.—Juvenal, satire 5, li. 86.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.

Venedi, a people of Germany, near the mouth of the Vistula, or gulf of Dantzic. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 46.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 13.

Veneli, a people of Gallia Celtica.

Venĕti, a people of Italy in Cisalpine Gaul, near the mouth of the Po. They were descended from a nation of Paphlagonia, who settled there under Antenor some time after the Trojan war. The Venetians, who have been long a powerful and commercial nation, were originally very poor, whence a writer in the age of the Roman emperors said, they had no other fence against the waves of the sea but hurdles, no food but fish, no wealth besides their fishing-boats, and no merchandise but salt. Strabo, bk. 4, &c.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 2, ch. 4.—Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3, ch. 8.—Lucan, bk. 4, li. 134.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 605.――A nation of Gaul, at the south of Armorica, on the western coast, powerful by sea. Their chief city is now called Vannes. Cæsar, bk. 3, Gallic War, ch. 8.

Venĕtia, a part of Gaul, on the mouths of the Po. See: Veneti.

Venetus Paulus, a centurion who conspired against Nero with Piso, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 50.――A lake through which the Rhine passes, now Bodensee or Constance. Mela, bk. 3, ch. 2.

Vĕnīlia, a nymph, sister to Amata, and mother of Turnus by Daunus. Amphitrite the sea goddess is also called Venilia. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 76.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 334.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 10.

Vennones, a people of the Rhæetian Alps.

Venonius, an historian mentioned by Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 12, ltr. 3, &c.

Venta Belgarum, a town of Britain, now Winchester.――Silurum, a town of Britain, now Caerwent, in Monmouthshire.――Icenorum, now Norwich.

Venti. The ancients, and especially the Athenians, paid particular attention to the winds, and offered them sacrifices as to deities, intent upon the destruction of mankind, by continually causing storms, tempests, and earthquakes. The winds were represented in different attitudes and forms. The four principal winds were Eurus, the south-east, who is represented as a young man flying with great impetuosity, and often appearing in a playsome and wanton humour. Auster, the south wind, appeared generally as an old man with grey hair, a gloomy countenance, a head covered with clouds, a sable vesture, and dusky wings. He is the dispenser of rain, and of all heavy showers. Zephyrus is represented as the mildest of all the winds. He is young and gentle, and his lap is filled with vernal flowers. He married Flora the goddess, with whom he enjoyed the most perfect felicity. Boreas, or the north wind, appears always rough and shivering. He is the father of rain, snow, hail, and tempests, and is always represented as surrounded with impenetrable clouds. Those of inferior note were Solanus, whose name is seldom mentioned. He appeared as a young man holding fruit in his lap, such as peaches, oranges, &c. Africus, or south-west, is represented with black wings, and a melancholy countenance. Corus, or north-west, drives clouds of snow before him, and Aquilo, the north-east, is equally dreadful in appearance. The winds, according to some mythologists, were confined in a large cave, of which Æolus had the management; and without this necessary precaution, they would have overturned the earth, and reduced everything to its original chaos. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 57, &c.

Ventĭdius Bassus, a native of Picenum, born of an obscure family. When Asculum was taken, he was carried before the triumphant chariot of Pompeius Strabo, hanging on his mother’s breast. A bold, aspiring soul, aided by the patronage of the family of Cæsar, raised him from the mean occupation of a chairman and muleteer to dignity in the state. He displayed valour in the Roman armies, and gradually arose to the offices of tribune, pretor, high priest, and consul. He made war against the Parthians, and conquered them in three great battles, B.C. 39. He was the first Roman ever honoured with a triumph over Parthia. He died greatly lamented by all the Roman people, and was buried at the public expense. Plutarch, Antonius.—Juvenal, satire 7, li. 199.――Cumanus, governor of Palestine, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 13, ch. 54.――Two brothers in the age of Pompey, who favoured Carbo’s interest, &c. Plutarch.

Venŭleius, a writer in the age of the emperor Alexander.――A friend of Verres. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 42.

Venŭlus, one of the Latin elders sent into Magna Græcia to demand the assistance of Diomedes, &c. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 9.

Vĕnus, one of the most celebrated deities of the ancients. She was the goddess of beauty, the mother of love, the queen of laughter, the mistress of the graces and of pleasures, and the patroness of courtesans. Some mythologists speak of more than one Venus. Plato mentions two, Venus Urania the daughter of Uranus, and Venus Popularia the daughter of Jupiter and Dione. Cicero speaks of four, a daughter of Cœlus and Light, one sprung from the froth of the sea, a third, daughter of Jupiter and the Nereid Dione, and a fourth born at Tyre, and the same as the Astarte of the Syrians. Of these, however, the Venus sprung from the froth of the sea, after the mutilated part of the body of Uranus had been thrown there by Saturn, is the most known, and of her in particular ancient mythologists, as well as painters, make mention. She arose from the sea near the island of Cyprus, or, according to Hesiod, of Cythera, whither she was wafted by the zephyrs, and received on the sea-shore by the seasons, daughters of Jupiter and Themis. She was soon after carried to heaven, where all the gods admired her beauty, and all the goddesses became jealous of her personal charms. Jupiter attempted to gain her affections and even wished to offer her violence, but Venus refused, and the god, to punish her obstinacy, gave her in marriage to his ugly and deformed son Vulcan. This marriage did not prevent the goddess of Love from gratifying her favourite passions, and she defiled her husband’s bed by her amours with the gods. Her intrigue with Mars is the most celebrated. She was caught in her lover’s arms, and exposed to the ridicule and laughter of all the gods. See: Alectryon. Venus became mother of Hermione, Cupid, and Anteros by Mars; by Mercury she had Hermaphroditus; by Bacchus, Priapus; and by Neptune, Eryx. Her great partiality for Adonis made her abandon the seats of Olympus [See: Adonis], and her regard for Anchises obliged her often to visit the woods and solitary retreats of mount Ida. See: Anchises, Æneas. The power of Venus over the heart was supported and assisted by a celebrated girdle, called zone by the Greeks, and cestus by the Latins. This mysterious girdle gave beauty, grace, and elegance, when worn even by the most deformed; and it excited love and rekindled extinguished flames. Juno herself was indebted to this powerful ornament to gain the favours of Jupiter, and Venus, though herself possessed of every charm, no sooner put on her cestus, than Vulcan, unable to resist the influence of love, forgot all the intrigues and infidelities of his wife, and fabricated arms even for her illegitimate children. The contest of Venus for the golden apple of Discord is well known. She gained the prize over Pallas and Juno [See: Paris, Discordia], and rewarded her impartial judge with the hand of the fairest woman in the world. The worship of Venus was universally established; statues and temples were erected to her in every kingdom, and the ancients were fond of paying homage to a divinity who presided over generation, and by whose influence alone mankind existed. In her sacrifices and in the festivals celebrated in her honour, too much licentiousness prevailed, and public prostitution was often part of the ceremony. Victims were seldom offered to her, or her altars stained with blood, though we find Aspasia making repeated sacrifices. No pigs, however, or male animals were deemed acceptable. The rose, the myrtle, and the apple, were sacred to Venus; and among birds, the dove, the swan, and the sparrow, were her favourites; and among fishes, those called the aphya and the lycostomus. The goddess of beauty was represented among the ancients in different forms. At Elis she appeared seated on a goat, with one foot resting on a tortoise. At Sparta and Cythera, she was represented armed like Minerva, and sometimes wearing chains on her feet. In the temple of Jupiter Olympius, she was represented by Phidias, as rising from the sea, received by love, and crowned by the goddess of persuasion. At Cnidos her statue, made by Praxiteles, represented her naked, with one hand hiding what modesty keeps concealed. Her statue at Elephantis was the same, with only a naked Cupid by her side. In Sicyon she held a poppy in one hand, and in the other an apple, while on her head she had a crown, which terminated in a point, to intimate the pole. She is generally represented with her son Cupid, on a chariot drawn by doves, or at other times by swans and sparrows. The surnames of the goddess are numerous, and only show how well established her worship was all over the earth. She was called Cypria, because particularly worshipped in the island of Cyprus, and in that character she was often represented with a beard, and the male parts of generation, with a sceptre in her hand, and the body and dress of a female, whence she is called duplex Amathusia by Catullus. She received the name of Paphia, because worshipped at Paphos, where she had a temple with an altar, on which rain never fell, though exposed in the open air. Some of the ancients called her Apostrophia or Epistrophia, as also Venus Urania, and Venus Pandemos. The first of these she received as presiding over wantonness and incestuous enjoyments; the second because she patronized pure love, and chaste and moderate gratifications; and the third because she favoured the propensities of the vulgar, and was fond of sensual pleasures. The Cnidians raised her temples under the name of Venus Acræa, of Doris, and of Euploea. In her temple under the name of Euploea, at Cnidos, was the most celebrated of her statues, being the most perfect piece of Praxiteles. It was made with white marble, and appeared so engaging, and so much like life, that, according to some historians, a youth of the place introduced himself in the night into her temple, and attempted to gratify his passions on the lifeless image. Venus was also surnamed Cytheræa, because she was the chief deity of Cythera; Exopolis, because her statue was without the city of Athens; Phallommeda, from her affection for the phallus; Philommedis, because the queen of laughter; Telessigama, because she presided over marriage; Caliada, Colotis, or Colias, because worshipped on a promontory of the same name in Attica; Area, because armed like Mars; Verticordia, because she could turn the hearts of women to cultivate chastity; Apaturia, because she deceived; Calva, because she was represented bald; Ericyna, because worshipped at Eryx; Etaira, because the patroness of courtesans; Acidalia, because of a fountain of Orchomenos: Basilea, because the queen of love; Myrtea, because the myrtle was sacred to her; Libertina, from her inclinations to gratify lust; Mechanitis, in allusion to the many artifices practised in love, &c., &c. As goddess of the sea, because born in the bosom of the waters, Venus was called Pontia, Marina, Limnesia, Epipontia, Pelagia, Saligenia, Pontogenia, Aligena, Thalassia, &c., and as rising from the sea, the name of Anadyomene is applied to her, and rendered immortal by the celebrated painting of Apelles, which represented her as issuing from the bosom of the waves, and wringing her tresses on her shoulder. See: Anadyomene. Cicero de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 27; bk. 3, ch. 23.—Orpheus, Hymn 54.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Sappho.—Homer, Hymn to Aphrodite, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 800, &c.—Ovid, Heroides, poems 15, 16, 19, &c.; Metamorphoses, bk. 4, fable 5, &c.—Diodorus, bks. 1 & 5.—Hyginus, fables 94, 271.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 4, ch. 30; bk. 5, ch. 18.—Martial, bk. 6, ltr. 13.—Euripides, Helen, Iphigeneia in Taurus.—Plutarch, Amatorius.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 12, ch. 1.—Athenæus, bk. 12, &c.—Catullus.—Lactantius, de Falsa Religione.—Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus], bk. 11.—Lucian, Dialogi, &c.—Strabo, bk. 14.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 3, &c.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 8, ch. 11.—Pliny, bk. 36.—Horace, bk. 3, ode 26; bk. 4, ode 11, &c.――A planet called by the Greeks Phosphorus, and by the Latins Lucifer, when it rises before the sun, but when it follows it, Hesperus or Vesper. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 20; Somnium Scipionis.

Venus Pyrenæa, a town of Spain near the borders of Gaul.

Venŭsia, or Venŭsium, a town of Apulia, where Horace was born. Part of the Roman army fled thither after the defeat at Cannæ. The town, though in ruins, contains still many pieces of antiquity, especially a marble bust preserved in the great square, and said falsely to be an original representation of Horace. Venusia was on the confines of Lucania, whence the poet said Lucanus an Apulus anceps, and it was founded by Diomedes, who called it Venusia or Aphrodisia, after Venus, whose divinity he wished to appease. Strabo, bks. 5 & 6.—Horace, bk. 2, satire 1, li. 35.—Livy, bk. 22, ch. 54.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 11.

Veragri, a people between the Alps and the Allobroges. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 38.—Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3, ch. 1.

Verania, the wife of Piso Licinianus, whom Galba adopted.

Veranius, a governor of Britain under Nero. He succeeded Didius Gallus. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 14.

Verbānus lacus, now Majora, a lake of Italy, from which the Ticinus flows. It is in the modern duchy of Milan, and extends 50 miles in length from south to north, and five or six in breadth. Strabo, bk. 4.

Verbigenus, a village in the country of the Celtæ.

Verbinum, a town in the north of Gaul.

Vercellæ, a town on the borders of Insubria, where Marius defeated the Cimbri. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 17.—Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 11, ltr. 19.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 598.

Vercingetŏrix, a chief of the Gauls, in the time of Cæsar. He was conquered and led in triumph, &c. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 7, ch. 4.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 10.

Veresis, a small river of Latium falling into the Anio.

Vergasillaunus, one of the generals and friends of Vercingetorix. Cæsar, Gallic War.

Vergæ, a town of the Brutii. Livy, bk. 30, ch. 19.

Vergellus, a small river near Cannæ, falling into the Aufidus, over which Annibal made a bridge with the slaughtered bodies of the Romans. Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 11.

Vergilia, the wife of Coriolanus, &c.

Vergilia, a town of Spain, supposed to be Murcia.

Vergiliæ, seven stars, called also Pleiades. When they set, the ancients began to sow their corn. They received their name from the spring, quia vere oriantur. Propertius, bk. 1, poem 8, li. 18.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 44.

Verginius, one of the officers of the Roman troops in Germany, who refused the absolute power which his soldiers offered to him. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 8.――A rhetorician in the age of Nero, banished on account of his great fame. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 71.

Vergium, a town of Spain.

Vergobretus, one of the chiefs of the Ædui, in the age of Cæsar, &c. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 1, ch. 16.

Verĭtas (truth), was not only personified by the ancients, but also made a deity, and called the daughter of Saturn and the mother of Virtue. She was represented like a young virgin, dressed in white apparel, with all the marks of youthful diffidence and modesty. Democritus used to say that she hid herself at the bottom of a well, to intimate the difficulty with which she is found.

Verodoctius, one of the Helvetii. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 1, ch. 7.

Veromandui, a people of Gaul, the modern Vermandois. The capital is now St. Quintin. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 2.

Vērōna, a town of Venetia, on the Athesis, in Italy, founded, as some suppose, by Brennus the leader of the Gauls. Cornelius Nepos, Catullus, and Pliny the elder were born there. It was adorned with a circus and an amphitheatre by the Roman emperors, which still exist, and it still preserves its ancient name. Pliny, bk. 9, ch. 22.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Ovid, Amores, bk. 3, poem 15, li. 7.

Verōnes, a people of Hispania Tarraconensis. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 578.

Verrecīnum, a town in the country of the Volsci. Livy, bk. 4, ch. 1, &c.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 5.

Caius Verres, a Roman who governed the province of Sicily as pretor. The oppression and rapine of which he was guilty, while in office, so offended the Sicilians, that they brought an accusation against him before the Roman senate. Cicero undertook the cause of the Sicilians, and pronounced those celebrated orations which are still extant. Verres was defended by Hortensius, but as he despaired of the success of his defence, he left Rome without waiting for his sentence, and lived in great affluence in one of the provinces. He was at last killed by the soldiers of Antony the triumvir, about 26 years after his voluntary exile from the capital. Cicero, Against Verres.—Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 2.—Lactantius, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Verritus, a general of the Frisii in the age of Nero, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 13, ch. 54.

Verrius Flaccus, a freedman and grammarian famous for his powers in instructing. He was appointed over the grandchildren of Augustus, and also distinguished himself by his writings. Aulus Gellius, bk. 4, ch. 5.—Suetonius, Lives of the Grammarians.――A Latin critic, B.C. 4, whose works have been edited with Dacier’s and Clerk’s notes, 4to, Amsterdam, 1699.

Verrūgo, a town in the country of the Volsci. Livy, bk. 4, ch. 1.

Vertico, one of the Nervii who deserted to Cæsar’s army, &c. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 6, ch. 45.

Verticordia, one of the surnames of Venus, the same as the Apostrophia of the Greeks, because her assistance was implored to turn the hearts of the Roman matrons, and teach them to follow virtue and modesty. Valerius Maximus, bk. 8.

Vertiscus, one of the Rhemi, who commanded a troop of horse in Cæsar’s army. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 8, ch. 12.

Vertumnus, a deity among the Romans, who presided over the spring and over orchards. He endeavoured to gain the affections of the goddess Pomona; and to effect this, he assumed the shape and dress of a fisherman, of a soldier, a peasant, a reaper, &c., but all to no purpose, till, under the form of an old woman, he prevailed upon his mistress and married her. He is generally represented as a young man crowned with flowers, covered up to the waist, and holding in his right hand fruit, and a crown of plenty in his left. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 642, &c.—Propertius, bk. 4, poem 2, li. 2.—Horace, bk. 2, satire 7, li. 14.

Verulæ, a town of the Hernici. Livy, bk. 9, ch. 42.

Verulānus, a lieutenant under Corbulo, who drove away Tiridates from Media, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 14, ch. 26.

Verus Lucius Ceionius Commodus, a Roman emperor, son of Ælius and Domitia Lucilla. He was adopted in the 7th year of his age by Marcus Aurelius, at the request of Adrian, and he married Lucilia the daughter of his adopted father, who also took him as his colleague on the throne. He was sent by Marcus Aurelius to oppose the barbarians in the east. His arms were attended with success, and he obtained a victory over the Parthians. He was honoured with a triumph at his return home, and soon after he marched with his imperial colleague against the Marcomanni in Germany. He died in this expedition of an apoplexy, in the 39th year of his age, after a reign of eight years and some months. His body was brought back to Rome, and buried by Marcus Aurelius with great pomp and solemnity. Verus has been greatly censured for his debaucheries, which appeared more enormous and disgusting, when compared with the temperance, meekness, and popularity of Aurelius. The example of his father did not influence him, and he often retired from the frugal and moderate repast of Aurelius, to the profuse banquets of his own palace, where the night was spent in riot and debauchery, with the meanest of the populace, with stage-dancers, buffoons, and lascivious courtesans. At one entertainment alone, where there were no more than 12 guests, the emperor spent no less than six millions of sesterces, or about 32,200l. sterling. But it is to be observed, that whatever was most scarce and costly was there; the guests never drank twice out of the same cup; and whatever vessels they had touched, they received as a present from the emperor when they left the palace. In his Parthian expedition, Verus did not check his vicious propensities; for four years he left the care of the war to his officers, while he retired to the voluptuous retreats of Daphne, and the luxurious banquets of Antioch. His fondness for a horse has been faithfully recorded. The animal had a statue of gold, he was fed with almonds and raisins by the hand of the emperor, he was clad in purple, and kept in the most splendid of the halls of the palace, and when dead, the emperor, to express his sorrow, raised him a magnificent monument on mount Vatican. Some have suspected Marcus Aurelius of despatching Verus to rid the world of his debaucheries and guilty actions, but this seems to be the report of malevolence.――Lucius Annæus, a son of the emperor Aurelius, who died in Palestine.――The father of the emperor Verus. He was adopted by the emperor Adrian, but like his son he disgraced himself by his debaucheries and extravagance. He died before Adrian.

Vesbius, or Vesubius. See: Vesuvius.

Vescia, a town of Campania. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 11.

Vescianum, a country house of Cicero in Campania, between Capua and Nola. Cicero bk. 15, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 2.

Flaccus Vescularius, a Roman knight intimate with Tiberius, &c. Tacitus, Annals.

♦Vesontio, a town of Gaul, now Besancon. Cæsar, Gallic War, ♠bk. 1, ch. 38.

Vesentium, a town of Tuscany.

Veseris, a place or river near mount Vesuvius. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 8.—Cicero, De Officiis, bk. 3, ch. 31.

Vesēvius and Vesēvus. See: Vesuvius.

Vesidia, a town of Tuscany.

Vesonna, a town of Gaul, now Perigueux.

Vespaciæ, a small village of Umbria, near Nursia. Suetonius, Vespasian, ch. 1.

Vespasiānus Titus Flavius, a Roman emperor, descended from an obscure family at Reate. He was honoured with the consulship, not so much by the influence of the imperial courtiers, as by his own private merit, and his public services. He accompanied Nero into Greece, but he offended the prince by falling asleep while he repeated one of his poetical compositions. This momentary resentment of the emperor did not prevent Vespasian from being sent to carry on a war against the Jews. His operations were crowned with success; many of the cities of Palestine surrendered, and Vespasian began the siege of Jerusalem. This was, however, achieved by the hands of his son Titus, and the death of Vitellus and the affection of his soldiers hastened his rise, and he was proclaimed emperor at Alexandria. The choice of the army was approved by every province of the empire; but Vespasian did not betray any signs of pride at so sudden and so unexpected an exaltation, and though once employed in the mean office of a horse-doctor, he behaved, when invested with the imperial purple, with all the dignity and greatness which became a successor of Augustus. In the beginning of his reign Vespasian attempted to reform the manners of the Romans, and he took away an appointment which he had a few days before granted to a young nobleman who approached him to return him thanks, all smelling of perfumes and covered with ointment, adding, “I had rather you had smelt of garlic.” He repaired the public buildings, embellished the city, and made the great roads more spacious and convenient. After he had reigned with great popularity for 10 years, Vespasian died with a pain in his bowels, A.D. 79, in the 70th year of his age. He was the first Roman emperor that died a natural death, and he was also the first who was succeeded by his own son on the throne. Vespasian has been admired for his great virtues. He was clement, he gave no ear to flattery, and for a long time refused the title of father of his country, which was often bestowed upon the most worthless and tyrannical of the emperors. He despised informers, and rather than punish conspirators, he rewarded them with great liberality. When the king of Parthia addressed him with the subscription of “Arsaces king of kings to Flavius Vespasianus,” the emperor was no way dissatisfied with the pride and insolence of the monarch, and answered him again in his own words, “Flavius Vespasianus to Arsaces king of kings.” To men of learning and merit, Vespasian was very liberal: 100,000 sesterces were annually paid from the public treasury to the different professors that were appointed to encourage and promote the arts and sciences. Yet in spite of this apparent generosity, some authors have taxed Vespasian with avarice. According to their accounts, he loaded the provinces with new taxes, he bought commodities, that he might sell them to a greater advantage, and even laid an impost upon urine, which gave occasion to Titus to ridicule the meanness of his father. Vespasian, regardless of his son’s observation, was satisfied to show him the money that was raised from so productive a tax, asking him at the same time whether it smelt offensive. His ministers were the most avaricious of his subjects, and the emperor used very properly to remark that he treated them as sponges, by wetting them when dry, and squeezing them when they were wet. He has been accused of selling criminals their lives, and of condemning the most opulent to make himself master of their possessions. If, however, he was guilty of these meaner practices, they were all under the name of one of his concubines, who wished to enrich herself by the avarice and credulity of the emperor. Suetonius, Lives.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4.

Vesper, or Vespĕrus, a name applied to the planet Venus when it was the evening star. Virgil.

Vessa, a town of Sicily.

Vesta, a goddess, daughter of Rhea and Saturn, sister to Ceres and Juno. She is often confounded by the mythologists with Rhea, Ceres, Cybele, Proserpine, Hecate, and Tellus. When considered as the mother of the gods, she is the mother of Rhea and Saturn; and when considered as the patroness of the vestal virgins and the goddess of fire, she is called the daughter of Saturn and Rhea. Under this last name she was worshipped by the Romans. Æneas was the first who introduced her mysteries into Italy, and Numa built her a temple where no males were permitted to go. The palladium of Troy was supposed to be preserved within her sanctuary, and a fire was continually kept lighted by a certain number of virgins, who had dedicated themselves to the service of the goddess. See: Vestales. If the fire of Vesta was ever extinguished, it was supposed to threaten the republic with some sudden calamity. The virgin by whose negligence it had been extinguished, was severely punished, and it was kindled again by the rays of the sun. The temple of Vesta was of a round form, and the goddess was represented in a long, flowing robe, with a veil on her head, holding in one hand a lamp, or a two-eared vessel, and in the other a javelin, or sometimes a palladium. On some medals she appears holding a drum in one hand, and a small figure of victory in the other. Hesiod, Theogony, li. 454.—Cicero, de Legibus, bk. 2, ch. 12.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 296.—Diodorus, bk. 5.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6; Tristia, bk. 3.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Plutarch, Numa.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 14.

Vestāles, priestesses among the Romans, consecrated to the service of Vesta, as their name indicates. This office was very ancient, as the mother of Romulus was one of the vestals. Æneas is supposed to have first chosen the vestals. Numa first appointed four, to which number Tarquin added two. They were always chosen by the monarchs, but after the expulsion of the Tarquins, the high priest was entrusted with the care of them. As they were to be virgins, they were chosen young, from the age of six to ten; and if there was not a sufficient number that presented themselves as candidates for the office, 20 virgins were selected, and they upon whom the lot fell were obliged to become priestesses. Plebeians as well as patricians were permitted to propose themselves, but it was required that they should be born of a good family, and be without blemish or deformity, in every part of their body. For 30 years they were to remain in the greatest continence; the 10 first years were spent in learning the duties of the order; the 10 following were employed in discharging them with fidelity and sanctity, and the 10 last in instructing such as had entered the noviciate. When the 30 years were elapsed, they were permitted to marry, or if they still preferred celibacy, they waited upon the rest of the vestals. As soon as a vestal was initiated, her head was shaved, to intimate the liberty of her person, as she was then free from the shackles of parental authority, and she was permitted to dispose of her possessions as she pleased. The employment of the vestals was to take care that the sacred fire of Vesta was not extinguished, for if it ever happened, it was deemed the prognostic of great calamities to the state; the offender was punished for her negligence, and severely scourged by the high priest. In such a case all was consternation at Rome, and the fire was again kindled by glasses with the rays of the sun. Another equally particular charge of the vestals was to keep a sacred pledge, on which depended the very existence of Rome, which, according to some, was the palladium of Troy, or some of the mysteries of the gods of Samothrace. The privileges of the vestals were great; they had the most honourable seats at public games and festivals; a lictor with the fasces always preceded them when they walked in public; they were carried in chariots when they pleased; and they had the power of pardoning criminals when led to execution, if they declared that their meeting was accidental. Their declarations in trials were received without the formality of an oath; they were chosen as arbiters in causes of moment and in the execution of wills, and so great was the deference paid them by the magistrates, as well as by the people, that the consuls themselves made way for them, and bowed their fasces when they passed before them. To insult them was a capital crime, and whoever attempted to violate their chastity, was beaten to death with scourges. If any of them died while in office, their body was buried within the walls of the city, an honour granted to few. Such of the vestals as proved incontinent were punished in the most rigorous manner. Numa ordered them to be stoned, but Tarquin the elder dug a large hole under the earth, where a bed was placed with a little bread, wine, water, and oil, and a lighted lamp, and the guilty vestal was stripped of the habit of her order, and compelled to descend into the subterraneous cavity, which was immediately shut, and she was left to die through hunger. Few of the vestals were guilty of incontinence, and for the space of 1000 years, during which the order continued established from the reign of Numa, only 18 were punished for the violation of their vow. The vestals were abolished by Theodosius the Great, and the fire of Vesta extinguished. The dress of the vestals was peculiar; they wore a white vest with purple borders, a white linen surplice called linteum supernum, above which was a great purple mantle which flowed to the ground, and which was tucked up when they offered sacrifices. They had a close covering on their head, called infula, from which hung ribands, or vitta. Their manner of living was sumptuous, as they were maintained at the public expense, and though originally satisfied with the simple diet of the Romans, their tables soon after displayed the luxuries and the superfluities of the great and opulent. Livy, 2, &c.—Plutarch, Numa, &c.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 30.—Florus, bk. 1.—Propertius, bk. 4, poem 11.—Tacitus, bk. 4, ch. 10.

Vestālia, festival in honour of Vesta, observed at Rome on the 9th of June. Banquets were then prepared before the houses, and meat was sent to the vestals to be offered to the gods; millstones were decked with garlands, and the asses that turned them were led round the city covered with garlands. The ladies walked in the procession bare-footed to the temple of the goddess, and an altar was erected to Jupiter surnamed Pistor. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 305.

Vestalium Mater, a title given by the senate to Livia the mother of Tiberius, with the permission to sit among the vestal virgins at plays. Tacitus, bk. 4, Annals, ch. 16.

Vestia Oppia, a common prostitute of Capua.

Vesticius Spurina, an officer sent by Otho to the borders of the Po, &c. Tacitus.

Vestilius Sextus, a pretorian disgraced by Tiberius, because he was esteemed by Drusus. He killed himself. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 16.

Vestilla, a matron of a patrician family, who declared publicly before the magistrates that she was a common prostitute. She was banished to the island of Seriphos for her immodesty.

Vestīni, a people of Italy near the Sabines, famous for the making of cheese. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 31.—Strabo, bk. 5.

Lucius Vestīnus, a Roman knight appointed by Vespasian to repair the capitol, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 53.—Livy, bk. 8, ch. 29.――A consul put to death by Nero in the time of Piso’s conspiracy.

Vesvius. See: Vesuvius.

Vesŭlus, now Viso, a large mountain of Liguria, near the Alps, where the Po takes its rise. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 708.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 19.

Vesŭvius, a mountain of Campania, about six miles at the east of Naples, celebrated for its volcano, and now called Mount Soma. The ancients, particularly the writers of the Augustan age, spoke of Vesuvius as a place covered with orchards and vineyards, of which the middle was dry and barren. The first eruption of this volcano was in the 79th year of the christian era under Titus. It was accompanied by an earthquake, which overturned several cities of Campania, particularly Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the burning ashes which it threw up were carried not only over the neighbouring country, but as far as the shores of Egypt, Libya, and Syria. This eruption proved fatal to Pliny the naturalist. From that time the eruptions have been frequent. Vesuvius continually throws up a smoke, and sometimes ashes and flames. The perpendicular height of this mountain is 3780 feet. Dio Cassius, bk. 46.—Varro, de Re Rustica, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Livy, bk. 23, ch. 39.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Pliny, bk. 6, ltr. 16.—Silius Italicus, bk. 12, li. 152, &c.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 224.—Martial, bk. 4, ltrs. 43 & 44.

Vetera castra, a Roman encampment in Germany, which became a town, now Sanlen, near Cleves. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 18; Annals, bk. 1, ch. 45.

Vettius Spurius, a Roman senator who was made interrex at the death of Romulus, till the election of another king. He nominated Numa, and resigned his office. Plutarch, Numa.――A man who accused Cæsar of being concerned in Catiline’s conspiracy.――Cato, one of the officers of the allies in the Marsian war. He defeated the Romans, and was at last betrayed and murdered.――A Roman knight who became enamoured of a young female at Capua, and raised a tumult among the slaves who proclaimed him king. He was betrayed by one of his adherents, upon which he laid violent hands upon himself.

Vettona, a town of Umbria. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 14.

Vettōnes, Vetones, or Vectones, an ancient nation of Spain. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 378.—Pliny, bk. 25, ch. 8.

Vetulōnia, one of the chief cities of Etruria, whose hot waters were famous. The Romans were said to derive the badges of their magisterial offices from thence. Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 103; bk. 3, ch. 3.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 484.

Vetūria, one of the Roman tribes, divided into two branches of the Junii and Senii. It received its name from the Veturian family, which was originally called Vetusian. Livy, bk. 36.――The mother of Coriolanus. She was solicited by all the Roman matrons to go to her son with her daughter-in-law, and entreat him not to make war against his country. She went and prevailed over Coriolanus, and for her services to the state, the Roman senate offered to reward her as she pleased. She only asked to raise a temple to the goddess of female fortune, which was done on the very spot where she had pacified her son. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 40.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 7, &c.

Veturius, a Roman artist who made shields for Numa. See: Mamurius.――Caius, a Roman consul, accused before the people, and fined because he had acted with imprudence while in office.――A Roman who conspired against Galba. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 25.――A consul appointed one of the decemvirs.――Another consul defeated by the Samnites, and obliged to pass under the yoke with great ignominy.――A tribune of the people, &c.

Lucius Vetus, a Roman who proposed to open a communication between the Mediterranean and the German ocean by means of a canal. He was put to death by order of Nero.――A man accused of adultery, &c.

Ufens, a river of Italy near Tarracina. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 892.――Another river of Picenum. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 35.――A prince who assisted Turnus against Æneas. The Trojan monarch made a vow to sacrifice his four sons to appease the manes of his friend Pallas, in the same manner as Achilles is represented killing some Trojan youths on the tomb of Patroclus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 745; bk. 10, li. 518. He was afterwards killed by Gyas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 460.

Ufentina, a Roman tribe first created A.U.C. 435, with the tribe Falerina, in consequence of the great increase of population at Rome. Livy, bk. 9, ch. 20.—Festus.

Via Æmylia, a celebrated road, made by the consul Marcus Æmylius Lepidus, A.U.C. 567. It led with the Flaminian road to Aquileia. There was also another of the same name in Etruria, which led from Pisæ to Dertona.――Appia, was made by the censor Appius, and led from Rome to Capua, and from Capua to Brundusium, to the distance of 350 miles, which the Romans call a five days’ journey. It passed successively through the towns and stages of Aricia, Forum Appii, Tarracina, Fundi, Minturnæ, Sinuessa, Capua, Caudium, Beneventum, Equotuticum, Herdonia, Canusium, Barium, Egnatia, to Brundusium. It was called, by way of eminence, regina viarum, made so strong, and the stones so well cemented together, that it remained entire for many hundred years. Some parts of it are still to be seen in the neighbourhood of Naples. Appius carried it only 130 miles, as far as Capua, A.U.C. 442, and it was finished as far as Brundusium by Augustus.――There was also another road called Minucia or Numicia, which led to Brundusium, but by what places is now uncertain.――Flaminia, was made by the censor Flaminius, A.U.C. 533. It led from the Campus Martius to the modern town of Rimini, on the Adriatic, through the country of the Osci and Etrurians, at the distance of about 360 miles.――Lata, one of the ancient streets of Rome.――Valeria, led from Rome to the country of the Marsi, through the territories of the Sabines. There were, besides, many streets and roads of inferior note, such as the Aurelia, Cassia, Campania, Ardentina, Labicana, Domitiana, Ostiensis, Prænestina, &c., all of which were made and constantly kept in repair at the public expense.

Viadrus, the classical name of the Oder, which rises in Moravia, and falls by three mouths into the Baltic. Ptolemy.

Vibidia, one of the vestal virgins in the favour of Messalina, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11, ch. 32.

Vibidius, a friend of Mæcenas. Horace, bk. 2, satire 8, li. 22.

Vibius, a Roman who refused to pay any attention to Cicero when banished, though he had received from him the most unbounded favours.――Siculus. See: Sica.――A proconsul of Spain, banished for ill conduct.――A Roman knight accused of extortion in Africa, and banished.――A man who poisoned himself at Capua.――Sequester, a Latin writer, whose treatise de Fluminibus, &c., is best edited by Oberlin, 8vo, Strasbourg, 1778.

Vibo, a town of Lucania, anciently called Hipponium and Hippo. Cicero. Letters to Atticus, bk. 3, ch. 3.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.――A town of Spain,――of the Brutii.

Vibulēnus Agrippa, a Roman knight accused of treason. He attempted to poison himself, and was strangled in prison, though almost dead. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 40.――A mutinous soldier in the army of Germanicus, &c.

Vibullius Rufus, a friend of Pompey, taken by Cæsar, &c. Plutarch.—Cicero, Letters.――A pretor in Nero’s reign.

Vica Pota, a goddess at Rome, who presided over victory (à vincere et potiri). Livy, bk. 2, ch. 7.

Vicellius, a friend of Galba, who brought him news of Nero’s death.

Vicentia, or Vicetia, a town of Cisalpine Gaul, at the north-west of the Adriatic. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 3.

Victor Sextus Aurelius, a writer in the age of Constantius. He gave the world a concise history of the Roman emperors, from the age of Augustus to his own time, or A.D. 360. He also wrote an abridgment of the Roman history before the age of Julius Cæsar, which is now extant, and ascribed by different authors to Cornelius Nepos, to Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny, &c. Victor was greatly esteemed by the emperors, and honoured with the consulship. The best editions of Victor are that of Pitiscus, 8vo, Utrecht, 1696; and that of Artnzenius, 4to, Amsterdam, 1733.

Victōria, one of the deities of the Romans, called by the Greeks Nice, supposed to be the daughter of the giant Pallas, or of Titan and Styx. The goddess of victory was sister to Strength and Valour, and was one of the attendants of Jupiter. She was greatly honoured by the Greeks, particularly at Athens. 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. Livy, bk. 22.—Varro, de Lingua Latina.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Hyginus, preface to fables.—Suetonius.

Victoriæ mons, a place of Spain at the mouth of the Iberus. Livy, bk. 24, ch. 41.

Victōrius, a man of Aquitain, who, A.D. 463, invented the paschal cycle of 532 years.

Victorīna, a celebrated matron who placed herself at the head of the Roman armies, and made war against the emperor Gallienus. Her son Victorinus, and her grandson of the same name, were declared emperors, but when they were assassinated, Victorina invested with the imperial purple one of her favourites called Tetricus. She was some time after poisoned, A.D. 269, and according to some by Tetricus himself.

Victorīnus, a christian writer, who composed a worthless epic poem on the death of the seven children mentioned in the Maccabees, and distinguished himself more by the active part he took in his writings against the Arians.

Victumviæ, a small town of Insubria near Placentia. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 45.

Vicus longus, a street at Rome, where an altar was raised to the goddess Pudicitia, or the modesty of the plebeians. Livy, bk. 10, ch. 23.――Cyprius, a place on the Esquiline hill, where the Sabines dwelt.

Viducasses, a people of Normandy. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 18.

Vienna, a town of Gallia Narbonensis on the Rhone, below Lyons. Strabo, bk. 1.—Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 7, ch. 9.

Villia lex, annalis or annaria, by Lucius Villius the tribune, A.U.C. 574, defined the proper age required for exercising the office of a magistrate, 25 years for the questorship, 27 or 28 for the edileship or tribuneship, for the office of pretor 30, and for that of consul 43. Livy, bk. 11, ch. 44.

Villius, a tribune of the people, author of the Villian law, and thence called Annalis, a surname borne by his family. Livy, bk. 11, ch. 44.――Publius, a Roman ambassador sent to Antiochus. He held a conference with Annibal, who was at that monarch’s court.――A man who disgraced himself by his criminal amours with the daughter of Sylla. Horace, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 64.

Viminālis, one of the seven hills on which Rome was built, so called from the number of osiers (vimines) which grew there. Servius Tullius first made it part of the city. Jupiter had a temple there, whence he was called Viminalis. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 44.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 8.

Vinalia, festivals at Rome in honour of Jupiter and Venus.

♦Vincentius, one of the christian fathers, A.D. 434, whose works are best edited by Baluzius, Paris, 1669.

Vincius, a Roman knight, condemned under Nero. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 14, ch. 40.――An officer in Germany.

Vindalius, a writer in the reign of Constantius, who wrote 10 books on agriculture.

Vindelĭci, an ancient people of Germany, between the heads of the Rhine and the Danube. Their country, which was called Vindelicia, forms now part of Swabia and Bavaria, and their chief town, Augusta Vindelicorum, is now ♦Augsburg. Horace, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 18.

Vindemiātor, a constellation that rose about the nones of March. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 3, li. 407.—Pliny, bk. 18, ch. 13.

Vindex Julius, a governor of Gaul, who revolted against Nero, and determined to deliver the Roman empire from his tyranny. He was followed by a numerous army, but at last defeated by one of the emperor’s generals. When he perceived that all was lost he laid violent hands upon himself, 68 A.D. Seutonius, Galba.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 51.—Pliny, bk. 9, ltr. 19.

Vindicius, a slave who discovered the conspiracy which some of the most noble of the Roman citizens had formed to restore Tarquin to his throne. He was amply rewarded and made a citizen of Rome. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 5.—Plutarch, Publicola.

Vindili, a nation of Germany. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 14.

Vindonissa, now Wendish, a town of the Helvetii on the Aar, in the territory of Berne. Tacitus, bk. 4, Histories, chs. 61 & 70.

Vinicius, a Roman consul poisoned by Messalina, &c.――A man who conspired against Nero, &c.

Vinidius, a miser mentioned by Horace, bk. 1, satire 1, li. 95. Some manuscripts read Numidius and Umidius.

Titus Vinius, a commander in the pretorian guards, intimate with Galba, of whom he became the first minister. He was honoured with the consulship, and some time after murdered. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, chs. 11, 42 & 48.—Plutarch.――A man who revolted from Nero.

Vinnius Asella, a servant of Horace, to whom ltr. 13 is addressed, as injunctions how to deliver to Augustus some poems from his master.

Vipsania, a daughter of Marcus Agrippa, mother of Drusus. She was the only one of Agrippa’s daughters who died a natural death. She was married to Tiberius when a private man, and when she had been repudiated, she married Asinius Gallus. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 12; bk. 3, ch. 19.

Virbius (qui inter viros bis fuit), a name given to Hippolytus, after he had been brought back to life by Æsculapius, at the instance of Diana, who pitied his unfortunate end. Virgil makes him son of Hippolytus. Æneid, bk. 7, li. 762.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 544.—Hyginus, fable 251.

Publius Virgĭlius Marco, called the prince of the Latin poets, was born at Andes, a village near Mantua, about 70 years before Christ, on the 15th of October. His first years were spent at Cremona, where his taste was formed, and his rising talents first exercised. The distribution of the lands of Cremona to the soldiers of Augustus, after the battle of Philippi, nearly proved fatal to the poet, and when he attempted to dispute the possession of his fields with a soldier, Virgil was obliged to save his life from the resentment of the lawless veteran, by swimming across a river. This was the beginning of his greatness; he with his father repaired to Rome, where he soon formed an acquaintance with Mecænas, and recommended himself to the favours of Augustus. The emperor restored his lands to the poet, whose modest muse knew so well how to pay the tribute of gratitude, and his first bucolic was written to thank the patron, as well as to tell the world that his favours were not unworthily bestowed. The 10 bucolics were written in about three years. The poet showed his countrymen that he could write with graceful simplicity, with elegance, delicacy of sentiments, and with purity of language. Some time after, Virgil undertook the Georgics, a poem the most perfect and finished of all Latin compositions. The Æneid was begun, as some suppose, at the particular request of Augustus, and the poet, while he attempted to prove that the Julian family was lineally descended from the founder of Lavinium, visibly described in the pious and benevolent character of his hero the amiable qualities of his imperial patron. The great merit of this poem is well known, and it will ever remain undecided which of the two poets, either Homer or Virgil, is more entitled to our praise, our applause, and our admiration. The writer of the Iliad stood as a pattern to the favourite of Augustus. The voyage of Æneas is copied from the Odyssey; and for his battles, Virgil found a model in the wars of Troy, and the animated descriptions of the Iliad. The poet died before he had revised this immortal work, which had already engaged his time for 11 successive years. He had attempted to attend his patron in the east, but he was detained at Naples on account of his ill health. He, however, went to Athens, where he met Augustus in his return, but he soon after fell sick at Megara, and though indisposed, he ordered himself to be removed to Italy. He landed at Brundusium, where a few days after he expired, the 22nd of September, in the 51st year of his age, B.C. 19. He left the greatest part of his immense possessions to his friends, particularly to Mecænas, Tucca, and Augustus, and he ordered, as his last will, his unfinished poem to be burnt. These last injunctions were disobeyed; and according to the words of an ancient poet, Augustus saved his favourite Troy from a second and more dismal conflagration. The poem was delivered by the emperor to three of his literary friends. They were ordered to revise and to expunge whatever they deemed improper; but they were strictly enjoined not to make any additions, and hence, as some suppose, the causes that so many lines of the Æneid are unfinished, particularly in the last books. The body of the poet, according to his own directions, was conveyed to Naples, and interred with much solemnity in a monument, erected on the road that leads from Naples to Puteoli. The following modest distich was engraved on the tomb, written by the poet some few moments before he expired:

Mantua me genuit; Calabri rapuere; tenet nunc

Parthenope: cecini pascua, rura, duces.

The Romans were not insensible of the merit of their poet. Virgil received much applause in the capital, and when he entered the theatre, he was astonished and delighted to see the crowded audience rise up to him as to an emperor, and welcome his approach by reiterated plaudits. He was naturally modest, and of a timorous disposition. When people crowded to gaze upon him, or pointed at him with the finger with rapture, the poet blushed, and stole away from them, and often hid himself in shops to be removed from the curiosity and the admiration of the public. The most liberal and gratifying marks of approbation he received were from the emperor and from Octavia. He attempted in his Æneid to paint the virtues, and to lament the premature death of the son of Octavia, and he was desired by the emperor to repeat the lines in the presence of the afflicted mother. He had no sooner begun O nate, &c., than Octavia burst into tears; he continued, but he had artfully suppressed the name of her son, and when he repeated in the 16th line the well-known words, Tu Marcellus eris, the princess swooned away, and the poet withdrew, but not without being liberally rewarded. Octavia presented him 10 sesterces for every one of his verses in praise of her son, the whole of which was equivalent to 2000l. English money. As an instance of his modesty, the following circumstance has been recorded. Virgil wrote this distich, in which he compared his patron to Jupiter,

Nocte pluit totâ, redeunt spectacula mane,

Divisum imperium cum Jove Cæsar habet,

and placed it in the night on the gates of the palace of Augustus. Inquiries were made for the author by order of Augustus, and when Virgil had the diffidence not to declare himself, Bathyllus, a contemptible poet of the age, claimed the verses as his own, and was liberally rewarded. This displeased Virgil; he again wrote the verses near the palace and under them

Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores;

with the beginning of another line in these words,

Sic vos non vobis,

four times repeated. Augustus wished the lines to be finished. Bathyllus seemed unable, and Virgil at last, by completing the stanza in the following order—

Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves;

Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves;

Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes;

Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves;

proved himself to be the author of the distich, and the poetical usurper became the sport and ridicule of Rome. In the works of Virgil we can find a more perfect and satisfactory account of the religious ceremonies and customs of the Romans, than in all the other Latin poets, Ovid excepted. Everything he mentions is founded upon historical truth, and though he borrowed much from his predecessors, and even whole lines from Ennius, yet he has had the happiness to make it all his own. He was uncommonly severe in revising his own poetry, and he used often to compare himself to a bear that licks her cubs into shape. In his connections, Virgil was remarkable; his friends enjoyed his unbounded confidence, and his library and possessions seemed to be the property of the public. Like other great men, he was not without his enemies and detractors in his lifetime, but from their aspersions he received additional lustre. Among the very numerous and excellent editions of Virgil, these few may be collected as the best: that of Masvicius, 2 vols., 4to, Leovardiæ, 1717; of Baskerville, 4to, Birmingham, 1757; of the Variorum, in 8vo, Leiden, 1661; of Heyne, 4 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1767; of Edinburgh, 2 vols., 12mo, 1755; and of Glasgow, 12mo, 1758. Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 36.—Horace, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 40.—Propertius, bk. 2, poem 34, li. 61.—Ovid, Tristia, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 51.—Martial, bk. 8, ltr. 56.—Juvenal, satire 11, li. 178.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Pliny, bk. 3, ltr. 21.――Caius, a pretor of Sicily, who, when Cicero was banished, refused to receive the exiled orator, though his friend, for fear of the resentment of Clodius. Cicero, Letters to his brother Quintus.

Virgĭnia, a daughter of the centurion Lucius Virginius. Appius Claudius the decemvir became enamoured of her, and attempted to remove her from the place where she resided. She was claimed by one of his favourites as the daughter of a slave, and Appius, in the capacity and with the authority of judge, had pronounced the sentence, and delivered her into the hands of his friend, when Virginius, informed of his violent proceedings, arrived from the camp. The father demanded to see his daughter, and when this request was granted, he snatched a knife and plunged it into Virginia’s breast, exclaiming, “This is all, my dearest daughter, I can give thee, to preserve thy chastity from the lust and violence of a tyrant.” No sooner was the blow given, than Virginius ran to the camp with the bloody knife in his hand. The soldiers were astonished and incensed, not against the murderer, but the tyrant that was the cause of Virginia’s death, and they immediately marched to Rome. Appius was seized, but he destroyed himself in prison, and prevented the execution of the law. Spurius Oppius, another of the decemvirs who had not opposed the tyrant’s views, killed himself also, and Marcus Claudius the favourite of Appius was put to death, and the decemviral power abolished, about 449 years before Christ. Livy, bk. 3, ch. 44, &c.—Juvenal, satire 10, li. 294.

Virginius, the father of Virginia, made tribune of the people. See: Virginia.――A tribune of the people who accused Quinctius Cæso the son of Cincinnatus. He increased the number of the tribunes to 10, and distinguished himself by his seditions against the patricians.――Another tribune in the age of Camillus, fined for his opposition to a law which proposed going to Veii.――An augur who died of the plague.――Caius, a pretor of Sicily, who opposed the entrance of Cicero into his province, though under many obligations to the orator. Some read Virgilius.――A tribune who encouraged Cinna to criminate Sylla.――One of the generals of Nero in Germany. He made war against Vindex and conquered him. He was treated with great coldness by Galba, whose interest he had supported with so much success. He refused all dangerous stations, and though twice offered the imperial purple, he rejected it with disdain. Plutarch.――A Roman orator and rhetorician.

Viriāthus, a mean shepherd of Lusitania, who gradually rose to power, and by first heading a gang of robbers, saw himself at last followed by a numerous army. He made war against the Romans with uncommon success, and for 14 years enjoyed the envied title of protector of public liberty in the provinces of Spain. Many generals were defeated, and Pompey himself was ashamed to find himself beaten. Cæpio was at last sent against him. But his despair of conquering him by force of arms, obliged him to have recourse to artifice, and he had the meanness to bribe the servants of Viriathus to murder their master, B.C. 40. Florus, bk. 2, ch. 17.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 4.—Livy, bks. 52 & 54.

Viridomărus, a young man of great power among the Ædui. Cæsar greatly honoured him, but he fought at last against the Romans. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 7, ch. 39, &c.

Viriplāca, a goddess among the Romans who presided over the peace of families, whence her name (virum placare). If any quarrel happened between a man and his wife, they generally repaired to the temple of the goddess, which was erected on the Palatine mount, and came back reconciled. Valerius Maximus, bk. 2, ch. 1.

Virro, a fictitious name introduced in Juvenal’s fifth satire.

Virtus. All virtues were made deities among the Romans. Marcellus erected two temples, one to Virtue, and the other to Honour. They were built in such a manner, that to see the temple of Honour it was necessary to pass through that of Virtue; a happy allegory among a nation free and independent. The principal Virtues were distinguished, each by their attire. Prudence was known by her rule, and her pointing to a globe at her feet; Temperance had a bridle; Justice had an equal balance, and Fortitude leant against her sword; Honesty was clad in a transparent vest; Modesty appeared veiled; Clemency wore an olive branch, and Devotion threw incense upon an altar; Tranquillity was seen to lean on a column; Health was known by her serpent, Liberty by her cap, and Gaiety by her myrtle. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 23.—Plautus, Amphitruo, Prologue.—Livy, bk. 29, ch. 11.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Augustine, City of God, bk. 4, ch. 20.

Visargis, a river of Germany, now called the Weser, and falling into the German ocean. Varus and his legions were cut to pieces there by the Germans. Velleius Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 105.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 70; bk. 2, ch. 9.

Viscellæ, now Weltz, a town of Noricum, between the Ens and Mure.

Spurius Cassius Viscellinus, Cicero, De Amicitia, ch. 11.

Visellia lex, was made by Visellius Varro the consul, A.U.C. 776, to restrain the introduction of improper persons into the offices of the state.

Lucius Visellius Varro, a lieutenant in Germany under Tiberius. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 3, ch. 41; bk. 4, ch. 17.

Visellus, a man whose father-in-law the commentators of Horace believe to have been afflicted with a hernia, on their observations on this verse (bk. 1, satire 1, li. 105), Est inter Tanaim quiddam, socerumque Viselli.

Vistŭla, a river falling into the Baltic, the eastern boundary of ancient Germany.

Vitellia, a Roman colony on the borders of the Æqui. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 29.

Vitellius Aulus, a Roman raised by his vices to the throne. He was descended from one of the most illustrious families of Rome, and as such he gained an easy admission to the palace of the emperors. The greatest part of his youth was spent at Capreæ, where his willingness and compliance to gratify the most vicious propensities of Tiberius raised his father to the dignity of consul and governor of Syria. The applause he gained in this school of debauchery was too great and flattering to induce Vitellius to alter his conduct, and no longer to be one of the votaries of vice. Caligula was pleased with his skill in driving a chariot. Claudius loved him because he was a great gamester, and he recommended himself to the favours of Nero by wishing him to sing publicly in the crowded theatre. With such an insinuating disposition, it is not to be wondered that Vitellius became so great. He did not fall with his patrons, like the other favourites, but the death of an emperor seemed to raise him to greater honours, and to procure him fresh applause. He passed through all the offices of the state, and gained over the soldiery by donations and liberal promises. He was at the head of the ♦Roman legions in Germany when Otho was proclaimed emperor, and the exaltation of his rival was no sooner heard in the camp, than he was likewise invested with the purple by his soldiers. He accepted with pleasure the dangerous office, and instantly marched against Otho. Three battles were fought, and in all Vitellius was conquered. A fourth, however, in the plains between Mantua and Cremona, left him master of the field and of the Roman empire. He feasted his eyes in viewing the bodies of the slain and the ground covered with blood, and regardless of the insalubrity of the air, proceeding from so many carcases, he told his attendants that the smell of a dead enemy was always sweet. His first care was not like that of a true conqueror, to alleviate the distresses of the conquered, or patronize the friends of the dead, but it was to insult their misfortunes, and to intoxicate himself with the companions of his debauchery in the field of battle. Each successive day exhibited a scene of greater extravagance. Vitellius feasted four or five times a day, and such was his excess that he often made himself vomit to begin his repast afresh, and to gratify his palate with more luxury. His food was of the most rare and exquisite nature; the deserts of Libya, the shores of Spain, and the waters of the Carpathian sea, were diligently searched to supply the table of the emperor. The most celebrated of his feasts was that with which he was treated by his brother Lucius. The table, among other meats, was covered with 2000 different dishes of fish, and 7000 of fowls, and so expensive was he in everything, that above seven millions sterling were spent in maintaining his table in the space of four months; and Josephus has properly observed, that if Vitellius had reigned long, the great opulence of all the Roman empire would have been found insufficient to defray the expenses of his banquets. This extravagance, which delighted the favourites, soon raised the indignation of the people. Vespasian was proclaimed emperor by the army, and his minister Primus was sent to destroy the imperial glutton. Vitellius concealed himself under the bed of the porter of his palace, but this obscure retreat betrayed him; he was dragged naked through the streets, his hands were tied behind his back, and a drawn sword was placed under his chin to make him lift his head. After suffering the greatest insults from the populace, he was at last carried to the place of execution, and put to death with repeated blows. His head was cut off and fixed to a pole, and his mutilated body dragged with a hook and thrown into the Tiber, A.D. 69, after a reign of one year, except 12 days. Suetonius.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 2.—Eutropius.—Dio Cassius.—Plutarch.――Lucius, the father of the emperor, obtained great honours by his flattery to the emperors. He was made governor of Syria, and in this distant province he obliged the Parthians to sue for peace. His adulation to Messalina is well known, and he obtained as a particular favour the honourable office of pulling off the shoes of the empress, &c. Suetonius, &c.――A brother of the emperor, who enjoyed his favours by encouraging his gluttony, &c.――Publius, an uncle of the emperor of that name. He was accused under Nero of attempts to bribe the people with money from the treasury against the emperor. He killed himself before his trial.――One of the flatterers of Tiberius.――An officer of the pretorians under Otho.――A son of the emperor Vitellius, put to death by one of his father’s friends.――Some of the family of the Vitellii conspired with the Aquilii and other illustrious Romans to restore Tarquin to his throne. Their conspiracy was discovered by the consuls, and they were severely punished. Plutarch, &c.

Viterbum, a town of Tuscany, where Fanum Volumnæ stood. It is not mentioned by classical writers. Livy, bk. 4, chs. 23 & 61; bk. 5, ch. 17.

Vitia, a mother put to death by Tiberius for weeping at the death of her son, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 7, ch. 10.

Vītrĭcus, a surname of Mars. Ovid.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a celebrated architect in the age of Augustus, born at Formiæ. He is known only by his writings, and nothing is recorded in history of his life or private character. He wrote a treatise on his profession, which he dedicated to Augustus, and it is the only book on architecture now extant written by the ancients. In this work he plainly shows that he was master of his profession, and that he possessed both genius and abilities. The best edition of Vitruvius is that of De Laet, Amsterdam, 1649.

Vitŭla, a deity among the Romans who presided over festivals and rejoicings. Macrobius, bk. 3, ch. 2.

Vitularia via, a road in the country of Arpinum. Cicero, Letters to his brother Quintus, bk. 3, ltr. 1.

Ulpia Trajāna, a Roman colony planted in Sarmatia by Trajan.

Ulpiānus Domitius, a lawyer in the reign of Alexander Severus, of whom he became the secretary and principal minister. He raised a persecution against the christians, and was at last murdered by the pretorian guards, of which he had the command, A.D. 226. There are some fragments of his compositions on civil law still extant. The Greek commentaries of Ulpian on Demosthenes were printed in folio, 1527, with Aldus Manutius.――Marcellus, an officer in the age of Commodus.――Julianus, a man sent to oppose Heliogabalus, &c.

Ulŭbræ, a small town of Latium on the river Astura, where Augustus was educated. Juvenal, satire 10, li. 102.—Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 11.

Ulysses, a king of the islands of Ithaca and Dulichium, son of Anticlea and Laertes, or, according to some, of Sisyphus. See: Sisyphus and Anticlea. He became, like the other princes of Greece, one of the suitors of Helen, but as he despaired of success in his applications, on account of the great numbers of his competitors, he solicited the hand of Penelope the daughter of Icarius. Tyndarus the father of Helen favoured the addresses of Ulysses, as by him he was directed to choose one of his daughter’s suitors without offending the others, and to bind them all by a solemn oath, that they would unite together in protecting Helen if any violence was ever offered to her person. Ulysses had no sooner obtained the hand of Penelope, than he returned to Ithaca, where his father resigned him the crown, and retired to peace and rural solitude. The rape of Helen, however, by Paris, did not long permit him to remain in his kingdom, and as he was bound to defend her against every intruder, he was summoned to the war with the other princes of Greece. Pretending to be insane, not to leave his beloved Penelope, he yoked a horse and a bull together, and ploughed the sea-shore, where he sowed salt instead of corn. This dissimulation was soon discovered, and Palamedes, by placing before the plough of Ulysses his infant son Telemachus, convinced the world that the father was not mad who had the providence to turn away the plough from the furrow, not to hurt his child. Ulysses was therefore obliged to go to the war, but he did not forget him who had discovered his pretended insanity. See: Palamedes. During the Trojan war, the king of Ithaca was courted for his superior prudence and sagacity. By his means Achilles was discovered among the daughters of Lycomedes king of Scyros [See: Achilles], and Philoctetes was induced to abandon Lemnos, and to fight the Trojans with the arrows of Hercules. See: Philoctetes. He was not less distinguished for his activity and valour. With the assistance of Diomedes he murdered Rhesus, and slaughtered the sleeping Thracians in the midst of their camp, [See: Rhesus and Dolon], and he introduced himself into the city of Priam, and carried away the Palladium of the Trojans. See: Palladium. For these eminent services he was universally applauded by the Greeks, and he was rewarded with the arms of Achilles, which Ajax had disputed with him. After the Trojan war Ulysses embarked on board his ships to return to Greece, but he was exposed to a number of misfortunes before he reached his native country. He was thrown by the winds upon the coasts of Africa, and visited the country of the Lotophagi, and of the Cyclops in Sicily. Polyphemus, who was the king of the Cyclops, seized Ulysses with his companions, five of whom he devoured [See: Polyphemus], but the prince of Ithaca intoxicated him and put out his eye, and at last escaped from the dangerous cave where he was confined, by tying himself under the belly of the sheep of the Cyclops when led to pasture. In Æolia he met with a friendly reception, and Æolus gave him, confined in bags, all the wind which could obstruct his return to Ithaca, but the curiosity of his companions to know what the bags contained proved nearly fatal. The winds rushed with impetuosity, and all the fleet was destroyed, except the ship which carried Ulysses. From thence he was thrown upon the coasts of the Læstrygones, and of the island Æea, where the magician Circe changed all his companions into pigs for their voluptuousness. He escaped their fate by means of an herb which he had received from Mercury, and after he had obliged the magician by force of arms to restore his companions to ♦their original shape, he yielded to her charms, and made her mother of Telegonus. He visited the infernal regions and consulted Tiresias how to regain his country in safety; and after he had received every necessary information, he returned on earth. He passed along the coasts of the Sirens unhurt, by the directions of Circe [See: Sirenes], and escaped the whirlpools and shoals of Scylla, and Charybdis. On the coast of Sicily his companions stole and killed some oxen that were sacred to Apollo, for which the god destroyed the ships, and all were drowned except Ulysses, who saved himself on a plank, and swam to the island of Calypso, in Ogygia. There, for seven years, he forgot Ithaca, in the arms of the goddess, by whom he had two children. The gods at last interfered, and Calypso, by order of Mercury, suffered him to depart, after she had furnished him with a ship, and everything requisite for the voyage. He had almost reached the island of Corcyra, when Neptune, still mindful that his son Polyphemus had been robbed of his sight by the perfidy of Ulysses, raised a storm and sunk his ship. Ulysses swam with difficulty to the island of the Phæacians, where the kindness of Nausicaa, and the humanity of her father king Alcinous, entertained him for a while. He related the series of his misfortunes to the monarch, and at last, by his benevolence, he was conducted in a ship to Ithaca. The Phæacians laid him on the sea-shore as he was asleep, and Ulysses found himself safely restored to his country after a long absence of 20 years. He was well informed that his palace was besieged by a number of suitors, who continually disturbed the peace of Penelope, and therefore he assumed the habit of a beggar, by the advice of Minerva, and made himself known to his son, and his faithful shepherd Eumæus. With them he took measures to re-establish himself on his throne; he went to the palace, and was personally convinced of the virtues and of the fidelity of Penelope. Before his arrival was publicly known, all the importuning suitors were put to death, and Ulysses restored to the peace and bosom of his family. See: Laertes, Penelope, Telemachus, Eumæus. He lived about 16 years after his return, and was at last killed by his son Telegonus, who had landed in Ithaca, with the hopes of making himself known to his father. This unfortunate event had been foretold to him by Tiresias, who assured him that he should die by the violence of something that was to issue from the bosom of the sea. See: Telegonus. According to some authors, Ulysses went to consult the oracle of Apollo after his return to Ithaca, and he had the meanness to seduce Erippe the daughter of a king of Epirus, who had treated him with great kindness. Erippe had a son by him whom she called Euryalus. When come to years of puberty, Euryalus was sent to Ithaca by his mother, but Penelope no sooner knew who he was than she resolved to destroy him. Therefore, when Ulysses returned, he put to immediate death his unknown son on the crimination of Penelope his wife, who accused him of attempts upon her virtue. The adventures of Ulysses in his return to Ithaca from the Trojan war are the subject of Homer’s Odyssey. Homer, Iliad & Odyssey.—Virgil, Æneid, bks. 2, 3, &c.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13; Heroides, poem 1.—Hyginus, fable 201, &c.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Pausanias, bk. 1, chs. 17 & 22; bk. 3, ch. 12; bk. 7, ch. 4.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 13, ch. 12.—Horace, bk. 3, ode 29, li. 8.—Parthenius, Narrationes Amatoriæ, ch. 3.—Plutarch.—Pliny, bk. 35.—Tzetzes, ad Lycurgus.

Ulysseum, a promontory of Sicily, west of Pachinus.

Umber, a lake of Umbria near the Tiber. Propertius, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 124.

Umbra Pompeia, a portico of Pompey at Rome. Martial, bk. 5, ltr. 10.

Umbria, a country of Italy, separated from Etruria by the Tiber, bounded on the north by the Adriatic sea, east by Picenum and the country of the Sabines, and south by the river Nar. Some derive the word Umbria ab imbribus, the frequent showers that were supposed to fall there, or from the shadow (umbra) of the Apennines which hung over it. Umbria had many cities of note. The Umbrians opposed the Romans in the infancy of their empire, but afterwards they became their allies, about the year ♦A.U.C. 434. Catullus, bk. 40, li. 11.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 12.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

Umbrigius, a soothsayer, who foretold approaching calamities to Galba. Juvenal, satire 3, li. 21.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 27.

Umbro, a navigable river of Italy. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.――A general who assisted Turnus against Æneas, and was killed during the war. He could assuage the fury of serpents by his songs, and counteract the poisonous effects of their bite. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 752; bk. 10, li. 544.

Unca, a surname of Minerva among the Phœnicians and Thebans.

Unchæ, a town of Mesopotamia.

Undecemvĭri, magistrates at Athens, to whom such as were publicly condemned were delivered to be executed. Cornelius Nepos, Phocion.

Unelli, a people of Cotantin in Gaul, conquered by Cæsar. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 2, ch. 34.

Unigĕna, a surname of Minerva, as sprung of Jupiter alone.

Unxia, a surname of Juno, derived from ungere, to anoint, because it was usual among the Romans for the bride to anoint the threshold of her husband, and from this necessary ceremony wives were called Unxores, and afterwards Uxores, from Unxia, who presided over them. Arnobius, bk. 3.

Vocetius, part of mount Jura in Gaul. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 68.

Vŏcōnia lex, de testamentis, by Quintus Voconius Saxa the tribune, A.U.C. 584, enacted that no woman should be left heiress to an estate, and that no rich person should leave by his will more than the fourth part of his fortune to a woman. This step was taken to prevent the decay of the noblest and most illustrious of the families of Rome. This law was abrogated by Augustus.

Voconii forum, a town of Gaul, between Antibes and Marseilles. Cicero, bk. 10, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 17.

Vŏcōnius Victor, a Latin poet, &c. Martial, bk. 7, ltr. 28.――Saxa, a tribune who made a law.――An officer of Lucullus in Asia.

Vocontia, now Vasio. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 167.

Vŏgēsus, now Vauge, a mountain of Belgic Gaul, which separates the Sequani from the Lingones. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 397.—Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 4, ch. 10.

Volæ, a city of the Æqui. Livy, bk. 4, ch. 49.

Volaginius, a soldier who assassinated one of his officers, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 2, ch. 75.

Volana, a town of the Samnites.

Volandum, a fortified place of Armenia.

Volaterra, an ancient town of Etruria, famous for hot baths. Perseus the satirist was born there. Livy, bk. 10, ch. 12.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Cicero, bk. 15, Letters to his Friends, ltr. 4.

Volcæ, or Volgæ, a people of Gaul between the Garonne and the Rhone. Livy, bk. 21, ch. 26.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 5.

Volci, an inland town of Lucania, now Lauria. Livy, bk. 27, ch. 15.――A town of Etruria. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.

Vologĕses, a name common to many of the kings of Parthia, who made war against the Roman emperors. Tacitus, bk. 12, Annals, ch. 14.

Volscens, a Latin chief who discovered Nisus and Euryalus as they returned from the Rutulian camp loaded with spoils. He killed Euryalus, and was himself immediately stabbed by Nisus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, lis. 370 & 442.

Volsci, or Volci, a people of Latium, whose territories are bounded on the south by the Tyrrhene sea, north by the country of the Hernici and Marsi, west by the Latins and Rutulians, and east by Campania. Their chief cities were Antium, Circeii, Anxur, Corioli, Fregellæ, Arpinum, &c. Ancus king of Rome made war against them, and in the time of the republic they became formidable enemies, till they were at last conquered with the rest of the Latins. Livy, bks. 3 & 4.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 168; Æneid, bk. 9, li. 505; bk. 11, li. 546, &c.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Mela, bk. 2, chs. 4 & 5.

Volsinium, a town of Etruria in Italy, destroyed, according to Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 53, by fire from heaven. The inhabitants numbered their years by fixing nails in the temple of Nortia, a Tuscan goddess. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 31; bk. 7, ch. 3.—Juvenal, satire 15, li. 191.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4.

Voltinia, one of the Roman tribes.

Volubilis, a town of Africa, supposed Fez, the capital of Morocco. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 1.

Volumnæ Fanum, a temple in Etruria, sacred to the goddess Volumna, who presided over the will and over complaisance, where the states of the country used to assemble. Viterbo now stands on the spot. Livy, bk. 4, ch. 23; bk. 5, ch. 17; bk. 6, ch. 2.

Volumnia, the wife of Coriolanus. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 40.――The freedwoman of Volumnius Eutrapelus. Cicero, Philippics, bk. 2, ch. 24.

Volumnus and Volumna, two deities who presided over the will. They were chiefly invoked at marriages to preserve concord between the husband and wife. They were particularly worshipped by the Etrurians. Livy, bk. 4, ch. 61.

T. Volumnius, a Roman famous for his friendship towards Marcus Lucullus, whom Marcus Antony had put to death. His great lamentations were the cause that he was dragged to the triumvir, of whom he demanded to be conducted to the body of his friend, and there to be put to death. His request was easily granted. Livy, bk. 124, ch. 20.――A mimic whom Brutus put to death.――An Etrurian who wrote tragedies in his own native language.――A consul who defeated the Samnites and the Etrurians, &c. Livy, bk. 9.――A friend of Marcus Brutus. He was preserved when that great republican killed himself, and he wrote an account of his death and of his actions, from which Plutarch selected some remarks.――A prefect of Syria, B.C. 11.――A Roman knight put to death by Catiline.

Voluptas and Volupia, the goddess of sensual pleasures, worshipped at Rome, where she had a temple. She was represented as a young and beautiful woman, well dressed, and elegantly adorned, seated on a throne, and having virtue under her feet. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 25.—Macrobius, bk. 1, ch. 10.—Augustine, City of God, bk. 4, ch. 8.

Caius Volusēnus, a military tribune in Cæsar’s army, &c. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3.

Volusiānus, a Roman taken as colleague on the imperial throne, by his father Gallus. He was killed by his soldiers.

Vŏlŭsius, a poet of Patavia, who wrote, like Ennius, the annals of Rome in verse. Seneca, ltr. 93.—Catullus, bk. 96, li. 7.――Saturninus, a governor of Rome, who died in the 93rd year of his age, beloved and respected, under Nero. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 13.――Caius, a soldier at the siege of Cremona, &c.――One of Nero’s officers. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 51.

Volusus, a friend of Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 463.

Volux, a son of Bocchus, whom the Romans defeated. Sylla suspected his fidelity, &c. Sallust, Jugurthine War, ch. 105.

Vomanus, a river of Picenum in Italy. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 13.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 438.

Vonōnes, a king of Parthia expelled by his subjects, and afterwards placed on the throne of Armenia. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 12, ch. 14.――Another king of Armenia.――A man made king of Parthia by Augustus.

Vopiscus, a native of Syracuse, 303, A.D. who wrote the life of Aurelian, Tacitus, Florianus, Probus, Firmus, Carus, &c. He is one of the six authors who are called Historiæ Augustæ scriptores, but he excels all others in the elegance of his style, and the manner in which he relates the various actions of the emperors. He is not, however, without his faults, and we look in vain for the purity or perspicuity of the writers of the Augustan age.

Vŏrānus, a freedman of Quintus Luctatius Catulus, famous for his robberies as well as his cunning, &c. Horace, bk. 1, satire 8, li. 39.

Votiēnus Montanus, a man of learning, banished to one of the Baleares for his malevolent reflections upon Tiberius. Ovid has celebrated him as an excellent poet. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 42.

Upis, the father of one of the Dianas, mentioned by the ancients, from which circumstance Diana herself is called Upis. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 23.—Callimachus, Artemis.

Urănia, one of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, who presided over astronomy. She is generally called mother of Linus by Apollo, and of the god Hymenæus by Bacchus. She was represented as a young virgin dressed in an azure-coloured robe, crowned with stars, and holding a globe in her hands, and having many mathematical instruments placed round. Hesiod, Theogony, li. 77.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Hyginus, fable 161.――A surname of Venus, the same as Celestial. She was supposed, in that character, to preside over beauty and generation, and was called daughter of Uranus or Cœlus by the Light. Her temples in Asia, Africa, Greece, and Italy were numerous. Plato, Convivium Septem Sapientium.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 23.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 14, &c.; bk. 7, ch. 26, &c.――A town of Cyprus.

Urănii, or Urii, a people of Gaul.

Uranopŏlis, a town at the top of Athos.

Urănus, or Ouranus, a deity, the same as Cœlus, the most ancient of all the gods. He married Tithea or the Earth, by whom he had Ceus, Creus, Hyperion, Mnemosyne, Cottus, Phœbe, Briareus, Thetis, Saturn, Gyges, called from their mother Titans. His children conspired against him, because he confined them in the bosom of the earth, and his son Saturn mutilated him, and drove him from his throne.

Urba, now Orbe, a town of the Helvetii, on a river of the same name.

Urbicua, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis.

Urbicus, an actor at Rome, in Domitian’s reign. Juvenal, satire 6.

Urbinum, now Urbino, a town of Umbria. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 14.

Urgo, now Gorgona, an island in the bay of Pisa, 25 miles west of Leghorn, famous for anchovies. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 6.

Uria, a town of Calabria, built by a Cretan colony, and called also Hyria. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 11.—Strabo, bk. 6.――Of Apulia.

Urites, a people of Italy. Livy, bk. 42, ch. 48.

Ursentum, a town of the Brutii, now Orso. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 11.

Ursidius, an adulterer. Juvenal, satire 6, li. 38.

Uscana, a town of Macedonia. Livy, bk. 43, ch. 18.

Usceta, a town of Africa Propria. Aulus Hirtius, African War, ch. 89.

Uscudama, a town of Thrace. Eutropius, bk. 6, ch. 8.

Usipĕtes, or Usipii, a people of Germany. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 4, ch. 1, &c.

Ustīca, a town in an island on the coast of Sicily, near Panormum. Horace, bk. 1, ode 17, li. 11.

Utens, a river of Gaul, now Montone, falling into the Adriatic by Ravenna. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 35.

Utĭca, now Satcor, a celebrated city of Africa, on the coast of the Mediterranean, on the same bay as Carthage, founded by a Tyrian colony above 287 years before Carthage. It had a large and commodious harbour, and it became the metropolis of Africa, after the destruction of Carthage in the third Punic war, and the Romans granted it all the lands situate between Hippo and Carthage. It is celebrated for the death of Cato, who from thence is called Uticensis, or of Utica. Strabo, bk. 17.—Lucan, bk. 6, li. 306.—Justin, bk. 18, ch. 4.—Pliny, bk. 16, ch. 40.—Livy, bk. 25, ch. 31.—Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 242.—Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 20, li. 513.