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VARRO, MARCUS TERENTIUS (116—27 B.C.)
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See also:VARRO, See also:MARCUS TERENTIUS (116—27 B.C.) , See also:Roman polymath and See also:man of letters, was See also:born at Reate in the See also:Sabine See also:country. Here he imbibed in his earlier years a See also:good measure of the See also:hardy simplicity and strong seriousness which the later See also:Romans attributed to the men of the See also:early See also:republic—characteristics which were supposed to linger in the Sabine See also:land after they had fled from the See also:rest of See also:Italy. The See also:chief teacher of Varro was L. Aelius Stilo, the first systematic student, critic and teacher of Latin See also:philology and literature, and of the antiquities of See also:Rome and Italy. Varro also studied at See also:Athens, especially under the philosopher See also:Antiochus of See also:Ascalon, whose aim it was to See also:lead back the See also:Academic school from the See also:scepticism of See also:Arcesilaus and See also:Carneades to the tenets of the early Platonists, as he understood them. He was really a stoicizing Platonist; and this has led to the See also:error of supposing Varro to have been a professed Stoic. The See also:influence of Antiochus is clearly to be seen in many remains of Varro's writings. The See also:political career of Varro seems to have been See also:late and slow; but he arrived at the praetorship, after having been See also:tribune of the See also:people, See also:quaestor and See also:curule See also:aedile. In politics and way he followed See also:Pompey's lead; but it is probable that he was discontented with the course on which his See also:leader entered when the first triumvirate was formed, and he may thus have lost his See also:chance of rising to the consulate. He actually ridiculed the See also:coalition in a See also:work. entitled the Three-Headed See also:Monster (Tpucapavor in the See also:Greek of See also:Appian). He did not, however, refuse to join the See also:commission of twenty by whom the See also:great agrarian See also:scheme of See also:Caesar for the resettlement of See also:Capua and See also:Campania was carried into See also:execution (59 B.c.). Despite the difference between them in politics, Varro and Caesar had See also:literary tastes in See also:common, and were See also:friends in private See also:life. Under Pompey Varro saw much active service: he was attached to Pompey as See also:pro-quaestor, probably during the See also:war against See also:Sertorius in See also:Spain. We next find him, as See also:legate, in command of a' See also:fleet which kept the seas between See also:Delos and See also:Sicily, while Pompey was suppressing the pirates, and he even won the " See also:naval See also:crown," a coveted See also:reward of See also:personal prowess. A little later he was legate during the last Mithradatic war. In the conflict between Caesar and the Pompeian party Varro was more than once actively engaged. In his See also:Civil War (ii. 17–20) Caesar tells how Varro, when legate in Spain along with See also:Afranius and Petreius, lost his two legions without striking a See also:blow, because the whole region where he was quartered joined the enemy. Caesar curiously intimates that, though Varro did his best for Pompey from a sense of See also:duty, his See also:heart was really with the other leader. Nevertheless he proceeded to See also:Epirus before the See also:battle of Pharsalia, and awaited the result at Dyrrachium in the See also:company of See also:Cicero and See also:Cato. Like Cicero, Varro received harsh treatment from See also:Mark Antony after the Pompeian defeat. Some of his See also:property was actually plundered, but restored at the bidding of Caesar, to whom Varro in gratitude immediately dedicated one of his most important writings. The See also:dictator employed the See also:scholar in aiding him to collect and arrange great stores of Greek and Latin literature for the vast public library which he intended to found. We have glimpses of Varro at this See also:time in the Letters of Cicero. He appears as harsh and severe, and a poor stylist. The formation of the second triumvirate again plunged Varro into danger. Antony took See also:possession anew of the property he had been compelled to surrender, and inserted Varro's name on the See also:list of the proscribed. His friends, however, afforded him See also:protection. He was able to make See also:peace with the triumvirs, but sacrificed his property and much of his beloved library. He was permitted to spend in quiet study and in See also:writing the last fifteen years of his life. He is said to have died (27 B.C.) almost See also:pen in See also:hand. Varro was not surpassed in the See also:compass of his writings by any See also:ancient, not even by any one of the later Greek philosophers,. to some of whom tradition ascribes a fabulous number of See also:separate See also:works. In a passage quoted by See also:Gellius, Varro himself, when over seventy years of See also:age, estimated the number of " books " he had written at 490; but " See also:book " here means, not merely such a workas was not subdivided into portions, but also a portion of a sub-divided work. For example, the Menippean Satires numbered 150, and are all counted separately in Varro's estimate. See also:Jerome made or copied a See also:catalogue of Varro's works which has come down to us in a mutilated See also:form. From this and from other extant materials See also:Ritschl has set down the number of the distinct literary works at 74 and the number of separate " books ' at about 62o. The later years of the author's life were therefore even more fruitful than the earlier. The See also:complete catalogue may be roughly arranged under three heads—0) belles lettres, (2) See also:history and antiquities, (3) technical See also:treatises on See also:philosophy, See also:law, See also:grammar, See also:mathematics, philology and other subjects. The first of these three classes no doubt mainly belonged to Varro's earlier life. In See also:poetry he seems to have attempted nothing that was very elaborate, and little of a serious See also:character. His See also:genius tended naturally in the direction of See also:burlesque and See also:satire. In belles lettres' he showed himself throughout, both in See also:matter and form, the See also:pupil and admirer of See also:Lucilius, after whom he wrote satires. One poetical work probably consisted of See also:short pieces iii the See also:style of the more satirical poems of See also:Catullus. It is doubtful whether, as has often been supposed, Varro wrote a philosophical poem some-what in the style of See also:Lucretius; if so, it should rather be classed with the See also:prose technical treatises. One curioas See also:production was an See also:essay in popular illustrated literature, which was almost unique in ancient times. Its See also:title was Imagines, and it consisted of 700 prose bioraphies of Greek and Roman celebrities, with a metrical elogium for each, accompanied in each See also:case by a portrait. But the lighter works of Varro have perished almost to the last See also:line, with the exception of numerous fragments of the Menippean Satires. The See also:Menippus whom Varro imitated lived in the first See also:half of the 3rd See also:century B.C., and was born a Phoenician slave. He became a Cynic philosopher, and is a figure See also:familiar to readers of See also:Lucian. He flouted life and all philosophies but the Cynic in See also:light compositions, partly in prose and partly in See also:verse. A careful study of the fragments does not justify See also:Mommsen's glowing See also:account. That the remains exhibit variety and fertility, that there are in them numerous happy strokes of See also:humour and satire, and many felicitous phrases and descriptions, is true, but the See also:art is on the whole heavy, awkward and forced, and the style rudely archaic and untasteful. The Latin is frequently as rough and uncouth as that of Lucilius. No doubt Vargo contemned the Hellenizing innovations by which the hard and See also:rude Latin of his youth was transformed into the polished literary See also:language of the late republican and the Augustan age. The titles of the Menippean Satires are very diverse. Sometimes Qersonal names are chosen, and they range from the gods and demigods to the slaves, from See also:Hercules to Marcipor. Frequently a popular See also:proverb or catchword in Greek or Latin supplies the designation: thus we have as titles " I've got You " ("EXw o€); "You See also:don't Know what Evening is to Bring " (Nescisquid vesper serus vehat) ; " Know Thyself " trvwoc asavrbv). Occasionally the heading indicates that the writer is flying at some social folly, as in " Old Men are See also:Children for the Second Time " (&c 7raTEs ol'y povrss) and in the " See also:Bachelor " (Caelebs). In many satires the philosophers were pounded, as in the " See also:Burial of Menippus " and " Concerning the Sects " (IlcPI aipee&ev). Each See also:composition seems to have been a genuine medley or lanx satura: any topic might be introduced which struck the author's See also:fancy at the moment. There are many allusions to persons and events of the See also:day, but political bitterness seems to have been commonly avoided. The whole See also:tone of the writer is that of a laudator temporis acti, who can but scoff at all that has come into See also:fashion in his own day. From the numerous citations in later authors it is clear that the Menippean Satires were the most popular of Varro's writings. Not very unlike the Menippean Satires were the See also:Libel Logistorici, or satirical and See also:practical expositions, possibly in See also:dialogue form, of some theme most commonly taken from philosophy on its ethical See also:side. A few fragments in this style have come down to us and a number of titles. These are twofold: that is to say, a personal name is followed by words indicating the subject-matter, as See also:Marius de See also:Fortuna, from which the contents may easily be guessed, and Sisenna de Historia, most likely a dialogue in which the old annalist of the name was the chief See also:speaker, and discoursed of the principles on which history should be written. Among the lighter and more popular works may be mentioned twenty-two books of Orations (probably never spoken), some funeral eulogies (Laudationes), some " exhortations " (Suasiones), conceivably of a political character, and an account of the author's own life.
-The second See also:section of Varro's works, those on history and antiquities, form to the See also:present day the basis on which a large See also:part of our knowledge of the earlier Roman history, and in particular of Roman constitutional history, ultimately rests. These writings were used as a See also:quarry by the compilers and dilettanti of later times, such as See also:Pliny, See also:Plutarch, Gellius, See also:Festus, See also:Macrobius, and by See also:Christian champions like See also:Tertullian, See also:Arnobius and See also:Augustine, who did not disdain to seek in See also:heathen literature the means of defending their faith. These men have saved for us a few remains from the great See also:wreck made by time. Judging from what has been casually preserved, if any considerable portion of Varro's labours as antiquarian and historian were to be now discovered, scholars might
find themselves compelled to reconstruct the earlier history of the Roman republic from its very See also:foundations. Varro's greatest predecessor in this See also: His example, however, seems to have remained unfruitful till the time of Varro's See also:master, See also:Lucius Aelius Stilo Praeconinus. From his age to the decay of Roman See also:civilization there were never altogether wanting men devoted to the study of their nation's past; but none ever pursued the task with the advantages of Varro's comprehensive learning, his indefatigable See also:industry and his reverent yet discriminating regard for the men and the institutions of the earlier ages. The greatest work of this class was that on Antiquities, divided into See also:forty-one books. Of these the first twenty-five were entitled the Antiquities of Human Things (Antiquitates Rerum Humanarum), while the remaining sixteen were designated the Antiquities of Things Divine (Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum). The book was the See also:fruit of Varro's later years, in which he gathered together the material laboriously amassed through the See also:period of an See also:ordinary lifetime. The second See also:division of the work was dedicated to Caesar as supreme pontiff. The See also:design was as far-reaching as that of the Natural History of Pliny. The See also:general heads of the exposition in the See also:secular portion of the book were four—(I) " who the men are who See also:act (qui agant), (2) the places in which they act (ubi), (3) the times at which they act (quando), (4) the results of their See also:action (quid agant)." In the portion See also:relating to divine affairs there were divisions parallel to these four, with a fifth, which dealt with the gods in whose See also:honour action in divine affairs is taken. Our knowledge of this great book is to a large extent derived from the works of the early Christian writers, and especially from Augustine's De Civitate Dei. These writers naturally quote in the See also:main from the religious section. It is a great misfortune that no similar See also:series of citations from the secular part of the Antiquitates has come down to us. Most of the other See also:historical and antiquarian writings of Varro were See also:special elaborations of topics which he could not treat with sufficient fulness and minuteness in the larger book. The See also:treatise on the See also:Genealogy of the Roman People dealt mainly with the relation of Roman See also:chronology to the chronology of See also:Greece and the See also:East. See also:Dates were assigned even to.m thological occurrences, because Varro believed in the theory of See also:Euhemerus, that all the beings worshipped as gods had once lived as men. To Varro's researches are mainly due the traditional dates assigned to the era of the See also:kings and to that of the early republic. See also:Minor writings of the same class were the De Vita Populi Romani, apparently a See also:kind of history of Roman civilization; the De Familiis Trojanis, an account of the families who "came over" with See also:Aeneas; the Aetia (AYria), an explanation of the origin of Roman customs, on which Plutarch See also:drew largely in his Quaestiones See also:Romance; a Tribuum See also:Liber, used by Festus; and the constitutional handbook written for the instruction of Pompey when he became See also:consul. Nor must the labour expended by Varro in the study of literary history be forgotten. His activity in this direction, as in others, took a wide range. One of his greatest achievements was to See also:fix the ca. non of the genuine plays of See also:Plautus. The " Varronia n plays " were the twenty which have come down to us, along with one which has been lost. The third class of treatises, which we have called technical, was also numerous and very varied. Philosophy, grammar, the history and theory of language, See also:rhetoric, law, See also:arithmetic, See also:astronomy, See also:geometry, See also:mensuration, See also:agriculture, naval See also:tactics, were all represented. The only works of this kind which have come down to our days are the De Lingua See also:Latina (in part) and the De Re Rustica. The former originally comprised twenty-five books, three of which (the three succeeding the first) are dedicated to a P. Septimius who had served with the author in Spain, and the last twenty-one to Cicero. The whole work was divided into three main sections, the first dealing with the origin of Latin words, the second with their inflexions and other modifications, the third with syntax. The books still preserved (somewhat imperfectly) are those from the fifth to the tenth inclusive. The Latin style is harsh, rugged and far from lucid. As Mommsen remarks, the clauses of the sentences are often arranged on the See also:thread of the relative pronoun like thrushes on a See also:string. The arrangement of the subject-matter, while pretending to much precision, is often far from logical. The fifth, See also:sixth and seventh books give Varro's views on the See also:etymology of Latin words. The principles he applies are those which he had learned from the philosophers of the Stoic school—See also:Chrysippus, See also:Antipater and others. The study of language as it existed in Varro's day was thoroughly dominated by Stoic influences. Varro's etymologies could be only a priori guesses, but he was well aware of their character, and very clearly states at the outset of the fifth book the hindrances that barred the way to See also:sound knowledge. He was thoroughly alive to the importance of not arguing merely from the forms and meanings of words as they existed in his day, and was fully conscious that language and its mechanism should be studied historically. The books from the eighth to the tenth inclusive are devoted to the inflections of words and their other modifications. These Varro classes all under the See also:head of " declinatio," which implies a swerving aside from a type. Thus Herculi from Hercules and manubria from manus are equally regarded as examples of declinatio. Varro adopts a See also:compromise between the two opposingschools of grammarians, those who held that nature intended the declinationes of all words of the same class to proceed uniformly (which uniformity was called analogia) and those who deemed that nature aimed at irregularity (anomalia). The matter is treated with considerable confusion of thought. But the facts incidentally cited concerning old Latin, and the statements of what had been written and thought about language by Varro's predecessors, are of extreme value to the student of Latin. The other extant prose work, the De Re Rustica, is in three books, each of which is in the form of a dialogue, the circumstances and in the main the interlocutors being different for each. The dramatic introductions and a few of the interludes are See also:bright and interesting, and the Latin style, though still awkward and unpolished, is far See also:superior to that of the De Lingua Latina. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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