Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

VARRO, PUBLIUS TERENTIUS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 924 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

VARRO, PUBLIUS TERENTIUS , surnamed ATACINUS (c. 82–36 B.c.), Latin poet, was See also:born near the See also:river Atax in Gallia Narbonensis. He was perhaps the first See also:Roman born beyond the See also:Alps who attained See also:eminence in literature. He seems to have taken at first See also:Ennius and See also:Lucilius as his See also:models, and wrote an epic, entitled Bellum Sequanicum, eulogizing the exploits of See also:Caesar in See also:Gaul and See also:Britain, and also Satires, of which See also:Horace (Satires, i. to) speaks slightingly. Accordingly to See also:Jerome, Varro did not begin to study See also:Greek literature until his See also:thirty-fifth See also:year. The last ten years of his See also:life were given up to the See also:imitation of Greek poets of the Alexandrian school. See also:Quintilian (Instit. x. 1, 87), who describes him as a " translator," speaks of him in qualified terms of praise. Although not vigorous enough to excel in the See also:historical epic or in the serious See also:work of the Roman satura, Varro yet possessed in considerable measure the lighter gifts which we admire in See also:Catullus. His See also:chief poem of the later See also:period was the Argonautae, closely modelled on the epic of See also:Apollonius Rhodius. The See also:age was prolific of epics, both historical and mythological, and that of Varro seems to have held a high See also:rank among them. It is highly spoken of by See also:Ovid (Am. i.

15, 21, A.A. iii. 335, Tristia, ii. 439) and See also:

Statius (Silvae, ii. 7, 77), and See also:Propertius (ii. 34, 85) awards equal praise to his erotic elegies. Varro was also the author of a Cosmographia, or Chorographia, a See also:geographical poem imitated from the Greek of Eratosthenes or of See also:Alexander of See also:Ephesus, surnamed Lychnus; and of an See also:Ephemeris, a See also:hexameter poem on See also:weather-signs after See also:Aratus, from which See also:Virgil has borrowed. Fragments in A. Riese's edition of the fragments of the Menippean Satires of Varro of Reate; see also monographs by F. Wollner (1829) and R. Unger (1861).

End of Article: VARRO, PUBLIUS TERENTIUS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
VARRO, MARCUS TERENTIUS (116—27 B.C.) 		[next]
VARTHEMA (BARTHEMA, VERTOMANNUS, &C.), LUDOVICO DI

Site © 2006 - Net Industries