M. TERENTIUS VARRO.
(1) LIFE.
M. Terentius Varro was born B.C. 116 at Reate in the Sabine country.
Jerome yr. Abr. 1901, ‘M. Terentius Varro philosophus et poeta nascitur.’ Symmachus, Ep. i. 2, calls him ‘Terentius Reatinus’; and he owned property in that district: R.R. ii. praef. 6, ‘ipse pecuarias habui grandes, in Apulia oviarias, et in Reatino equarias.’
Of his family nothing is known except that he had an uncle belonging to the equestrian order (Plin. N.H. vii. 176). His philosophical education was received at Athens, where he was a disciple of Antiochus of Ascalon: Cic. Ac. Post. 12, ‘Aristum Athenis [Brutus] audivit aliquamdiu, cuius tu [Varro] fratrem Antiochum.’
He took part in the war with Sertorius in Spain, B.C. 76 (Sall. Hist. ii. fr. 69). In the war with the pirates, B.C. 67, he was one of Pompeius’ lieutenants, and received a corona navalis for his services. Varro R.R. ii. praef. 7, ‘cum piratico bello inter Delum et Ciliciam Graeciae classibus praeessem.’ Plin. N.H. vii. 115, ‘[Varroni] Magnus Pompeius piratico ex bello navalem [coronam] dedit.’ Probably he was also with Pompeius in the war with Mithradates (Plin. N.H. xxxiii. 136, xxxvii. 11; knowledge of the Caspian, vi. 38). To the coalition of Pompeius, Caesar, and Crassus he was originally hostile, going so far as to write one of his satires, Τρικάρανος, against them (Appian B.C. ii. 9); but in 59 he was a member of the commission appointed to establish Caesar’s veterans in Campania: Plin. N.H. vii. 176, ‘Varro auctor est xx. viro se agros dividente Capuae,’ etc. He also held the office of tribune (Gell. xiii. 12, 6), and was aedile with Murena (Plin. xxxv. 173).
When the civil war broke out he was one of Pompeius’ lieutenants in Farther Spain, and resisted Caesar without success (Caes. B.C. ii. 17-20). From Spain he withdrew to Epirus, where he was coldly received by the Pompeians (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 6, 3, ‘crudeliter otiosis minabantur, eratque eis et tua invisa voluntas et mea oratio’). We hear of him at Corcyra (R.R. i. 4), and at Dyrrhachium a few days before the battle of Pharsalus (Cic. de Div. i. 68). After Caesar’s victory he lived quietly at his Tusculan villa (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 6, 4, ‘his tempestatibus es prope solus in portu ... equidem hos tuos Tusculanenses dies instar esse vitae puto’). He was more easily reconciled than Cicero to the new government, and was made librarian by Caesar: Sueton. Iul. 44, ‘Destinabat bibliothecas Graecas Latinasque quas maximas posset publicare, data M. Varroni cura comparandarum ac digerendarum.’ This, however, did not prevent him writing a funeral oration on Cato’s sister Porcia (Cic. ad Att. xiii. 48, 2).
After Caesar’s death Varro was exposed to the persecution of Antonius, whose raid on his villa at Casinum is vividly described by Cicero (Phil. ii. 103 sqq.). He was proscribed, but the devotion of his friends secured his escape (Appian B.C. iv. 47).
His old age was spent in peace, the literary activity for which his whole life was remarkable being maintained to the end. At the age of eighty-three he was still writing: Plin. N.H. xxix. 65, ‘Cunctarer in proferendo ex his remedio, ni M. Varro lxxxiii vitae anno prodidisset,’ etc.
Varro’s death took place in B.C. 27, in his ninetieth year. Jerome yr. Abr. 1990, ‘M. Terentius Varro philosophus prope nonagenarius moritur.’
(2) WORKS.
Cicero (ad Att. xiii. 18) calls Varro ‘homo πολυγραφώτατος,’ and Varro himself said that he had written four hundred and ninety Books by the end of his seventy-seventh year: Gell. iii. 10, 17, ‘Addit se quoque iam duodecimam annorum hebdomadam ingressum esse et ad eum diem septuaginta hebdomadas librorum conscripsisse.’ A letter of Jerome[30] gives a list of thirty-nine works in four hundred and ninety Books, admitting at the same time that these were only half of the total number (‘vix medium descripsi indicem’). The titles of twenty-one other works are known from various sources.
1. Agriculture.—Of this enormous number only one has survived in a complete form, the treatise De Re Rustica in three Books, in the form of a dialogue. Book i. treats of agriculture; ii. of stock-raising; iii. of poultry, game, and fish. It was written B.C. 37-6: R.R. i. 1, 1, ‘Annus octogesimus admonet me ut sarcinas colligam ante quam proficiscar e vita.’
2. Grammar.—Of the twenty-five books De Lingua Latina, only v.-x. have been preserved, but the scope of the whole is known from Varro’s own words. Book i. was introductory; ii.-vii. dealt with etymology; viii.-xiii. with inflexions; xiv.-xxv. with syntax. Varro’s derivations are ridiculed by Quintilian i. 6, 37, ‘Sed cui non post Varronem sit venia, qui agrum quia in eo agatur aliquid, et graculos quia gregatim volent dictos voluit persuadere Ciceroni?’ From Book v. onwards the work was dedicated to Cicero, in return for his Academics; it is announced in Cic. Ac. i. 2, where Varro says, ‘Habeo opus magnum in manibus, idque iam pridem: ad hunc enim ipsum (me autem dicebat) quaedam institui, quae et sunt magna sane et limantur a me politius.’ The date of publication was probably B.C. 45-3.
Of the minor works on grammar, some at least were prior to the De Lingua Latina: Cic. Ac. i. 9, ‘Plurimum poetis nostris omninoque Latinis et litteris luminis et verbis attulisti.’ The titles known are, De sermone Latino, De origine linguae Latinae, De similitudine verborum, De utilitate sermonis, De antiquitate litterarum, Περὶ χαρακτήρων.
3. Roman History and Antiquities. Varro’s great work in this department was the Antiquitates rerum divinarum humanarumque, in forty-one Books. The arrangement, according to Augustine De Civ. Dei, vi. 3, was as follows: (a) i.-xxv. res humanae; i. introductory, ii.-vii. history of Rome down to its capture by the Gauls, viii.-xiii. geography of Italy, xiv.-xix. Roman Calendar, with dates of the chief historical events, xx.-xxv. Roman institutions, (b) xxvi.-xli. res divinae; the persons who sacrifice, the places, the times, the rites, and the gods were discussed in three Books each, xxvi. being introductory. The second part, at least, was addressed to Caesar as pontifex maximus. As it is mentioned by Cic. Ac. i. 9, it must have been published before B.C. 45.
Minor works under this head were Annales, Res urbanae, De gente populi Romani, De vita populi Romani, De familiis Troianis, Tribuum Liber; Aetia (αἴτια), explaining Roman usages, in the form of a catechism; Εἰσαγωγικός to Pompey on the duties of a consul (B.C. 71), Gell. xiv. 7, 1; De Pompeio, Legationum Libri, De sua vita.
4. Geography.—(a) Ephemeris navalis, addressed to Pompey before his departure for Spain about B.C. 77, a weather almanack for sailors; Ephemeris rustica or agrestis, for farmers. (b) Libri navales, perhaps identical with the above, (c) De ora maritima.
5. Law.—De iure civili in fifteen Books.
6. Rhetoric.—Rhetorica.
7. Philosophy.—De Forma Philosophiae, De Philosophia.
8. Mathematics, etc.—De mensuris, Mensuralia, De principiis numerorum, Libri numerorum, De geometria, De astrologia.
9. Disciplinae in nine Books, forming a complete course of education in the liberal arts.
10. History of Literature and the Drama.—De poetis, De poematis, De lectionibus, De bibliothecis, De proprietate scriptorum, De personis, De descriptionibus, De actis scenicis, De scenicis actionibus, De originibus scenicis, Quaestiones Plautinae. In the Hebdomades or Imaginum Libri xv. Varro gave short accounts in prose and verse of seven hundred famous Greeks and Romans, with their portraits (Plin. N.H. xxxv. 11), the title being derived from the arrangement in groups of seven. Aristotle’s Πέπλος had dealt similarly with the heroes of the Trojan War, and the ‘Πεπλογραφία Varronis’ of Cic. ad Att. xvi. 11, 3 is usually identified with the Hebdomades.
11. Λογιστορικοί, in seventy-six Books, were probably not a mixture of fable and history, but essays enlivened by historical examples. The titles were double, the chief speaker being named as well as the subject of the essay, e.g. Catus de liberis educandis. To this work Cicero probably refers, Ac. i. 9, ‘Philosophiam multis locis incohasti, ad impellendum satis, ad edocendum parum.’
12. Varro’s poetical works are now represented only by fragments of the Saturae Menippeae, a medley of prose and verse in one hundred and fifty books (Cic. Ac. i. 9, ‘Varium et elegans omni fere numero poema fecisti’). They were so called by Varro himself (Gell. ii. 18, 7, ‘In satiris quas alii Cynicas, ipse appellat Menippeas’), being founded on the dialogues of Menippus, the Cynic of Gadara, of the third century B.C. Their object was to present philosophy in a popular dress: Cic. Ac. i. 8, ‘Quae cum facilius minus docti intellegerent, iucunditate quadam ad legendum invitati.’ From the way in which they are spoken of in the same passage (‘in illis veteribus nostris’), most of them must have been among Varro’s earliest writings. The titles are extremely curious, e.g. ‘Δὶς παῖδες οἱ γέροντες,’ ‘Longe fugit qui suos fugit.’ Quintilian considers Varro as the founder of a type of satire distinct from that of Lucilius, Horace, and Persius: x. 1, 95, ‘Alterum illud etiam prius satirae genus sed non sola carminum varietate mixtum condidit Terentius Varro, vir Romanorum eruditissimus.’ His other poetical works were ten books of Poemata, four of Satires, and six of Pseudotragoediae (tragi-comedy).
13. Oratory.—Varro left twenty-two Books of Orationes and three of Suasiones, but he had no fame as an orator: Quint. x. 1, 95, ‘Plus scientiae collaturus quam eloquentiae.’
14. Letters.—Of these there seem to have been two collections: (a) Epistulae Latinae, real letters to acquaintances; (b) Epistolicae Quaestiones, discussing in epistolary form points of history, grammar, etc.
The collection of maxims which passes under the name Sententiae Varronis is of uncertain authenticity.