Vasates, a people of Gaul.
Vascŏnes, a people of Spain, on the Pyrenees. They were so reduced by a famine by Metellus, that they fed on human flesh. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 3.—Ausonius, bk. 2, li. 100.—Juvenal, satire 15, li. 93.
Vasio, a town of Gaul in modern Provence. Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 10, ltr. 34.
Vaticānus, a hill at Rome, near the Tiber and the Janiculum, which produced wine of no great esteem. It was disregarded by the Romans on account of the unwholesomeness of the air, and the continual stench of the filth that was there, and of stagnated waters. Heliogabalus was the first who cleared it of all disagreeable nuisances. It is now admired for ancient monuments and pillars, for a celebrated public library, and for the palace of the pope. Horace, bk. 1, ode 20.
Vătiēnus, now Saterno, a river rising in the Alps and falling into the Po. Martial, bk. 3, ltr. 67.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 16.
Vātinia lex, de provinciis, by the tribune Publius Vatinius, A.U.C. 694. It appointed Cæsar governor of Gallia Cisalpina and Illyricum, for five years, without a decree of the senate, or the usual custom of casting lots. Some persons were also appointed to attend him as lieutenants without the interference of the senate. His army was to be paid out of the public treasury, and he was empowered to plant a Roman colony in the town of Novocomum in Gaul.——Another by Publius Vatinius the tribune, A.U.C. 694, de repetundis, for the better management of the trial of those who were accused of extortion.
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.