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.