Vopiscus, a native of Syracuse, 303, A.D. who wrote the life of Aurelian, Tacitus, Florianus, Probus, Firmus, Carus, &c. He is one of the six authors who are called Historiæ Augustæ scriptores, but he excels all others in the elegance of his style, and the manner in which he relates the various actions of the emperors. He is not, however, without his faults, and we look in vain for the purity or perspicuity of the writers of the Augustan age.
Vŏrānus, a freedman of Quintus Luctatius Catulus, famous for his robberies as well as his cunning, &c. Horace, bk. 1, satire 8, li. 39.
Votiēnus Montanus, a man of learning, banished to one of the Baleares for his malevolent reflections upon Tiberius. Ovid has celebrated him as an excellent poet. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 42.
Upis, the father of one of the Dianas, mentioned by the ancients, from which circumstance Diana herself is called Upis. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 23.—Callimachus, Artemis.
Urănia, one of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, who presided over astronomy. She is generally called mother of Linus by Apollo, and of the god Hymenæus by Bacchus. She was represented as a young virgin dressed in an azure-coloured robe, crowned with stars, and holding a globe in her hands, and having many mathematical instruments placed round. Hesiod, Theogony, li. 77.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Hyginus, fable 161.——A surname of Venus, the same as Celestial. She was supposed, in that character, to preside over beauty and generation, and was called daughter of Uranus or Cœlus by the Light. Her temples in Asia, Africa, Greece, and Italy were numerous. Plato, Convivium Septem Sapientium.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 23.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 14, &c.; bk. 7, ch. 26, &c.——A town of Cyprus.
Urănii, or Urii, a people of Gaul.
Uranopŏlis, a town at the top of Athos.
Urănus, or Ouranus, a deity, the same as Cœlus, the most ancient of all the gods. He married Tithea or the Earth, by whom he had Ceus, Creus, Hyperion, Mnemosyne, Cottus, Phœbe, Briareus, Thetis, Saturn, Gyges, called from their mother Titans. His children conspired against him, because he confined them in the bosom of the earth, and his son Saturn mutilated him, and drove him from his throne.
Urba, now Orbe, a town of the Helvetii, on a river of the same name.
Urbicua, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis.