Vesta´les. The Vestals, priestesses consecrated to the service of Vesta. They were required to be of good families and free from blemish and deformity. One of their chief duties was to see that the sacred fire of Vesta was not extinguished.
Virgil´ius, Pub´lius Ma´ro, called the prince of the Latin poets, was born at Andes, near Mantua, about seventy years before Christ. He went to Rome, where he formed an acquaintance with Mæcenas, and recommended himself to Augustus. His Bucolics were written in about three years, and subsequently he commenced the Georgics, which is considered one of the most perfect of all Latin compositions. The Æneid is supposed to have been undertaken at the request of Augustus. Virgil died in his fifty-first year B.C. 19.
Virgin´ia. Daughter of the centurion L. Virginius. She was slain by her father to save her from the violence of the decemvir, Appius Claudius.
Virgin´ius. A valiant Roman, father of Virginia. (See Virginia.) The story of Virginius and his ill-fated daughter is the subject of the well-known tragedy of “Virginius,” one of the early productions of J. Sheridan Knowles. It is rarely performed in the present day.
Vulca´nus. The god who presided over fire, and who was the patron of those who worked in iron. According to Homer, he was the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was so deformed, that at his birth his mother threw him into the sea, where he remained nine years; but other writers differ from this opinion. He married Venus at the instigation of Jupiter. He is known by the name of Mulciber. The Cyclopes were his attendants, and with them he forged the thunderbolts of Jupiter.
Xanthip´pe or Xantip´pe. The wife of Socrates, remarkable for her ill-humor and fretful disposition. She was a constant torment to her husband, and on one occasion, after bitterly reviling him, she emptied a vessel of dirty water on him, on which the philosopher coolly remarked, “After thunder rain generally falls.”
Xenoc´rates. An ancient philosopher born at Calcedonia, and educated in the school of Plato, whose friendship he gained. Died B.C. 314.
Xen´ophon. A celebrated Athenian, son of Gryllus, famous as a general, philosopher, and historian. He joined Cyrus the Younger in an expedition against Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and after the decisive battle of Cunaxa, in which Cyrus was defeated and killed, the skill and bravery of Xenophon became conspicuous. He had to direct an army of ten thousand Greeks, who were now more than six hundred leagues from home, and in a country surrounded by an active enemy. He rose superior to all difficulties till the celebrated “Retreat of the Ten Thousand” was effected; the Greeks returning home after a march of two hundred and fifteen days. Xenophon employed his pen in describing the expedition of Cyrus, in his work the “Anabasis.” He also wrote the “Cyropædia,” “Memorabilia,” “Hellenica,” etc. He died at Corinth in his ninetieth year, about 360 years before the Christian era.
Xer´xes succeeded his father Darius on the throne of Persia. He entered Greece with an immense army, which was checked at Thermopylæ by the valor of three hundred Spartans under king Leonidas, who, for three successive days, successfully opposed the enormous forces of Xerxes, and were at last slaughtered. From this period the fortunes of Xerxes waned. His fleet being defeated at Salamis, and mortified with ill-success, he hastened to Persia, where he gave himself up to debauchery, and was murdered in the twenty-first year of his reign, about 464 years before the Christian era.
Za´ma. A town of Numidia, celebrated as the scene of the victory of Scipio over Hannibal, B.C. 202.