VĒLĀRĬUM. [[Amphitheatrum], [p. 23].]
VĒLĬTES, the light-armed troops in a Roman army. [[Exercitus], [p. 169].]
VĒLUM (αὐλαία).—(1) A curtain. Curtains were used in private houses as coverings over doors, or they served in the interior of the house as substitutes for doors.—(2) Velum, and more commonly its derivative velamen, denoted the veil worn by women. That worn by a bride was specifically called flammeum. [[Matrimonium].]—(3) (Ἱστίον.) A sail. [[Navis], [p. 267].]
VĒNĀBŬLUM, a hunting-spear. This may have been distinguished from the spears used in warfare by being barbed; at least it is often so formed in ancient works of art. It was seldom, if ever, thrown, but held so as to slant downwards and to receive the attacks of the wild boars and other beasts of chace.
VĒNĀTĬO, hunting, was the name given among the Romans to an exhibition of wild beasts, which fought with one another and with men. These exhibitions originally formed part of the games of the circus. Julius Caesar first built a wooden amphitheatre for the exhibition of wild beasts, and others were subsequently erected; but we frequently read of venationes in the circus in subsequent times. The persons who fought with the beasts were either condemned criminals or captives, or individuals who did so for the sake of pay, and were trained for the purpose. [[Bestiarii].] The Romans were as passionately fond of this entertainment as of the exhibitions of gladiators, and during the latter days of the republic, and under the empire, an immense variety of animals was collected from all parts of the Roman world for the gratification of the people, and many thousands were frequently slain at one time. We do not know on what occasion a venatio was first exhibited at Rome; but the first mention we find of any thing of the kind is in the year B.C. 251, when L. Metellus exhibited in the circus 142 elephants, which he had brought from Sicily after his victory over the Carthaginians. But this can scarcely be regarded as an instance of a venatio, as it was understood in later times, since the elephants are said to have been only killed because the Romans did not know what to do with them, and not for the amusement of the people. There was, however, a venatio in the later sense of the word in B.C. 186, in the games celebrated by M. Fulvius in fulfilment of the vow which he had made in the Aetolian war; in these games lions and panthers were exhibited. It is mentioned as a proof of the growing magnificence of the age that in the ludi circenses, exhibited by the curule aediles P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica and P. Lentulus B.C. 168, there were 63 African panthers and 40 bears and elephants. From about this time combats with wild beasts probably formed a regular part of the ludi circenses, and many of the curule aediles made great efforts to obtain rare and curious animals, and put in requisition the services of their friends. Elephants are said to have first fought in the circus in the curule aedileship of Claudius Pulcher, B.C. 99; and twenty years afterwards, in the curule aedileship of the two Luculli, they fought against bulls. A hundred lions were exhibited by Sulla in his praetorship, which were destroyed by javelin-men sent by king Bocchus for the purpose. This was the first time that lions were allowed to be loose in the circus; they were previously always tied up. The games, however, in the curule aedileship of Scaurus, B.C. 58, surpassed anything the Romans had ever seen; among other novelties, he first exhibited an hippopotamos and five crocodiles in a temporary canal or trench (euripus). At the venatio given by Pompey in his second consulship, B.C. 55, upon the dedication of the temple of Venus Victrix, there was an immense number of animals slaughtered, among which we find mention of 600 lions, and 18 or 20 elephants; the latter fought with Gaetulians, who hurled darts against them, and they attempted to break through the railings (clathri) by which they were separated from the spectators. To guard against this danger Julius Caesar surrounded the arena of the amphitheatre with trenches (euripi). In the games exhibited by J. Caesar in his third consulship, B.C. 45, the venatio lasted for five days, and was conducted with extraordinary splendour. Cameleopards or giraffes were then for the first time seen in Italy. The venationes seem to have been first confined to the ludi circenses, but during the later times of the republic, and under the empire, they were frequently exhibited on the celebration of triumphs, and on many other occasions, with the view of pleasing the people. The passion for these shows continued to increase under the empire, and the number of beasts sometimes slaughtered seems almost incredible. Under the emperors we read of a particular kind of venatio, in which the beasts were not killed by bestiarii, but were given up to the people, who were allowed to rush into the area of the circus and carry away what they pleased. On such occasions a number of large trees, which had been torn up by the roots, was planted in the circus, which thus resembled a forest, and none of the more savage animals were admitted into it. One of the most extraordinary venationes of this kind was that given by Probus, in which there were 1000 ostriches, 1000 stags, 1000 boars, 1000 deer, and numbers of wild goats, wild sheep, and other animals of the same kind. The more savage animals were slain by the bestiarii in the amphitheatre, and not in the circus. Thus, in the day succeeding the venatio of Probus just mentioned, there were slain in the amphitheatre 100 lions and 100 lionesses, 100 Libyan and 100 Syrian leopards, and 300 bears.
Venationes. (From Bas-reliefs on the Tomb of Scaurus at Pompeii.)
VĔNĒFĬCĬUM, the crime of poisoning, is frequently mentioned in Roman history. Women were most addicted to it: but it seems not improbable that this charge was frequently brought against females without sufficient evidence of their guilt, like that of witchcraft in Europe in the middle ages. We find females condemned to death for this crime in seasons of pestilence, when the people are always in an excited state of mind, and ready to attribute the calamities under which they suffer to the arts of evil-disposed persons. Thus the Athenians, when the pestilence raged in their city during the Peloponnesian war, supposed the wells to have been poisoned by the Peloponnesians, and similar instances occur in the history of almost all states. Still, however, the crime of poisoning seems to have been much more frequent in ancient than in modern times; and this circumstance would lead persons to suspect it in cases when there was no real ground for the suspicion. At Athens the [Pharmacon Graphe] was brought against poisoners. At Rome the first legislative enactment especially directed against poisoning was a law of the dictator Sulla—Lex Cornelia de Sicariis et Veneficis—passed in B.C. 82, which continued in force, with some alterations, to the latest times. It contained provisions against all who made, bought, sold, possessed, or gave poison for the purpose of poisoning. The punishment fixed by this law was the interdictio aquae et ignis.
VER SACRUM (ἔτος ἱερόν). It was a custom among the early Italian nations, especially among the Sabines, in times of great danger and distress, to vow to the deity the sacrifice of everything born in the next spring, that is, between the first of March and the last day of April, if the calamity under which they were labouring should be removed. This sacrifice in the early times comprehended both men and domestic animals, and there is little doubt that in many cases the vow was really carried into effect. But in later times it was thought cruel to sacrifice so many infants, and accordingly the following expedient was adopted. The children were allowed to grow up, and in the spring of their twentieth or twenty-first year they were with covered faces driven across the frontier of their native country, whereupon they went whithersoever fortune or the deity might lead them. Many a colony had been founded by persons driven out in this manner; and the Mamertines in Sicily were the descendants of such devoted persons. In the two historical instances in which the Romans vowed a ver sacrum, that is, after the battle of lake Trasimenus and at the close of the second Punic war, the vow was confined to domestic animals.
VERBĒNA. [[Sagmina].]