VĪCOMĂGISTRI. [[Vicus].]
VĪCUS, the name of the subdivisions into which the four regions occupied by the four city tribes of Servius Tullius were divided, while the country regions, according to an institution ascribed to Numa, were subdivided into pagi. This division, together with that of the four regions of the four city tribes, remained down to the time of Augustus, who made the vici subdivisions of the fourteen regions into which he divided the city. In this division each vicus consisted of one main street, including several smaller by-streets; their number was 424, and each was superintended by four officers, called vico-magistri, who had a sort of local police, and who, according to the regulation of Augustus, were every year chosen by lot from among the people who lived in the vicus. On certain days, probably at the celebration of the compitalia, they wore the praetexta, and each of them was accompanied by two lictors. These officers, however, were not a new institution of Augustus, for they had existed during the time of the republic, and had had the same functions as a police for the vici of the Servian division of the city.
VICTŌRĬĀTUS. [[Denarius].]
VĬGĬLES. [[Exercitus], [p. 171].]
VĬGĬLĬAE. [[Castra].]
VĪGINTĬSEXVĬRI, twenty-six magistratus minores, among whom were included the Triumviri Capitales, the Triumviri Monetales, the Quatuorviri Viarum Curandarum for the city, the two Curatores Viarum for the roads outside the city, the Decemviri Litibus (stlitibus) Judicandis, and the four praefects who were sent into Campania for the purpose of administering justice there. Augustus reduced the number of officers of this college to twenty (vigintiviri), as the two curatores viarum for the roads outside the city and the four Campanian praefects were abolished. Down to the time of Augustus the sons of senators had generally sought and obtained a place in the college of the vigintisexviri, it being the first step towards the higher offices of the republic; but in A.D. 13 a senatusconsultum was passed, ordaining that only equites should be eligible to the college of the vigintiviri. The consequence of this was that the vigintiviri had no seats in the senate, unless they had held some other magistracy which conferred this right upon them. The age at which a person might become a vigintivir appears to have been twenty.
VĪGINTĬVĬRI. [[Vigintisexviri].]
VILLA, a farm or country-house. The Roman writers mention two kinds of villa, the villa rustica or farm-house, and the villa urbana or pseudo-urbana, a residence in the country or in the suburbs of a town. When both of these were attached to an estate they were generally united in the same range of buildings, but sometimes they were placed at different parts of the estate. The interior arrangements of the villa urbana corresponded for the most part to those of a town-house. [[Domus].]
VILLĬCUS, a slave who had the superintendence of the villa rustica, and of all the business of the farm, except the cattle, which were under the care of the magister pecoris. The word was also used to describe a person to whom the management of any business was entrusted.
VĪNĀLĬA. There were two festivals of this name celebrated by the Romans: the Vinalia urbana or priora, and the Vinalia rustica or altera. The vinalia urbana were celebrated on the 23rd of April, when the wine-casks which had been filled the preceding autumn were opened for the first time, and the wine tasted. The rustic vinalia, which fell on the 19th of August, and was celebrated by the inhabitants of all Latium, was the day on which the vintage was opened. On this occasion the flamen dialis offered lambs to Jupiter, and while the flesh of the victims lay on the altar, he broke with his own hands a bunch of grapes from a vine, and by this act he, as it were, opened the vintage, and no must was allowed to be conveyed into the city until this solemnity was performed. This day was sacred to Jupiter, and Venus too appears to have had a share in it.