VIRGINIUS RUFUS, LUCIUS ( A.D. 15-97), Roman sol dier, three times consul (A.D. 63, 69, 97), was born near Comum. When governor of upper Germany under Nero (68), after he had put down the revolt of Iulius Vindex in Gaul, he was urged by his troops to assume the supreme power; but he refused, declaring that he would recognize no one as emperor who had not been by the senate. Galba, on his accession, aware of the feelings of the German troops induced Virginius to accompany him to Rome. After the death of Otho, the soldiers again offered the throne to Virginius, but he again refused it. They then at tacked him, and he had to escape through the back of his tent. Under Vitellius, one of Virginius's slaves was arrested and charged with the design of murdering the emperor. Virginius was accused of being implicated in the conspiracy, and his death was de manded by the soldiers. Vitellius refused to sacrifice him to the army's resentment, and Virginius subsequently lived in retirement, chiefly in his villa at Alsium, on the coast of Etruria, till his death in 97, in which year he held the consulship, together with the emperor Nerva. At the public burial with which he was honoured,
the historian Tacitus (then consul) delivered the funeral oration.
VIRGO ("the virgin"), in astronomy, the sixth sign of the zodiac, denoted by the symbol 1119. The Greeks represented this constellation as a virgin, but different fables are current as to the identity of the maid. She is variously considered to be : Iustitia, daughter of Astraeus and Ancora; according to Hesiod the virgin is the daughter of Jupiter and Themis ; others make her to be Erigone, daughter of Icarius, or Parthene, daughter of Apollo. The constellation contains a first magnitude star, Spica.