Marcus Terentius 11 6 27 Bc Varro

3. Imagines in 15 books. This consisted of 700 biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, each biography being accompanied by a portrait of the subject and an explanatory metrical elogium. This was probably the first Latin illustrated book, but Cratenas, the medical attendant of Mithridates VI. (12o-63 B.c.) had shown the way by an illustrated book on plants. The number of biographies, 700, is explained by Varro's curious affection for the number 7 (hebdomas),: cf. Aul. Gell., iii. ro. "M. Varro in the first of the books entitled Hebdomades or De Imaginibus says that the virtues and powers of the number 7, which the Greeks call gi3So,ults are many and various": cf. M. Varro in primo de Imaginibus, titer (Homer or Hesiod) prior sit natus, parum constare dicit; ibid. 6. M. Varro in the first book, de Imaginibus, placed beside the portrait of Homer this epigram : Capella Homeri candida haec tumulum in dicat Quod hac Ietae mortuo faciunt sacra (This shining she goat indicates the tomb of Homer, because it is with a she-goat that the Ietae sacrifice to the dead).

4. On literature and the history of literature he wrote a series of treatises, e.g., De poematis, De compositione saturarum, De Poetis (Aul. Gell., i. 24.3; xvii. 21, 43 and 45), De originibus scaenicis, De comoediis Plautinis (Aul. Gell., iii. 3. 9 seq.), Quaes tionum Plautinarum libri V. In this connection it is to be noted that Varro established the canon of the genuine plays of Plautus, the 21 so-called Fabulae Varronianae, i.e., the 21 plays now extant (the Vidularia only partially).

S. Antiquitatum rerun humanarum et divinarum libri XLI. Of this work the first 25 books dealt with res humane, the second part in 16 books, dedicated to Caesar, dealt with the gods. For the first part, cf. Aul. Gell., i.16, i.25, iii.2, v.4, xi. I, xiii.I2, xiii.I3, xiii.I7, xvii.3; for the second part cf. Aul. Gell., i.18, iii.16, x.15, xv.3o, xviii.i 2. Other works in this sphere written by Varro were De gente populi Romani libri IV, De vita populi Romani, De familiis Troianis, Tribuum liber, Rerum urbancrum libri III, Aetia (so called after the Airca of Callimachus).

6. Historical works: De Pompeio libri III., Annalium libri De sua vita, Legationum libri III.

7. Encyclopaedic works :

Disciplinarum libri IX. (cf. Aul. Gell., i.20, xviii.I5), dealing with the liberal arts, grammar, rhetoric, music, medicine, etc., De forma philosophiae libri III.

8. Legal work :

De iure civili libri XV.

9. Geographical works :

De ore maritima, De aestuariis, Ephe meris navalis.

1o. Grammatical works:

De lingua Latina libri XXV ., of which

books were dedicated to P. Septimius, the rest to Cicero; cf. Aul. Gell., ii.25, vi.i 1, X.2I, xvi.8. Bks. 5–lo are extant in a somewhat mutilated condition. The work was divided into three parts, the first dealing with the etymology of Latin words, the second with inflexion, the third with syntax. Other works in this sphere by Varro were De sermone Latino ad Marcellum libri V. (cf. Aul. Gell., xii.6, xii.io, xvi.I2, xviii.I2); De similitudine verborum; De utilitate sermonis ; rEpl De anti quitate litterarum; De origine linguae Latinae.

II. Epistolicae Quaestiones (Aul. Gell., vi.io, xiv.7, xiv.8) dealing with a variety of subjects.

I2. Rerum rusticarum libri III., written when Varro was in his Both year. (Cf. the opening words, "If I had leisure, Fundania, I would have written for you more conveniently what I will now set forth as best I can, considering that I must make haste, since, as the saying goes, if man is a bubble, still more so is an old man. My Both year warns me that I must collect my baggage before I depart from life.") This work (for which cf. Aul. Gell, ii. 2o) is extant practically entire.

Estimate of Contemporaries.

It is a very remarkable fact that Livy nowhere in his extant work alludes to Varro, or gives any evidence of acquaintance with his writings. But the reputa tion which he enjoyed, both in his own day and in later times, is abundantly testified: Cic., Acad. post., i.3. "You have revealed to us the age of our fatherland, its chronology, the laws of its religion and priesthoods, the plan of our home and foreign ad ministration, the position of our territories and districts, the titles and descriptions of all things Divine and human, with the duties and principles attaching to them, and you have shed a vast amount of light on our poets and on Latin literature in general and on the Latin vocabulary, while you have yourself composed picturesque and choice poems in almost every metre, and in many passages have touched upon philosophy, so far as to arouse interest, but not sufficiently for full treatment." BIBLIOGRAPHY.-De lingua Latina, edit. C. D. Muller, L. Spengel re-edited by his son Res Rusticae, edit. Keil (Leipzig, 1884). On Varro's language and style, Norden, Rheinisches Museum, xlviii. (1893) ; F. Germann, Die Sogenannten Sententiae Varronis (i900) ; M. Schantz, Gesch. der rom. Litteratur, vol. I. pt. II. (3rd ed., Munich, 1909) ; J. W. Duff, Literary Hist. of Rome (1909) ; R. J. B. Walker, Les Catalogues varroniens (1927). (A. W. MA.)