A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

a friend of Horace, who had fought with the poet at the battle of Philippi, and who appears to have been afterwards proscribed, and to have fled to Sex. Pompeius in Sicily. One of Horace's odes (2.7) is addressed to this Pompeius, in which the poet congratulates him upon his unexpected return to his native land. Many commentators accordingly suppose this ode to have been written as early as B. C. 39, when the triumvirs made peace with Sex. Pompeius, and allowed those who had been proscribed to return to Rome; but others maintain, with more probability, that it was not composed till after the battle of Actium in B. C. 31, and that Varus was one of those who had espoused the cause of Antonius, and was then pardoned by Octavianus. (Comp. Estré, Horatiana Prosopographia, p. 474, foll., Amstelod. 1846.)