one of the most distinguished poets of the Augustan age, the companion and friend of Virgil and Horace. By the latter he is placed in the foremost rank among the epic bards, and Quintilian has pronounced that his tragedy of Thyestes might stand a comparison with any production of the Grecian stage.
But notwithstanding the high fame which he enjoyed among his contemporaries, and which was confirmed by the deliberate judgment of succeeding ages, there is scarcely any ancient author of celebrity concerning whose personal history we are more completely ignorant. We cannot determine the date of his birth, nor of his death, nor are we acquainted with any of the leading events of his career. This has arisen partly from the absolute silence of those from whom we might reasonably have hoped to glean some information, partly from the circumstance that he upon no occasion mingled in the business of public life, and partly from the confusion which prevails in MSS. between the names Varius, Varro, and Varus, the last especially being an appellation borne by several remarkable personages both political and literary towards the downfal of the republic, and under the early emperors. If we dismiss mere fanciful conjectures the sum total of our actual knowledge may be expressed in a very few words.
1. We may conclude with certainty that he was senior to Virgil. This seems to be proved by the well-known lines of Horace (Sat. 1.10. 44),
" forte epos acer Ut nemo Varius ducit : molle atque facetum Virgilio adnuerunt gaudentes rure Camoenae,"
for from these we may at once infer that Varius had already established his reputation in heroic song while Virgil was known only as a pastoral bard.
2. He enjoyed the friendship of Maecenas from a very early period, since it was to the recommendation of Varius in conjunction with that of Virgil, that Horace was indebted for an introduction to the minister, an event which took place not later than B. C. 39, for we know that the three poets accompanied the great man upon his mission to Brundisium B. C. 38.
3. He was alive subsequent to B. C. 19. This cannot be questioned, if we believe the joint testimony of Hieronymus (Chron. Euseb. Olymp. exe. 4) and Donatus (Vit. Virg. 14.53, 57), who assert that Virgil on his death bed appointed Plotius Tucca and Varius his literary executors, and that they revised the Aeneid, but in obedience to the strict injunctions of its author made no additions.
It has been supposed from a passage of Horace in the Epistle to Augustus (Hor. Ep. 2.1. 247), that Varius was dead at the time when it was published, that is, about B. C. 10, but the words do not warrant the conclusion.
[W.R]