A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

whose vast and varied erudition in almost every department of literature earned for him the title of the " most learned of the Romans" (Quint. Inst. 10.1.95 ; Cic. Ac. 1.2, 3; Augustin. de Civ. Dei, 6.2), was born B. C. 116, being exactly ten years senior to Cicero, with whom he lived for a long period on terms of close intimacy and warm friendship. (Cic. Fam. 9.1_8.) He was trained under the superintendence of L. Aelius Stilo Praeconinus, a member of the equestrian order, a man, we are told (Cic. Brut. 56), of high character, familiarly acquainted with the Greek and Latin writers in general, and especially deeply versed in the antiquities of his own country, some of which, such as the hymns of the Salii and the Laws of the Twelve Tables, he illustrated by commentaries. Varro, having imbibed from this preceptor a taste for these pursuits, which he cultivated in after life with so much devotion and success, completed his education by attending the lectures of Antiochus (Acad. 3.12), a philosopher of the Academy, with a leaning perhaps towards the Stoic school, and then embarked in public life. We have no distinct record of his regular advancement in the service of the state, but we know that he held a high naval command in the wars against the pirates and Mithridates (Plin. Nat. 3.11, 7.30; Appian, App. Mith. 95; Varr. R. R. ii. praef.), that he served as the legatus of Pompeius in Spain on the first outbreak of civil strife, and that, although compelled to surrender his forces to Caesar, he remained stedfast to the cause of the senate, and passing over into Greece shared the fortunes of his party until their hopes were finally crushed by the battle of Pharsalia. When further resistance was fruitless, he yielded himself to the clemency of the conqueror, by whom he was most graciously received, and employed in superintending the collection and arrangement of the great library designed for public use. (Caes. Civ. 1.38, 2.17-20; Cic. Fam. 9.13, de Div. 1.33 ; Suet. Jul. Caes. 34, 44.) Before, however, it was known that he had secured the forgiveness and favour of the dictator, his villa at Casinum had been seized and plundered by Antonius, an event upon which Cicero dwells with great effect in his second Philippic (cc. 40, 41), contrasting the pure and lofty pursuits which its walls were in the habit of witnessing with the foul excesses and coarse debauchery of its captor. For some years after this period Varro remained in literary seclusion, passing his time chiefly at his country seats near Cumae and Tusculum, occupied with study and composition and so indifferent to the state of public affairs that while the storm was raging all around, he alone appeared to have found refuge in a secure haven. (Cic. Fam. 9.6.) Upon the formation of the second triumvirate, although now upwards of seventy years old, his name appeared along with that of Cicero upon the list of the proscribed, but more fortunate than his friend he succeeded in making his escape, and, after having remained for some time concealed (Appian, B. C. iv 47), in securing the protection of Octavianus. The remainder of his career was passed in tranquillity, and be continued to labour in his favourite studies, although his magnificent library had been destroyed, a loss to him irreparable. His death took place B. C. 28, when he was in his eighty-ninth year (Plin. Nat. 29.4; Hieronym. in Euseb. Chron. Olymp. 188. 1). It is to be observed that M. Terentius Varro, in consequence of his having possessed extensive estates in the vicinity of Reate, is styled Reatinus by Symmachus (Ep. i.), and probably by Sidonius Apollinaris also (Ep. 4.32), a designation which has been very frequently adopted by later writers in order to distinguish him from Varro Atacinus.

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