Varro
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman
polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...
and a prolific author. He is regarded as
ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
's greatest scholar, and was described by
Petrarch Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists. Petrarch's redis ...
as "the third great light of Rome" (after
Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
and
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
). He is sometimes called Varro Reatinus ("Varro of Rieti") to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus ("Varro of Atax").


Biography

Varro was born in or near Reate (now Rieti in Lazio) into a family thought to be of equestrian rank. He always remained close to his roots in the area, owning a large farm in the Reatine plain (reported as near Lago di Ripasottile,) until his old age. He supported
Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...
, reaching the office of
praetor ''Praetor'' ( , ), also ''pretor'', was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...
, after having served as tribune of the people, ''
quaestor A quaestor ( , ; ; "investigator") was a public official in ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officia ...
'' and '' curule aedile''. It is probable that Varro was discontented with the course on which Pompey entered when the
First Triumvirate The First Triumvirate was an informal political alliance among three prominent politicians in the late Roman Republic: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gaius Julius Caesar. The republican constitution had many veto points. ...
formed 60 BC, and he may thus have lost his chance of rising to the consulship. He actually ridiculed the coalition in a work entitled the ''Three-Headed Monster'' ( in the Greek of
Appian Appian of Alexandria (; ; ; ) was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who prospered during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius. He was born c. 95 in Alexandria. After holding the senior offices in the pr ...
, ''The Civil Wars'', II.ii.9). He was one of the commission of twenty that carried out the great agrarian scheme of Caesar for the resettlement of Capua and
Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...
(59 BC). During
Caesar's civil war Caesar's civil war (49–45 BC) was a civil war during the late Roman Republic between two factions led by Julius Caesar and Pompey. The main cause of the war was political tensions relating to Caesar's place in the Republic on his expected ret ...
of 49 to 45 he commanded one of Pompey's armies in the Ilerda campaign of 49 BC. He escaped the penalties of having backed the losing side in the civil war through two pardons granted by
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
, before and after the 48 BC Battle of Pharsalus. Caesar appointed him to oversee the public library of Rome in 47 BC, but following Caesar's death
Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...
proscribed him, resulting in his losing much of his property, including his library. As the
Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...
gave way to the
Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
, Varro gained the favour of
Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
, under whose protection he found the security and quiet to devote himself to study and writing. Varro had studied under the Roman
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...
Lucius Aelius Stilo (died 74 BC), and later at
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
under the
Academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon (died 68 BC). Varro proved a highly productive writer and turned out more than 74
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
works on a variety of topics. Aside from his many lost works (known through fragments), two endeavors stand out for historians: ''Nine Books of Disciplines'' and his compilation of the '' Varronian chronology''. His ''Nine Books of Disciplines'' became a model for later encyclopedists, especially for
Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
( to 79 AD). The most noteworthy portion of the ''Nine Books of Disciplines'' is its use of the
liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...
as organizing principles. Varro decided to focus on identifying nine of these arts:
grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
,
rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
,
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...
,
arithmetic Arithmetic is an elementary branch of mathematics that deals with numerical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In a wider sense, it also includes exponentiation, extraction of roots, and taking logarithms. ...
,
geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...
,
astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
, musical theory, medicine, and
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
. Using Varro's list, mediated through
Martianus Capella Martianus Minneus Felix Capella () was a jurist, polymath and Latin literature, Latin prose writer of late antiquity, one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven liberal arts that structured early medieval education. He was a native ...
's early-5th century allegory, subsequent writers defined the seven classical "liberal arts" of the medieval schools. In BC, in his old age, Varro wrote on agriculture for his wife Fundania, producing a "voluminous" work (also called )—similar to
Cato the Elder Marcus Porcius Cato (, ; 234–149 BC), also known as Cato the Censor (), the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, Roman Senate, senator, and Roman historiography, historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He wa ...
's work '' De agri cultura''—on the management of large slave-run estates.


Calendars

The compilation of the '' Varronian chronology'' was an attempt to determine an exact year-by-year timeline of Roman history up to his time. It is based on the traditional sequence of the consuls of the
Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...
—supplemented, where necessary, by inserting "dictatorial" and "anarchic" years. It has been demonstrated to be somewhat erroneous but has become the widely accepted standard chronology, in large part because it was inscribed on the arch of Augustus in Rome; though that arch no longer stands, a large portion of the chronology has survived under the name of '' Fasti Capitolini.''


Works

Varro's literary output was prolific; Ritschl estimated it at 74 works in some 620 books, of which only one work survives complete, although we possess many fragments of the others, mostly in Gellius' '' Attic Nights''. He was called "the most learned of the Romans" by
Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quin ...
, and also recognized by
Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...
as "a man deeply read in Roman history". Varro was recognized as an important source by many other ancient authors, among them
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
,
Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
,
Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
in the ''Georgics'',
Columella Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (, Arabic: ) was a prominent Roman writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire. His in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture and ancient Roman cuisin ...
,
Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...
, Macrobius,
Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
, and
Vitruvius Vitruvius ( ; ; –70 BC – after ) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work titled . As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissan ...
, who credits hi
(VII.Intr.14)
with a book on architecture. His only complete work extant, ("Three Books on Agriculture"), has been described as "the well digested system of an experienced and successful farmer who has seen and practised all that he records." One noteworthy aspect of the work is his anticipation of
microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...
and
epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...
. Varro warned his readers to avoid swamps and marshland, since in such areas
...there are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, but which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and cause serious diseases.
All of the manuscripts of Cato's treatise '' De agri cultura'' also include a copy of Varro's ''De re rustica''. J.G. Schneider and Heinrich Keil showed that the existing manuscripts directly or indirectly descend from a long-lost manuscript called the Marcianus, which was once in the
Biblioteca Marciana The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark (, but in historical documents commonly referred to as the ) is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and ...
in
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
and described by Petrus Victorinus as ''liber antiquissimus et fidelissimus'' (). The oldest existing manuscript is the Codex Parisinus 6842, written in Italy at some point before the end of the 12th century. The ''
editio princeps In Textual scholarship, textual and classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts. These had to be copied by han ...
'' was printed at Venice in 1472; Angelo Politian's collation of the Marcianus against his copy of this first printing is considered an important witness for the text. A modern scholar, Bertha Tilly, assesses Varro's work as follows:
For the immense mass of work completed, for his patriotic fervour, his high moral sentiments, for versatility in forms of writing and in subjects, for the vast range of material, Varro towers above all his contemporaries and his successors: he was distinguished for learning as no other man had ever been or was to be.


Extant works

* ''De lingua latina libri XXV'' (or ''On the Latin Language in 25 Books'', of which six books (V–X) survive, partly mutilated) * ''Rerum rusticarum libri III'' (or ''Three Books of Rural Topics''), also known as the ("On Agriculture") or ("Agriculture")


Known lost works

* ''Saturarum Menippearum libri CL'' or ''Menippean Satires in 150 books'' * '' Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum libri XLI'' (''Antiquities of Human and Divine Things'') * ''Logistoricon libri LXXVI'' * ''Hebdomades vel de imaginibus'' * ''Disciplinarum libri IX'' (An encyclopedia on the liberal arts, of which the first book dealt with grammar) * ''De rebus urbanis libri III'' (or ''On Urban Topics in Three Books'') * ''De gente populi Romani libri IIII'' (cf.
Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
, ' De civitate dei' xxi. 8.) * ''De sua vita libri III'' (or ''On His Own Life in Three Books'') * ''De familiis troianis'' (or ''On the Families of Troy'') * ''De Antiquitate Litterarum libri II'' (addressed to the tragic poet Lucius Accius; it is therefore one of his earliest writings) * ''De Origine Linguae Latinae libri III'' (addressed to
Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...
; cf. Augustine, ' De civitate dei' xxii. 28.) * ''Περί Χαρακτήρων'' (in at least three books, on the formation of words) * ''Quaestiones Plautinae libri V'' (containing interpretations of rare words found in the comedies of
Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...
) * ''De Similitudine Verborum libri III'' (on regularity in forms and words) * ''De Utilitate Sermonis libri IIII'' (on the principle of anomaly or irregularity) * '' libri V (?)'' (addressed to Marcellus, on orthography and the metres of poetry) * ''De philosophia'' (cf.
Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
, ' De civitate dei' xix. 1.) * ''De Bibliothecis'' (in three books)Reid Byers, The Private Library: The History of the Architecture and Furnishing of the Domestic Bookroom, 2021, p.53. Most of the extant fragments of these works (mostly the grammatical works) can be found in the Goetz–Schoell edition of ''De Lingua Latina'', pp. 199–242; in the collection of Wilmanns, pp. 170–223; and in that of Funaioli, pp. 179–371.


References


Bibliography

* Cardauns, B. ''Marcus Terentius Varro: Einführung in sein Werk''. Heidelberger Studienhefte zur Altertumswissenschaft. Heidelberg, Germany: C. Winter, 2001. * d’Alessandro, P. "Varrone e la tradizione metrica antica". ''Spudasmata'', volume 143. Hildesheim; Zürich; New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2012. * Dahlmann, H.M. "Terentius Varro. Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft". Supplement 6, ''Abretten bis Thunudromon''. Edited by Wilhelm Kroll, 1172–1277. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1935. * Ferriss-Hill, J. "Varro’s Intuition of Cognate Relationships". ''Illinois Classical Studies'', volume 39, 2014, pp. 81–108. * Freudenburg, K. "The Afterlife of Varro in Horace's ''Sermones'': Generic Issues in Roman Satire." ''Generic Interfaces in Latin Literature: Encounters, Interactions and Transformations'', edited by Stavros Frangoulidis, De Gruyter, 2013, pp. 297–336. * Kronenberg, L. ''Allegories of Farming from Greece and Rome: Philosophical Satire in Xenophon, Varro and Virgil''. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. * Nelsestuen, G. ''Varro the Agronomist: Political Philosophy, Satire, and Agriculture in the Late Republic''. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2015. * Richardson, J.S. "The Triumph of Metellus Scipio and the Dramatic Date of Varro, RR 3". ''The Classical Quarterly'', volume 33, no. 2, 1983, pp. 456–463. * Taylor, D.J.. ''Declinatio : A Study of the Linguistic Theory of Marcus Terentius Varro''. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1974. * Van Nuffelen, P. "Varro’s Divine Antiquities: Roman Religion as an Image of Truth". ''Classical Philology'', volume 105, no. 2, 2010, pp. 162–188.


External links

*
Marcus Terentius Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...
: Latin works in the Latin Wikisource. * * *
de Re Rustica
(Latin and English at LacusCurtius)
Links to translation of ''De Linga Latina'' by R.G.Kent





Oxford Classical Dictionary

Oxford Bibliographies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varro, Marcus Terentius 116 BC births 27 BC deaths 2nd-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Roman praetors 1st-century BC writers in Latin Ancient linguists Ancient Roman antiquarians Ancient Roman scholars of religion Roman Republican soldiers Ancient Roman writers Encyclopedias in classical antiquity Ancient Roman encyclopedists Geoponici Golden Age Latin writers People from Rieti Recipients of ancient Roman pardons Roman-era students in Athens Varro, Marcus Latinists