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-Quintilius Varus? I should doubt their identity. Compare rather a perplexed Dissertation of Weichert, De diversis, qui Cæs. August. ætate vixerunt, Varis. p. 121. VEIANIUS.-Epist. 1. i. 4. A gladiator, who, having fought many battles, obtained leave to retire from the arena, and consecrated his arms to Hercules.

VIBIDIUS.-Sat. II. viii. 22, et seqq. The second umbra of Mæcenas at the feast of Nasidienus.

VILLIUS, SEXT.-Sat. 1. ii. 64. An intimate associate of Milo, with whose wife, Fausta, the daughter of Sylla, his intrigue was so notorious, that he was called his son in-law. Cic. ad Fam. xi. 6.

Horace

VINNIUS (ASELLA, OR ASINA).-Epist. 1. xiii. confided to his care a volume of his works, which, on a favourable opportunity, was to be presented to Augustus, then perhaps in Spain.

VIRGILIUS.-See "Poets."

VISCUS, VIBIUS.-See "Poets."

VISCUS, THURINUS.-Sat. II. viii. 20. A guest of Nasidienus.

VISELLIUS.-Sat. I. i. 105.

Visellii socer; herniosus.

VOLANERIUS.-Sat. 11. vii. 15. A buffoon, unknown.
VOLTEIUS, MENA.—Epist. 1. vii. 55. Probably imagi-

nary.

VOLUMNIUS, EUTRAPELUS.-See "Eutrapelus."

VORANUS.-Sat. I. viii. 35. A thief: a story is told of his thievery in the Comm. Cruq.

XANTHIAS, PHOCEUS.-C. II. iv. A youth unknown, if not imaginary, or the Poem may be a translation from the Greek.

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as an Orator, in an accusation against C. Cato. In the civil war he took the side of Cæsar, and crossed the Rubicon with him. He served under Cicero in the reduction of Sicily and Africa, was present at Pharsalia, and was with Cæsar a second time in Africa. He was one of the fourteen Proprætors, and took the command in the further Spain." He was there defeated by Sex. Pompeius, and supposed to be slain; but peace was made with S. Pompeius by the intervention of Lepidus. From Spain Pollio wrote three letters to Cicero (Ad Fam. x. 31, 2, 3), in which he described himself as more inclined to peaceful pursuits than to war, as abhorring the dominion of one, and as ready to obey the Senate; but that he was unable to move, because Lepidus lay, with his forces, between him and the Alps. He afterwards joined Antonius and Octavius, and was Consul, u. c. 714; he was the Lieutenant of Antonius in Cisalpine Gaul, and there took Virgil under his protection. He was one of the Mediators in the treaty of Brundusium. He afterwards commanded in Illyria, where he defeated the Parthini, a Dalmatian people, over whom he obtained a triumph (Oct. 25, U. c. 715). He refused to accompany Octavius to Actium, and passed the rest of his life in literary ease and quiet. He died at his villa in Tusculum, v. c. 749.

Pollio was distinguished as an Orator, a Poet, and a Historian. Though highly praised by his contemporaries, the fame of his Tragedies does not appear to have been lasting. He is not named by Quintilian. Of his poetry not a line survives: he lives in his Epistles, contained among those of Cicero, and in the grateful praises of Virgil and of Horace. Weichert insists that the Tragedies of Asinius Pollio were not performed in public; that a man of his rank would not have submitted to the tumultuous

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