marcus terentius varro, antiquarian, 'most learned of the romans'
We meet Varro as Pompey's intimate in Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough, the subject our current book chat.
Marcus Terentius Varro, "whose vast and varied erudition in almost every department of literature earned for him the title of the " most learned of the Romans" (Quintil. x. 1. § 95 ; Cic. Acad. i. 2, 3 ; Augustin. de Civ. Dei, vi. 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. ad Fam. ix. 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. iii. 12), a philosopher of the Academy, with a leaning perhaps towards the Stoic school, and then embarked in public life ..."
The Ancient Library devotes extensive space to him and also shows a coin image indicating that he was proquaestor of Pompeius Magnus during the war against the pirates.
In our book, he is a cousin of Cicero's wife Terentia who in turn is described as the adoptive sister of Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, the younger brother of Lucius Licinius Lucullus and adopted out into the Terentii. (More on the Lucullus brothers in a later post.) However, the parentage of Terentia is not known – except that the Vestal Fabia was her half-sister – and the story is a clever construct by the author.
Varro at Wikipedia (as usual handle with care)
Extant works:
- De lingua latina libri XXV (or On the Latin Language in 25 Books; of which six survive, partly mutilated)
- Rerum rusticarum libri III (or Agricultural Topics in Three Books)
Known lost works:
- Saturarum Menippearum libri CL or Menippean Satires in 150 books (these are discussed in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.05.21)
- Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum libri XLI
- Logistoricon libri LXXVI
- Hebdomades vel de imaginibus
- Disciplinarum libri IX
E-texts:
- Works by Marcus Terentius Varro at Project Gutenberg
- de Re Rustica (Latin and English at LacusCurtius)
- another list of Latin texts at CSL
Marcus Terentius Varro in print.
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