INTRODUCTION

VARRO’S LIFE AND WORKS

MARCUS TERENTIUS VARRO was born in 116 B.C., probably at Reate in the Sabine country, where his family, which was of equestrian rank, possessed large estates. He was a student under L. Aelius Stilo Praeconinus, a scholar of the equestrian order, widely versed in Greek and Latin literature and especially interested in the history and antiquities of the Roman people. He studied philosophy at Athens, with Antiochus of Ascalon. With his tastes thus formed for scholarship, he none the less took part in public life, and was in the campaign against the rebel Sertorius in Spain, in 76. He was an officer with Pompey in the war with the Cilician pirates in 67, and presumably also in Pompey’s campaign against Mithradates. In the Civil War he was on Pompey’s side, first in Spain and then in Epirus and Thessaly.

He was pardoned by Caesar, and lived quietly at Rome, being appointed librarian of the great collection of Greek and Latin books which Caesar planned to make. After Caesar’s assassination, he was proscribed by Antony, and his villa at Casinum, with his personal library, was destroyed. But he himself escaped death by the devotion of friends, who concealed him, and he secured the protection of Octavian.