Varro Atacinus
{{Short description|Roman writer and poet}}
Publius Terentius Varro Atacinus ({{IPA|la|ˈpuːbliʊs tɛˈrɛntiʊs ˈwarːoː atakiːnʊs|lang}}; 82 – c. 35 BC) was a Roman poet, more polished in his style than the more famous and learned Varro Reatinus, his contemporary, and therefore more widely read by the Augustan writers.Charles Thomas Cruttwell, [http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_histromlit_2_1_1.htm History of Roman Literature (1877)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202162139/http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_histromlit_2_1_1.htm |date=2008-12-02 }}: Book II, part I, note III He was born in the province of Gallia Narbonensis, the southern part of Gaul with its capital at Narbonne, on the river Atax{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Varro, Publius Terentius |volume=27 |page=924}} (now the Aude), for his cognomen Atacinus indicates his birthplace. Varro Atacinus was also in the neoteric circle, which included other notable poets such as Catullus and Marcus Furius Bibaculus.
Writings
Only fragments of his works survive. His first known works are {{Lang|la|Bellum sequanicum}},H. J. Rose, A Handbook of Latin Literature (London 1967) p. 146 a poem on Julius Caesar's campaign against Ariovistus, and some satires; these should not be confused with the Menippean Satires of the other Varro, of which some 600 fragments survive. He also wrote a geographical poem, Chorographia; Ephemeris, a hexameter poem on weather-signs after Aratus, from which Virgil has borrowed and (late in life) elegies to Leucadia.
His translation of the Alexandrian poet Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica into Latin has some fine surviving lines; and was singled out for praise by Ovid: “Of Varro too what age will not be told/And Jason’s Argo and the fleece of gold?”.A. D. Melville, trans., Ovid: The Love Poems (OUP 2008) p. 27 and p. 188 Oskar Seyffert considered that the poem to have been “the most remarkable production in the domain of narrative epic poetry between the time of Ennius and that of Vergil”.O. Seyffert, A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (London 1892) p. 619
Of Varro's fragments, the epigram on "The Tombs of the Great" is well-known; whether or not it is truly Varro's is debatable:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|la|Marmoreo Licinus tumulo iacet, at Cato nullo,
Pompeius paruo: credimus esse deos?}}
|
In a marble tomb [the freedman] Licinus lies; yet Cato lies in none
and Pompey in but a small: Do we believe there are gods?}}
Patrons
Cicero as well as Caesar have been suggested as possible patrons of Varro's writings.B. Gold ed., Literary and Artistic Patronage in Ancient Rome (2012) p. 91
See also
Notes
{{Reflist|2|}}
External links
- [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338815215_Os_fragmentos_de_Varrao_Atacino_traducao_e_notas_Varro_Atacinus'_Fragments_Translation_and_Notes Fragments of Varro Atacinus], with Portuguese translation.
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Category:Golden Age Latin writers
Category:1st-century BC Romans
Category:1st-century BC Roman poets