Marcus Terentius Varro
(116 B.C.–27? B.C.)

Encyclopædia Orbis Latini

Roman man of letters, very erudite and prolific, renowned to have written about 620 volumes, amongst them a famous study on Latin grammar.

Varro served as Pompey’s legate in Spain and fought at Pharsalus, but was reconciled with Caesar, who made him director of the proposed public library. At the time of the Second Triumvirate his villa was plundered, and he himself was proscribed. He escaped from Rome and subsequently was pardoned by Augustus.

His extant works include:

• De re rustica libri III [Three books on farming]. This is the only one which remained intact.
• Six books (V–X) out of the original 25 are preserved of De lingua latina [on the Latin language].
• Another 600 fragments from his Satirae Menippeae survive.