Lucius Varius Rufus (; 14 BC) was a Roman poet of the early Augustan age. He was a friend of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

, after whose death he and

Plotius Tucca Plotius Tucca (''fl.'' 35 BC) was a Roman poet and a friend of Virgil. He was in the circle of friends with Virgil and Maecenas, as indicated by Horace (''Satires''). According to Donatus's ''Life of Virgil,'' after Virgil's death, Plotius was one ...

prepared the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...

'' for publication, and of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

, for whom he and Virgil obtained an introduction to

Maecenas Gaius Cilnius Maecenas ( – 8 BC) was a friend and political advisor to Octavian (who later reigned as emperor Augustus). He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. During the re ...

. Horace spoke of him as a master of epic and the only poet capable of celebrating the achievements of Vipsanius Agrippa (''Odes'', i.6); Virgil (under the name of Lycidas, ''Ecl.'' ix.35) regretted that he had hitherto produced nothing comparable to the work of Varius or

Helvius Cinna Gaius Helvius Cinna (died 20 March 44 BC) was an influential neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic, a little older than the generation of Catullus and Calvus. He was lynched at the funeral of Julius Caesar after being mistaken for an unrelated ...

. Macrobius (''Saturnalia'', vi. I, 39; 2, 19) states that Varius composed an epic poem ''De Morte'', some lines of which are quoted as having been imitated or appropriated by Virgil; Horace (''Sat.'' i.10, 43) probably alluded to another epic, and, according to the scholiast on ''Epistles'', i.16, 2 729, these three lines were taken bodily from a panegyric of Varius on

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

. Varius's most famous literary production was the tragedy ''Thyestes'', which

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilia ...

(''Inst. Orat.'' x.1, 98) declared fit to rank with any of the Greek tragedies. A ''didascalia'' on the play, preserved in a Paris manuscript, states that it was produced at the games celebrated in 29 BC by Octavian in honour of the victory at Actium, and that Varius received a present of a million

sesterce The ''sestertius'' (plural ''sestertii''), or sesterce (plural sesterces), was an ancient Roman coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occasions. During the Roman Empire it was a large brass coin. The na ...

s from the Roman ruler. Fragments of Varius's works are located in E. Bahrens, ''Frag. Poetarum Romanorum'' (1886); monographs by A. Weichert (1836) and R. Unger (1870, 1878, 1898);

Martin Schanz Martin Schanz (12 June 1842 – 15 December 1914) was a German classicist and Plato scholar. He was a Dozent and Professor at the University of Würzburg from 1867 to 1912, and is especially known for his history of Roman literature and his grou ...

, ''Geschichte der römischen Litteratur'' (1899), ii.1;

Teuffel Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel (; September 27, 1820March 8, 1878), German classical scholar, was born at Ludwigsburg in the Kingdom of Württemberg. In 1849 he was appointed extraordinary, in 1857 ordinary professor in the university of Tübingen, whic ...

, ''Hist. of Roman Literature'' (Eng. trans., 1900), 223.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rufus, Lucius Varius 70s BC births 14 BC deaths Roman-era poets Golden Age Latin writers Latin writers known only from secondary sources 1st-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Roman poets Varii