Publius Terentius Varro Atacinus (Latin:[ˈpuːbliʊstɛˈrɛntiʊsˈwarːoːatakiːnʊs]; 82 – c. 35 BC) was aRoman poet, more polished in his style than the more famous and learnedVarro Reatinus, his contemporary, and therefore more widely read by theAugustan writers.[1] He was born in the province ofGallia Narbonensis, the southern part ofGaul with its capital atNarbonne, on the river Atax[2] (now theAude), for hiscognomenAtacinus indicates his birthplace. Varro Atacinus was also in theneoteric circle, which included other notable poets such asCatullus andMarcus Furius Bibaculus.
Only fragments of his works survive. His first known works areBellum sequanicum,[3] a poem onJulius Caesar's campaign againstAriovistus, and some satires; these should not be confused with theMenippean Satires of the other Varro, of which some 600 fragments survive. He also wrote a geographical poem,Chorographia;[2]Ephemeris, a hexameter poem on weather-signs after Aratus, from which Virgil has borrowed;[2] and (late in life) elegies to his lover Leucadia.[3]
His translation of the Alexandrian poetApollonius Rhodius'Argonautica intoLatin has some fine surviving lines;[3] and was singled out for praise byOvid: "Of Varro too what age will not be told/And Jason'sArgo and the fleece of gold?".[4]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".[5]
Of Varro's fragments, theepigram on "The Tombs of the Great" is well-known; whether or not it is truly Varro's is debatable:
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?
Cicero as well asCaesar have been suggested as possible patrons of Varro's writings.[6]
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