Lucius Varius Rufus | |
|---|---|
 Horace, Virgil and Varius at the house of Maecenas l.t.r.Virgil,Horace, Rufus (in the background) and Gaius Maecenas. Painting byCharles Jalabert (ca. 1846) | |
| Born | c. 74 BC |
| Died | 14 BC (aged about 60) |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Language | Latin |
| Nationality | Roman |
| Period | Augustan poetry |
| Notable works | Thyestes,De Morte |
Lucius Varius Rufus (/ˈvɛəriəs,ˈvær-/;c. 74 – 14 BC) was a Roman poet of the earlyAugustan age.
He was a friend ofVirgil, after whose death he andPlotius Tucca prepared theAeneid for publication, and ofHorace, for whom he and Virgil obtained an introduction toMaecenas.[1] Horace spoke of him as a master of epic and the only poet capable of celebrating the achievements ofVipsanius 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 orHelvius Cinna.
Macrobius (Saturnalia, vi. I, 39; 2, 19) states that Varius composed an epic poemDe 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 onEpistles, i.16, 2 729, these three lines were taken bodily from apanegyric of Varius onAugustus.
Varius's most famous literary production was the tragedyThyestes, whichQuintilian (Inst. Orat. x.1, 98) declared fit to rank with any of the Greek tragedies. Adidascalia 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 thevictory at Actium, and that Varius received a present of a millionsesterces from the Roman ruler.
Fragments of Varius's works are located inE. Bahrens,Frag. Poetarum Romanorum (1886); monographs byA. Weichert (1836) andR. Unger (1870, 1878, 1898);Martin Schanz,Geschichte der römischen Litteratur (1899), ii.1;Teuffel,Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans., 1900), 223.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rufus, Lucius Varius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 821.
Media related toLucius Varius Rufus at Wikimedia Commons
