Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1268

1266 VICTOR. insisted that some of the quaestors should be chosen from the plebeians. In B. c. 415 Fabius was one of the consular tribunes, and again in B. c. 407. (Liv. iv. 43, 49, 58 ; Diod. xiii. 24, xiv. 3.) 7. Q. Fabius Q. f. M. n. Vibulanus, third son of No. 4, was consul B. c. 423 with C. Sem- pronius Atratinus, consular tribune for the first time B. c. 416 (omitted through accident by Livy, iv. 47), and for the second time B.C. 414. (Liv. iv. 37, 49 ; Diod. xiii. 9, 38.) At the beginning of the following year he was interrex. (Liv. iv. 51.) 8. Q. Fabius M. f. Q. n. Vibulanus Ambus- Tus, son of No. 5, was consul b. c. 412 with C. Furius Pacilus. (Liv. iv. 52.) He was the last Fabius of the name of Vibulanus. Ambustus now became the name of the family. [Ambustus.] VIBULE'NUS AGRIPPA. [Agrippa.] L. VIBU'LLIUS RUFUS, a senator and an intimate friend of Pompey, is mentioned on one or two occasions by Cicero before the breaking out of the civil war. He was a man of resolution and energy, and was much trusted by Pompey, who made him Praefectus Fabrum in the civil war. When Caesar marched into Italy at the beginning of B. c. 49, Pompey sent VibuUius into Picenum to strengthen his cause in that quarter, but he was unable to effect any thing, as all the towns de- clared in favour of Caesar, and he accordingly threw himself into Corfinium, which was held by Domitius Ahenobarbus. VibuUius was one of the senators who fell into Caesar's hands on the sur- render of Corfinium, and was along with the others dismissed uninjured by the conquerors. A few days afterwards Pompey sent him into Spain to' assist Afranius and Petreius in carrying on war against Caesar. He was again taken prisoner by Caesar on the conquest of Pompey's troops in that country, and was again pardoned. When Caesar landed in Greece in b. c. 48, he despatched him to Pompey with offers of peace, and VibuUius made the greatest haste to reach Pompey, not from any desire to favour the views of Caesar, but in order to give Pompey the earliest intelligence possible of the arrival of his enemy in Greece. (Cic. ad. Q. Fr. iii. 1. § 5, ofl? Att.sn. 24, viii; 1, 2, 11, 15 ; Caes. B.CA. 15,23, 34, 38, iii. 10, 11.) VICA POTA, that is, " the Victor and Con- queror" {quae vincit et potitur), was a Roman divinity of Victory, whose temple was situated at the foot of the hill Velia. (Liv. ii. 7 ; Cic. de Leg. ii. 11.) [L. S.] VICTOR, an abandoned man, whom it was sup- posed that M. Antonius would recall from exile in B. c. 44. (Cic. ad Fam. xiv. 14.) VICTOR, SEX. AURE'LIUS, who is com- monly ranked among the Latin historians, flourished in the middle of the fourth century under the emperor Constantius and his successors. Accord- ing to his own account (de Caes. 20), that is, sup- posing the work from which we quote to be a genuine document, he was bom in the country of very humble parents, but rose to distinction by his zeal in the cultivation of literature. Having at- tracted the attention of Julian when at Sirmium, he was appointed by that prince governor of one divioion of Pannonia. At a subsequent period, he was elevated by Theodosius to the high office of city praefect, and there seems no good reason to doubt that he is the Sex. Aurelius Victor, who was consul along with Valentinian in a. d. 373. With regard to the period of his death, nothing is VICTOR, known, nor can we collect any further information concerning his life, except that it has been inferred from certain observations in the memoir of Hadrian [de Caes. 14) that he was a pagan. (Vict, de Caes. 16, 20, 28, 41 ; Amm. Marc. xxi. 10, and the notes.) The following works, which present in a very compressed form a continuous record of Roman affairs, from the fabulous ages down to the death of the emperor Theodosius, have all been ascribed to this writer, but the evidence upon which the determination of authorship depends, is very slender, and in aU probability the third alone belongs to the Sex. Aurelius Victor whom we have noticed above. I. Origo Gentis Romanae, in twenty-three chap- ters, containing the annals of the Roman race, from Janus and Saturnus down to the era of Romulus. We here find many curious tales and traditions derived apparently from ancient sources, and it may be regarded as a valuable contribution towards the legendary history of the city. Joannes Me- tellus, Ausonius Popma, and others, have assigned this tract to Asconius Pedianus, influenced chiefly by some expressions in which they conceived that the author spoke of Livy and Virgil as his contem- poraries, but the passages in which these occur (xxiii. § 7, iii. § 7, vii. § 4), do not fairly admit of any such interpretation, while the general tone of the phraseology certainly bears no resemblance to that of the Augustan age. On the other hand, it seems certain, from the total dissimilarity in style, that it cannot have proceeded from the same hand with the two pieces which we shall next describe ; and for this and other reasons Arntzenius has pro- nounced it to be the production of some of the later grammarians who were desirous of prefixing a suit- able introduction to the series. The Origo was first printed at Antwerp, 8vo. 1579, with the com- mentary of Andreas Schottus in a volume, contain- ing also the three following : — II. De Viris illustribus Urhis Romae, in eighty- six chapters, commencing with the birth of the twin sons of Mars and Ilia, and concluding with the death of Cleopatra. The whole, or nearly the whole of the MSS. attach the name of Plinius to this piece : by some scholars it has been given to Cornelius Nepos, by others to Aemilius Probus. The numerous mistakes with which it abounds forbid us to fix upon any one belonging to the brighter epochs of Roman literature. It was first printed at Naples, by Sixtus Riesinger, about 1470, and again by Jac. de Ripoli, at Florence, in 1478. III. De Caesaribus, in forty-two chapters, ex- hibiting short biographies of the emperors, from Augustus to Constantius. This, as we have stated, may reasonably be regarded as the work of Sex. Aurelius Victor, who was praefect of the city under Theodosius. It was first prhited at Antwerp, 8vo. 1579, with the commentary of Schottus. IV. De Vita et Moribus Imperatorum Romanorum Excerpta exlibris Sex. Aurelii Victoris, or as it is frequently styled Sex. Aurelii Victoris Epitome de Caesaribus^m forty-eight chapters, commencing with Augustus and concluding with Theodosius. These lives agree for the most part almost word for word with the preceding, but variations may here and there be detected, some points being lightly passed over, or altogether omitted, in the one collection, which are dwelt upon at considerable length in the other. This will be seen clearly by comparing the