Alfenus Varus
Alfenus Varus was an ancient Roman jurist and writer who lived around the 1st century BC.[1]
Life
Alfenus Varus (whose
A story about him is preserved by the
It is believed that Alfenus Varus the jurist is the same as the "Varus" who is addressed in Virgil's Eclogue 9 with a plea for him to save Virgil's home town of Mantua from losing its land in the confiscations of 40 BC and promising to honour him with a poem if he succeeded. Another of Virgil's poems, Eclogue 6, is indeed addressed to Varus, but it is not known to what extent Varus was able to help Mantua.[5] It seems that Varus was the land commissioner appointed to distribute lands of northern Italy to veteran soldiers in 40 BC. A sentence of a speech by Cornelius Gallus survives criticising Varus for extending the confiscations almost up to the walls of Mantua despite having been ordered to leave a three-mile tract of land around the city.[5] Virgil mentions Varus's military achievements (Ec. 6.7) but politely passes the task of describing them to other poets.
Varus was suffect consul in 39 BC. It is thought that the Publius Alfenus Varus who was consul in 2 AD may have been the jurist's son.[2]
Works
There are 54 excerpts in the
The passage in Gellius: "Alfenus ... in libro Digestorum trigesimo et quarto, Conjectaneorum[9] autem secundo," ("Alfenus says in the Digest and in the Conlectanea") &c., has given rise to some discussion. It is clear that the passage in the Conlectanea is attributed to Alfenus, and it is also clear that only one passage is meant; or at most the same passage is referred to as being in two different works. But apparently only one work is meant, and therefore we must conclude that the Digesta, which consisted of forty books, contained a subdivision called the Conlectanea. Some critics have conjectured that the Conlectanea is the compilation of Aufidius Namusa, so that the passage cited by Gellius appeared in both the original work by Alfenus, and in the copious compilation of Namusa, which is made from Alfenus and other pupils of Servius.[10][11][12]
See also
- Alfena (gens)
References
- ^ Long, George (1867). "Varus, Alfenus". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 1228–1229.
- ^ a b Badian, E.; Honoré, T. (2000). "Alfenus Varus, Publius". Who's Who in the Classical World. Oxford.
- ^ Horace, Satires i. 3. 130
- ^ Both readings are present, the Latin tonsor and sutor
- ^ a b Wilkinson, L. P. (1966). "Virgil and the Evictions". Hermes, 94(H. 3), 320–324.
- Pandects5. tit. 1. s. 76
- ^ Aulus Gellius, vii. 5
- Paulus, Dig. 3. tit. 3. s. 21
- ^ Conlectaneorum is perhaps the better reading
- ^ Grotius, Vitae Jurisconsult.
- ^ Georg Friedrich Puchta, Kursus der Institutionen i. 428.
- ^ Zimmern, Geschichte des Röm. Privatrechts i. 295.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Varus, Alfenus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.