V

valetudo - (Latin) health, state of being healthy.

vallus - (Latin) reaping machine invented in Gaul, the area now known as Germany.

Varro - (116 - 27 BCE) Roman scholar; Varro's intellect led him to study with great teachers in both Athens and Rome; in the civil wars, he sided with Pompey, but was granted a pardon from Caesar; however, after Caesar's assassination, he was politically threatened by Mark Antony so he left Rome; he wrote nearly 500 works and exhibited extensive knowledge.

Varus - Publis Quinctilius Varus; a soldier and a politician; he held the office of consul in 13 BCE; he famously fought Arminius in the Teutoburg Forest in Germania and lost the battle in 9 CE; when Varus realized that the battle would be lost, he committed suicide.

vates - (Latin) a priest; a religious authority figure.

vector - (Latin) a carrier, one who bears; can also be a passenger or rider.

velarium - (Latin) an awning found in a theater.

Velleius Paterculus - (ca. 20 BCE - 31 CE) Roman historian; he held various military and political offices before he focused on writing; his subject matter ranged over the entirety of Greek mythology and history through the time of his writing; however he condensed all of the material into two volumes.

velum - (Latin) sail for a boat usually made from linen but also from cotton; generally large pieces of cloth were sewn together leaving a visible seam that can be seen in ancient artwork depicting ships.

venatio - (Latin) a hunt or wild beast show conducted during gladiatorial games in which bestiarii fight wild animals in an arena for sport; condemn criminals who committed capital crimes participated in the venatio without weapons to carry out their death sentence.

• The Roman Gladiator

vendo - (Latin) to sell.

veneratio - (Latin) respect, honor, veneration.

ventosus - (Latin) windy; this word relates to the Latin word ventus, meaning “wind”.

Venus - an ancient Latin divinity; goddess of love; mother of Aeneas; identified with Aphrodite.

• Bullfinch's Mythology: The Story of Venus & Adonis
• Encyclopedia Mythica: Venus

ver - (Latin) spring; the opposite season of autumnus, or autumn.

verbum - (Latin) word; in the singular, this word refers to individual words; in the plural, it refers to speech in general.

vereor - (Latin) to respect, to fear, to be afraid.

Vergil (Virgil) - Publius Vergilius Maro, Roman poet; lived from 70 to19 BCE; the son of a farmer, Vergil studied Greek and Roman literature and rhetoric; he was a contemporary of and friend to Octavian (Augustus), Gaius Cornelius Gallus, Horace, and Lucius Varius Rufus; author of the Aeneid, the Georgics, and the Eclogues; Virgil is one of the greatest Latin poets and his works had a lasting effect on Latin literature; Virgil’s fourth eclogue, published in 40 BCE, forecast the coming of a child who would usher in a “Golden Age” and has long fascinated readers; the Aeneid was a long epic poem, begun in 27 BCE, written in dactylic hexameter that followed the flight of Aeneas from the fall of Troy to Carthage and then onto Italy; in the epic, Virgil included references to Rome’s political situation, grafting together the Homeric Trojan tradition with the foundational story of Romulus and Remus as well as the history of Julius Caesar and Augustus; he was able to weave together these different stories of Rome with an implication of divine fate, making it seem as though Augustus’ rule was pre-destined; the poem can also be read against the grain to see anxieties about the new political situation of Rome; Virgil had not finished the Aeneid before his death and Augustus had the poem published posthumously.

• Netshot: Vergil's Aeneid
• Resources for Students, Teachers, and Readers of Vergil
• Mr. J's Vergil Page

vergo - (Latin) to bend, to draw to an end.

veritas - (Latin) honesty and truthfulness, a Roman virtue.

Verres - Caius Verres; born ca. 120 BCE; Roman statesman and administrator; served as governor of Sicily from 73 to 71 BCE; during his term as governor, Verres' corruption and extortion of free and stipended cities was so notable that he was placed on trial in 70 BCE; Cicero prosecuted Verres and delivered his Verrine Orations against which Verres' lawyer, Quintus Hortensius, was unable to defend his client; in the face of Cicero's colorful and politically motivated oration, Verres was convicted and fled from Rome to the city of Massilia, modern day Marseilles; Verres died in 43 BCE.

• Cicero's Verrine Orations

Vespasian - (9-79 CE) Roman emperor from 69-79 CE and founder of the Flavian dynasty; during the Year of the Four Emperors, Vespasian was the last to take on the emperor’s position; he was a skilled soldier and fought in Britain, Germany, and Judaea; he was appointed the commander in Judaea in 66 CE; he moved through the political ranks, becoming praetor, quaestor, and consul; as emperor, he was able to close the doors of the temple of Janus, a symbolic gesture that meant that Rome was no longer at war, and began a period of peace; he died in 79 CE.

• Vespasian

vespera - (Latin) evening; this word also came to mean the direction west, referring to the direction in which the sun set in the evening.

Vesta - Roman goddess of the hearth.

Vestal Virgins - six priestesses of Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth; they were chosen by lot and given the task of keeping the sacred fire in Vesta’s temple in Rome; the Vestal Virgins were members of the priestesshood for thirty years, after which they could leave and marry; if they did not remain celibate while serving the goddess, they were punished by being buried alive; in 273 BCE, the Vestal Virgin Sextilia was buried alive because she was suspected of having committed adultery.

vestitor - (Latin) tailor; a vestitor was charged with making clothing, or, in Latin, vestio.

viaduct - a bridge comprised of a number of short spans that support aqueducts to deliver water from a higher point outside the city to the city, i.e., Rome, and neighboring villages.

• Roman Living

viator - (Latin) traveler; this word is linked to the Latin word via, which means “road”; a viator is someone who travels along the road systems, including the Via Appia.

victima - (Latin) a sacrifice, such as an animal who is sacrificed.

victum - (Latin) to bind, conquer, win, excel.

vigintisexvirate - six groups of magistrates that governed in the late Roman republic; if a male Roman citizen wanted to be a quaestor or in the senate, it was generally considered a springboard to participate in the vigintisexvirate.

vilicus - (Latin) the manager of a Roman estate who supervised the farm work; usually a slave.

villa - (Latin) a country estate and the most preferable form of Roman housing; the villa was surrounded by lush colonnaded gardens and often had spectacular views of the countryside or sea; opulent art, the abundant foliage, and the open space of the villa were a result of Hellenistic influence of the 2nd century BCE; the villa urbana was a luxurious, expansive retreat from the city combining the amenities of the city with the beauty of the countryside.

• Roman Living

villica - (Latin) person in charge of the Roman household; usually a slave.

Vinalia Rustica - a Roman festival in honor of Venus and Jupiter, which was begun in 293 BCE to celebrate the victory of the Latins over Mezentius.

vinco - (Latin) To conquer; one of the verbs in the famous phrase attributed to Julius Caesar: “veni, vidi, vici”; the past tense of the verb vinco is vici.

vinctus - (Latin) food, living, nourishment.

vinea - (Latin) a roof under which people who were besieging a city could protect themselves from stones, arrows, and fire that were being thrown down upon them by the people who were being besieged.

viridis - (Latin) green.

virtus - (Latin) excellence; derived from the word vir (man), this word generally connotes “manly” greatness and bravery.

Vitellius - Aulus Vitellius, Roman emperor born in 15 CE; Vitellius was consul in 48 and proconsul of Africa; in 68 Galba made him the commander of the army in Germany; Vitellius became emperor by means of a military decision in Germany; however, much of the army in other places wanted Vespasian to be the emperor and in 69 Vitellius was killed by Vespasian’s soldiers; Vitellius only was emperor for three months.

Vitruvius - Marcus Vitruvius Pollio; a Roman military engineer and architect, born ca. 90 BCE; author of De Architectura Libri Decem, Ten Books on Architecture; in the ten books, Vitruvius discusses pavement techniques, building materials and dyes, town planning, temples, civic and private structures, amplification in ampitheaters, water supply, geometry, astronomy and civil and military machinery; his texts is the forerunner for text on individual engineering disciplines, e.g., material science, chemical engineering, civil engineering; Vitruvius' engineering handbook was used for centuries after his death in 20 BCE.

• Vitruvius the Engineer
• Roman Roads in Britain

Vitumnus - Roman god who gave life to children in the womb.

voice - the dominating ethos or tone of a literary work. The voice existing in a literary work is not always identifiable with the actual views of the author. [Contributor: Dr. Ismail S. Talib, National University of Singapore.]

votive relief - a sculpture type offered or dedicated in accordance with a vow; for an example, see Berlin 709A (image).

Vulcan - Roman deity worshiped at the festival Vulcanalia, where little fish and other animals, representing humans, were sometimes thrown into a fire in order to preserve the human lives they represented; god who made armor for Aeneas; identified with Hephaestus by Romans.

• Encyclopedia Mythica: Vulcan