VARIA (mod. Vicovaro)

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 906 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: VAN-VIR

VARIA (mod. Vicovaro) , an ancient

village

VILLAGE

of Latium, Italy, in the valley of the Anio, on its right bank, and on the Via. Valeria, 8 m. N.E. of Tibur (Tivoli). It was probably an independent town and not within the territory of Tibur, and

Horace

HORACE [QuINTus HORATIUS FLACCUS] (65-8 B.C.)

speaks of it as Sabine. Some remains of its walls, in rectangular blocks of travertine, still exist. One mile to the

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

is a picturesque gorge of the Anio, in which may be seen remains of the ancient aqueducts which supplied Rome, consisting partly of

rock

-cut channels and partly of ruined bridges: above it is the monastery of S Cosimato. Close to this point begins the valley of the Digentia (mod. Licenza) in which

Horace

HORACE [QuINTus HORATIUS FLACCUS] (65-8 B.C.)

's Sabine farm, was situated. On the hill at the

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

of the entrance is the

village

VILLAGE

of Cantalupo or Bardella, which has now assumed the name of Mandela, being identified thus
(correctly) with Horace's " rugosus frigore pagus " (Epist. i. r8, 104). An inscription of the Christian period, found at S Cosimato, speaks of the Massa Mandelana (Corp. Inscr. Lat. xiv. 3482). About 3 M. Up the valley, close to the road on the west (right) bank of the stream, are traces of a Roman dwelling-

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

opus

OPUS ('O7rois)

reticulatum with remains of two mosaic pavements; this is generally identified with the villa of Horace, and probably corresponds fairly closely with its site. That the Fons Bandusiae was near the Sabine farm is not a necessary inference from Od. iii. 13, in which alone it is mentioned; though the scholiasts state it; indeed a fountain of this name near Venusia is mentioned in a

bull

of 1103. On the other hand, that there was an abundant fountain near the Sabine farm is clear from Epist. i. 16. 12, and Sat. ii. 6. 2. It is generally identified with the Fonte dei Ratini, but the

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger.
springer
- SPRINGER (Fr. rein)
- SPRINGER, ANTON HEINRICH (1825–1891)
, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

of Vigna la Corte, a little farther north, is still more plentiful. Some have supposed that the site of the villa was higher up the hillside, above Rocca Giovane. For Horace speaks of having written Epist. i. to " post fanum putre Vacunae," and an inscription recording a temple of Victoria restored by Vespasian was copied at Rocca Giovane in the 16th century (Corp. Inscr. Lat. XiV. 3485). The identification of Victoria with the Sabine goddess Vacuna is not, however, absolutely certain: and there is here, as elsewhere in Roman literature, a play on the connexion of the name with vacare, " to take a holiday." In any case, the site of the Sabine farm can be approximately, if not exactly, fixed as in the neighbourhood of Rocca Giovane.
See T. Berti, La villa di Orazio (Rome, 1886) ; G. Boissier, Nouvelles promenades archeologiques (Paris, 1886). (T. As.)

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