Publius Terentius, a Latin poet, was born in the province of Narbonne in the year 82 before the Christian era. According to Jerom, he derived his cognomen from a village named Atace; but as we discover no other trace of such a village, the account of Porphyrian, that he derived it from the river Atace, appears more probable. His name indicates a Roman origin. Jerom likewise informs us that, at the age of thirty-five, he applied himself with great ardour to the study of Greek literature. Horace, Sat. i. 10. 46, alludes to him as an unsuccessful writer of satires:

Hoc erat, experto frustra Varrone Atacino Atque quibusdam aliis, melius quod scribere possim, Inventore minor.

Wüllner concludes, that of a living poet Horace would not have spoken in such terms. Adopting Bentley's chro-

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Footnotes: 1. Fabrii Bibliotheca Latina, tom. i. p.124-132 edit. Ernesti, where very many of his lost works are enumerated. 2. Cassuboni de Satyrica Graecorum Poesi et Romanorum Satira libri duo, p. 258. Paris. 1603, 8vo. 3. Poetical fragments were very laboriously collected by R. Stephanus, Fragmenta Poetarum Veterum Latinorum, quorum Opera non extant, p. 303-364. Excudebat H. Stephanus, 1564, 8vo. These fragments were collected by the father, and digested by the son. nology, according to which, the satire that contains this passage was written in the year 37 n.c., he infers that Varro did not exceed the age of forty-five. The conjecture is not devoid of plausibility, but cannot be admitted as certain.

Varro Atacinus is extolled by several of the ancient writers. Velleius Paterculus classes him with Lucretius and Catullus. Quintilian mentions him as a poet who had acquired a name. He is likewise mentioned by Ovid, Propertius, and Statius. Virgil adopted several of his verses with little or no alteration. It is however to be regretted that, with the exception of a few fragments, all his works have perished. These fragments are to be found in various collections, and, among the rest, in Wernsdorf's "Poetae Latini Minores," Altenburgi, 1788-99, 6 tom. 8vo. They are incorporated in Willner's learned dissertation on the life and writings of the author. One of his works was a version of the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius; but from the fragments which remain, it does not appear to have been a close version. Another of his works, "Bellum Sequanicum," was an epic or historical poem in celebration of Caesar's recent victories. A third was a metrical Chorographia; of which Ruhkenius supposes his Europa, quoted by Festus, to have formed a part. The rest of his works, so far as they are enumerated, consisted of elegies, satires, and epigrams.