Varro
Varro (Marcus Terentius Varro, 116–27 BC),was born at Reate, in the Sabine territory north-east of Rome. After studying at Rome with Lucius Aelius, the first true scholar of Latin literature and antiquities, and at Athens with the Academic philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon, Varro began a public career that brought him to the praetorship and, ultimately, to service on the side of Pompey in the Civil War. Having received Caesar's clemency after the battle of Pharsalus (48 BC), he was asked to plan and organize the first public library (see libraries) at Rome. But this project went unrealized, and after Caesar's assassination he was proscribed by Mark Antony: his library at Casinum was plundered, but he escaped to live the rest of his life in scholarly retirement. He had completed 490 books by the start of his 78th year (Aulus Gellius 3. 10. 17):...
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