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Article

vicomagistri  

Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Law
  2. Roman Myth and Religion
Vicomagistri, officials of a *vicus, which was a miniature body politic, and was entitled to possess property, administer common funds, and appoint officials. These magistri or vicomagistri, who were allowed to wear the *toga praetexta, had a role in representing their community in the res publica. In the late republic the vici offered a chance of finding a sense of community in the chaotic life of the city, and so they and their leaders, like the leaders of the collegia (see collegium), played an important part in the organization of mass politics.Augustus reorganized the vici at the same time as the regiones (see regio). Their centre was a compitum or cross-roads, at which a cult of the *Lares or guardian deities of that locality was maintained, involving in particular a festival of the compitum called ludi compitalicii (see ludi), which had often been a focus for disturbances in the late republic. The cult now came to include Augustan Lares and the *genius of the emperor.

Article

victimarius  

Herbert Jennings Rose and John North

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion

Sacrificial slaughterer; see sacrifice, roman. The magistrate in charge of a sacrifice did not perform the act of killing himself; he performed symbolic acts and pronounced the prayers, but a victimarius took over the killing and butchering from him. In imperial times, we know that they formed a college of their own.

Article

Victoria  

Herbert Jennings Rose and John Scheid

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
The Roman equivalent of *Nike. There is no evidence that she is anything more; mentions of an early cult of Victory must refer to Vacuna or Vica Pota (Dion. Hal.Ant. Rom. 1. 15. 1; Asc.Pis., p. 13. 15 Clark). She is associated in cult with *Jupiter (Victor), as in the Acta Fratrum Arvalium (99. a. 27 Scheid), oftener with Mars (e.g. 68. col.II. 28 Scheid), also with other deities. She was worshipped by the army, as was natural (A. von Domaszewski, Die Religion des römischen. Heeres (1895), 4 ff.), and hence is given surnames associating her with particular legions and more commonly still with emperors (list in Roscher, 6. 299; cf. J. Gagé, Rev. Arch.1930, 1 ff., Rev. Hist.1933, 1 ff.). Her temple on the clivus Victoriae leading up to the *Palatine dates from 294 bce (see, LTUR, V. 149–50 (P.

Article

Victorinus, Marcus Piavvonius  

John Frederick Drinkwater

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Christianity
  2. Late Antiquity
  3. Roman History and Historiography
Praetorian prefect (see praefectus praetorio) of the Gallic usurper, *Postumus, whom he succeeded in 269 AD after the ephemeral reign of Marius. Though he abandoned *Spain and lost eastern Narbonensis (see gaul (transalpine)) to *Claudius II Gothicus, he successfully resisted other efforts to undermine his regime and suppressed a major revolt at Autun (*Augustodunum).

Article

Victorinus, Marius, c. 285–c. 365 CE  

Stephen A. Cooper

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Christianity

Marius Victorinus is one of the few direct links between the Platonist schools of late antiquity and Latin theology. A professor of rhetoric in mid-4th century Rome, Victorinus is perhaps the only Latin author whose writings, composed before and after his conversion to Christianity, survive. His school works of grammar and rhetoric were used for over a millennium, and he anticipated Boethius in integrating logic and dialectic into the rhetorical curriculum. He also translated the Neoplatonic works that deeply impacted Augustine. After conversion, Victorinus composed theological works of various genres: treatises and hymns in defense of the Nicene Creed and commentaries on the Pauline epistles, the first in Latin. The treatises reveal his chief contribution to the history of Christian thought: a philosophical interpretation of the trinity that drew deeply on late antique Platonist language and conceptuality to formulate a pro-Nicene theology. His commentaries on Paul employ the grammarian’s literal treatment of the text to identify the situational context of the epistles and the apostle’s rhetorical strategy. Victorinus was a pioneer of the synthesis of Christianity and Platonism in the Latin church, which reached its heights in late antiquity with Augustine and Boethius and flowered variously in the medieval Latin church.

Article

vicus  

Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Material Culture

Vicus, ‘village’, one of a series of Roman terms for settlements of lower status than towns (such as *pagus). In administrative law the term was used for places with recognizably independent institutions in the territory of a city or on a private estate. Like pagi, these communities and their magistrates were relatively important in the less urbanized parts of the Italian countryside in the late republic, and are quite well represented in the epigraphic record. The term was also used of local subdivisions of the city, cf. Greek amphoda, named after a street, local cult, or other landmark, and are found notably at Rome (though they are also attested in other cities). *Pliny(1) gives the number of vici at Rome as 265 (HN 3. 5. 66); they too had an independent institutional existence, and appointed officials known as *vicomagistri.

Article

Vienna  

John Frederick Drinkwater

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
Vienna (mod. Vienne), a town in Gallia Narbonensis (see gaul (transalpine)), *civitas-capital of the *Allobroges. Perhaps created a colonia Latina by *Caesar, it was made a full colony by *Gaius(1) (as Colonia Iulia Augusta Florentia Vienna; see colonization, roman). It subsequently flourished, even though, in 69, it narrowly escaped destruction from A.

Article

vigiles  

Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Law
Ancient cities made various arrangements for maintaining security at night; bands of night-wardens (nuktophulakes) were more often aimed at the prevention of sedition than the protection of property from theft, but fire, accidental or deliberate, was always the main preoccupation. Order in republican Rome was the responsibility of junior magistrates called tresviri capitales (see vigintisexviri) who were replaced at night by quinqueviri cis Tiberim (a team of five men with duties ‘this side of *Tiber’) because senators could not be expected to be on duty at unseasonable hours.The political importance of fire-protection at Rome had been recognized by M. *Licinius Crassus(1) and was exploited by M. *Egnatius Rufus. Augustus gave the *aediles a force of 600 slaves to deal with the problem after a fire in 23 bce (Cass. Dio 54. 2); in 7 the city was reorganized into regiones and vici (see regio; vicus) and the officials of the latter made responsible for fire-prevention (Cass.

Article

vigintisexviri, vigintiviri  

Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Law
Six boards of minor magistrates at Rome were known by the collective designation vigintisexviri (the Twenty-Six) in the late republic: membership was a precursor to the quaestorship and the beginning of a senatorial career (Cic. Leg. TulliusDe leg. 3. 3. 6; the collective title is attested in inscriptions); see cursus honorum. The label may be late, even post-Sullan (i.e. after about 80 bce, see cornelius sulla felix, l.), but the administrative theory involved is probably of the 3rd cent., the date attributed to the creation of all the boards by Sex. *Pomponius (Digest 1. 2. 2. 31). The most important board, the judicial *decemviri stlitibus iudicandis, may have much earlier origins (Livy, 3. 55 suggests the existence of a ten-man panel of iudices in the 5th cent.), and the practice of sending praefecti (see praefectus) to *Campania, if not the developed institution of the four praefecti Capuam Cumas, may have begun in 318 bce (Livy, 9.

Article

villa  

Michael L. Thomas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Economy
  2. Roman Material Culture
Villa was the Latin word for a rural dwelling associated with an estate, and villas ranged in character from functional farmhouses to luxurious country seats for the élite (Varro, Rust. 1.11.1–1.12.4; 3.2.1–18).1 Most of the literary evidence for villas relates to Italy and primarily describes farms run for the benefit of urban-based proprietors (e.g., Vitr. De arch. 6.6.1), though the most opulent seaside villas of the Roman aristocracy were sometimes built solely for pleasure. Aristocratic enjoyment of rural retreats and pride in creating architectural splendours there are well attested (e.g., Plin. Ep. 2.17), but the classic Italian villa, comprising not only a luxurious dwelling for the use of the owner on visits to the estate (pars urbana) but also working farm buildings (pars rustica) and storage buildings and barns (pars fructuaria), is perfectly illustrated by the excavations at Settefinestre, which have uncovered an aristocratic domus (mansion), baths, slave quarters, wine and olive presses, a piggery, a substantial granary, and formal gardens (cf.

Article

Villanovan culture  

D. W. R. Ridgway

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman Material Culture
Villanovan culture takes its name from the Bolognese estate owned by G. Gozzadini, who in 1853 excavated nearby the first of many iron age cemeteries in the modern provinces of Bologna, Faenza, Forli, and Ravenna. The term is applied not only to these cemeteries of the 9th cent. bce onwards, but also to their contemporaries south of the Apennines, around the previously uninhabited iron age centres destined for continuing greatness as *Etruscan cities. Further south still, the Villanovan phenomenon is represented at *Capua, *Pontecagnano, and Sala Consilina in Campania; and there is also an isolated Villanovan cemetery at Fermo in the Marche.Both north and south of the *Apennines, the Villanovan culture is characterized in its original form by cremation burials in biconical ossuaries with incised decoration. There were no such people as ‘the Villanovans’, in spite of the fact that this unjustified ethnic extrapolation from the modern toponym of an archaeological site has often been used in juxtaposition with the historical Etruscans to imply the substitution, or even invasion, of the former by the latter. In fact, the indigenous possessors of the Villanovan culture of the 9th and 8th cents. in Etruria may confidently be defined as *Etruscans at the iron age stage of their ethnic formation and already in receipt of the influences that reached the Tyrrhenian seaboard from the outside world.

Article

Villius (Annalis), Lucius  

T. Corey Brennan

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography

Lucius Villius(Annalis), tribune of the plebs in 180 bce (see tribuni plebis), passed the first law to stipulate minimum ages for tenure of each (curule) magistracy (42 for the consulship); see magistracy, roman. It was possibly this law which required an interval of two years between curule magistracies. Villius' measure probably aimed to regulate the number of men campaigning for higher office in any one year: Livy implies that his law was built upon the lex Baebia of 181 (see baebius tamphilus, m.), which contained an anti-electoral bribery provision (see ambitus) as well as a (short-lived) requirement that four and six praetors respectively be elected in alternate years (thereby reducing competition for the consulship). The provisions of the lex Villia annalis remained largely unchanged until the Principate, when the minimum ages were lowered.

Article

Viminacium  

John Wilkes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
Viminacium (mod. Kostolac), on the Danube east of Belgrade, was a Celtic settlement (see celts) which became a legionary fortress and city in *Moesia Superior. Its permanent garrison (probably from ce 56/7 ) was Legio VII Claudia (see legion); for a period under *Trajan it was also occupied by Legio IV Flavia.

Article

Viminal  

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Roman Material Culture

One of the *Seven hills of Rome. It lay between the *Esquiline and the *Quirinal.

Article

Vinalia  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion

Roman wine festivals on 23 April (Priora), 19 August (Rustica). The Priora probably offered *Jupiter new wine at the time of sale (Plin.HN 18. 287, fasti Praenestini); Ov.Fast. 4. 863 ff. with Bömer's notes, Plut., Quaest. Rom. 45 with Rose's notes. Varro, Rust. 1. 1. 6 substitutes *Venus (cf. Ling. 6. 16), chronologically difficult since her first temple (Venus Obsequens) was dedicated 295 bce (Livy, 10. 31. 9), understandable from its 19 August dedication. The Rustica propitiated the weather; PlinyHN 18. 284: tria namque tempora fructibus metuebant (‘they feared three times of year for the crops’).

Article

Vindelici  

John Wilkes and John Frederick Drinkwater

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
Vindelici, a people of mainly Celtic origin (see celts) but including Illyrian (see illyrii) and other elements, inhabited the Swabian–Bavarian plateau and reached from the southern slopes of the *Alps up to the Danube. Conquered by *Tiberius and Nero *Claudius Drusus in 15 bce, they later occupied the eastern part of the province of *Raetia (Vindelicia).

Article

Vindobona  

John Wilkes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
On the Danube, lay in the territory of the *Boii, a Celtic people (see celts) included within *Pannonia (Superior). In the 1st cent. ce it was garrisoned by the Ala Flavia Domitiana Augusta Britannica milliaria civium Romanorum (under *Domitian: CIL 3. 15197; see alae). At the beginning of *Trajan's reign, probably on the occasion of his visit in 98, Legio XIII Gemina (see legion) was moved there from *Poetovio and began the construction of a legionary fortress before it departed for the Dacian Wars (CIL 3. 14359 no. 32). In its place came Legio XIV Gemina Martia Victrix, which remained until the end of Trajan's reign when it moved to *Carnuntum, while Legio X Gemina was moved from *Aquincum to become the permanent garrison at Vindobona.At some date in the 3rd cent. a civil settlement became a *municipium (CIL 3.

Article

Vindolanda tablets  

J. David Thomas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman Material Culture
During the 1970s and 1980s several hundred wooden writing-tablets were discovered at the Roman fort of Vindolanda near Hadrian's Wall (see wall of hadrian); a further 400 turned up in 1993, and a few more were found post 2000. Of the earlier finds, some were of the well-known stylus type, but the vast majority were made of thin, wooden leaves, written in ink with a pen. Only a handful of tablets of this type was previously known, and the concentration of such numbers at one site is unique. They date between c.ce 90 and 120, when the fort was occupied first by Cohors I Tungrorum and later by Cohors IX Batavorum (see cohors).The Vindolanda material includes the largest group of Latin letters ever discovered (see letters, latin). There are also literary fragments, shorthand texts, military reports, applications for leave, and accounts. The letters often bear on the official and private concerns of the officers, their families, and slaves, while the military documents tell us much about the way the Romans organized a newly acquired frontier area. In addition the tablets provide valuable information on *palaeography and the *Latin language.

Article

Vindonissa  

Courtenay Edward Stevens and John Frederick Drinkwater

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
Vindonissa (mod. Windisch, Switzerland), a prehistoric site on the lower Aar, occupied c.17 ce by Legio XIII, which was replaced in 45–6 by Legio XXI Rapax (see legion), whose violent behaviour to the *Helvetii induced *Vespasian to send it elsewhere. Legio XI Claudia Pia Fidelis then held Vindonissa to c.

Article

Vinicius, Lucius  

M. Winterbottom

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature

Lucius Vinicius (*suffect consul 5 bce), a relation of P. *Vinicius and M. *Vinicius (see next two entries). *Augustus commented on his extempore pleading (Seneca. Controv. 2. 5. 20) and his association with *Iulia(2) at *Baiae (Suetonius. Aug. 64).