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Marcus Terentius Varro
-116–-27
Known in ancient Rome as one of the most learned writers of his age, he wrote across an astonishing range of subjects, from language and agriculture to history and religion. Even though much of his work survives only in fragments, his influence still runs through the study of Roman culture and Latin literature.
2 Audiobooks
Roman Farm Management: The Treatises of Cato and Varro
by Marcus Porcius Cato, Marcus Terentius Varro
De M. Terenti Varronis Libris Grammaticis
by Marcus Terentius Varro
About the author
Born in 116 BCE at Reate in central Italy, Marcus Terentius Varro became a Roman scholar, writer, and public figure whose learning earned him the reputation of Rome’s great polymath. He was active in politics during the late Roman Republic and lived through its civil wars, reaching old age before his death in 27 BCE.
Varro wrote on an unusually wide range of topics, including the Latin language, farming, antiquities, religion, and literature. Among the works best known today are De lingua Latina and Rerum rusticarum, while many of his other books survive only in fragments or through later authors who quoted them.
His legacy is larger than the number of complete books left behind. Because he tried to gather and explain Roman knowledge across so many fields, Varro remains an important source for historians, classicists, and anyone curious about how Romans understood their world.