YOLUSILS MiECIANUS.
XANTHICLES
title of Csesar in A D. 251, and of Augustus in
252, He was slain along with his father in
254. Vid. Gallus.
Volusius MiEcilNus, L., a jurist, was in the
consilium of Antoninus Pius, and was one of the
teachers of M. Aurelius. Maecianus wrote sev¬
eral works • and there are forty-four excerpts
from his writings in the Digest. A treatise,
De Asse et Ponderibus, is attributed to him, but
there is some doubt about the authorship. It
is edited by Bdcking, Bonn, 1831.
Vot.usus or Volesus. [1. One of the most
distinguished chiefs in the army of Turnus ;
had command of the infantry of the Volsci and
the Rutuli.]—2. The reputed ancestor of the
Valeria gens, who is said to have settled at,
Rome with Titus Tatius. Vid. Valeria Gens.
[Volux, the son of Bocchus, king of Maure¬
tania, sent by his father, at the head of a large
body of cavalry, to meet Sulla, and escort him
to the royal presence.]
Vomanus, (now Vomano), a small river in
Pbenum.
Vonones, the name of two kings of Parthia.
Vid. Arsaces, Nos. 18, 22.
Vopiscus, a Roman praenomen, signified a
twin child who was born safe, while the other
twin died before birth. Like many other an¬
cient Roman praenomens, it was afterward used
as a cognomen.
Vopiscus, Flavius, a native of Syracuse, and
one of the six Scriptores Historia Augusta, flour¬
ished about A D. 300. His name is prefixed to
the biographies of, 1. Aurelianus; 2. Tacitus;
3. Florianus ; 4. Probus ; 5. The four tyrants,
Firmus, Saturninus, Proculus, and Bonosus ;
6. Carus ; 7. Numerianus ; 8. Carinus ; at this
point he stops, declaring that Diocletian, and
those who follow, demand a more elevated style
of composition. For editions, vid. Capitolinus.
[Voranus, a person mentioned in the Satires
of Horace as a notorious thief, said to have been
a freedman of Q. Lutatius Catulus.]
Vosgesus. Vid. Vogesus.
Votienus Montanus. Vid. Montanus.
VulcanLe Insula. Vid. Molue Insula.
Vulcanus, the Roman god of fire, whose
name seems to be connected with fulg ere, ful-
gur, and fulmcn. His worship was of consid¬
erable political importance at Rome, for a tem¬
ple is said to have been erected to him close x>}
the comitium as early as the time of Romulus
and Ta'.ius, in which the two kings used to
meet and settle the affairs of the state, and
near which the popular assembly was held.
Tatius is reported to have established the wor¬
ship of Vulcan along with that of Vesta, and
Romulus to have dedicated to him a quadriga
after his victory over the Fidenates, and to
have set up a statue of himself near the tem-
V>le. According to others, the temple was built
by Romulus himself, who also planted near it
the sacred lotus-tree which still existed in the
days of Pliny. These circumstances, and what
is related of the lotus-tree, show that the tem¬
ple of Vulcan, like that of Vesta, was regarded
as a central point of the whole stale, and hence
it was perhaps not without a meaning that the
temple of Concord was subsequently built with¬
in the same district. The most ancient festi¬
val in honoi of Vulcan seems to have been the
Fornacalia or Furnalia, Vulcan being the go*'
of furnaces ; but his great festival was called
Vulcanalia, and was celebrated on the 23d o>
August. The Roman poets transfer all the sto
ries which are related of the Greek Hephoestus
to their own Vulcan, the two divinities having
in the course of time been completely identi
lied. Respecting the Greek divinity, vid He
FHJESTUS.
Vulci. Vid. Volci.
Vulgientes, an Alpine people in Gallia Nat.
bonensis, whose chief town was Apta Julia
(now Apt).
Vulsinii Vid. Volsinii.
Vui.so, Manlius. 1. L., consul B.C. 256 wJtli
M. Atilius Regulus. He invaded Africa along
with his colleague. For details, vid. Regulus,
No. 3. Vulso returned to Italy at the fall of
the year with half of the army, and obtained the-
honor of a triumph. In 250 Vulso was consul a
second time with T. Atilius Regulus Serranus,
and with his colleague commenced the siege of
Lilybaeum — 2. Cn , curule aedile 197, praeto
with Sicily as his province 195, and consul 189
He was sent into Asia in order to conclude the
peace which Scipio Asiaticus had made with
Antiochus, and to arrange the affairs of Asia
He attacked and conquered the Gallograeci oi
Galatians in Asia Minor without waiting for any
formal instructions from the senate He set
out on his return to Italy in 188, but in his
march through Thrace he suffered much from
the attacks of the Thracians, and lost a cor.
siderable part of the booty he had obtained ir
Asia. He reached Rome in 187 His triumph
was a brilliant one, but his campaign in Asii,
had a pernicious influence upon the morals of
his countrymen. He had allowed his army ev
ery kind of license, and his soldiers introduced
into the city the luxuries of the East.
[Vulteius Mena, an auctioneer in Rome, a
freedman ofthe family ofthe Vulteii or Volteii
who was leading a happy life till Marcius Phi
lippus took him under his protection and at
tempted to better his condition; from the ill ef
fects produced by this change or elevation, Hor
ace draws a lesson of instruction.]
Vultue, a mountain dividing Apulia and Lu
cania near Venusia, is a branch of the Apen¬
nines. It is celebrated by Horace as one of
the haunts of his youth. From it the southeas
wind was called Vultuenus by the Romans
[Vultuecius, T. Vid. Volturcius.]
Vultuenum (now Castel di Volturno), a town
in Campania, at the mouth ofthe River Vultur
nus, was originally a fortress erected by the Ro¬
mans in the second Punic war. At a later time
it was made a colony.
Vultuenus (now Volturno), the chief river
in Campania, rising in the Apennines in Sam¬
nium, and falling into the Tynhene Sea. Its
principal affluents are the Calor (now Galore),
Tamarus (now Tamaro), and Sabatus (now Sa-
bato).
X.
[Xantiiicles (BavdiKXyg), an Achaean, chosen
general by the Greek mercenaries of Cyrus ir,
the place of his countryman Socrates, when tho
latter had been treacherously seized by Tissa
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