born 116, probably Reate [Italy]
died 27 BC
Roman scholar and satirist.
Varro was active in public life, rising to the office of praetor. He sided with Pompey the Great but later reconciled with Julius Caesar . A prolific writer, he sought in his writings to inculcate moral virtues and to link Rome's future with its glorious past. He is best known for his Saturae Menippeae ("Menippean Satires"), medleys in mixed prose and verse that mock the absurdities of modern times. He wrote some 75 works in more than 600 books on a wide range of subjects
jurisprudence, astronomy, geography, education, and literary history
as well as in a variety of genres
satires, poems, orations, and letters.