claimed Cæsar, assisted. As soon as the news of Vitellius' defeat reached Alexandria, Vespasian sent vessels laden with corn to Rome, and forwarded an edict repealing the laws of Nero and his three successors. Having arrived at Rome he began to restore order in the city, and to pursue such measures as would tend to the good of the people. He introduced a better discipline into the army, purified the senate, and elevated to a higher rank various persons deserving of distinction. In a.d. 71 he was consul a third time. At the conclusion of the Jewish war Vespasian had a joint triumph with Titus, and began to build a temple to peace. In a.d. 72 Commagene was annexed as a province to the Roman empire, and Antiochus its king went to Rome to reside. Petilius Cerealis was sent to Britain, where he subdued the Brigantes. Vespasian has been censured for the execution of Priscus the stoic philosopher; but there may have been some reason for his severity. In a.d. 74 a census of the citizens was taken by Vespasian and Titus. In a.d. 78 Agricola went to Britain to reduce North Wales and Anglesea, whose inhabitants had revolted. In a.d. 79 the emperor ordered Sabinus and his noble wife to be put to death, because the former had assumed the title of Cæsar in Gaul, nine years before. Vespasian died on the 24th June, a.d. 79, after a reign of nearly ten years. He was on the whole a wise and good emperor, frugal, temperate, affable, humble. Yet he was avaricious and mean in money matters; and his occasional acts of cruelty have left a stain upon his memory. But his faults were counterbalanced by his virtues as an emperor.—S. D.
VESPUCCI, Amerigo. See Amerigo.
VETTORI, Pietro (Latin, Victorius), an accomplished man of letters; born at Florence of a noble family, 11th July, 1499; died 18th December, 1585. In 1538 he was appointed public professor of Greek and Latin eloquence in Florence; and having enjoyed many honours, left behind him a worthy reputation. His literary labours bore fruit in various editions of classic works comments on elder writers; thirty-eight books of "Variæ Lectiones," elucidatory of ancient tests; original letters, poems, and orations; and a "Trattato degli Ulivi."—C. G. R.
VIANI, N., a learned priest of the order of the Servites, was born in the town of Saluzzo in Piedmont about the year 1690. He passed his novitiate at Bologna, and afterwards was professor of philosophy, of which his knowledge was most profound, successively at Pistoya, Monte-Pulciano, and Rome. When Charles-Ambrose, patriarch of Alexandria, was sent by Clement XI. as apostolical legate to China, Viani accompanied him in the capacity of confessor. He returned to Rome in 1723, and in 1735 was nominated provincial of his order in Piedmont. Other offices and honours also awaited him; but he latterly left them all and retired to the capital for the purpose of leading a studious and tranquil life. But he died suddenly towards the close of the year 1738. Viani translated into Italian the curious book, entitled Traité l'ame et de la connoisance des bêtes, and which was published at Amsterdam in 1681.—R. M., A.
* VIARDOT, Louis, a French litterateur, was born at Dijon on the 31st July, 1800. He studied for the bar, but subsequently abandoned the law for literature. For some years he was a contributor to the Globe, the National, and the Siècle. In 1839 he became sole director of the Italian theatre; and two years afterwards established, in conjunction with Pierre Leroux and George Sand, the Revue Indépendante. On his marriage with Mademoiselle Pauline Garcia, he retired from the direction of the theatre, and accompanied his wife in her musical tours through most of the countries of Europe. Viardot, who is a member of the Spanish Academy, travelled early in life in Spain—a circumstance which, as might be naturally supposed, gave a marked direction to his studies, as will be seen from the following list of his principal writings—"Essai sur l'histoire des Arabes et des Maures d'Espagne," 1832; "Scènes de mœurs Arabes," &c., 1833; "Ètudes sur l'histoire des institutions et de la litterature en Espagne," 1835; "Les Musées d'ltalie." 1842; "Les Musées d'Espagne, d'Angleterre, et de Belgique," 1843; "Les Musées d'Allemagne et de Russie," 1844; "Histoire des Arabes et des Maures d'Espagne," 1851. Viardot is author also of some excellent translations, particularly of the Don Quixote and Exemplary Tales of Cervantes.—R. M., A.
VIAS, Balthasar, one of the Latin poets of France, was born at Marseilles on the 14th September, 1587, during the usurpation and tyranny of Charles Casaux and Louis d'Aix. His father, being exiled soon after by these oppressors, went to Italy whither his wife followed him with her infant son. They returned to their home, however, as soon as the tyranny at Marseilles was put down by the arms of Henry IV. Balthasar received his education in his native town, and applied himself with extraordinary assiduity to the Latin poets, as well modern as ancient. His poetical interfered greatly with his legal studies; but he managed nevertheless to take his degrees in that faculty. From his "Harangue faite an Roi et á la Reine," printed at Paris in 1615, we learn that he was docteur ès droits et avocat en la cour de Provence, assesseur et deputé de la ville de Marseille aux états généreaux. We know also that he sojourned some time at Paris, and that while there he lived on intimate terms with many of the most celebrated men of the time. One of his particular friends was the famous M. de Peiresc, who made him one of the executors of his will, and left him some very valuable medals as a remembrancer of a close friendship, which is also appropriately commemorated in Vias' second idyl. Another of his distinguished friends was Gassendi, of whom we find a high eulogy in idyl the seventh. We shall mention only one other of the memorials of these old vanished friendships preserved in the works of Vias, viz., an elegy addressed to Louisa, wife of Barclay, author of the Argenis, which is followed by a reply written by her husband in Louisa's name. Vias was latterly appointed conseiller du roi, and intrusted with the consulate of Algiers, an office, however, whose duties were discharged by deputy. He died at Marseilles in 1667, having attained the age of four score years. A collected edition of his poems was published in 1660, entitled "Balthasaris de Vias, Massiliensis, regi christianissimo à consiliis, charitum libri tres. Ad Henricum Loudovicum Habertum Mommorium, regiá consiliis el libellorum supplicium magistrum. Parisiis è typographiâ Edmundi Martini."—R. M., A.
VICARS, John, a noted puritan controversialist descended from a Cumberland family, was born in London in 1582, and was educated at Christ's hospital and at Queen's college, Oxford. He afterwards became usher of Christ's hospital, and continued so during the remainder of his life. He was a zealous advocate for presbyterianism, and published "Strange Stories of God's wrath against the Cavaliers." He was the author of a work against John Goodwin called "Coleman Street Conclave visited," and of a parliamentary chronicle published at different times under the following titles—"God in the Mount, or England's remembrancer," being the first and second part of a parliamentary chronicle, 1644; "God's Arke overtopping the World's Waves," &c., being a third part of the same, 1646; "The Burning Bush not consumed," or the fourth and last part, 1646—all of which were subsequently published together under the title, "Magnalia Dei Anglicana," or England's Parliamentary Chronicle, 1646. Vicars also translated Dr. Herring's Latin poem on the Gunpowder Plot, which he published under the title of Mischief's Mysterie. He died in 1652.—F.
VICARY, Thomas, an English surgeon, author of the first book on anatomy printed in the English language. Nothing is known of his life beyond the facts that he was, in succession, sergeant-surgeon to King Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and principal surgeon to St. Bartholomew's hospital. His book is entitled "A Treasure for Englishmen, contayning the Anatomy of Man's Bodie," 1548. Another edition, under the title of "A Profitable Treatise of the Anatomy of Man's Body," compiled by T. Vicary, and published by the surgeons of St. Bartholomew's hospital, 12mo, appeared in 1577.—F. C. W.
VICENTE, Gil, the founder of the Portuguese theatre, was born most probably at Lisbon in 1470, or rather later, of a noble family, and was intended for the law, but entered the service of the court some time before 1502. His first work was a monologue, spoken in that year before the court on the occasion of the birth of Prince John, afterwards John III. This, being the first dramatic representation ever made in Portugal, pleased the queen-mother so much that, at her request, it was adapted to the form of a Christmas "auto," such as had been introduced into Spain by Juan de la Enzina. This was followed at short intervals by four other religious pastorals, all in Spanish, probably in compliment to the queen. The most characteristic of these is entitled "The Auto of the Sybil Cassandra," in which the nativity of the Saviour is mixed up in the most incongruous manner with Greek and Jewish traditions. He also wrote three autos on the three ships that carried souls to hell, purgatory, and heaven. The first of his comedies, entitled "The Widower," was acted in 1514, and followed by many others,
