411 



VIRGINIUS. 



VISCONTI. 



412 



his colleagues in the camp to refuse Virginiua leave of absence ; but 

 this message came too late, for Virgiuius had already left the camp 

 On the morning of the following day, when all the city was in anxious 

 expectation, Virginias, accompanied by some matrons and numerous 

 friends, led his daughter to the forum, entreating the protection of his 

 fellow-citi/ene. Appiua ascended the tribunal, and without listening 

 to Virginius or Icilius, declared the girl to be the slave of his client, 

 M. Claudius. When Claudius pressed through the crowd to seize 

 Virginia, he was at first prevented by the multitude; but the threats 

 of the decemvir overawed them, and his liotors made way for the 

 client. Yirginius, seeing the impossibility of saving his child, asked 

 permission to have some conversation with her before their separation. 

 This being granted, he took Virginia aside to a butcher's stall, and 

 snatching up a knife, plunged it into her breast, saying, " This is the 

 only way in which I can deliver thee," adding a curse on the head of 

 Appius Claudius. The decemvir immediately ordered Virginius to be 

 seized, but sword in hand he fought bis way to the gate of the city. The 

 friemls of the unfortunate girl in the city roused the people to shake off 

 the yoke of their haughty oppressors. Virgiuius in the camp appealed 

 to the soldiers, and the power of the decemvirs was abolished. 

 (Livy, iii. 4448 ; Dionysius Hal., xj. pp. 709, 718, 719, ed. Sylburg.) 

 VIRGINIUS. [VIRGINIA.] 



VIRGI'NIUS RUFUS, a Roman rhetorician of the time of Nero, 

 who sent him into exile, as Tacitus says, merely because he was a man 

 of ^reputation. (Tacit., 'Annal.,' xv. 71; Dion Cass., Ixii. 27.) He 

 appears to be the same as the Virginius Flaccus, who is mentioned in 

 the ancient ' Life of Persius,' and of whom this poet was a pupil. 

 From Quinctilian (iii. 1, 21 ; compare iii. 6, 44 ; iv. 1, 23 : vii. 4, 

 24 ; xi. 3, 126), who speaks of him as bis contemporary, we learn 

 that he wrote a work on rhetoric, which was more accurate than thosa 

 of his predecessors ; but no fragments of this work are extant. Some 

 modern critics have supposed Virginius Rufus to be the author of the 

 ' llhetorica ad Herennium,' which is usually printed among the works 

 of Cicero; but nothing certain can be said about the matter. (Schiitz's 

 Procemium to his edition of Cicero's ' Opera Rhetorica.') 



VIHIA'THUS or VIRIA'TUS (OviplarOos), the leader of the Lusi- 

 tanians, in Hispania, in their war with the Romans, about the middle 

 of the 2nd century B.C. He is first mentioned on the occasion when 

 the Roman praetor Servius Galba treacherously massacred a large body 

 of the Lusitanians (B.C. 150). Viriathus was one of the few who 

 escaped. In the year B.C. 149, a Lusitaiiian army having been defeated 

 by Caiua Vetilius, the fugitives, who were blockaded, were on the 

 point of surrendericg, when Viriathus, who happened to be present, 

 reminded them of the treachery of Galba, and by a bold and skilful 

 manoeuvre released them, and was appointed their general. In a 

 battle which took place shortly afterwards, he defeated and killed 

 Vetilius. In the three following years he defeated successively the 

 praetors C. Plautius, Claudius Unimanus, and C. Nigidius Figulus. 

 The next year (B.C. 145) the Romans sent against him the consul Q. 

 Fabius Maximus -iEmilianus, who checked his successful course in this 

 and the following year. In B.C. 143, Viriathus was again successful 

 against the propraetor Q. Poinpeius, whose successor, Q. Fabius Masi- 

 mus Servilianus, carried on the war during the next two years with 

 various success. At length, in B.C. 140, the Consul Q. Servilius 

 Csepio obtained the person of Viriathus by the treachery of some of 

 that chieftain's intimate friends, and put him to death, after he had led 

 the Lusitanians for eight years, or, as others say, fourteen, reckoning 

 from the beginning of the Celtiberic war in B.C. 153. 



The Roman writers say that Viriathus was first a shepherd and 

 huntsman ; then a leader of robbers, by which they mean what a 

 modern Spaniard would call a Guerilla chieftain ; and at last a great 

 commander, who, had fortune favoured him, would have founded an 

 empire much greater than his native country, or, as Florus expresses 

 it, would have been the Romulus of Spain. 



(Appian, De Reb. Hisp., 59-75; Liv., Epit., Iii., liv. ; Diodorus Sicu- 

 lus, x., p. 72-80, 97 ; Valerius Maximus, vi. 4, 2 ; ix. 6, 4 ; Obse- 

 quens, 81, 82 ; Orosius, iv. 21 ; Florus, ii. 17; Eutropius, iv. 16.) 



VISCHER, CORNE'LIUS, a celebrated Dutch engraver, born, 

 probably at Haarlem, in. 1610. He was the pupil of P. Soutman, but 

 he soon surpassed his master. Vischer's works are among the finest 

 specimens of art executed by the graver; Basan says that no master 

 can be studied by young engravers with more advantage. He engraved 

 prints of many descriptions, and some of his best are after his own 

 designs. Watelet says that no man ever painted with the graver and 

 etching-needle together with such effect as Vischer. Strutt, speaking 

 of his style of working with the graver, says, " His mode of per- 

 formance with that instrument was as singular as the effect he pro- 

 duced was picturesque and beautiful His strokes are clear and 

 delicate, laid over the draperies and the back-ground apparently just 

 as the plate happened to lie before him, without any care or study 

 which way they should turn, the one upon the other ; and he crossed 

 and recrossed them, till such time as they produced sufficient colour." 



The few following are of the rarest and most valuable of his prints ; 

 good impressions of some of them have been sold for from fifteen to 

 twenty pounds : 



Andreas Deonyszoon Winius, commonly called the Man with the 

 Pistols ; Gellius de Bourna, minister of Zutphen ; a Cat sleeping upon 

 a napkin : the Rat-catcher ; the Pancake woman ; and the Gipsy. 



Mariette possessed a collection of 172 of Vischer's prints, which was 

 sold for 3096 francs 1 2 sous. His portraits are the best of the pieces 

 which he engraved after other masters. The year of his death is not 

 known, but it was probably about 16fJO. 



JOHAN VISCUER, brother of Cornelius, was likewise a good engraver 

 and etcher, but, except in landscapes, inferior to bis brother. He 

 executed some good plates after Berghem and Ostade. lie was born 

 at Amsterdam in 1636; for in 1G92, in his fifcy-sixth year, s.iys 

 Houbraken, he turned animal-painter. He worked likewise with the 

 needle and the graver, but more with the needle. 



LAMBERT VISCHER was also a brother of Cornelius, but of inferior 

 merit. Ho lived some time in ROUJC. 



There was also a GLAUS or NICOL'ACS JOIIAN VISCHER, engraver and 

 printseller, born at Amsterdam in 1580, who was probably of the 

 same family. He excelled iu small landscapes with figures ; but ho 

 engraved also portraits; he engraved one of Charles I. of England; 

 and published portraits of Archbishop Laud, Calvin, Erasmus, James II. 

 of England, and the Duke of Monmouth. 



(Houbraken, Groote Sclwuburgh, &c. ; Hasan, Dictionnaire des Gra- 

 veurs ; Strutt, Dictionary of Engravers; Huber and Rost, Handluck 

 filr A'unstliebhalier, &c.) 



VISCHER, PETER, a celebrated old German sculptor and founder, 

 was born about the middle of the loth century. He lived several 

 years in Italy, where he studied his art. He first distinguished him- 

 self in Germany by his monument to the Archbishop Ernest of Mag- 

 deburg, erected in the cathedral of that place in 1497. But his 

 master-piece is the tomb of St. Sebald, in the church of that saint at 

 Nurnberg, where Vischer ultimately settled. Viecher, with his five 

 sons, Peter, Hermann, Hans, Paul, and Jacob, who with their wives 

 and children lived in the same house with him, was occupied over 

 this monument from 1500 until 1519, yet he was paid only 2402 

 florins, which is at the rate of 20 florins per cwt. : the whole monu- 

 ment weighed 120 cwt. 14 Ibs. It is beautifully designed and richly 

 ornamented: among other figures there are twelve small statues, 

 eighteen inches high, of the apostles, which are remarkably well 

 drawn, and all conspicuous for their fine expression. In one part he 

 has introduced his own portrait in his working dress. It is a monu- 

 ment, upon the whole, worthy of any time and any nation. Vischer 

 executed some other clever works at Nurnberg : he died, according to 

 Doppelmayr, in 1530. 



HERMANN VISCHER studied likewise in Italy, and was scarcely in- 

 ferior to his father; he was killed in 1540 by a sledge, as he was 

 going home one night with a friend. Sandrart says that no prince or 

 gentleman that visited Nurnberg left it without having seen and con- 

 versed with Vischer. He received many orders during these visits, 

 and he sent many works into Bohemia, Poland, and other neighbour- 

 ing countries. 



(Sandrart, Teutsche Academic, &c. ; Doppelmayr, Niirriberyische 

 Kiinstler, &c.) 



VISCO'NTI, the name of a family in Lombardy which rose to the 

 rank of sovereign princes during the middle ages. The Visconti 

 begin to figure in history about the middle of the 13th century. They 

 belonged to the feudal nobility, and were possessed of considerable 

 estates in the northern part of Lombardy, near the banks of the lake 

 of Como and of the Lago Maggiore. In ]262 the archdeacon Ottone 

 Visconti was nominated archbishop of Milan by Pope Urban IV. The 

 see of Milan had been vacant ever since the death of Leone da Perego, 

 in 1275, because the chapter was divided into two parties, one of which 

 favoured a candidate from among the nobility, and the other gave its 

 votes to a relative of Martino della Torre, the popular leader, who had 

 been appointed ' anziauo,' or ' elder,' of the people of Milan. The 

 appointment of Ottone Visconti by the pope was considered an en- 

 croachment on the rights of the electors ; and Martino della Torro 

 sequestrated the property of the see, and forbade the archbishop elect 

 from appearing in Milan. Upon this the pope excommunicated the 

 city of Milan. But Martino della Torre and his successors Filippo and 

 Napoleone della Torre continued to enjoy the popular favour, and Ottone 

 Visconti remained an emigrant for fifteen years, during which he carried 

 on, at the head of his feudal dependants, joined by malcontents from 

 Milan and other towns, a desultory and predatory warfare against tho 

 Milanese. At last the popular feeling turned against Napoleone della 

 Torre, who was suspected of aspiring to the sovereign power, especially 

 after he had asked and obtained from Rudolf of Habsburg, the newly 

 elected king of Germany, the dignity of imperial vicar. Ottone Vis- 

 couti seized this opportunity for striking a decisive blow. He put 

 himself at the head of a large body of emigrant nobles, and advanced 

 towards Milan. Napoleone della Torre and his adherents went out to 

 meet him, and a combat ensued, in January 1277, near the village of 

 Desio, in which the Torriani, as the partisans of Della Torre were 

 called, were defeated with great slaughter, and Napoleone was taken 

 prisoner. Ottone Visconti entered Milan amidst the acclamations of the 

 people, who saluted him as archbishop and perpetual lord of Milan. 



The Archbishop Ottone, after carrying on for years an almost uuin- 

 :errupted warfare against the partisans of the Della Torre, gave up 

 :he temporal government to his nephew Matteo Visconti, whom 

 le caused to be elected ' captain of the people ' for five years, iu 1 - 

 Matteo was a prudent and temperate ruler, and ho enjoyed general 

 favour among the people. He defeated the Torriani and their ally the 



