810 



VERULAM VESPASIANUS. 



gain the affections of the goddess Pomona ; and, to 

 effect this, be assumed the shape and dress of a 

 fisherman, of a soldier, a peasant, a reaper, c.,but 

 all to no purpose, till, under the form of an old 

 woman, he prevailed upon his mistress, and married 

 IHT. He is generally represented as a young man 

 crowned with flowers, covered up to the waist, and 

 holding in his right hand fruit, and a crown of plenty 

 in his left. 



VERULAM, LORD. See Bacon. 

 \ KRVAIN (verbena). These plants have usually 

 quadrangular herbaceous stems. Their leaves are 

 opposite : the flowers are generally small, disposed 

 in spikes, which are sometimes arranged in panicles. 

 The calyx is tubular, and five-toothed : the corolla 

 funnel-shaped, dividing into five irregular lobes ; 

 the stamens four in number, two of which are 

 shorter than the others : the capsule contains four 

 seeds, which become naked at maturity. The com- 

 mon vervain ( V. officinalis) is an ordinary looking 

 weed. It was employed by the ancients in religious 

 ceremonies, and particularly by the Druids. The 

 celebrity which this plant obtained without its pos- 

 sessing one apparent quality, or presenting, by its 

 manner of growth or form, any mysterious charac- 

 ter, to arrest the attention or excite imagination, 

 is indeed very extraordinary and unaccountable. 

 Mo.; nations venerated, esteemed and used it. 

 The ancients had their verbenalia, at which period 

 the temples and frequented places were strewed 

 and sanctified with vervain : the beasts for sacrifice 

 and the altars were verbenated, the one filleted, the 

 other strewed, with the sacred herb ; no incanta- 

 tion or lustration was perfect without the aid of 

 this plant. It seems to have had ascribed to it the 

 power of curing bites of rabid animals, arresting 

 the progress of the venom of serpents, reconciling 

 antipathies, conciliating friendships, &c., and was 

 in equal veneration among the priests of Rome and 

 Greece, the Druids of Gaul and Britain, and the 

 magi of India. But it is now regarded as of no 

 value. 



VERVIERS ; a well-built town in the province 

 of Liege, kingdom of Belgium, lying in the middle 

 of a rich and fertile valley, on the small river Weze, 

 to which it is indebted for its prosperity ; Ion. 5 

 5& E. ; lat. 50 36' N. ; seventeen miles south- 

 east of Liege. It has been enriched by the sale of 

 its woollen goods, numerous manufactories of which 

 are erected on the Weze. Its population amounts 

 to 10,000 souls. 



VESALIUS, ANDREW, a celebrated surg*on and 

 anatomist, born at Brussels, in 1514, studied the 

 languages and philosophy at Louvain, and at an 

 early age displayed his predominant taste for ana- 

 tomical inquiries, by dissecting the bodies of ani- 

 mals. He then went to Paris, and studied the me- 

 dical sciences under James Sylvius. When only 

 eighteen, he composed his treatise De Corporis 

 humani Fabrica, and, returning to Louvain, deli- 

 vered lectures on anatomy. He afterwards visited 

 Italy, and by his lectures and demonstrations at 

 Pisa, Bologna, and other Italian cities, acquired 

 great reputation. In 1537, the government of 

 Venice appointed him professor of anatomy in the 

 university of Padua, where he remained seven years. 

 He was subsequently physician to Charles V., and 

 to Philip II. of Spain. When in the height of his 

 fame, lie engaged in a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 

 The motive to this undertaking is thus related : 

 Vesalius, believing a young Spanish nobleman, 

 whom he had attended, to be dead, opened him ; 



but, after making an incision into the body, he per- 

 ceived the symptoms of life. The parents, coining 

 to the knowledge of this, accused him to the in- 

 quisition of impiety. But the king interposed, mid 

 saved him, on condition that he would undertake a 

 pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But different mo- 

 tives for this journey have been assigned. On his 

 return from Jerusalem, he was shipwrecked on tin- 

 island of Zante, and died there, from the effects of 

 hunger and hardship, in 1504. The great work of 

 Vesalius, On the Structure of the human Body, 

 was first published at Basle (1543, fol.) ; and the 

 second edition, augmented and corrected by the 

 author, appeared in 1555. Many subsequent edi- 

 tions have been printed; but the most accurate and 

 complete is that published at Leyden (1725, 2 vols., 

 fol.), by Boerhaave and Albinus. 



VESPASIANUS, TITUS FLAVIUS, emperor of 

 Rome, was born near Rieti, in the country of the Sa- 

 bines, towards the close of the reign of Augustus. 

 His father was a receiver of taxes in Asia, and, in that 

 generally disreputable office, was distinguished foi 

 moderation and integrity. Vespasian displayed but 

 little ambition in his youth ; and it was not till the 

 reign of Claudius that he exhibited his military ta- 

 lents. Being then appointed commander of a le- 

 gion, he acquired great reputation in Germany and 

 in Britain ; and, on his return to Rome, he was 

 made consul. In the beginning of Nero's reign, he 

 lived in retirement, but was at length appointed 

 pro-consul of Africa; and on the rebellion of the 

 Jews, he was sent with an army into Judea (A. D. 

 66). After taking some important fortresses, and 

 reducing almost the whole of Galilee to subjection, 

 he was preparing to attack Jerusalem, when he re- 

 ceived the news of the death of Nero (A. D. 68). 

 After the transient reigns of Galba, Otho and Vi- 

 tellius, he was himself elevated to imperial power ; 

 and such was his good fortune, that he found him- 

 self seated on the throne, without having recourse 

 to those hostilities which he had anticipated as 

 necessary to support his claims. Reaching Rome 

 about the middle of the year 70, he was received 

 with general and sincere rejoicing, the reputation 

 he had acquired promising relief from the miseries 

 of misgovernment, under which the people had long 

 suffered. He did not disappoint the expectations 

 which his character had excited. He reformed the 

 discipline of the army, purified the senatorial and 

 equestrian orders, by degrading the unworthy, and 

 filling their places with respectable citizens, and 

 appointed a commission to settle the vast multitude 

 of suits which had accumulated during the late 

 troubles, besides presiding on the bench frequently 

 himself, that justice might be administered with 

 impartiality. He was an enemy to luxury, and de- 

 void of personal or family pride, being by no means 

 desirous to conceal the obscurity of his origin. On 

 the other hand, he is charged with displaying a 

 degree of meanness and rapacity, in the accumula- 

 tion of wealth, inconsistent with his character and 

 station. Though this reproach is not destitute of 

 foundation, it appears, however, to be exaggerated ; 

 and necessity probably obliged him to have recourse 

 to the means he employed for the exigencies of go- 

 vernment, after the treasury had been exhausted 

 by the luxury and profusion of his predecessors. 

 Vespasian favoured arts, letters and learned men, 

 particularly Quintilian, Pliny and Josephus. He 

 rebuilt apart of the city which had been destroyed 

 during the civil wars, restored the capitol,that had 

 been burnt under Vitellius, with increased splen- 



