408 
V I u 
of Julius Caesar and Augustus: of his parentage and place 
of nativity nothing certain is known. Verona claims him; 
but the pretensions of Formia, now Mola de Gseta, are 
more generally allowed. Of his liberal education, and of 
his travels for information and improvement, we can have 
no doubt. By the exercise of his profession he had acquired 
some property ■ though perhaps it was not very considerable, 
as he says of himself that he did not, like the generality of 
architects, solicit employment. Under the emperor Augustus, 
or perhaps one of the succeeding princes, to whom he 
dedicated his work, he occupied the post of inspector of the 
military engines. But as Pliny the elder mentions his name, 
among other authors, in his “ Natural History,” composed 
in the reign of Vespasian, his work must have been published 
before that period. Of edifices planned or constructed by 
him, one only is mentioned by himself, which was a Basilica 
at Fano. His work was discovered in MS. by Poggio in the 
15th century, and it has ever since been held in high estima¬ 
tion. The ten books into which it is distributed, not only 
treat on every thing belonging to buildings, public and 
private, their site, materials, forms, ornaments, conveni¬ 
ences, and the like; but include much of what would now 
be termed engineering, civil and military, and even digress 
to geometrical problems and astronomical inventions. Be¬ 
sides the instruction that may be derived from it, it has 
afforded much important matter to the antiquary relative to 
the state of art and science, and the detail of private life, 
among the Romans. 
A magnificent edition of the Civil Architecture of Vitru¬ 
vius, in two parts, royal folio, has been presented to the 
public by W. Wilkins, jun. A.M , F.R.S., &c. 
VITRY, a town of France, department of the Pas de 
Calais, situated on the Scarpe; 4 miles south-west of Douay. 
Population 1800. 
VITRY LE BRULE, a village of France, department of 
the Marne; 3 miles north-east of Vitry le Francois. Popu¬ 
lation 700. 
VITRY, or Vitry le Francois, a town of France, in 
Champagne; 20 miles south-east of Chalons. Population 
7000. 
V1TTEAUX, a town of France, department of the Cote 
d'Or, ontheBrenne; 31 miles west of Dijon. Population 
2000. 
VITTEL, a town of France, department of the Vosges, 
with 1300 inhabitants; 14 miles south-west of Mirecourt. 
V1TTENEZ, or Chtelnicze, or Telnitz, a town of 
Hungary; 13 miles north of Tyrnau. Population 1500. 
V1TTORIA, a town of Spain, the chief place of the pro¬ 
vince of Alava. It stands partly on the slope of a hill, 
partly at the entrance of a beautiful valley, watered by the 
Zadora. This town, or rather its neighbourhood, was the 
scene of a general engagement, on 21st June 1813, in which 
the French, under Jourdan, were defeated by the English 
under Lord Wellington ; 27 miles south of Bilbao. Popu¬ 
lation 6500. 
VITTORIA, a town of Sicily, in the Val di Noto, in the 
Contado di Modica; 40 miles west-by-south of Syracuse, 
and 45 south-south-west of Catania. 
VI'TULINE, adj. [yitulinus, Lat.] Belonging to a 
calf, or to veal. Bailey. 
VITU'PERABLE, adj. [yitupcrabilis, Lat.] Blame¬ 
worthy. Cockeram. 
To VITU'PERATE, v. a. [vituperer , Fr.; vitupero, 
Lat.] To blame; to censure. Bullokar, and Cockeram. 
VITUPERATION, s. [vituperation, Fr.; vituperatio, 
Lat.] Blame; censure. 
VITU'PERATIVE, adj. Belonging to blame; contain¬ 
ing censure.—The torrents of female eloquence, especially 
in the vituperative way, stun all opposition. Ld. Chester¬ 
field. 
VITUPE'RIOUS, adj. [vituperium , Lat.] Disgraceful. 
Not in use.' —He is intituled with a vituperious and vile 
name. She/ton. 
V1U, a town of Italy, in Piedmont, on the river Chiara; 
4 miles north-west of Turin. Population 3000. 
v i v 
VIVA'CIOUS, adj. [vivax, Lat.] Long-lived.—Though 
we should allow them their perpetual calm and equability of, 
heat, they will never be able to prove, that therefore men 
would be so vivacious as they would have us believe. 
Bentley. —Spritely; gay ; active; lively.—People of a viva¬ 
cious temper. Howell. 
VIVA'CIOUSNESS, or Viva'city, s. [ vivacite , Fr.] 
Liveliness; spriteliness.—He had a great vivacity in his 
countenance. Dry den. —Longevity ; length of life. Power 
of living. 
VIVARA, a small island of the Mediterranean, in the 
bay of Naples. 
VI'VARY, s. [vivarium, Lat.] A place of land or water, 
where living creatures are kept. In law, it signifies most 
commonly a park, warren, fish-pond, or piscary. Cowel. 
That cage and vivary 
Of fowls, and beasts. Dot me. 
VIVE, adj. [vivus, Lat.] Lively; forcible; pressing.— 
Sylvester gives it this true and vive description. Sir T. 
Herbert. 
VI'VELY, adv. In a lively manner; strongly; forcibly. 
—1 see a thing vively presented on the stage, that the glass 
of custom (which is comedy) is so held up to me by the 
poet, as I can therein view the daily examples of men’s 
lives, and images of truth. B. Jonson. 
VI'VENCY, s. [vivo, Lat.] Manner of supporting or 
continuing life or vegetation.—Although not in a distinct 
indisputable way of vivency, or answering in all points the 
property of plants, yet in inferior and descending constitu¬ 
tions, they are determined by seminalities. Brown. 
VIVERO, a small town of Spain, in Galicia, with a 
capacious harbour; 23 miles north-north-west of Mon- 
donedo. 
VIVEROLS, a town of France, department of the Puy 
de Dome; 9 miles south-south-west of Ambert. Popula¬ 
tion 1100. 
VIVERRA, in the Linnaean system, is a distinct genus of 
the order ferae (though united by Pennant and Shaw to the 
genus mustela ; which see), the characters of which are, that 
it has six cutting-teeth, the intermediate being shorter; one 
of the canine teeth on each side longer than the rest; the 
grinders more than three; the tongue bending backwards, 
often aculeated ; and the nails extended. Gmelin reckons 
twenty-seven species, which are as follow:— 
1. Viverra ichneumon, or grey ichneumon.—With distant 
thumbs, and tail gradually tapering from a thick base, and 
tufted at the end. This is called the rat of Pharaoh. 
2. Viverra mungo, or rufous-grey ichneumon.—With dis¬ 
tant thumbs, and untufted tail, gradually tapering from a 
thick base: the Indian ichneumon of Edwards; the quil or 
quiopele of Ray; and the mangouste of BufFon. Shaw sug¬ 
gests that this may be a variety of the former; and he observes, 
that the ichneumon is a species of which there seem to be two 
distinct varieties, one of which (viz. the latter) is a native 
of India, and the other (or former) of Africa: they are 
alike in general appearance, but the Egyptian variety is con¬ 
siderably larger than the Indian, and has its tail tufted at 
the end, and thus differing from the Indian. In India, as 
well as in Egypt, the ichneumon is regarded as one of the 
most useful and estimable of animals; as it is an invete¬ 
rate enemy to serpents, rats, and other noxious creatures 
which infest those regions. In India, it attacks with great 
eagerness and courage that most dreadful reptile, the cobra 
de capello, or hooded snake, and easily destroys it. For 
such purposes it is domesticated as the cat is in Europe. 
It is said to swim and dive occasionally, like the otter, 
and to continue for a long time under water.—This animal 
is found, not only in various parts of India, but in the 
Indian islands, as Ceylon and others. It occurs also in 
various parts of Africa besides Egypt, as in Barbary and the 
Cape of Good Hope, See. 
3. Viverra cafra, or yellowish-brown weasel.—With tail 
gradually tapering from a thick base, and black at the tip. 
This animal, resembling, in its general form, the pole-cat, and 
nearly 
