VĒLUM (αὐλαία).--(1) A curtain. Curtains were used in private
houses as coverings over doors, or they served in the interior of
the house as substitutes for doors.--(2) _Velum_, and more commonly
its derivative _velamen_, denoted the veil worn by women. That worn
by a bride was specifically called _flammeum_. [MATRIMONIUM.]--(3)
(Ἱστίον.) A sail. [NAVIS, p. 267.]
VĒNĀBŬLUM, a hunting-spear. This may have been distinguished from
the spears used in warfare by being barbed; at least it is often so
formed in ancient works of art. It was seldom, if ever, thrown, but
held so as to slant downwards and to receive the attacks of the wild
boars and other beasts of chace.
VĒNĀTĬO, hunting, was the name given among the Romans to an
exhibition of wild beasts, which fought with one another and with
men. These exhibitions originally formed part of the games of the
circus. Julius Caesar first built a wooden amphitheatre for the
exhibition of wild beasts, and others were subsequently erected;
but we frequently read of venationes in the circus in subsequent
times. The persons who fought with the beasts were either condemned
criminals or captives, or individuals who did so for the sake of
pay, and were trained for the purpose. [BESTIARII.] The Romans were
as passionately fond of this entertainment as of the exhibitions of
gladiators, and during the latter days of the republic, and under
the empire, an immense variety of animals was collected from all
parts of the Roman world for the gratification of the people, and
many thousands were frequently slain at one time. We do not know on
what occasion a venatio was first exhibited at Rome; but the first
mention we find of any thing of the kind is in the year B.C. 251,
when L. Metellus exhibited in the circus 142 elephants, which he had
brought from Sicily after his victory over the Carthaginians. But
this can scarcely be regarded as an instance of a venatio, as it
was understood in later times, since the elephants are said to have
been only killed because the Romans did not know what to do with
them, and not for the amusement of the people. There was, however,
a venatio in the later sense of the word in B.C. 186, in the games
celebrated by M. Fulvius in fulfilment of the vow which he had
made in the Aetolian war; in these games lions and panthers were
exhibited. It is mentioned as a proof of the growing magnificence of
the age that in the ludi circenses, exhibited by the curule aediles
P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica and P. Lentulus B.C. 168, there were 63
African panthers and 40 bears and elephants. From about this time
combats with wild beasts probably formed a regular part of the ludi
circenses, and many of the curule aediles made great efforts to
obtain rare and curious animals, and put in requisition the services
of their friends. Elephants are said to have first fought in the
circus in the curule aedileship of Claudius Pulcher, B.C. 99; and
twenty years afterwards, in the curule aedileship of the two Luculli,
they fought against bulls. A hundred lions were exhibited by Sulla
in his praetorship, which were destroyed by javelin-men sent by king
Bocchus for the purpose. This was the first time that lions were
allowed to be loose in the circus; they were previously always tied
up. The games, however, in the curule aedileship of Scaurus, B.C. 58,
surpassed anything the Romans had ever seen; among other novelties,
he first exhibited an hippopotamos and five crocodiles in a temporary
canal or trench (_euripus_). At the venatio given by Pompey in his
second consulship, B.C. 55, upon the dedication of the temple of
Venus Victrix, there was an immense number of animals slaughtered,
among which we find mention of 600 lions, and 18 or 20 elephants;
the latter fought with Gaetulians, who hurled darts against them,
and they attempted to break through the railings (_clathri_) by
which they were separated from the spectators. To guard against this
danger Julius Caesar surrounded the arena of the amphitheatre with
trenches (_euripi_). In the games exhibited by J. Caesar in his
third consulship, B.C. 45, the venatio lasted for five days, and was
conducted with extraordinary splendour. Cameleopards or giraffes were
then for the first time seen in Italy. The venationes seem to have
been first confined to the ludi circenses, but during the later times
of the republic, and under the empire, they were frequently exhibited
on the celebration of triumphs, and on many other occasions, with the
view of pleasing the people. The passion for these shows continued
to increase under the empire, and the number of beasts sometimes
slaughtered seems almost incredible. Under the emperors we read of
a particular kind of venatio, in which the beasts were not killed
by bestiarii, but were given up to the people, who were allowed to
rush into the area of the circus and carry away what they pleased.
On such occasions a number of large trees, which had been torn up by
the roots, was planted in the circus, which thus resembled a forest,
and none of the more savage animals were admitted into it. One of the
most extraordinary venationes of this kind was that given by Probus,
in which there were 1000 ostriches, 1000 stags, 1000 boars, 1000
deer, and numbers of wild goats, wild sheep, and other animals of the
same kind. The more savage animals were slain by the bestiarii in
the amphitheatre, and not in the circus. Thus, in the day succeeding
the venatio of Probus just mentioned, there were slain in the
amphitheatre 100 lions and 100 lionesses, 100 Libyan and 100 Syrian
leopards, and 300 bears.
[Illustration: Venationes. (From Bas-reliefs on the Tomb of Scaurus
at Pompeii.)]
VĔNĒFĬCĬUM, the crime of poisoning, is frequently mentioned in Roman
history. Women were most addicted to it: but it seems not improbable
that this charge was frequently brought against females without
sufficient evidence of their guilt, like that of witchcraft in Europe
in the middle ages. We find females condemned to death for this crime
in seasons of pestilence, when the people are always in an excited
state of mind, and ready to attribute the calamities under which they
suffer to the arts of evil-disposed persons. Thus the Athenians,
when the pestilence raged in their city during the Peloponnesian
war, supposed the wells to have been poisoned by the Peloponnesians,
and similar instances occur in the history of almost all states.
Still, however, the crime of poisoning seems to have been much more
frequent in ancient than in modern times; and this circumstance
would lead persons to suspect it in cases when there was no real
ground for the suspicion. At Athens the PHARMACON GRAPHE was brought
against poisoners. At Rome the first legislative enactment especially
directed against poisoning was a law of the dictator Sulla--Lex
Cornelia de Sicariis et Veneficis--passed in B.C. 82, which continued
in force, with some alterations, to the latest times. It contained
provisions against all who made, bought, sold, possessed, or gave
poison for the purpose of poisoning. The punishment fixed by this law
was the interdictio aquae et ignis.
VER SACRUM (ἔτος ἱερόν). It was a custom among the early Italian
nations, especially among the Sabines, in times of great danger and
distress, to vow to the deity the sacrifice of everything born in the
next spring, that is, between the first of March and the last day
of April, if the calamity under which they were labouring should be
removed. This sacrifice in the early times comprehended both men and
domestic animals, and there is little doubt that in many cases the
vow was really carried into effect. But in later times it was thought
cruel to sacrifice so many infants, and accordingly the following
expedient was adopted. The children were allowed to grow up, and in
the spring of their twentieth or twenty-first year they were with
covered faces driven across the frontier of their native country,
whereupon they went whithersoever fortune or the deity might lead
them. Many a colony had been founded by persons driven out in this
manner; and the Mamertines in Sicily were the descendants of such
devoted persons. In the two historical instances in which the Romans
vowed a ver sacrum, that is, after the battle of lake Trasimenus
and at the close of the second Punic war, the vow was confined to
domestic animals.