Gaius terentius varro biography of william

Roman general and politician

This article is about the Roman general and consul of the Second Punic War. For the Roman polymath, see Marcus Terentius Varro.

Gaius Terentius Varro (fl.

BCE) was a Roman politician and general active during the Second Punic War. A plebeian son of a butcher, he was a populist politician who was elected consul for the year BCE. While holding that office, he was decisively defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae.

Early years

Varro was a member of a plebeian family, the gens Terentia, and the first man of note in his family.^[1] His father was reportedly a butcher who had "employed his son in the menial tasks associated with that profession."^[2] Despite this low birth, on his father's death he used the inheritance to embark on a public career, making his name by prosecuting those of higher status and progressing through the various magistracies of the cursus honorum, holding the quaestorship and