Gaius Terentius Varro minter of coins down to the year 197 BC. Varro then disappears from history, either retiring or dying. Gaius Terentius Varro Gaius Terentius Varro (fl. 218 - 200 BC) 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 216. While holding that office, he was decisively defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae. Varro was a member of the plebeian "gens Terentia" and the first man of note in his family. His father was reportedly a butcher who
Religion in ancient Rome salted flour) and wine, then placed in the fire on the altar for the offering; the technical verb for this action was "porricere". Human sacrifice in ancient Rome was rare but documented. After the Roman defeat at Cannae two Gauls and two Greeks were buried under the Forum Boarium, in a stone chamber "which had on a previous occasion [228 BC] also been polluted by human victims, a practice most repulsive to Roman feelings". Livy avoids the word "sacrifice" in connection with this bloodless human life-offering; Plutarch does not. The rite was apparently repeated in 113 BC, preparatory to an