Paulum severae musa tragediae
Desit theatris; mox, ubi publicas
Res ordinaris, grande munus
Cecropio repetes cothurno,
Insigne moestis praesidium reis,
Et consulenti, Pollio, curiae,
Cui laurus aeternos honores
Dalmatico peperit triumpho. 
Lib. ii. ode 1.

Retard a while thy glowing vein,
Nor swell the solemn tragic scene;
And when thy sage, thy patriot cares
Have form’d the train of Rome’s affairs,
With lofty rapture reinflam’d, diffuse
Heroic thoughts, and wake the buskin’d muse. 

          
                                            FRANCIS’S HORACE.

But after all, the question put by Maternus, is, can any of their orations be compared to the Medea of Ovid, or the Thyestes of Varius?  Those two tragedies are so often praised by the critics of antiquity, that the republic of letters has reason to lament the loss.  Quintilian says that the Medea of Ovid was a specimen of genius, that shewed to what heights the poet could have risen, had he thought fit rather to curb, than give the rein to his imagination. Ovidii Medea videtur mihi ostendere quantum vir ille praestare potuisset, si ingenio suo temperare, quam indulgere maluisset. Lib. x. cap. 1.

The works of Varius, if we except a few fragments, are wholly lost.  Horace, in his journey to Brundusium, met him and Virgil, and he mentions the incident with the rapture of a friend who loved them both: 

Plotius, et Varius Sinuessae, Virgiliusque
Occurrunt; animae quales neque candidiores
Terra tulit, neque queis me sit devinctior alter. 

          
                                                          Lib. i. sat. 5.

Horace also celebrates Varius as a poet of sublime genius.  He begins his Ode to Agrippa with the following lines: 

Scriberis Vario fortis, et hostium
Victor, Maeonii carminis alite,
Quam rem cumque ferox navibus, aut equis
Miles te duce gesserit. 
Lib. i. ode 6.

Varius, who soars on epic wing,
Agrippa, shall thy conquests sing,
Whate’er, inspir’d by thy command,
The soldier dar’d on sea or land. 

                                            FRANCIS’S HORACE.

A few fragments only of his works have reached posterity.  His tragedy of THYESTES is highly praised by Quintilian.  That judicious critic does not hesitate to say, that it may be opposed to the best productions of the Greek stage. Jam Varii Thyestes cuilibet Graecorum comparari potest. Varius lived in high favour at the court of Augustus.  After the death of Virgil, he was joined with Plotinus and Tucca to revise the works of that admirable poet.  The Varus of Virgil, so often celebrated in the Pastorals, was, notwithstanding what some of the commentators have said, a different person from Varius, the author of Thyestes.