Virgilius
or Vergi'lius. The latter appears to be the more correct orthography, as in the name of Virginius or Verginius, but custom has given the preference in modern times to Virgilius.
1. M. Virgilius, the frater or first cousin of T. Aufidius, was tribune of the plebs in B. C. 87, when, at the instigation of the consul Cinna, he brought an accusation against Sulla, when the latter was on the point of crossing over to Greece to conduct the war against Mithridates; but Sulla left Rome without paying any attention to Virgilius or his accusation. He is called Virginius by Plutarch. (Cic. Brut. 48; Plut. Sull. 10.)
2. C. Virgilius, was praeter B. C. 62, and had Q. Cicero, the brother of the orator, as one of his colleagues. In the following year, B. C. 61, he governed Sicily as propraetor, where P. Clodius served under him as quaestor. He was still in Sicily in B. C. 58, when Cicero was banished; and notwithstanding his friendship with Cicero, and his having been a colleague of his brother in the praetorship, he refused to allow Cicero to seek refuge in his province. (Cic. pro Planc. 40, ad Q. Fr. 1.2.2; Schol. Bob. in Clod. p. 333, ed. Orelli; Plut. Cic. 32.) In the civil war Virgilius espoused the Pompeian party, and had the command of Thapsus, together with a fleet, in B. C. 46. After the battle of Thapsus, Virgilius at first refused to surrender the town; but when he saw that all resistance was hopeless, he subsequently surrendered the place to Caninius Rebilus, whom Caesar had left to besiege it. (Hirt. B. Afr. 28, 86, 93.)
3. C. Virgilius, legatus of Piso in Macedonia in B. C. 57, must probably have been a different person from the preceding, since the propraetor of Sicily could hardly have returned to Rome in time to accompany Piso to his province. (Cic. de Prove. Cons. 4.)
See Vergilius.