VALERIUS FLACCUS

at Mount Gaurus and at Suessula. In 342 he was appointed dictator in consequence of a mutiny in the army, which he quelled by his personal popularity. He was dictator again in 301, when he defeated the Marsi and Etruscans. The last 28 years of his life were passed in retirement. He held curule dignities 21 times, and repeatedly enjoyed the honors of a triumph. VALERIUS FLACCUS, Caius, a Latin poet, born in Padua, flourished in the time of Vespasian, and died about A. D. 88. Nothing is known of his life, and his only work now extant is the unfinished heroic poem called the Argonautica, in which he narrates the adventures of Jason and his companions. His poem was discovered in 1416 in the monastery of St. Gall, and was first published in 1472. The best edition is Theil's (Halle, 1863). It has been translated into English verse by Nicholas Whyte (1565), and the first book by Thomas Noble (1809).

VALERIUS MAXIMUS, a Roman author, who flourished during the reign of Tiberius. Nothing is known of his life except that he accompanied Sextus Pompius, the friend of Ovid,

into Asia. His name is appended to a collection of historical anecdotes under the title of Faetorum et Dictorum Memorabilium Libri IX. The compilation embraces a large variety of subjects, and as a historical authority is of some value. His diction is very ornate, but often incorrect and obscure. He was one of the favorite authors of his time, and the frequent copying of his works has undoubtedly been very injurious to the text. His books were also a favorite study in the middle ages, and were frequently imitated (as by Saxo Grammaticus), abridged, and translated. Epitomes of his works by Julius Paris and Januarius Nepotianus are extant. The best edition with critical apparatus is Halm's (Leipsic, 1865). It was translated into English by W. Speed.(London, 1678).

VALERIUS PUBLICOLA. See PUBLICOLA.

VALETTA, or La Valetta, a seaport town, capital of the island of Malta, on the N. E. coast, in lat. 35° 54' N., lon. 14° 31' E.; pop. about 60,000. It occupies an elevated peninsula between two harbors, the one on the east, called the Great harbor, extending about 2 m. inland.

Five forts command the approach by sea, and five lines of fortifications, mounting 1,000 guns, and hornwork, extend across the isthmus. The ground upon which it stands is very uneven, and the streets are connected by flights of steps. The cathedral was built in 1580, and is exceedingly interesting for its numerous monuments in marble and bronze, paintings, and curious relics. The keys of Jerusalem, Acre, and Rhodes are deposited in it. There are 19 other churches. The palace of the grand master of the knights of Malta is now the governor's residence; it contains a corridor hung with the portraits of the knights, an armory with many

kinds of ancient armor, and a library and museum adjoining. The university was founded in 1838, and has faculties of divinity, law, medicine, and arts. There are naval, military, and civil hospitals. The other buildings most worthy of notice are the exchange, theatre, several auberges or separate palaces of the knights, and the house of industry. A great aqueduct supplied Valetta with water from Città Vecchia, 8 m. distant. The botanic garden is in the suburb of Floriana. The burial grounds have been formed out of the bastions of the fortifications. The opera house, erected at great cost a few years before, was destroyed by fire

VALETTE, Jean Parisot de La, a grand master of the knights of Malta, born in 1494, died in Malta, Aug. 21, 1568. He belonged to an eminent family of Toulouse, passed through every grade of his order to lieutenant general, and was in 1557 unanimously chosen grand master as successor of Claude de la Langle. The assistance which he rendered in the wars against the Turks, and the rapid growth of the order under his administration, induced Solyman the Magnificent to fit out an expedition for the reduction of Malta; and on May 18, 1565, 180 Turkish vessels of war, with 30,000 troops on board, cast anchor in the gulf of Mugiarro. La Valette had constructed new fortifications at the N. E. extremity of the peninsula now occupied by the city of Valetta, but his garrison consisted of only 700 knights and 8,500 soldiers, including the inhabitants who had been armed for the occasion; yet with these he withstood one of the most terrific sieges on record until Sept. 8, when, on the arrival of the viceroy of Naples with 8,000 men for his assistance, the Turks took to their ships. They disembarked again, but were defeated with great slaughter and fled in disorder. Their loss during the siege is said to have been 30,000 (they had several times been reenforced); while the knights, on the departure of the Turkish fleet, had barely 600 left of all their combatants. La Valette rebuilt the fortifications, and founded the town of Valetta, to which he removed the residence of the knights from Città Vecchia.

VALHALLA. See MYTHOLOGY, vol. xii., p. 120. VALLA, Lorenzo, an Italian scholar, born in Rome about 1410, died there or in Naples about 1460. He was ordained a priest in 1431, taught rhetoric in Pavia and other cities, and in 1435 went to Naples, where he gained the friendship of Alfonso I., and accompanied him in his wars and voyages. In 1443 he returned to Rome, where he incurred the hostility of the cardinals and Pope Eugenius IV. by attacking the authenticity of the instrument known as the "donation of Constantine," upon which the popes in great part based their claims to temporal sovereignty. Valla fled to Naples and opened a school, but became involved in theological controversies, and only escaped the inquisition through the protection of the king. He was subsequently received in Rome by Pope Nicholas V., to whom he presented a portion of the Homeric poems translated for the first time into Latin, and his translation of Thucydides, for which he received 500 crowns and the offices of apostolical secretary and canon of St. John Lateran. His works, including Elegantia Lingua Latina, in six books, were collected in 3 vols. fol. (Basel, 1543).-See Vahlen's Lorenzo Valla (Vienna, 1864).

VALLADOLID. I. A N. W. province of Spain, in Old Castile (by some included in the kingdom of Leon), bordering on Leon, Palencia,

mora; area, 3,043 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 242,384. The surface, though elevated, is generally level, and the soil is sandy. The principal rivers are the Douro and its affluents the Duraton, Eresma, and Pisuerga. The province produces grain, red and white wines, flax, hemp, madder, and timber. There are excellent pastures, and numerous horses, cattle, sheep, and mules are raised. Paper, earthenware, and various fabrics of hemp and flax are manufactured. II. A city, capital of the province, in an extensive plain on the left bank of the Pisuerga, at the terminus of the canal of Castile, 100 m. N. W. of Madrid; pop. about 50,000. It is irregularly built, but contains some fine streets and squares. The cathedral, begun by Philip II., has never been completed; it has a Doric façade, with an arch over the principal entrance 50 ft. by 24. There are many other churches, convents, and nunneries, of which the churches of Santa Maria la Antigua, San Martin, and San Benito are fine specimens of architecture. The university, for students of law and of medicine, was founded by Alfonso XI. in 1346. There are several colleges, a museum containing the statues, pictures, and other works of art which were removed from the suppressed convents, a royal palace, a theatre, a lyceum, and a public library. Silks, lace, paper, woollens, and earthenware are manufactured, and there is a large trade in corn. -Valladolid was called Belad-Walid by the Moors, from whom it was taken by Ordoño II. of Leon in 920. It was the capital of Castile and of Spain from the beginning of the 15th century till 1560, when Philip II. removed the court to Madrid: Columbus died in Valladolid. VALLADOLID, a city of Mexico. See Mo

RELIA.

VALLADOLID, a town of Mexico, capital of a department of the same name in the state of Yucatan, 90 m. E. S. E. of Mérida; pop. about 15,000. The streets are well laid out and clean, and the houses are generally one story high with flat roofs. There are several churches, a town house, and an aqueduct. The climate is healthful, and the town is much resorted to by invalids. Cotton is manufactured.

VALLADOLID, a town of Honduras. See Co

MAYAGUA.

VALLAURI, Tommaso, an Italian philologist, born at Chiusa di Cuneo, Jan. 23, 1805. He early became professor of rhetoric in the university of Turin, and afterward of Greek and Latin eloquence; and he ranks as one of the best Latinists of Italy. His works include Historia Critica Literarum (1849; 7th ed., 1868); Trinumus (1855); Menæchmi (1859); Novelle (4th ed., 1868); editions of Ausonius Popma's De Differentiis Verborum (1852), and of the Aulularia (1853) and Miles Gloriosus (1854) of Plautus; Latin-Italian dictionaries; and books on history and literature.

VALLE, Pietro della, an Italian traveller, surnamed Il Pellegrino, born in Rome, April 2,

VALLEY

1586, died there, April 20, 1652. In June, 1614, he embarked from Venice in the habit of a pilgrim. He went first to Constantinople, remained a year, then visited Egypt and the Holy Land, and at Bagdad married a Nestorian woman. He next journeyed over Mesopotamia, and finally went to Ispahan and engaged in the war between Persia and Turkey. His wife having died, he embalmed her body and took it home with him, travelling through India, and reaching Rome in 1626. To Pope Urban VIII., who made him honorary chamberlain, he presented a short account of Georgia, in order to induce him to send missionaries to that country. Not long afterward he married a Georgian, whom he had brought with him from the East. His travels, written in the form of letters, were published at Rome in 1650-53 in 4 vols. (English translation, fol., London, 1665). Several other works were composed by him, many of which were never published. His narratives, in spite of their prolixity, are very accurate.

VALLEY, a central county of Nebraska, intersected by Loup fork and its N. branch; area, 576 sq. m.; pop. in 1875, 287. The surface is rolling, and consists chiefly of productive prairies.

VALLIÈRE, Mlle. de La. See LA VALLIÈRE. VALLISNERIA, a genus of endogenous aquatic plants, named in honor of Antonio Vallisnieri. It belongs to a small family, the hydro

Vallisneria spiralis-Staminate and Pistillate.

charidacea, all water or marsh plants, and consists of but two species, one exclusively Australian, and the other, V. spiralis, found in the fresh waters of most countries, especially the warmer ones, and in nearly all parts of the United States, where it is known as tape grass and eel grass, though quite distinct from the eel grass of salt waters (zostera). The stem or rootstock lies prostrate in the mud; from this proceed the tape-like leaves, 1 to 2 ft. long,

2 to 5 lines wide, and minutely serrulate on the edges; these are dark green and entirely submerged. The flowers are diœcious; those of the staminate plant are several in a small cluster, surrounded by a three-valved spathe and borne upon a very short scape which rises at the base of the leaves. The fertile flowers are solitary, with a long ovary, at the apex of which are three small petals and three large two-lobed stigmas; each flower is borne upon a slender spirally coiled scape, which is from 2, to 4 ft. long, according to the depth of the water. At flowering time these female or pistillate flowers rise by means of their long flexible stems to the surface of the water, where they are quite beyond the reach of the staminate or male flowers, which are confined at the bottom upon a stem only about an inch long. The male flowers, as they mature, spontaneously break away from their short stems and rise to the surface, where they expand and float about, shedding their pollen upon the stigmas of the female flowers; after fertilization takes place, the long stem to the pistillate flower shortens its coils and carries the impregnated ovary to the bottom again, where it ripens into a many-seeded berry from half an inch to two inches long. The leaves of Vallisneria afford a most interesting object for the microscope; the tissues being very thin and transparent, they allow the contents of the cells to be distinctly seen, and these are found to be in constant motion, the contents of each cell moving independently of those of the others. The plant is very abundant in some waters; there are localities upon the Hudson where at certain seasons it is difficult to force a boat through it. It is also abundant on the waters of Chesapeake bay, where it is called by the singular misnomer of wild celery; the rootstocks and their buds are the favorite food of the canvas-back duck, a fact recognized in its specific name, fuligula Vallisneria.

VALLISNIERI, Antonio, an Italian naturalist, born at Tresilico, Modena, May 3,1661, died in Padua, Jan. 18, 1730. He studied medicine at Bologna, and about 1688 began practice in Reggio. In 1700 he became professor at Padua, where he excited opposition by his attempted reforms in medicine. He was indefatigable in his efforts to advance the knowledge of natural history, and in his researches on generation, and opposed the doctrine of spontaneous generation. His complete works were published at Venice in 1733 (3 vols. fol.).

VALLOMBROSA (shady valley), an abbey in a valley of the Apennines about 15 m. E. of Florence. It was founded by St. Giovanni Gualberto about 1038, under the rule of St. Benedict, and the institution was approved by Pope Alexander II. in 1070. The original purpose of the founder was to establish separate hermitages, but the cenobitic or community life soon prevailed, and the Vallombrosians are now recognized as a branch of the reformed Benedictines. In 1500 they exchanged

VALMORE, Marceline Félicité Josèphe Desbordes, a French authoress, born in Douai about 1787, died in Paris, July 7, 1859. She was the daughter of M. Desbordes, a poor artist, and spent a part of her early life with her mother in Guadeloupe. On her return to France she appeared on the stage as a singer, and in 1817 she married the tragedian Valmore. Her works include Recueil de poésies (3 vols., 1829); Les veillées des Antilles (2 vols., 1830); L'atelier d'un peintre (2 vols., 1833); and Le salon de Lady Betty (2 vols., 1836).-See Sainte-Beuve, Madame Desbordes- Valmore, sa vie et sa correspondance (Paris, 1870; English translation by Harriet W. Preston, Boston, 1872).

VALOIS, House of, a younger branch of the Capetian dynasty, so called from the territory of Valois in Île de France, which occupied the throne of France 261 years, from the accession of Philip VI. in 1328 to the death of Henry III. in 1589 and the accession of Henry IV., the first of the Bourbons. (See PHILIP VI., and FRANCE.)

VALONIA. See OAK, vol. xii., p. 558. VALPARAISO. I. A W. central and the smallest province of Chili, bounded N. by Aconcagua, E. and S. by Santiago, and W. by the Pacific; area, including the islands of Juan Fernandez, which belong to it, 1,670 sq. m.; pop. in 1875, 176,682. The surface is mountainous, and the soil, where not irrigated, is poor, excepting in some of the valleys, which are very fertile and produce excellent crops of the cereals, grasses, and fruits. Wine and brandy are made in considerable quantities. Mines of copper and silver are worked, but agriculture is the principal industry. It is divided into the departments of Valparaiso, Quillota, Limache, and Casablanca, named after their chief

towns. The department of Valparaiso is divided into 24 subdelegations, of which the city comprises 20, the rural suburbs three, and the islands of Juan Fernandez one. II. A city, capital of the province, on a bay of the same name, in lat. 33° 1' 56" S., lon. 71° 41' 45" W., 70 m. N. W. of Santiago; pop. about 110,000. Back of the city is a high chain of hills, which nearly surround the bay, opening only toward

the port, extends along the shore at the base of the hills. It contains the principal public and commercial buildings. Beyond it is San Juan de Dios, which extends to the plaza de la Victoria, and beyond that is the Almendral, the most thickly populated quarter, where most of the retail business is done. Still further on is El Baron, on a hill of the same name, and next is La Cabritería, on the road leading to Quillota. The other principal quarters, named from the hills on which they are situated, are Cordillera, Santo Domingo, San Francisco, Carretas, Artillería, Toro, Arrayan, Alegre, and Concepcion. The last two contain the residences of most of the foreign merchants. The streets are generally narrow and irregular, excepting in the newer parts, where they are broad and laid out at right angles to each other. There are six plazas. Among the principal buildings are the government palace, the custom house and government warehouses, the post office, built in 1869, the exchange, the city hall, and two theatres, one of which, the Victoria, will seat 2,000 persons, and is remarkable for its interior decorations. Besides three parish churches, there are several others, of which the Franciscan, a Gothic edifice, is the finest; several chapels and oratorios, and three Protestant churches. Among the charitable institutions is the English, French, and United States hospital, attended by resident physicians. The city is lighted with gas, and has lines of horse cars and steam fire engines.

Valparaiso.

Of

the inhabitants of Valparaiso about 75,000 are natives, 15,000 Germans, 6,500 British, 3,750 French, 1,500 Italians, 250 Americans, and the remainder mostly natives of other South American states.-The bay is well sheltered excepting on the north, is capacious, and has plenty of water. It is defended by a chain of 15 forts, mostly built since 1866, mounting in the aggregate 142 guns. Its position gives it great com

VALTELLINA

mercial advantages, and it is the chief port in the South Pacific. It is the headquarters of foreign men-of-war in the Pacific, and is connected with Panama and intermediate ports by an English and a Chilian line of steamers, and with Hamburg by a German line. It is connected with Santiago by railway. During the year ending Sept. 30, 1874, the port was entered by 1,585 vessels, of 973,090 aggregate tonnage. Of these 611 were British, 276 Chilian, 161 Nicaraguan, 103 German, 101 French, 99 Guatemalan, 87 American, 67 oriental, and 46 Italian. The total value of exports to the United States during that year was $1,041,697; of imports from the United States, $1,999,476.-Valparaiso was founded in 1544; taken by Drake in 1578, and again in 1596 by Hawkins's expedition; and sacked in 1600 by the Dutch corsair Oliver van Noort. It was nearly destroyed by earthquakes in 1730 and 1822. On March 31, 1866, it was bombarded by a Spanish squadron under Admiral Nuñez, and a large part of it ruined. (See CHILI.) VALTELLINA (from the It. Val Tellina; Ger. Veltellin or Veltlin), a valley of Lombardy, in the province of Sondrio, separated by the Rhætian Alps from the Engadine, bounded N. by the Swiss canton of Grisons, N. E. by Tyrol, from which it is separated by the Ortler and the Stilfser Joch, S. by the provinces of Brescia, Bergamo, and Como, and W. by the lake of Como and the valley of Chiavenna. The valley of Valtellina proper is 45 m. long, and with its continuation, the valley of Bormio, 55 m. Together with the valley of Chiavenna it constitutes the province of Sondrio; and the three valleys are sometimes collectively called Valtellina. It is remarkable for fertility, the chief products being wine, grain, fruit, and cheese. The three valleys belonged in the latter part of the middle ages to the dukes of Milan. They became part of Grisons in 1512, and through the influence of France remained in possession of the Swiss despite the efforts of Austria during the thirty years' war to secure the territory. In 1797 Valtellina became part of the Cisalpine republic, and in 1804 of the French department of Adda. In 1814 it came under Austrian rule as part of Sondrio, and in 1859 under Italian rule. Besides Sondrio, the capital of the province, the most noted localities are Teglio, formerly the capital of Valtellina; Grossotto, where a fearful massacre of Protestants took place on July 19, 1620, known as the Valtellina massacre; and Morbegno, where the inquisition took up its headquarters after this episode, and which derived its name from the prevailing malaria.

VÁMBÉRY, Arminius, a Hungarian traveller, of Jewish parentage, born at Szerdahély, county of Presburg, in 1832. He was intended for a tailor, but studied at Presburg, Vienna, and Pesth, supporting himself in the intervals as a private teacher. He finally went in this capacity to Constantinople, where he familiarized himself with eastern languages. To acquire a

knowledge of those of central Asia, he went in 1862 to Persia with the aid of the Pesth academy. In the disguise of a dervish he joined in 1863 Yarkand pilgrims returning from Mecca, and in that and the following year he explored parts of Turkistan, visiting the cities of Khiva, Bokhara, and Samarcand. On his return to Pesth he became oriental professor at the university, which post he still holds (1876). His works include a TurkishGerman pocket dictionary (1858); "Travels in Central Asia" (1865); Cagataische Sprachstudien (1867), one of the first works written on the Turkish of the East, but the accuracy of which is contested; "Wanderings and Adventures in Persia" (1867), to which he added in 1868 "Sketches of Central Asia;" Uigurische Sprachmonumente und das Kudatku-Bilik (1870); Magyar-török szóhasonlatok, a comparison of Hungarian and Turkish words (1870); "History of Bokhara or Transoxiana, from the Earliest Period down to the Present" (1878); "Central Asia and the AngloRussian Frontier Question" (1874); and "The Islam in the Nineteenth Century" (1875). His principal works were translated by himself into English, and published simultaneously in English and German, and have been translated into other languages. Vámbéry is friendly to England, where his writings are very popular; but Russian and other authorities tax him with inaccuracies of statement, some of them going so far as to allege that he had never visited Samarcand and other places of which he gives elaborate descriptions. He has in press (1876) a work on the history, traditions, languages, and literatures of the various Turkish tribes in Asia and Europe.

VAMPIRE, in zoölogy. See BAT.

The

VAMPIRE, a fabulous creature of popular belief, especially in Greece, Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, Poland, and Russia. The ghouls of the Persians and Arabians, subjects of a like credulity, seem closely related to the fabled vampire, and may have suggested it. Vampires were described as persons who for a considerable time after death leave their tombs to disturb the living, usually their young relatives, sucking their blood, appearing to them, making strange noises, and often causing death. fatal epidemics prevalent in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the sudden deaths or languor and exhaustion which marked their severity, fostered this superstition. Many bodies disinterred, being found undecayed and with liquid blood and fresh complexion, were for these reasons deemed undoubted vampires; and to prevent their fatal activities sharpened stakes were driven through them and their hearts and heads were severed and burned.

VAN. I. A town of Turkish Armenia, in the vilayet and 145 m. S. E. of the city of Erzerum, near the E. shore of Lake Van; pop. about 35,000. It is in a beautiful region of fruit trees and gardens. The streets are in a miserable condition, and there are no notable