Vinalia

The Roman festival of wine held every August 19 in honor of the new vintage for the year. It was widely but incorrectly believed that the Vinalia was associated with the goddess Venus. In all probability , the fete was connected with Jupiter, for the Flamen Dialis sacrificed a ewe, cooked it and offered it on an altar of that deity. Once this had been done, the first of the grapes for the year were cut and the harvest began.

Gaius Julius Vindex - Governor in Tres Galliae

Vindex’s revolt against Emperor Nero was one of the major events leading to the fall of Nero that same year. Vindex was a Romanized Gaul, a member of the senatorial class and a figure of great importance with local Gallic tribes.

He was also a member of a growing group of officials who had become tired of Nero’s tyrannies. Thus he entered into communication with his fellow governors and, in the days before the summer of 68, openly declared himself in revolt from Rome.

He did not seek the throne for himself, but supported Servius Sulpicius Galba, then head of Hispania Tarraconensis. His actual goals were never clear, except that he encouraged Galba to seek the purple and promised him the help of the Gallic provinces.

Unfortunately , he failed in his task, as his command over the tribes other than the Aedui and Arverni (Averni) was limited. Further, his headquarters had to be in Vienna (Vienne), not Lugdunum (Lyons), because that city refused to open its gates to him.

Lugdunum proved fatal to his plans, for while he wasted precious time besieging it, Verginius Rufus, legate of Germania Superior, gathered all available troops, marched to the scene and defeated Vindex near Vesontio (modern Besancon). It is possible that both commanders attempted to avoid bloodshed through negotiations, but a battle was eventually fought. After most of his troops died, Vindex killed himself.

M. Macrinus Vindex - Prefect of the Praetorian Guard

Vindex served during the reign of Marcus Aurelius; possibly the successor to Furius Victorinus, who died in battle in 168 C.E. during the Marcommanic Wars. He followed in Victorinus’s footsteps, for in the continued fighting he too was slain (c. 169–170). The emperor erected three statues in his honor.

Vindobona

Modern Vienna, city on the Danube River, to the west of Carnumtum, in the province of Pannonia Superior. Originally a Celtic community, the site was seen as ideal for Roman occupation, and by the end of the first century C.E. , its status had been increased to municipium; it was headquarters of the X Gemina Legion and the main port of the Classis Pannonica, an imperial river fleet. While it did not possess the political power of the provincial capital, Vindobona was clearly important in a strategic sense.

Vingeanne

Vingeanne Minor engagement fought in 52 B.C.E. between the armies of Julius Caesar and the chieftain Vercingetorix, leader of the rebelling Gallic tribes. The Gauls avoided an open-field confrontation with Caesar, remembering the other defeats suffered at his hands, but in July Vercingetorix allowed an attack to be made by the Gauls.

Caesar put his cavalry to rout and captured three chieftains of the Aedui. Vercingetorix ordered a retreat to the nearby site of Alesia, setting the stage for a climactic siege and a Roman victory.

Annius Vinicianus

He was a leading figure in the plots against the imperial house during the reigns of Gaius Caligula (37–41 C.E.) and Claudius (41–54 C.E.). In 32 C.E., he was listed as a member of a treasonous group of politicians but escaped trial and condemnation when Tiberius set aside certain cases for personal review.

Nine years later he became one of the organizers in a plot to kill Caligula. After the emperor’s death, Vinicianus called for Valerius Asiaticus to withdraw from seeking the throne, hoping to avert a massacre of the senate by the praetorian guard, which had just proclaimed Claudius emperor.

Immediately unhappy with Claudius, Vinicianus joined a conspiracy to elevate Scribonianus Camillus, governor of Illyricum, to the throne in 42. When the attempt failed utterly , he was one of those who followed Scribonianus’s example—and killed himself.

There was another Annius Vinicianus, said by the historian Tacitus (1) to be 26 years old in 63. He served with Domitius Corbulo in Armenia and was married to Corbulo’s daughter. In 66, he died as a result of a failed plot to replace Nero with his father-in-law. His exact relationship to the first Annius Vinicianus is curious, although he may have been his son.

Marcus Vinicius (1)

One of a new class of imperial favorites who owed their political careers to the new emperor, Marcus Vinicius repaid the faith placed in him with loyalty and competence. In 25 B.C.E. he was sent to the Alps to help quell the local tribes. Over the next few years he campaigned in Pannonia, serving with Marcus Agrippa in 13 B.C.E. and later with Tiberius.

He may also have been the legate of Illyricum mentioned in inscriptions as the conductor of operations over the Danube, sometime between 6 B.C.E. and 4 C.E. His actions hemmed in the chieftain Maroboduus and extended Roman influence north of the Danubian frontier. Vinicius then replaced Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (c. 1 C.E.) as legate in Germany.