Varus
a cognomen in many Roman gentes, was indicative, like many other Roman cognomens, of a bodily defect or peculiarity; such as Capilo, Naso, Paetus, Strabo, Scaurus, &c. Varus signified a person who had his legs bent inwards (varum distortis cruribus, Hor. Sat. 1.3. 47), and was opposed to Valgus, which signified a person having his legs turned outwards.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.