Lucius Varius Rufus (/ˈvɛəriəs, ˈvær-/; c. 74 – 14 BC) was a Roman poet of the early Augustan age. He was a friend of Virgil, after whose death he and Plotius Tucca prepared the Aeneid for publication, and of Horace, for whom he and Virgil obtained an introduction to Maecenas. Horace spoke of him as a master of epic and the only poet capable of celebrating the achievements of Vipsanius Agrippa (Odes, i.6); Virgil (under the name of Lycidas, Ecl. ix.35) regretted that he had hitherto produced nothing comparable to the work of Varius or Helvius Cinna.