Aemilius Macer

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Bust of Aemilius Macer in the Protomoteca of the Verona City Library , probably a fantasy

Aemilius Macer († 16 BC) was a Roman poet who wrote several didactic poems in Latin during the late republic and early imperial times .

Life

Aemilius Macer came from Verona and died in 16 BC. Otherwise all we know about him is that he was the friend of Roman poets like Ovid and Virgil . The fact that quotations from his work were still used by the grammarians Flavius ​​Sosipater Charisius and Diomedes in the 4th century speaks for its importance and fame .

plant

Only 17 short fragments of his work have survived, mainly from various grammarians. As Ovid narrates in the Tristia , he wrote about volucres (birds), quae nocet serpens (snake venom) and quae iuvat herba (herbal remedies). Charisius, however, uses the terms orthogonia (transformation into birds) and theriacon (remedy for snake venom). The short fragments do not allow a definite conclusion as to the focus of the seals. The longest quote is from Isidore of Seville :

"Cygnus in auspiciis semper laetissimus aves:
hunc optant nautae, quia se non mergit in undas"

"The swan is always the happiest bird at the bird show,
this is what the seafarers want because it does not plunge them into the waves"

Lore

Aemilius Macer enjoyed a great reputation until late antiquity . Pliny the Elder names him at the beginning of Book X of the Naturalis historia as the author used, even if he does not cite him by name within the text. In the Disticha Catonis , one of the most popular folk and school books of the European late Middle Ages, whose roots go back to the 3rd / 4th centuries. Ranging in the 17th century AD, Macer is given as an expert on vir (tut) es herbarum (powers of herbs), along with Virgil on agriculture and other well-known Latin poets. As a result, the word Macer established itself as a synonym for herb book , for example with Macer floridus . These books are not based on content that would have been passed down through well-known works by Aemilius Macer.

literature

  • William Charles Crossgrove: "Macer". In: Author's Lexicon . 2nd Edition. Vol. 5 (1985), Col. 1109-1116.
  • Hellfried Dahlmann : About Aemilius Macer (= treatises of the humanities and social sciences class of the Academy of Sciences in Mainz. Born 1981, number 6). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1981, ISBN 3-515-03554-0 .
  • Werner Grebe: Cato in Latin and German. Facsimile edition of the Volksbuch from 1498. Bibliophile Society, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-879-09122-6 .
  • Bernhard Schnell , William Crossgrove: The German Macer. Vulgate version. With an impression of the Latin Macer Floridus "De viribus herbarum". Niemeyer, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-484-36050-X .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus : Chronicle , year 2001.
  2. ^ Ovid, Tristia IV, 44.
  3. ↑ Scholia Bernensia zu Virgil, Bucolica 5.1.
  4. ↑ Hellfried Dahlmann : About Aemilius Macer (= treatises of the humanities and social sciences class of the Academy of Sciences in Mainz. Born 1981, number 6). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1981, ISBN 3-515-03554-0 , pp. 3–5
  5. ^ Isidore of Seville , Etymologiae 12,7,19 (translation: Lenelotte Möller ).
  6. ^ Werner Grebe: Cato in Latin and German. Facsimile edition of the Volksbuch from 1498. Bibliophilen-Gesellschaft, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-879-09122-6 , p. 7.
  7. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke, Werner Dressendörfer, Gundolf Keil: Older German 'Macer' - Ortolf von Baierland: 'Pharmacopoeia' - 'Herbarium' of Bernhard von Breidenbach - Dye and painter recipes: The Upper Rhine medical composite manuscript of the Berleburg Codex. Color microfiche edition with an introduction to the texts, description of the plant images and the handwriting. Munich 1991 (= Codices illuminati medii aevi. Volume 13).
  8. ^ Bernhard Schnell , William Crossgrove: The German Macer. Vulgate version. With an impression of the Latin Macer Floridus "De viribus herbarum". Niemeyer, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-484-36050-X , pp. 27-29.
personal data
SURNAME Aemilius Macer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION roman poet
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 16 BC Chr.