Aristomachus by Soloi

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Aristomachus von Soloi was an ancient beekeeper and researcher from the city of Soloi , who probably lived in the 3rd or 2nd century BC. Lived.

According to ancient reports, he is said to have been engaged in research into bees for 58 years and to have written a work called Μελισσουργικά ("Making Honey"). On the one hand, the period of his activity can be limited by the fact that he apparently already had the text at hand during his work, which is known as the ninth book, chap. 623 b-627 b about bees and their life in the beehive of the 4th century BC. Historia animalium of Aristotle , which originated in the 4th century BC (however, it is precisely with this book that it is not certain whether it actually comes from Aristotle). On the other hand, in the 1st century BC Acting author Gaius Iulius Hyginus (* around 60 BC; † after 4 AD) used the script of Aristomachus for the first Latin monograph De Apibus ("About the bees") as a source, which ante the terminus quem for the life of the bee researcher. Some scholars also date these more precisely to the 3rd or 2nd century BC. Chr.

Aristomachos von Soloi is quoted several times in the Naturalis historia ("natural history") of Pliny the Elder and once in the writing De re rustica by Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella as a source writer . It is possible that his work also served as a template for the poet Virgil in his Georgica and the medical writer Aulus Cornelius Celsus . It has also been assumed that he is identical to Aristomachus, who wrote a pamphlet on the preparation of wine - also used and mentioned by Pliny.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pliny the Elder , Naturalis historia 11:19.
  2. ↑ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 1,11 (list of the sources of the eleventh book).
  3. ↑ a b Max Wellmann : Aristomachus 20 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 946.
  4. ^ Manfred Clauss : Alexandria. Fate of an ancient cosmopolitan city. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-608-94329-3 , p. 104.
  5. ^ Theodorus Johannes Haarhoff: The Bees of Virgil. In: Greece & Rome. Volume 7, 1960, number 2, pp. 155–170, here p. 157.
  6. ^ Joachim Hopp: Directory of the source writers. In: C. Plinius Secundus d. Ä .: Natural history. Latin-German, Book XI: Zoology: Insects. Comparative anatomy. Edited and translated by Roderich König. Artemis-Verlag, Munich / Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-7608-1618-5 , pp. 291–296, here p. 291.
  7. ↑ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 11:19; 13,131; 19.84.
  8. ↑ Columella, De re rustica 9,13,8 f.
  9. ↑ Virgil, Georgica 4.1 to 314.
  10. ↑ Columella: Twelve Books on Agriculture. Book of a stranger on tree cultivation . Latin-German, edited and translated by Will Richter . Volume 2, Artemis-Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-11-035789-5 , p. 482 (commentary section).
  11. ↑ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 1.14 (list of the sources of the fourteenth book).
personal data
SURNAME Aristomachus by Soloi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient beekeeper and bee researcher
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 3rd century BC BC or 2nd century BC Chr.