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FIGULUS, PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS (c. 98–45 B...

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 335 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FIGULUS, PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS (c. 98–45 B.C.) , See also:Roman savant, next to See also:Varro the most learned Roman of the See also:age. He was a friend of See also:Cicero, to whom he gave his support at the See also:time of the Catilinarian See also:conspiracy (See also:Plutarch, Cicero, 20; Cicero, See also:Pro See also:Sully, xiv. 42). In 58 he was See also:praetor, sided with See also:Pompey in the See also:Civil See also:War, and after his defeat was banished by See also:Caesar, and died in See also:exile. According to Cicero (See also:Timaeus, 1), Figulus endeavoured with some success to revive the doctrines of Pythagoreanism. With this was included See also:mathematics, See also:astronomy and See also:astrology, and even the magic arts. According to Suetonius (See also:Augustus, 94) he foretold the greatness of the future See also:emperor on the See also:day of his See also:birth, and See also:Apuleius (Apologia, 42) records that, by the employment of " magic boys " (magici pueri), he helped to find a sum of See also:money that had been lost. See also:Jerome (the authority for the date of his See also:death) calls him Pythagoricus et magus. The abstruse nature of his studies, the mystical See also:character of his writings, and the See also:general indifference of the See also:Romans to such subjects, caused his See also:works to be soon forgotten. Amongst his scientific, theological and grammatical works mention may beemade of De diis, containing an examination of various cults and ceremonials; See also:treatises on See also:divination and the See also:interpretation of dreams; on the See also:sphere, the winds and animals. His See also:Commentarii grammatici in at least 29 books was an See also:ill-arranged collection of linguistic, grammatical and antiquarian notes.

In these he expressed the See also:

opinion that the meaning of words was natural, not fixed by See also:man. He paid especial See also:attention to See also:orthography, and sought to differentiate the meanings of cases of like ending by distinctive marks (the See also:apex to indicate a See also:long vowel is attributed to him). In See also:etymology he endeavoured to find a Roman ex-planation of words where possible (according to him See also:frater was = Pere alter). See also:Quintilian (Instit. oral. xi. 3. 143) speaks of a rhetorical See also:treatise De gestu by him. See Cicero, Ad Fam. iv. 13; scholiast on See also:Lucan i. 639; several references in Aulus See also:Gellius; See also:Teuffel, Hist.of Roman Literature, 170; M. See also:Hertz, De N. F. studiis atque operibus (1845) ; Quaestiones Nigidianae (189o), and edition of the fragments (1889) by A. Swoboda.

End of Article: FIGULUS, PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS (c. 98–45 B.C.)

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