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FULGENTIUS, FABIUS PLANCIADES

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 293 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FULGENTIUS, See also:FABIUS PLANCIADES , Latin grammarian, a native of See also:Africa, flourished in the first See also:half of the 6th (or the last See also:part of the 5th) See also:century A.D. He is to be distinguished from Fulgentius, See also:bishop of Ruspe (468-533), to whom he was probably related, and also from the bishop's See also:pupil and biographer, Fulgentius Ferrandus. Four extant See also:works are attributed to him. (I) Mythologiarum libri iii., dedicated to a certain Catus, a See also:presbyter of See also:Carthage, containing 75 myths briefly told, and then explained in the mystical and allegorical manner of the See also:Stoics and Neoplatonists. For this purpose the author generally invokes the aid of etymologies which, borrowed from the philosophers, are highly absurd. As a See also:Christian, Fulgentius sometimes (but less frequently than might have been expected) quotes the See also:Bible by the See also:side of the philosophers, to give a Christian colouring to the moral See also:lesson. (2) Expositio Vergilianae continentiae ( continentia =contents), a sort of appendix to (1), dedicated to Catus. The poet himself appears to the author and explains the twelve books of the Aeneid as a picture of human See also:life. The three words arma (= virtus), vir (= sapientia),; See also:Primus (=princeps) in the first See also:line represent respectively substantia corporalis, sensualis, ornans. See also:Book i. symbolizes the See also:birth and See also:early childhood of See also:man (the shipwreck of See also:Aeneas denotes the peril of birth), book vi. the plunge into the depths of See also:wisdom. (3) Expositio sermonum antiquorum, explanations of 63 rare and obsolete words, supported by quotations (sometimes from authors and works that never existed). Tt is much inferior to the similar See also:work of Nonius, with which it is often edited.

(4) See also:

Liber absque litteris de aetatibus mundi et hominis. In the MS. heading of this work, the name of the author is given as Fabius See also:Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius (Claudius is the name of the See also:father, and Gordianus that of the grandfather of the bishop, to whom some attribute the work). The See also:title Absque litteris indicates that one See also:letter of the See also:alphabet is wholly omitted in each successive book (A in bk. i., B in bk. ii.). Only 14 books are preserved. The See also:matter is chiefly taken from sacred See also:history. In addition to these, Fulgentius speaks of early poetical attempts after the manner of See also:Anacreon, and of a work called See also:Physiologus, dealing with medical questions, and including a discussion of the mystical signification of the See also:numbers 7 and 9. Fulgentius is a representative of the so-called See also:late See also:African See also:style, taking for his See also:models See also:Apuleius, See also:Tertullian and Martianus See also:Capella. His See also:language is bombastic, affected and incorrect, while the lengthy and elaborate periods make it difficult to understand his meaning. See the edition of the four works by R. Helm (1898, Teubner See also:series); also M. Zink, Der Mytholog Fulgentius (1867); E. Jungmann, " De Fulgentii aetate et scriptis," in Acta Societatis Philologae Lipsiensis, i.

(1871); A: See also:

Ebert, Aligemeine Geschichte der Litt. See also:des Mittelalters, i.; See also:article " Fulgentius " by C. F. Bohr in See also:Ersch and See also:Gruber's Aligemeine Encyklopadie; See also:Teuffel-See also:Schwabe, History of See also:Roman Literature (Eng. trans.).

End of Article: FULGENTIUS, FABIUS PLANCIADES

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