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MACROBIUS, AMBROSIUS THEODOSIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 269 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MACROBIUS, AMBROSIUS See also:THEODOSIUS , See also:Roman grammarian and philosopher, flourished during the reigns of See also:Honorius and See also:Arcadius (395-423). He himself states that he was not a Roman, but there is no certain See also:evidence whether he was of See also:Greek or perhaps See also:African descent. He is generally supposed to have been praetorian See also:praefect in See also:Spain (399), proconsul of See also:Africa (410), and See also:lord See also:chamberlain (422). But the See also:tenure of high See also:office at that date was limited to Christians, and there is no evidence in the writings of Macrobius that he was a See also:Christian. Hence the See also:identification is more than doubtful, unless it be assumed that his See also:conversion to See also:Christianity was subsequent to the See also:composition of his books. It is possible, but by no means certain, that he was the Theodosius to whom See also:Avianus dedicates his fables. The most important of his See also:works is the Saturnalia, containing an See also:account of the discussions held at the See also:house of Vettius Praetextatus (c. 325—385) during the See also:holiday of the Saturnalia. It was written by the author for the benefit of his son See also:Eustathius (or Eustachius), and contains a See also:great variety of curious See also:historical, mythological, See also:critical and grammatical disquisitions. There is but little See also:attempt to give any dramatic See also:character to the See also:dialogue; in each See also:book some one of the personages takes the leading See also:part, and the remarks of the others serve only as occasions for calling forth fresh displays of erudition. The first bookis devoted to an inquiry as to the origin of the Saturnalia and the festivals of See also:Janus, which leads to a See also:history and discussion of the Roman See also:calendar, and to an attempt to derive all forms of See also:worship from that of the See also:sun. The second book begins with a collection of bons mots, to which all See also:present make their contributions, many of them being ascribed to See also:Cicero and See also:Augustus; a discussion of various pleasures, especially of the senses, then seems to have taken See also:place, but almost the whole of this is lost.

The third, See also:

fourth, fifth and See also:sixth books are devoted to See also:Virgil, dwelling respectively on his learning in religious matters, his rhetorical skill, his See also:debt to See also:Homer (with a comparison of the See also:art of the two) and to other Greek writers, and the nature and extent of his borrowings from the earlier Latin poets. The latter part of the third book is taken up with a dissertation upon luxury and the sumptuary See also:laws intended to check it, which is probably a dislocated portion of the second book. The seventh book consists largely of the discussion of various physiological questions. The value of the See also:work consists solely in the facts and opinions quoted from earlier writers, for it is purely a compilation, and has little in its See also:literary See also:form to recommend it. The form of the Saturnalia is copied from See also:Plato's See also:Symposium and See also:Gellius's Noctes atlicae; the See also:chief authorities (whose names, however, are not quoted) are Gellius, See also:Seneca the philosopher, See also:Plutarch (Quaestiones conviviales), See also:Athenaeus and the commentaries of Servius (excluded by some) and others on Virgil. We have also two books of a commentary on the Somnium Scipionis narrated by Cicero in his De republica. The nature of the See also:dream, in which the See also:elder Scipio appears to his (adopted) See also:grandson, and describes the See also:life of the See also:good after See also:death and the constitution of the universe from the Stoic point of view, gives occasion for Macrobius to discourse upon many points of physics in a See also:series of essays interesting as showing the astronomical notions then current. The moral See also:elevation of the fragment of Cicero thus preserved to us gave the work a popularity in the See also:middle ages to which its own merits have little claim. Of a third work, See also:MADACH 269 De differentiis et societatibus graeci latinique verbi, we only possess an abstract by a certain Johannes, identified with Johannes Scotus See also:Erigena (9th See also:century). See See also:editions by L. von See also:Jan (1848-1852, with See also:bibliog. of previous editions, and commentary) and F. Eyssenhardt (1893, Teubner See also:text); on the See also:sources of the Saturnalia see H. Linke (1880) and G.

Wissowa (188o). The grammatical See also:

treatise will be found in Jan's edition and H. Keil's Grammatici See also:latini, v. ; see also G. F. See also:Schomann, Commentalio macrobiana (1871).

End of Article: MACROBIUS, AMBROSIUS THEODOSIUS

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