Aemilius Macer of

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain. ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. He authored two poems, one on birds (''Ornithogonia''), a translation of a work by

Boios Boios (Βοῖος), Latinized Boeus, was a Greek grammarian and mythographer, remembered chiefly as the author of a lost work on the transformations of mythic figures into birds, his ''Ornithogonia''. ''Ornithogonia'' was translated into Latin by ...

, and the other on the antidotes against the poison of serpents (''Theriaca''), which he imitated from the Greek poet Nicander of Colophon. According to

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

, he died in 16 BC. It is possible that he wrote also a botanical work. The extant

hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek as well as in Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of s ...

poem known as ''Floridus'' or ''De viribus (aut virtutibus) herbarum'', traditionally ascribed to Macer, is actually a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

production by Odo Magdunensis, a French physician.This work in turn cites the following sources: *For Aemilius Macer: **Ovid, ''Tristia'', iv. 10, 43 **

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quin ...

, ''Instit.'' x. 1, 56, 87 **R. Unger, ''De Macro Nicandri imitatore'' (Friedland, 1845) **C. P. Schulze in ''Rheinisches Museum'' (1898) *For Macer Iliacus: **Ovid, ''Ex Ponto'', ii. 10, 13, iv. 16, 6 **Ovid, ''Amores'', ii. 18 Aemilius Macer must be distinguished from the Macer called Iliacus in the

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

ian catalogue of poets, the author of an epic poem on the events preceding the opening of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

.'' The fact of his being addressed by Ovid in one of the epistles ''Ex Ponto'' shows that he was alive long after Aemilius Macer. He has been identified with the son or grandson of Theophanes of Mytilene, the intimate friend of

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macer, Aemilius 16 BC deaths Year of birth unknown Golden Age Latin writers 1st-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Roman poets Aemilii