Quintus Gargilius Martialis () was a third-century Roman writer on horticulture, botany, and medicine. He has been identified by some with the military commander of the same name, mentioned in a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

inscription of 260 as having lost his life in the colony of Auzia in

Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, encompassing northern present-day Morocco, and from the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in the ...

Caesariensis.'' Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'', viii, 9047. Considerable fragments of his work (probably called ''De hortis''), which treated of the cultivation of trees and vegetables, and also of their medicinal properties, have survived, chiefly in the body of and as an appendix to the '' Medicina Plinii'' (an anonymous 4th century handbook of medical recipes based upon

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

, '' Naturalis Historiae'', xx–xxxii). Extant sections treat of

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and Agriculture, cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called necta ...

es, quinces,

citron The citron (''Citrus medica''), historically cedrate, is a large fragrant citrus fruit with a thick Peel (fruit), rind. It is said to resemble a 'huge, rough lemon'. It is one of the Citrus taxonomy#Citrons, original citrus fruits from which al ...

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera ...

s, chestnuts, parsnips, and various other edibles, with an emphasis on the medical effects they have on the body (quoting

Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides (, ; 40–90 AD), "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of (in the original , , both meaning "On Materia medica, Medical Material") , a 5-volume Greek encyclopedic phar ...

sometimes). Gargilius also wrote a treatise on the tending of cattle (). A biography of the emperor

Alexander Severus Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (1 October 208 – March 235), also known as Alexander Severus, was Roman emperor from 222 until 235. He was the last emperor from the Severan dynasty. Alexander took power in 222, when he succeeded his slain co ...

is also attributed to him in the '' Augustan History.'' This attribution has been read as a joke by some critics.

Editions and Translations

*Edited by Valentin Rose,

Teubner The Bibliotheca Teubneriana, or ''Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana'', also known as Teubner editions of Greek and Latin texts, comprise one of the most thorough modern collections published of ancient (and some medieva ...

edition, 1875, in Latin
Downloadable at Archive.org
*Gargilius Martialis: Curae boum ex corpore Gargili Martialis. Edidit Ernestus Lommatzsch, Leipzig 1903 *Q. Gargilius Martialis: De hortis. A cura di Innocenzo Mazzini, Bologna 1978 (2nd revised ed. 1988) *Gargilius Martialis: Les remèdes tirés des légumes et des fruits. Text établi, traduit et commenté par Brigitte Maire, Paris 2002 *Gargilius Martialis: The Agricultural Fragments. Edited by James L. Zainaldin. Cambridge University Press, 2020 (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries 60) *Gargilius: ''Gesundheit aus dem Garten.'' Bilingual edition in Latin and German, by Kai Brodersen. Stuttgart: Reclam 2022, ISBN 978-3-15-014251-6

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martialis, Quintus Gargilius Martialis 3rd-century writers in Latin Ancient Roman writers 3rd-century Roman physicians Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown