Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) 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 ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. He was educated in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a

commonplace book Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are simi ...

, or compilation of notes on

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domain ...

, philosophy,

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

, antiquarianism, and other subjects, preserving fragments of the works of many authors who might otherwise be unknown today.

Name

Medieval manuscripts of the ''Noctes Atticae'' commonly gave the author's name in the form of "Agellius", which is used by

Priscian Priscianus Caesariensis (), commonly known as Priscian ( or ), was a Latin grammarian and the author of the ''Institutes of Grammar'', which was the standard textbook for the study of Latin during the Middle Ages. It also provided the raw materia ...

; Lactantius, Servius and

Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...

had "A. Gellius" instead. Scholars from the Renaissance onwards hotly debated which one of the two transmitted names is correct (the other one being presumably a corruption) before settling on the latter of the two in modern times.

Life

The only source for the life of Aulus Gellius is the details recorded in his writings. Internal evidence points to Gellius having been born between AD 125 and 128.Leofranc Holford-Strevens
"Towards a Chronology of Aulus Gellius"
''Latomus'', 36 (1977), pp. 93-109 He was of good family and connections, possibly of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n origin, but he was probably born and certainly brought up in

. He attended the

Pythian Games The Pythian Games ( grc-gre, Πύθια;) were one of the four Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held in honour of Apollo at his sanctuary at Delphi every four years, two years after the Olympic Games, and between each Nemean and ...

in the year 147, and resided for a considerable period in

. Gellius studied rhetoric under Titus Castricius and Sulpicius Apollinaris; philosophy under

Calvisius Taurus Lucius Calvenus Taurus ( grc, Λούκιος Καλβῆνος Ταῦρος, Loúkios Kalbē͂nos Taũros, also Calvisius Taurus; fl. second century AD) was a Greek philosopher of the Middle Platonist school. Biography Taurus was a native of Be ...

and

Peregrinus Proteus Peregrinus Proteus ( grc-gre, Περεγρῖνος Πρωτεύς; c. 95 – 165 AD) was a Greek Cynic philosopher, from Parium in Mysia. Leaving home at a young age, he first lived with the Christians in Palestine, before eventually being expe ...

; and enjoyed also the friendship and instruction of Favorinus, Herodes Atticus, and Fronto. He returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office. He was appointed by the

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...

to act as an umpire in civil causes, and much of the time which he would gladly have devoted to literary pursuits was consequently occupied by judicial duties.

''Attic Nights''

Gellius' only known work is the ''Attic Nights'' ( la, Noctes Atticae), which takes its name from having been begun during the long nights of a winter which he spent in

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean S ...

. He afterwards continued it in Rome. It is compiled out of an ''Adversaria'', or commonplace book, in which he had jotted down everything of unusual interest that he heard in conversation or read in books, and it comprises notes on

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...

, philosophy,

and many other subjects. One story is the fable of

Androcles Androcles ( el, Ἀνδροκλῆς, alternatively spelled Androclus in Latin), is the main character of a common folktale about a man befriending a lion. The tale is included in the Aarne–Thompson classification system as type 156. The ...

, which is often included in compilations of

Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales c ...

's fables, but was not originally from that source. Internal evidence led

Leofranc Holford-Strevens Leofranc Holford-Strevens (born 19 May 1946) is an English classical scholar, an authority on the works of Aulus Gellius, and a former reader for the Oxford University Press. He is married to the American musicologist Bonnie J. Blackburn. Car ...

to date its publication in or after AD 177. The work, deliberately devoid of sequence or arrangement, is divided into twenty books. All have survived except the eighth, of which only the index survives. The ''Attic Nights'' are valuable for the insight they afford into the nature of the society and pursuits of those times, and for its many excerpts from works of lost ancient authors. The ''Attic Nights'' found many readers in antiquity. Writers who used this compilation include

Apuleius Apuleius (; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern- ...

, Lactantius,

Nonius Marcellus Nonius Marcellus was a Roman grammarian of the 4th or 5th century AD. His only surviving work is the ''De compendiosa doctrina'', a dictionary or encyclopedia in 20 books that shows his interests in antiquarianism and Latin literature from Plautus ...

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the ''Res Gestae ...

, the anonymous author of the '' Historia Augusta'', Servius, and

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North A ...

; but most notable is how Gellius' work was mined by Macrobius, "who, without mentioning his name, quotes Gellius verbatim throughout the ''Saturnalia'', and is thus of the highest value for the text".

Editions

The '' editio princeps'' was published at

in 1469 by Giovanni Andrea Bussi, bishop-designate of Aleria. The earliest critical edition was by Ludovicus Carrio in 1585, published by Henricus Stephanus; however, the projected commentary fell victim to personal quarrels. Better known is the critical edition of

Johann Friedrich Gronovius Johann Friedrich Gronovius (the Latinized form of Gronow; 8 September 1611 – 28 December 1671) was a German classical scholar, librarian and critic. Born in Hamburg, he studied at several universities and travelled in England, France and ...

; although he devoted his entire life to work on Gellius, he died in 1671 before his work could be completed. His son Jakob published most of his comments on Gellius in 1687, and brought out a revised text with all of his father's comments and other materials at Leyden in 1706; this later work became known as the "Gronoviana". According to Leofranc Holford-Strevens, the "Gronoviana" remained the standard text of Gellius for over a hundred years, until the edition of Martin Hertz (Berlin, 1883–85; there is also a smaller edition by the same author, Berlin, 1886), revised by C. Hosius, 1903, with bibliography. A volume of selections, with notes and vocabulary, was published by Nall (London, 1888). There is an English translation by W. Beloe (London, 1795), and a French translation (1896). A more recent English translation is by

John Carew Rolfe John Carew Rolfe, Ph.D. (October 15, 1859 in Newburyport, Massachusetts – March 26, 1943) was an American classical scholar, the son of William J. Rolfe. Rolfe graduated from Harvard University in 1881 and from Cornell University (Ph.D.) ...

(1927) for the Loeb Classical Library. More recently, Peter K. Marshall's edition (Oxford U. Press, 1968, 1990 (reissued with corrections) seems widespread both in print and digital (open access) formats.

Translations

* *

(1927), ''The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius''. Loeb Classical Library. 3 Volumes. , ,

Notes

References

External links

Works by Aulus Gellius at Perseus Digital Library
* * **''The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius'', 1795 translation
Vol. IVol. IIVol. III
*

(Latin text: complete; English translation: Preface thru Book 13)

(Latin text: Books 1–11, 13, 20)
''Noctes atticae''
a
Somni
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gellius, Aulus 125 births 2nd-century deaths 2nd-century Romans 2nd-century writers Ancient Roman antiquarians Aulus Grammarians of Latin Middle Platonists Roman-era students in Athens Silver Age Latin writers Writers from Rome