Marcus Manilius (fl. 1st century AD) was a Roman poet, astrologer, and author of a poem in five books called '' Astronomica''.

The ''Astronomica''

The author of ''Astronomica'' is neither quoted nor mentioned by any ancient writer. Even his name is uncertain, but it was probably Marcus Manilius; in the earlier books the author is anonymous, the later give Manilius, Manlius, Mallius. The poem itself implies that the writer lived under

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Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...

, and that he was a citizen of and resident in Rome, suggesting that Manilius wrote the work during the 20s CE. According to the early 18th century classicist Richard Bentley, he was an Asiatic Greek; according to the 19th-century classicist Fridericus Jacob, an African. His work is one of great learning; he had studied his subject in the best writers, and generally represents the most advanced views of the ancients on

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

(or rather

astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

). Manilius frequently imitates

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into En ...

. Although his diction presents some peculiarities, the style is metrically correct, and he could write neat and witty hexameters. The astrological systems of

houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

, linking human affairs with the circuit of the

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The pat ...

, have evolved over the centuries, but they make their first appearance in ''Astronomica''. The earliest datable surviving horoscope that uses houses in its interpretation is slightly earlier, .

Claudius Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importa ...

() almost completely ignored houses (''templa'' as Manilius calls them) in his astrological text, '' Tetrabiblos''.

A. E. Housman edition

The work is also known for being the subject of the most salient of A. E. Housman's scholarly endeavours; his annotated edition he considered his magnum opus, and when the fifth and final volume was published in 1930, 27 years after the first, he remarked he would now "do nothing forever and ever." He nonetheless also thought that it was an obscure pursuit; to an American correspondent he wrote, "I do not send you a copy, as it would shock you very much; it is so dull that few professed scholars can read it, probably not one in the whole United States." It remains a source of bafflement to many that Housman should have elected to abandon (as they thought) a poet like Propertius in favour of Manilius. For example, the critic

Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...

pondered the countless hours Housman devoted to Manilius and concluded, "Certainly it is the spectacle of a mind of remarkable penetration and vigor, of uncommon sensibility and intensity, condemning itself to duties which prevent it from rising to its full height." This is, however, to misunderstand the technical task of editing a classical text. In the same vein,

Harry Eyres Harry Eyres (born 1958) is a British journalist, writer and poet Biography and Career Eyres was educated as a King's Scholar at Eton College, where he won the Newcastle Scholarship in 1975, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied ...

interpreted it as "what you could see as an act of self-punishment" that so many years were devoted to "a minor Roman versifier whose long didactic poem on astrology must rank as one of the most obscure in the entire annals of poetry".

Honors

impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact crater ...

on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

is named after him: Manilius is located in the

Mare Vaporum Mare Vaporum (Latin ''vapōrum'', the "sea of vapors") is a lunar mare located between the southwest rim of Mare Serenitatis and the southeast rim of Mare Imbrium. It was named by Giovanni Battista Riccioli in 1651.''Autostar Suite Astronomer ...

References

Editions

* J. R. Bram (ed), ''Ancient Astrology: Theory and Practice. Matheseos Libri VIII by Firmicus Maternus'' (Park Ridge, 1975). * ''Manilio Il poema degli astri (Astronomica)'', testo critico a cura di E. Flores, traduzione di Ricardo Scarcia, commento a cura di S. Feraboli e R. Scarcia, 2 vols. (Milano, 1996–2001). * Wolfgang Hübner (ed.), Manilius, ''Astronomica, Buch V (2 Bde)'' (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2010) (Sammlung wissenschaftlicher Commentare).

* Colborn, Robert. 2013. "Solving Problems With Acrostics: Manilius Dates Germanicus." ''Classical Quarterly'' 63.1: 450–452. * Fratantuono, Lee Michael. 2012. "Andromeda, Perseus, and the End of the Astronomica." ''Maia: rivista di letterature classiche'' 64.2: 305–315. * Glauthier, Patrick. 2017. "Repurposing the Stars: Manilius, Astronomica 1, and the Aratean Tradition." ''American Journal of Philology'' 138.2: 267–303. * Goold, G. P. 1961. "A Greek Professorial Circle at Rome." ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' 92: 168–192. * Green, Steven J. 2014. ''Disclosure and Discretion in Roman Astrology: Manilius and his Augustan Contemporaries.'' Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. * Green, Steven J., and Katharina Volk, eds. 2011. ''Forgotten Stars: Rediscovering Manilius’ Astronomica.'' Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. * Habinek, Thomas N. 2007. "Probing the Entrails of the Universe: Astrology as Bodily Knowledge in Manilius’ Astronomica." In ''Ordering Knowledge in the Roman Empire.'' Edited by Jason König and Tim Whitmarsh, 229–240. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press. * Komorowska, Joanna. 2016. "Ad Duo Templa Precor: Poetry, Astronomy, and the Authorial Persona in Manilius' Astronomica, I." ''Eirene'' 52: 341–358. * Lapidge, Michael. 1989. "Stoic Cosmology and Roman Literature, First to Third Centuries A.D." ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt.'' Edited by Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Haase, 1379–1429. Berlin: de Gruyter. * MacGregor, Alexander. 2004. "Which Art in Heaven: The Sphere of Manilius." ''Illinois Classical Studies'' 29: 143–157. * Neuburg, Matt. 1993. "Hitch Your Wagon to a Star: Manilius and His Two Addressees." In ''Mega nepios: Il destinatario nell’epos didascalico/The Addressee in Didactic Epic.'' Edited by Alessandro Schiesaro, Philip Mitsis, and Jenny Strauss Clay, 243–282. ''Materiali e Discussioni per l’Analisi dei Testi Classici'' 31. Pisa: Giardini. * Volk, Katharina. 2009. ''Manilius and His Intellectual Background''. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. * Volk, Katharina. 2002. ''The Poetics of Latin Didactic: Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid, Manilius.'' Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

External links

The ''Astronomica'' of Manilius
at

The Latin Library The Latin Library is a website that collects public domain Latin texts. It is run by William L. Carey, adjunct professor of Latin and Roman Law at George Mason University. The texts have been drawn from different sources, are not intended for rese ...