PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS

FIGULUS (c. 98–45 B.C.)  , Roman savant, next to Varro the most learned Roman of the age . He was a friend of Cicero, to whom he gave his support at the time of the Catilinarian conspiracy (Plutarch, Cicero, 20; Cicero, Pro Sully, xiv . 42) . In 58 he was praetor, sided with Pompey in the Civil War, and after his defeat was banished by Caesar, and died in exile . According to Cicero (Timaeus, 1), Figulus endeavoured with some success to revive the doctrines of Pythagoreanism . With this was included mathematics, astronomy and astrology, and even the magic arts . According to Suetonius (Augustus, 94) he foretold the greatness of the future emperor on the day of his birth, and Apuleius (Apologia, 42) records that, by the employment of " magic boys " (magici pueri), he helped to find a sum of money that had been lost . Jerome (the authority for the date of his death) calls him Pythagoricus et magus . The abstruse nature of his studies, the mystical character of his writings, and the general indifference of the Romans to such subjects, caused his works to be soon forgotten . Amongst his scientific, theological and grammatical works mention may beemade of De diis, containing an examination of various cults and ceremonials; treatises on divination and the interpretation of dreams; on the sphere, the winds and animals . His Commentarii grammatici in at least 29 books was an ill-arranged collection of linguistic, grammatical and antiquarian notes . In these he expressed the opinion that the meaning of words was natural, not fixed by man .

He paid especial

attention to orthography, and sought to differentiate the meanings of cases of like ending by distinctive marks (the apex to indicate a long vowel is attributed to him) . In etymology he endeavoured to find a Roman ex-planation of words where possible (according to him frater was = Pere alter) . Quintilian (Instit. oral. xi . 3 . 143) speaks of a rhetorical treatise De gestu by him . See Cicero, Ad Fam. iv . 13; scholiast on Lucan i . 639; several references in Aulus Gellius; Teuffel, Hist.of Roman Literature, 170; M . Hertz, De N . F. studiis atque operibus (1845) ; Quaestiones Nigidianae (189o), and edition of the fragments (1889) by A . Swoboda .