GAIUS

See also:

• JULIUS

JULIUS

See also:

• GAIUS JULIUS SOLINUS

SOLINUS  , Latin grammarian and compiler, probably flourished during the first half of the 3rd century A.D . He was the author of Collectanea rerum memorabilium, a description of curiosities in a chorographical framework . Adventus, to whom it is dedicated, is identified with Oclatinius Adventus, consul A.D . 218 . It contains a short description of the ancient world, with remarks on historical, social, religious and natural history questions . The greater part is taken from Pliny's Natural History and the geography of Pomponius Mela . According to Mommsen, Solinus also used a chronicle (possibly by Cornelius Bocchns) and a Chorographia pliniana, an epitome of Pliny's work with additions made about the time of Hadrian . Schanz, however, suggests the Roma and Pratum of Suetonius . The Collectanea was revised in the 6th century under the title of Polyhistor (subsequently taken for the author's name) . It was popular in the middle ages, hexameter abridgments being current under the names of Theodericus and Petrus Diaconus . The commentary by Saumaise in his Plinianae exercitationes (1689) is indispensable; best edition by Mommsen (1895), with valuable introduction on the MSS., the authorities used by Solinus, and subsequent compilers . See also Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans., 1900), 389; and Schanz, Geschithte der romischen Litteratur (1904), iv .

I . There is an old

English translation by A . Golding (1587) .