Aulus Gellius (ca. 125 AD—after 180 AD), was a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up at
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
. He was educated in
AthensAthens , the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, after which he returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office. He is famous for his
Attic Nights, a commonplace book, in which he jotted down notes on
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
,
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
,
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
, and much else.
The only source for the life of Aulus Gellius are the details recorded in his writings.
Aulus Gellius (ca. 125 AD—after 180 AD), was a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up at
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
. He was educated in
AthensAthens , the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, after which he returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office. He is famous for his
Attic Nights, a commonplace book, in which he jotted down notes on
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
,
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
,
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
, and much else.
Life
The only source for the life of Aulus Gellius are the details recorded in his writings. He was of good family and connections, possibly of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
n origin, but he was probably born and certainly brought up at
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
. He travelled much, especially in
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
, and resided for a considerable period at
AthensAthens , the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
. He studied rhetoric under Titus Castricius and
Sulpicius ApollinarisSulpicius Apollinaris, a learned grammarian of Carthage, who flourished in the 2nd century AD. He taught Pertinax, himself a teacher of grammar before he was emperor, and Aulus Gellius, who speaks of him in the highest terms. He is the reputed author of the metrical arguments to the Aeneid and to...
; philosophy under Calvisius Taurus and
Peregrinus ProteusPeregrinus Proteus was a Cynic philosopher, from Parium in Mysia. Leaving home at a young age, he first lived with the Christians in Palestine, before eventually being expelled from that community and adopting the life of a Cynic philosopher and eventually settling in Greece...
; and enjoyed also the friendship and instructions of
FavorinusFavorinus of Arelata was a Hellenistic sophist and philosopher who flourished during the reign of Hadrian.He was of Gaulish ancestry, born in Arelate . He is described as a hermaphrodite by birth...
,
Herodes AtticusHerodes Atticus , also known by his Roman name, Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes Marathonios was a Greek rhetorician, notable as a proponent of Philostratus' Second Sophistic, a pseudo-revival of classical Greek culture.-Ancestry:He was born in Marathon in Attica to a...
, and
FrontoMarcus Cornelius Fronto , Roman grammarian, rhetorician and advocate, was born at Cirta in Numidia. He also was suffect consul of 142.- Life :...
.
He returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office. He was appointed by the
praetorPraetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, either before it was mustered or more typically in the field, or an elected magistrate assigned duties that varied depending on the historical period. The...
to act as an umpire in civil causes; and subsequently much of the time which he would gladly have devoted to literary pursuits was occupied by judicial duties of a similar description. The precise date of his birth, as of his death, is unknown; but from the names of his teachers and companions he must have lived under
HadrianPublius Aelius Hadrianus was emperor of Rome from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoic and Epicurean philosopher...
,
Antoninus PiusTitus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus , generally known in English as Antoninus Pius was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors and a member of the Aurelii. He did not possess the sobriquet "Pius" until after his accession to the throne...
, and
Marcus AureliusMarcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Roman emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Lucius' death in 169...
.
Writings
His only work, the
Attic Nights , takes its name from having been begun during the long nights of a winter which he spent in Attica. He afterwards continued it at 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
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
,
geometryGeometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers....
,
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
,
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
and many other subjects. One story is Androcles, which is often compiled into collections of
AesopAesop , known only for the genre of fables ascribed to him, was by tradition a slave who was a contemporary of Croesus and Peisistratus in the mid-sixth century BC in ancient Greece.-Fables:The various collections that go under the rubric "Aesop's Fables" are still taught as moral...
's fables (but is not found there).
The work, deliberately devoid of sequence or arrangement, is divided into twenty books. All these have come down to us except the eighth, of which nothing remains but the index. 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.
Further reading
- The Worlds of Aulus Gellius, edited by Leofranc Holford-Strevens and Amiel Vardi (Oxford University Press, 2004), a collection of 12 essays by various authors, limited preview online.
- Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Aulus Gellius: An Antonine Author and his Achievement (Oxford University Press; revised paperback edn. 2005), limited preview online.
External links
- Attic Nights (Latin text: complete; English translation: Preface thru Book 13)
- Attic Nights (Latin text: Books 1‑11, 13, 20)