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Gaius Julius Solinus, Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 grammarian and compiler, probably flourished around the middle of the fourth century, though historical scholar Theodor Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a Germany classics, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century....
 dates him to the middle of the third century.

He was the author of De mirabilibus mundi ('The wonders of the world') which circulated both under the title Collectanea rerum memorabilium ('Collection of Curiosities'), and Polyhistor; but the latter title was favoured by the author.






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Gaius Julius Solinus, Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 grammarian and compiler, probably flourished around the middle of the fourth century, though historical scholar Theodor Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a Germany classics, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century....
 dates him to the middle of the third century.

He was the author of De mirabilibus mundi ('The wonders of the world') which circulated both under the title Collectanea rerum memorabilium ('Collection of Curiosities'), and Polyhistor; but the latter title was favoured by the author. The work is indeed a description of curiosities in a chorographical framework. Adventus, to whom it is dedicated, is identified with Oclatinius Adventus, consul 218
218

Events...
. 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
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
's Natural History and the geography of Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela

Pomponius Mela, who wrote around 43, was the earliest Roman Empire geographer.His little work is a mere compendium, occupying less than one hundred pages of ordinary print, dry in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing word-pictures....
.

According to Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a Germany classics, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century....
, Solinus also used a chronicle (possibly by Cornelius Bocchus
Cornelius Bocchus

Cornelius Bocchus was a Lusitanians who wrote about natural history.Most of his writings were lost, but ancient authors mention his writings. Pliny the elder writes an excerpt of the Chronicle of Cornelius Bocchus in his work....
) and a Chorographia pliniana, an epitome of Pliny's work with additions made about the time of Hadrian
Hadrian

Publius Aelius Hadrianus , as emperor Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, and Divus Hadrianus after his apotheosis, known as Hadrian in English language, was Roman Emperor of Roman Empire from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoicism and Epicureanism philosopher....
. Schanz, however, suggests the Roma and Pratsem of Suetonius
Suetonius

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies on the battles of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled On the Life of the Caesars....
.

A greatly revised version of his original text was made, perhaps it is now thought by Solinus himself. This version contains a letter that Solinus wrote as an introduction to the work which gives the work the title Polyhistor ('multi-descriptive'). Both versions of the work circulated widely and eventually Polyhistor was taken for the author's name. It was popular in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, hexameter
Hexameter

Hexameter is a literature and poetry form, a Line consisting of six metrical foot, as in the Iliad. It was the standard epic metre in Greek and became standard for Latin too....
 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
Mommsen

Mommsen is a surname, and may refer to one of a family of German historians, see Mommsen family:*Theodor Mommsen*Tycho Mommsen*Wilhelm Mommsen...
 (1895), with valuable introduction on the manuscripts, the authorities used by Solinus, and subsequent compilers. See also Teuffel
Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel

Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel , German classics, was born at Ludwigsburg in the kingdom of W?rttemberg. In 1849 he was appointed extraordinary, in 1857 ordinary professor in the university of T?bingen, which post he held till his death....
, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans., 1900), 389; and Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur (1904), iv. I. There is an old English translation by A Golding
Arthur Golding

Arthur Golding was an England translator.He was the son of Jonathon Golding of Belchamp St Paul and Halsted, Essex, England, an auditor of the Exchequer, and was probably born in London....
 (1587).

External links

  • at The Latin Library
    The Latin Library

    The Latin Library is a website that collects public domain Latin texts. The texts have been drawn from different sources. Many were originally scanned and formatted from texts in the Public Domain....
    , Latin texts of both the C.L.F. Panckoucke edition (Paris 1847) and the Mommsen edition (1864).


Bibliography

  • Hermann Walter, Die ‘Collectanea rerum memorabilium’ des C. Julius Solinus. Ihre Entstehung und die Echtheit ihrer Zweitfassung, Wiesbaden, 1969 (Hermes. Einzelschriften, 22).