Marcus Aurelius Nemesianus was a Roman poet thought to have been a native of Carthage and flourished about AD 283. He was a popular poet at the court of the Roman emperor Carus (Historia Augusta, Carus, 11).
Bogus name "Olympius"
editA bogus poet by the name of Olympius Nemesianus was mentioned in the Historia Augusta, where he was given authorship of two otherwise-unattested and probably imaginary works, Halieutica on fishing and Nautica on boating. It is likely that a gloss on the Historia Augusta noted the name "Cynegetica" in the margin in Greek letters, probably because the copyist recognized the name Nemesianus and wanted to use his limited knowledge of Greek; a later copyist moved it into the text of the Historia Augusta, and the name Olympius was conflated with the genuine Nemesianus.[1]
Works
editThe works below are by, or have been at times attributed to, Nemesianus:
Didactic poetry
editNemesianus wrote a poem on hunting (Cynegetica); a fragment, 325 hexameter lines, has been preserved. It is neatly expressed in good Latin, and was used as a school textbook by Hincmar of Reims in the 9th century AD. The spoof work Historia Augusta gives to "Olympius Nemesianus" a work on the arts of fishing (Halieutica) and one on sailing (Nautica).[2]
Two fragments exist of a poem about bird catching (De aucupio), which are sometimes attributed to Nemesianus, although this attribution is considered doubtful.[3]
The Eclogues
editFour eclogues, formerly attributed to Titus Calpurnius Siculus, are now generally considered to be by Nemesianus.
The Praise of Hercules
editThe Praise of Hercules, sometimes printed in Claudian's works, may be by him.
Editions
editComplete edition of the works attributed to him in Emil Baehrens, Poetae Latini Minores, iii. (1881); Cynegetica: ed. Moritz Haupt (with Ovid's Halieutica and Grattius) 1838, and R. Stern, with Grattius (1832); Italian translation with notes by L. F. Valdrighi (1876). The four eclogues are printed with those of Calpurnius in the editions of H. Schenkl (1885) and Charles Haines Keene (1887); see L. Cisorio, Studio sulle Egloghe di Nemesiano (1895) and Dell' imitazione nelle Egloghe di Nemesiano (1896); and M. Haupt, De Carminibus Bucolicis Calpurnii et Nemesiani (1853), the chief treatise on the subject. The text of the Cynegetica, the Eclogues, and the doubtful Fragment on Bird-Catching were published in Vol. II of Minor Latin Poets (Loeb Classical Library with English translations (1934).
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ The Poet Nemesianus and the Historia Augusta. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 August 2022. Justin Stover and George Woudhuysen https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-studies/article/poet-nemesianus-and-the-historia-augusta/81388501F51D5CAEC1FEB2487E7F8481#
- ^ The Poet Nemesianus and the Historia Augusta. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 August 2022. Justin Stover and George Woudhuysen https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-studies/article/poet-nemesianus-and-the-historia-augusta/81388501F51D5CAEC1FEB2487E7F8481#
- ^ Hornblower, S. and Spawforth, A. (eds) (1996), the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. p 1033
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nemesianus, Marcus Aurelius Olympius". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 368. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
External links
edit- Nemesianus, Latin text and English translations in the Loeb edition, at LacusCurtius.