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Firmĭcus Maternus


1.

Iulius. A Sicilian, the author of an astrological work in eight books (Matheseos Libri), finished A.D. 354. It is a complete system and defence of astrology, conceived in the Neo-Platonic spirit, and hostile to Christianity. It contains the earliest known mention of alchemy (iii. 15). The work is monotonous in diction, and hazy in its reasoning. The editio princeps appeared at Venice in 1499. A critical edition by K. Sittl was in 1892 announced as in preparation. See M. Bonner in the Revue de Philologie, viii. 187; and Dombart in the Jahrb. für Philol. 125, 590.


2.

A Christian writer of about the same period as the preceding, who wrote De Errore Profanarum Religionum in 346 or 347 A.D. Nothing is known of the personality of the author, whose diction is rhetorical but plebeian. Good editions are those of Bursian (Leipzig, 1856) and Halm (with Minucius) (Vienna, 1867).

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