Hyginus
- I C. Julius Hyginus, author of a collection of fables and of a treatise on astronomy, Suet. Gramm. 20; Gell. 1, 14.—
- II The author of a treatise De limitibus constituendis.
so called from his profession. The Gromatici derived their name from the gruma or gnomon, an instrument used in land surveying and castrametation. We possess, under the name of Hyginus (or Hygenus, according to the spelling of the manuscripts), fragments connected with both these subjects. Works de Limitibus Constituendis
In a fragment, de Limitibus Constituendis, which is attributed by its title to the freedman of Augustus, the author speaks of a division of lands in Pannonia lately undertaken at the command of Trajan. (Ed. Goes. pp. 150. 209.) De Conditionibus Agrorum
In the collections of Agrimensores, severally edited by Turnebus, Rigaltius, and Goesius, there is also published under the name of Hyginus a fragment De Conditionibus Agrorum (ed. Goes. p. 205). This fragment preserves a clause which was usually contained in the lex agraria of a colony founded by an emperor. The Fragmentum Agrarium de Limitibus (Goes. p. 215), which is attributed in one manuscript to Hyginus, and in another to Frontinus, is adjudicated by Niebuhr to the latter.
The commentaries of Aggenus Urbicus, and the Liber Simplici (Goes. p. 76), preserve some passages from Frontinus and Hyginus, but it is difficult to distinguish the borrowed passages from the additions of the later compiler. Controversiae
In the Rheinisches Museum für Jurisprudenz, vol. vii. p. 137, Blume published a treatise de Controversüs Agrorum, which Rudorff once supposed to be the work of Siculus Flaccus [Flaccus, Siculus], but which, upon probable grounds, was attributed by Blume to Hyginus. It is reprinted by Giraud, in his Rei Agrariae Scriptorum Nobiliores Reliquiae, p. 54. (Paris, 1843.) While the work of Frontinus on the same subject treats of fifteen Controversiae, this treats of six only, namely:--1. de Alluvione, atque Abluvione; 2. de Fine (in which occurs a passage ignorantly transposed from a different work of Siculus Flaccus); 3. de Loco; 4. de Modo; 5. de Jure Subsecivorum; 6. de Jure Territorii. Under the fifth Controversia, the writer mentions constitutions of Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and Divas Nerva. This agrees with the inference as to the date of Hyginus Gromaticus, derivable from the fragment de Limitibus Constituendis. de Castrametatione
The work of Hyginus de Castrametatione was frequently cited by Lipsius from manuscript. Editions
The de Castrametatione was first published, with other treatises relating to the art of war, by P. Scriverius, 4to. Antwerp, 1607, and again 1621. There is a subsequent edition by R. H. Scheel, under the title, "Hygini Gromatici et Polybii Megalopolitani de Castris Romanis quae extant, cum notis et animadversionibus, quibls accedunt Dissertationes aliquot de re eadem militari a R. H. S." (4to. Amstel. 1660, and Graevii Thes. Ant. Rom. vol. x. p. 599.) Assessement
The difficulties of the subject, and the obscurities of the style, added to the confusion and corruption of the manuscripts, render these works exceedingly crabbed. Zeiss, in his essays on the Agrimensores in the Zeitschrift für Alterthumswissenschaft for 1840, discusses the question of their authorship, and is disposed, principally on account of a passage in the preface to the Astronomicon, to identify Hyginus Gromaticus with the author of that work and the mythographer. It appears to the writer of this article, that C. Julius Hyginus, the freedman of Augustus, gave origin to the title of most of the works passing under the name of Hyginus. The Augustan author wrote on similar subjects; and it is not unlikely that subsequent text-books were called by the name of their prototypes, as we may designate a spelling-book a Mavor, a book of arithmetic a Cocker, or a jest-book a Joe Miller.
For references to detailed information concerning the Agrimensores and their art, see Frontinus. [J.T.G]
or Hi'ginus, C. JU'LIUS. Suetonius, in his lives of illustrious grammarians, informs us that C. Julius Hyginus was a native of Spain, not, as others had less accurately stated, of Alexandria, that he was a pupil and imitator of the celebrated Cornelius Alexander, surnamed Polyhistor [Alexander, p. 115], that he was the freedman of Augustus, and that he was placed at the head of the Palatine library. We learn from the same authority that he lived upon terms of close intimacy with the poet Ovid and with C. Licinius, " the historian and consular," a personage not mentioned elsewhere, and that having fallen into great poverty, he was supported in old age by the liberality of the latter, but no hint is given of the causes which led to this reverse of fortune.
We find numerous references in Pliny, Gellius, Servius, Macrobius, and others, to various works by "Hyginus" or "Julius Hyginus," which are generally supposed to have been the productions of the Hyginus who was the freedman of Augustus. Of these we may notice,-- Lost works 1. De Urbibus Italicis,
De Urbibus Italicis, or De Situ Urbium Italicarum, in two books at least. (Macr. 1.7 5.18; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. 1.281, 534, 3.553, 7.47. 412, 678, 8.597; see also Plin. H. N. Elench. Auct. ad Lib. III.) 2. De Proprietatibus Deorum.
De Proprietatibus Deorum. (Macr. 3.8.) 3. De Düs Penatibus.
De Düs Penatibus. (Macrob. St. 3.4.) 4. De Virgilio Libri.
De Virgilio Libri. In five books at least. This seems to be the same with the work quoted under the title of Commentaria in Firfiliuim. (Gel. 1.21, 5.8, 6.6, 10.16, 16.6; Macr. 6.9; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. 12.120.) 5. De Familiis Trojanis.
De Familiis Trojanis. (Serv. ad Virg. Aen. 5.389.) 6. De Agricultura,
De Agricultura, in two books at least. (Charis. lib. i. 21.185, p. 115, ed. Putsch.; comp. Columell. 1.2, 9.2, 13.) To this treatise, in all probability, Pliny refers in his H. N. 13.47, 16.84, 18.63, 19.27, 20.45, 21.29. 7. Cinnae Propempticon.
Cinnae Propempticon. (Charis. lib. i. 21.134, pp. 108, 109, ed. Putsch., where two sentences are extracted.) 8. De Vita Rebusque Illustrium Virorum,
De Vita Rebusque Illustrium Virorum, in six books at least. (Gel. 1.14; Joannes Sarisber. Policrit. 5.7.) We may suppose that the De Vita et Rebus Africani, mentioned by A. Gellius (7.1), formed one of the sections of this essay. (See also Ascon. Pedian. in Pison.; Hieron. de Script. Eccles. praef.) 9. Exempla.
Exempla. (Gel. 10.18.) 10. De Arte Militari.
De Arte Militari. (Joannes Sarisber. Policrat. 6.19.) Surviving works
The whole of the above have perished; but we possess two pieces in prose, nearly entire, which bear the name of Hyginus, to which editors, apparently without any authority from MSS., have prefixed the additional designations C. Julius. These are, I. Fabularum Liber
A series of 277 short mythological legends, with an introductory genealogy of divinities. There are blanks from 100.206-219; from 225-238; from 261-270; and two single chapters, 222 and 272, are also wanting. Although the larger portion of these narratives has been copied from obvious sources, they occasionally present the tales under new forms or with new circumstances, and hence are regarded with considerable interest by those who investigate such topics. Editions
The Editio Princeps of the Fabulae was published, under the inspection of Micyllus, at Basel, fol. 1535, in a volume containing also the Astronomica, Palaephatus and Phornutus, Fulgentius, Albricus, the Phaenomena of Aratus, and the Sphere of Proclus, in Greek and Latin; together with the paraphrase of the Phaenomena, by Germanicus.
The best edition of the Fabulae in a separate form is that of Schefer, 8vo. Hamb. 1674. II. Poeticon Astronomicon Libri IV.
Addressed to a certain M. Fabius. The first book, entitled De Mundi ac Sphaerae ac utriusque Partium Declaratione, commences with a general outline of what the author proposes to accomplish, and is then devoted to a definition of the technical terms Mundus, Sphaera, Centrum, Axis, Polus, &c., which are very briefly explained; the second book, De Signorum Coelestium Historiis, comprises an exposition of the legends connected with forty one of the principal constellations, followed up by a brief notice of the five planets and the Milky Way; the third book, De Descriptionibus Formarum Coelestium, contains a detailed account of the number and arrangement of the stars which constitute the different portions of the fanciful shapes ascribed to the constellations previously enumerated; the fourth book, which ends abruptly, De quinque Circulorum inter Corpora Coelestia Notatione, et Planetis, treats of the circles of the celestial sphere, of the constellations appertaining to each, of their risings and settings, of the course of the sun and moon, and of the appearance of the planets. Editions
The Editio Princeps of the Astronomica was published at Ferrara, 4to. 1475, and the second edition at Venice, 4to. 1475; besides which, three other editions were printed at Venice before the close of the fifteenth century. Assessment
These works exhibit in many passages such gross ignorance, and are expressed in phraseology which, although not uniformly impure, frequently approaches so nearly to barbarism, that no scholar now believes that they could have proceeded in their present shape from a man renowned for erudition, who flourished during the highest epoch of Roman literature; but the greatest diversity of opinion exists with regard to their real origin and history. Raphael of Volaterrae, misled by the dedication to M. Fabius, asserted that the author was contemporary with Quintilian; Schefer supposed that he lived under the Antonines, attributing the startling expressions and harsh constructions which everywhere abound to corruption and interpolation, while Muncker would bring him down to the last days of the empire. Again, many critics regard both treatises as merely translations from Greek originals; the astronomical portions, according to Scaliger, are taken from Eratosthenes, according to Salmasius from the Sphaera Graecanica of Nigidius Figulus; Muncker imagines that we must consider them as abbreviations of works by the Augustan Hyginus, executed by some unskilful hand, whom Barth decides to have been an Avianus, or an Ammianus, names which he found in a MS.; Reinesius and Van Staveren look upon the whole as a mere cento, pieced together, without care or discrimination, by an unlettered grammarian, who assumed the designation of the celebrated Hyginus that he might the more effectually recommend his own worthless trash; while, more recently, Niebuhr was led to believe that a fragment brought to light by himself (De Rebus Thebanis Mythologicis) was a portion of a much larger book, and that this furnished the materials from which, with later additions, the Fables of Hyginus had been worked up. The question has been rendered, if possible, still more complicated by the recent discoveries of Angelo Mai, who has published from MSS. in the Vatican three mythographers previously unknown, of whom the first may be as early as the fifth century, and appears to have been known under the appellation of Hyginus, at least the second book ends with the words EXPLICIT LIBER SECUNDIUS C. HNI. FABULARUM, an abbreviation of which the obvious interpretation is C. Higini. These writers, together with a full account of the MSS., will be found in the "Ciassici Auctores e Vaticanis Codicibus," Rom. 1831, vol. iii. pp. 1-277. Editions
The best editions of both works are those included in the " Mythographi Latini" of Muncker, 8vo. Amst. 1681, and in the "Mythographi Latini " of Van Staveren, Lug. Bat. and Amst. 4to. 1742.
(Suet. de Illust. Gramm. 20, and comment. of Vinetus; Isidorus, de Nat. Ser. 17; Honor. Augustodun. de Phil. Mund. 3.12; Raphael Volaterr. Comment. xvi.; Reines. Var. Lect. 3.2, p. 273, 3.8, p. 480; Scaliger, ad Manil. i. p. 34, ad Euseb. Chron. 10; Salmas. de Annis Climact. p. 594. See also the introductions prefixed to the editions of Schefer, Muncker, and especially of Van Staveren, who has collected almost every thing.) [W.R]
(1) Gaius Iulius. A celebrated grammarian. He is mentioned by Suetonius as a native of Spain, though some have supposed him an Alexandrian, and to have been brought to Rome after the capture of that city by Caesar. Hyginus was a freedman of Augustus Caesar, and was put by that emperor in charge of the library on the Palatine Hill. (See bibliotheca.) He also gave instruction to numerous pupils. Hyginus was intimately acquainted with Ovid and other writers of the day, and was said to be the imitator of Cornelius Alexander, a Greek grammarian. Some suppose him to have been the faithless friend of whom Ovid complains in his Ibis. His works, which were numerous, are frequently quoted by the ancients with great respect. The principal ones appear to have been: (a) De Situ Urbium Italicarum; (b) De Troianis Familiis; (c) De Claris Viris; (d) De Proprietatibus Deorum; (e) De Diis Penatibus; (f) A commentary on Vergil; (g) A treatise on Agriculture. These are all lost. Those which are extant, and are ascribed to Hyginus, were possibly written by another individual of the same name. These are: (a) Fabularum Liber, a collection of 277 fables, taken for the most part from Grecian sources, and embracing all the most important legends of antiquity. It is written in a very inferior style, but is still of great importance for the mythologist. Text by Schmidt (Jena, 1872), and see the paper by Wölfflin, Zur Kritik von Hyg. Fabeln, in the Philologus, x. 303. (b) De Astrologia, also called Poetica Astronomia. This, like the previous work, is in prose, and consists of four books, being partly astronomical and mathematical, partly mythological and philosophical in its character, since it gives the origin of the Catasterisms according to the legends of the poets. The proëm of the work is addressed to a certain Quintus Fabius. This work is written in a careless manner, but is very important for obtaining a knowledge of ancient astronomy, and for a correct understanding of the poets. Text by Bunte (Dresden, 1875), and see Robert's edition of the Catasterismi of Eratosthenes (Berlin, 1878).
(2) A gromatic writer of whom nothing is known, but to whom are often ascribed two works —one on legal boundaries (De Limitibus Constituendis), and one on castrametation (De Munitionibus Castrorum), though they are really by two different writers, as the language shows. They are to be assigned to the third century A.D. The text is to be found in the Lachmann-Rudorff editions of the Agrimensores (Berlin, 1848).