P R E L I M I N A R Y R E M A R K S.

The other referring to the previous discussion of authors named Apuleius, however (says Colvius), is Apuleius Celsus, of Centuripe a town in Sicily, a distinguished physician who is said to have lived under the Emperors Augustus or Tiberius. Scribonius Largus a court physician to the Emperor Claudius acknowledges him as his teacher, and Marcellus Empiricus, who became famous under Theodosius, considers him one of the Latin authors on Medicine. The Editor of the Platonist referring to an editor of Apuleius of Madaura, the author of The Golden Ass contends that the Excerpts found in the Geoponica belong to this Apuleius, using these words: I would think this same person (Apuleius Celsus) to be the one whom Palladius praises in his first book on Agriculture, and from whom Cassianus Bassus, the compiler of the Geoponica (which are widely circulated under the name of the Emperor Constantine), described many things. Albertus Faber feels quite differently in the 58th Section of his Decade of Decades a scholarly work of the 17th century. When dealing with the Apuleian herbal, he offers these remarks: I would prefer this Apuleius the Platonist (cited in the Geoponica and by Palladius) to be the author of this herbal, rather than that Celsus, who must have lived under Augustus. Nor is this so very contrary to the facts, as it is not absurd for us to think that some degree of stylistic roughness has been added to him by later scribes. Let the Learned settle the dispute: for I willingly confess it is not yet clear to me to which of the two that Herbal and the Geoponic Excerpts should be attributed.

Aratus, of Soli, from Cilicia, lived under Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia, around the 124th Olympiad approximately 280–270 BCE, as Suidas a 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia testifies in the entry for Aratus original Greek: Ἄρατος. He wrote the Phaenomena and the Astronomica. It would be foolish to heap up more information about him, as he is already well enough known to the literary world.

Photius a 9th-century Patriarch of Constantinople and scholar calls him Berytus in Volume 163. This is incorrect; for Berytus modern-day Beirut is the name of a city located in Phoenicia, which, because of a colony led there by Agrippa (the son-in-law of Augustus), received the name Felix Julia. Perhaps, however, Hermippus, who originated from that same city, is hidden under the name of Berytius. Concerning him, Suidas writes: Hermippus of Berytus, coming from an inland village, was a student of Philo of Byblos; through him, he was introduced to Herennius Severus during the time of the Emperor Hadrian. He was of distinguished family, highly eloquent, and wrote many things. original Greek: Ἕρμιππος, Βηρύτιος, ἀπὸ κώμης μεσογαίου, μαθητὴς Φίλωνος τοῦ Βυβλίου, ὑφ' οὗ ᾠκειώθη Ἑρεννίῳ Σεβήρῳ, ἐπὶ Ἀδριανοῦ τοῦ Βασιλέως, ἔκδηλος ὢν γένει· λόγιος σφόδρα, καὶ ἔγραψε πολλά. That is to say, according to the version by Neocorus Ludolf Küster: Hermippus, the Berytian, originating from an inland town, was a disciple of Philo of Byblos, who secured him the friendship of Herennius Severus under the Emperor Hadrian. This man, although he was a freedman by birth, was nevertheless extremely learned and wrote many works.