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

...[although it] may be spurious, it must nevertheless be ancient: for I see him cited by Synesius, Stephanus, and Zosimus—the Chemical Writers These authors are often associated with early alchemy—and praised among the principal and ancient Authors of that Art. Columella a prominent Roman writer on agriculture on page 263 praises the Commentaries, or treatises original: hypomnemata, of Bolus of Mendes, a notable author of the Egyptian nation, which were falsely published under the name of Democritus. On this point, Reinesius, drawing from Suidas, corrects the name to Bolus of Mendes.

Indeed, many men named Didymus are numbered by the Ancients, but there is no time to discuss each one, nor is it within our purpose, as they should rather be reckoned among the Grammarians. Our author, however—the last of the Didymuses mentioned in Suidas—was of Alexandrian origin and wrote 15 books on Rural Affairs original: "R. R." for "Res Rustica", according to the same Suidas: Didymus, the Alexandrian; Agricultural matters in 15 books.

Cassius Dionysius of Utica received his name from his birthplace; Varro a prolific Roman scholar in Book 1 is the authority who states that he condensed the twenty-eight Punic Books of Mago Mago of Carthage was considered the "Father of Agriculture" on Rural Affairs into twenty Books, having translated them into the Greek language. And Columella calls him the Interpreter of Mago the Carthaginian; Pliny also declares that he frequently made use of Dionysius, who translated Mago. The Roots and Herbs original: Rhizotomika of Dionysius are cited by Stephanus of Byzantium in his work On Cities under the entry Utica, and by the commentator on Nicander in the notes to the Theriaca a poem about medicinal remedies for venomous bites. The seventh Book of the Agricultural Matters of Dionysius of Utica is also praised by Athenaeus in Book 14, page 648.

Diophanes, a Bithynian, originating from the city of Nicaea and a contemporary of Julius Caesar and Cicero, reduced the work of Cassius Dionysius of Utica into an epitome of six Books. Thus says Columella in Book 1: For indeed, Diophanes the Bithynian enclosed within six summaries the entire work of Dionysius of Utica—the translator of Mago the Carthaginian—which had been spread across many volumes. Pliny mentions the same man in the Index to Book 8, as does Marcus Varro in Book 1 with these words: Diophanes in Bithynia usefully reduced these very same books of Dionysius to six volumes, and sent them to King Deiotarus. Later, Asinius Pollio of Tralles further condensed Diophanes himself,