Surviving Works, Vol. I

It has not been found, and it is noted by others only from a single, very recent Leiden codex and from one English one 9.

Perhaps someone might think that the Macrobius Ambrosius who wrote the Commentaries on the Dream of Scipio was a different person than the Macrobius Theodosius who composed the Saturnalia. But since the similarity of the works themselves testifies that they originated from the same author, and furthermore, both are inscribed to Eustachius 10, the author's son; and the author of the booklet On the Differences and Similarities of the Greek and Latin Verb is also called now Macrobius Ambrosius 11 and now Macrobius Theodosius 12 in the codices.

2. But, furthermore, astonishing surnames are added, or said to be added, in certain individual manuscripts.

a) Casp. Barthius, in his Adversaria Book XXXVII, chapter 17, says: "In another page of an old codex, these words are found: The title is as follows: The Commentary of Macrobius Ambrosius Oriniocensis on the Dream of Scipio begins. Let others see to his homeland, for he himself denies several times that he is Latin: and the transcriber seems to look to the art of dream interpretation." These words, slightly changed, were received by Isaac Pontanus into his second edition (at page 1), and to them I. Gronovius added these: "The scholiast of one of our codices also testifies that the author had a triple name: Macrobius Ambrosius Ornicensis. What this monster means or how it should be dealt with, it is not clear. After the explanation of the first two names, the same scholiast returns Onocrisius, which he had previously published as Ornicsis. For he continues thus: He is called Onocrisius because he is a judge of dreams: because he shows and judges which dreams are true, which signify something, and which do not. I suspect that a conjecture arose from this scholium of C. Barthius. If nothing else is hidden, we labor in vain, and no more successfully here with Macrobius than with Martial for Cook, or with Plautus, to whom the names Asinius were attributed." In the Emmeran codex, now in Munich (E3), in which the same scholia seem to be present as in that codex, it is read: The title is indeed as follows: The commentary of Macrobius Ambrosius Orinecresis on the Dream of Scipio begins, and below: Orinecresis or Oricresis is said as if a judge of dreams, specifically because he shows and judges which dreams are true, which designate something, and which do not. Similar things are found in the Bern codex, formerly Bongarsius's (H2): Macrobius olimcretes, that is, judge or interpreter of dreams, and in the Freising codex, now in Munich (C): Macrobius ho . . . tes, that is, interpreter of dreams. Whence it appears that the conjecture of C. Barthius is true and these surnames are corruptions from the Greek oneirokritēs dream interpreter. That which is read in the Rehdiger codex 1, Menicresis, seems to point to the same thing.

b) Alex. Wilthemius, in the appendix to the Diptychon Leodiense (Liège 1658, folio) p. 4, says: "The Maximinian codex of Macrobius (which he had previously called the monastery of St. Maximin) states the name of Macrobius variously in two places. In one place: THE BOOK I OF MACROBIUS AMBROSIUS THEODOSIUS SICETINUS ON THE DREAM OF SCIPIO. In another place: THE COMMENTARIES OF MACROBIUS AMBROSIUS, MOST EMINENT AND ILLUSTRIOUS MAN, ON THE DREAM OF SCIPIO FROM CICERO." A. Mahul 13 thought that Sicetini signified the homeland of Macrobius 14, but those things which Wilthemius added from that same codex show more clearly than light that SICETINI is nothing other than a corruption of the abbreviation V. C. ET INL. 15.