510 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LYCEUM OF ANCIENT LITERA 
TURE.—No. XIX. 
MANILIUS, 
F this poet, who lay for so many 
centuries unknown, and concern- 
ing whom so many controversies have 
arisen, We are now to give some account. 
He was so strangely neglected by his con- 
temporaries, that they furnish us with no 
memorials of him; and all that we can 
discover, is by inferences to be drawn 
from some passages in the poem itself. 
There is nothing certainly known of 
the country which gave birth to Mani- 
Jius. It is supposed, however, (Lat he 
was originally from some part of Asia ; 
both from the peculiar construction of his 
sentences, and from the particular sci- 
ence which he has celebrated, more fa- 
miliar to the natives of the East, than to 
the Romans. From these two lines, 
Speratum Hannibalem ‘wostris cecidisse cate- 
nis— 
Quad genitus cum frater Remus bac condidit 
urbem, 
some have endeavoured’ to prove, that 
Manilius was not only a native of Rome, 
but even composed his work in that great 
capital of the world. By others, these 
lines have been considered as spurious*, 
as well as many others which occurin the 
poem. The circumstance of his having 
written not only in Latin, but in a style 
of Latinity which ranks him among the 
the best authors. of the Augistan age, 
does not necessarily imply that he was 
born in Rome, or even in Italy, Pha- 
drus, Terence, Seneca, Luean, and others, 
are instances that the language lost no- 
thing of its elegance or propriety in, the 
hands of strangers; particilarly Phedrus- 
and Terence, the one a native of Thra- 
cia, the other of Africa. If, as it is con- 
tended, he was not only a Roman, but 
of the noble family of the Manilii, who 
so often filled the consular chair, and 
other great offices of the republic, the si- 
lence of his contemporaries is altogether 
unaccountable. It appears to us ex- 
tremely improbable, that a man, at once 
illustrious as a patrician and a poet, 
should have remained unnoticed in an 
age when genius and. talents of every 
kind were courted and encouraged. Why 
is he not mentioned by Ovid in his cata- 
logue of poets?) Why does not Quinti- 
* Particularly by Bentley and Pingré, 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature—Maniltus. 
[July 1, 
lian* propose hzm also to his orator, whet, 
he encourages him to read Macer ahd 
Lucretius, and aihrns that a competent 
skill in astronomy was necessary to make 
him perfect in bis profession? Why do 
the philologers never. use his authority, 
when it might have been so pertinently 
eited by Aulus Geilius and Maerobius? 
Why do the graminarians and mythologists 
appear to be altogether unacquainted 
with his writings? These are queries _ 
which cannot now be answered; but they 
are of sufficient weight to make us hesi- 
tate in pronouncing him to bea native of 
Rome, at least, as one of the Manilii fi 
mily. That he was originally from some 
part of Asia, in whatever place he ré- 
ceived his education, may be surmised 
from his energetic and highly-coloured 
descriptions, and from a variety of ex- 
pressions, which, however poetical, are 
extremely singular, and not to be found 
in the Roman writers of that age. 
As a proof that he was net a Roman 
of illustrious birth, there will ‘be found 
considerable variations, im the eld ma- — 
nuscript copies, with respeet even to the 
name of this obscure poet, 
Gemblacensist, by much the most ancient 
and the best, has no name im the’ title 
page, appearing to have been written in 
the same hand which transcribed the rest 
of the pgem; but the name of Manlius 
poeta may be seen evidently written by @ 
more recent hand. The MS, of Leapsick, 
which is the next in seniority, is thus m+ ~ 
scribed: Arati philosophi Astronomicon ; 
that of Vossievs is entitled M, Malli An- 
tiochi Peni Astronomicon; and the MS, 
Cassinensis has this inscription, C. Ma_ 
nilii poete illustvis Astronomicon.  Itis 
therefore impossible, from these MSS. to 
ascertain the real name of the author, 
since the name in the Gembloars MS. is 
stated not to be written in the same hand 
which executed the rest of the poem; 
that of Leipsick is notoriously false; and 
among the more recent MSS. there are . 
not to be found two which agree in the 
orthography of the name. Bentley, who 
had seen these MSS. and collated all the 
earlier editions of the poet, considers . 
this as a point which cannot now be’ set-- 
tled, This uncertainty may also equally 
refute the opinion of those, who think 
that the poet was the same Manilius the 
astrologer, mentioned by the elder Pliny 5% — 
* Quint. Inst. Orat. © eee 
+ So-called from Gemblours, a town in 
‘the duchy of Brabant. 
t Nat. Hist. xxxv. 17. 
and 
The MS, 
