FIGULUS, PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS (c. 9845 B.C.)

This article appears in Volume V10, Page 335 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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FIGULUS, PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS (c. 9845 B.C.) , Roman savant, next to Varro the most learned Roman of the age. He was a friend of Cicero, to whom he gave his support at the time of the Catilinarian conspiracy (Plutarch, Cicero, 20; Cicero, Pro Sully, xiv. 42). In 58 he was praetor, sided with Pompey in the Civil War, and after his defeat was banished by Caesar, and died in

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

. According to Cicero (Timaeus, 1), Figulus endeavoured with some success to revive the doctrines of Pythagoreanism. With this was included mathematics, astronomy and

astrology

ASTROLOGY

, and even the magic arts. According to Suetonius (

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

, 94) he foretold the greatness of the future emperor on the day of his

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

, and

Apuleius

APULEIUS, LUCIUS

(Apologia, 42) records that, by the employment of " magic boys " (magici pueri), he
helped to find a sum of money that had been lost. Jerome (the authority for the date of his death) calls him Pythagoricus et magus. The abstruse nature of his studies, the mystical character of his writings, and the general indifference of the Romans to such subjects, caused his works to be soon forgotten. Amongst his scientific, theological and grammatical works mention may beemade of De diis, containing an examination of various cults and ceremonials;

treatises

TREATISES

on divination and the interpretation of dreams; on the sphere, the winds and animals. His Commentarii grammatici in at least 29 books was an ill-arranged collection of linguistic, grammatical and antiquarian notes. In these he expressed the

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

that the meaning of words was natural, not fixed by man. He paid especial attention to orthography, and sought to differentiate the meanings of cases of like ending by distinctive marks (the

apex

APEX

to indicate a

long

LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

vowel is attributed to him). In etymology he endeavoured to find a Roman ex-planation of words where possible (according to him frater was = Pere alter). Quintilian (Instit. oral. xi. 3. 143) speaks of a rhetorical treatise De gestu by him.
See Cicero, Ad Fam. iv. 13; scholiast on Lucan i. 639; several references in Aulus Gellius; Teuffel, Hist.of Roman Literature, 170; M. Hertz, De N. F. studiis atque operibus (1845) ; Quaestiones Nigidianae (189o), and edition of the fragments (1889) by A. Swoboda.

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