in his two-part plan dealing with cosmography to start with and then with the planets, sec-
ondly in the semi-heliocentric system he describes, where Mercury and Venus revolve round
the Sun, whereas the other planets and the Sun itself turn round the Earth. Book IX largely
copies A Q by means of intermediaries unknown to us.
Beside the works of B, C, and I H, the De nuptiis
became a basic textbook with Carolingian schools, because it provided a genuine encyclo-
pedia. Many Carolingian MSS from the 9th c. bear witness to its systematic use in schools,
and the pictures of the seven maidens standing for the seven disciplines are plentiful in
medieval and Renaissance iconography.
Ed.: J. Willis, De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae (1983); Book VI: G. Gasparotto, Geometria: De nuptiis
Philologiae et Mercurii, liber sextus (1983); VII: Jean-Yves Guillaumin (2003); VIII: A. Le Boeuffle,
Martianus Capella, Astronomie (1998); IX: L. Cristante, Martiani Capellae De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii.
Liber IX (1987).
W.H. Stahl, R. Johnson, E.L. Burge, Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts (1971); S. Grebe, Martianus
Capella (1999); M. Bovey, Disciplinae cyclicae (2003).
Jean-Yves Guillaumin
C ⇒ F C
Capito (Kapito ̄n) of Lukia (500 – 550 CE)
Historian, born in Lukia, wrote an Isaurika in eight books (not 18, a misconception resulting
from a copyist’s mistake), a translation of E’ Breuiarium, and a treatise Peri Lukias kai
Pamphulias, Souda K-342. The very few fragments are quoted in S B’
Ethnika, one of which mentions a certain Kono ̄n of Psimatha in Isauria, bishop of Apameia
in 484, thus dating Capito to the early 6th c.
FHG 4.133–134; RE 3.2 (1899) 1527, E. Schwartz; PLRE 2 (1980) 259–260.
Andreas Kuelzer
Carmen Astrologicum (100 – 500 CE)
Dubiously attributed to T A. Thirteen dactyls correlate the planets,
Moon and Sun to various emotions and physical needs: e.g., hated Kronos is weeping;
He ̄lios is laughter; Moon is sleep. The poet identifies Zeus as the primal force whence
phusis emerges.
Heitsch 2 (1964) 43–44.
GLIM
Carmen de ponderibus et mensuris (280 – 510 CE)
Some 30 MSS preserve this metrological poem of 208 hexameters under the name of
R F or P C. Its arrangement and subject suggests
didactic purposes. The first section treats the Greco-Roman weight system and the as-pound
subdivision; then follows a discussion of capacity measures both for grain and liquids and
their equal (sub-)units, including the artaba (chief Egyptian grain-measure, ca 38 liters). Sec-
tion three covers the specific gravity of fluids and how an areometer can determine it, plus,
how to measure the silver and gold content of alloyed objects (possibly through M’
CAPITO (KAPITO ̄N) OF LUKIA