I ⇒ (1) A; (2) F; (3) I
Iulius Africanus (ca 190 – 235 CE)
Born ca 160 CE; in addition to his five books on the world chronology, both pagan and
Christian, from early ages to his own time, his main work is a technical encyclopedia entitled
Kestoì (“Embroideries”), written between 227/8 and 232/3 and presented to the emperor
Alexander Seuerus. No firm hypothesis can be made about the actual framework of this
book, since only excerpts and fragments have come down to us. Since a papyrus preserves
the end of Book 18, the original number of books was likely 24 (Souda A-4647).
Vieillefond divides this material into these main sections, exhibiting a variety of interests
and approaches: extracts from Book 7: on warfare, on horse diseases, on weights and meas-
ures, lyric fragments; extracts from Book 13: on cinnamon, on dyeing. The metrological
chapters, in five recensions, appear as a somewhat muddled conflation of lemmas. In des-
cending order, Africanus explained the main weights, liquid- and grain-measures used in the
Mediterranean, along with each sub-multiple. Some recensions record the corresponding
weight of the Roman currency system in use later than Africanus’ time, or assign this
extract to H or D, suggesting this section should perhaps be credited to a
different writer.
RE 10.1 (1917) 116–125 (#47), W. Kroll; J.-R. Vieillefond, Les “Cestes” de Julius Africanus (1970);
H. Chantraine, “Der metrologische Traktat des Sextus Iulius Africanus, seine Zugehörigkeit zu den
κεστο und seine Authentizität,” Hermes 105 (1977) 422–441; OCD3 778, J.F. Matthews; T. Rampoldi,
“I ‘κεστο’ di Giulio Africano e l’imperatore Severo Alessandro,” in ANRW 2.34.3 (1997) 2451–2470;
RAC 19 (2001) 508–518, F. Winkelmann; NP 11 (2001) 494–495 (“Sextus” #2), J. Rist.
Mauro de Nardis
Iulius Agrippa (10 BCE – 90 CE)
Recompounded recipes by earlier pharmacists, as recorded by A in G:
CMGen 7.12 (13.1030–1031 K.), an akopon potion including euphorbia (cf. I),
malabathron, etc., revising G N; and CMLoc 8.5 (13.185–186 K.), stomach
ointment including bdellium, cardamom, cassia, cinnamon, malabathron, myrrh, Indian
nard, pepper, etc., in terebinth, from P. The use of euphorbia and mala-
bathron, plus the citation by Askle ̄piade ̄s, yield a date-range consistent with either of two
homonymous descendants of King Herod, though an identification is not substantiated.
PIR2 I-128 to I-132.
PTK
Iulius Atticus (10 – 30 CE)
From a prominent family in Gallia Narbonensis, an older contemporary of C
(1.1.4), author of a monograph on viticulture. Columella, calling him an expert in the field,
cites some of his recommendations with approval (4.2.2, 3.11.9), while criticizing him for
e.g. preparing trenches for vine plants too deep (3.16.3, 4.1.1–6, 4.2.2). Atticus considered
the shade of elm trees noxious (P 17.90). Cf. I G.
GRL §497.1; OCD3 779, M.S. Spurr; BNP 6 (2005) 1080 (#IV.3), E. Christmann.
Philip Thibodeau
IULIUS AFRICANUS