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Marcus Manilius (fl. 1st century AD) originally hailing fromSyria, was aRomanpoet,astrologer, andauthor of apoem in fivebooks calledAstronomica.[1][2]
The author ofAstronomica is neitherquoted nor mentioned by any ancient writer. Even his name is uncertain, but it was probably Marcus Manilius; in the earlier books the author is anonymous, the later give Manilius, Manlius, Mallius. The poem itself implies that the writer lived underAugustus orTiberius, and that he was a citizen of and resident in Rome, suggesting that Manilius wrote the work during the 20s CE. According to the early 18th-century classicistRichard Bentley, he was anAsiatic Greek; according to the 19th-century classicist Fridericus Jacob, anAfrican. His work is one of great learning; he had studied his subject in the best writers, and generally represents the most advanced views of the ancients onastronomy (or ratherastrology).[3]
Manilius frequently imitatesLucretius. Although hisdiction presents some peculiarities, the style is metrically correct, and he could write neat and wittyhexameters.[3]
The astrological systems ofhouses, linkinghuman affairs with the circuit of thezodiac, have evolved over thecenturies, but they make their first appearance inAstronomica. The earliest datable surviving horoscope that uses houses in its interpretation is slightly earlier,c. 20 BCE.Claudius Ptolemy (100–170 CE) almost completely ignored houses (templa as Manilius calls them) in his astrological text,Tetrabiblos.[3]
The work is also known for being the subject of the most salient ofA. E. Housman's scholarly endeavours; his annotated edition he considered his magnum opus, and when the fifth and final volume was published in 1930, 27 years after the first, he remarked he would now "do nothing forever and ever." He nonetheless also thought that it was an obscure pursuit; to an American correspondent he wrote, "I do not send you a copy, as it would shock you very much; it is so dull that few professed scholars can read it, probably not one in the whole United States."[4] It remains a source of bafflement to many that Housman should have elected to abandon (as they thought) a poet likePropertius in favour of Manilius. For example, the criticEdmund Wilson pondered the countless hours Housman devoted to Manilius and concluded, "Certainly it is the spectacle of a mind of remarkable penetration and vigor, of uncommon sensibility and intensity, condemning itself to duties which prevent it from rising to its full height." This is, however, to misunderstand the technical task of editing a classical text.[5] In the same vein,Harry Eyres interpreted it as "what you could see as an act of self-punishment" that so many years were devoted to "a minor Roman versifier whose long didactic poem on astrology must rank as one of the most obscure in the entire annals of poetry".[6]
Animpact crater on theMoon is named after him:Manilius is located in theMare Vaporum.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Manilius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 580–581.