MANILIUS

The reputed author of a Latin didactic poem about astronomy and astrology (Astronomica), in five books, the first of which was written under Augustus, after the battle in the Saltus Teutoburgiensis, 9 A.D., and the fifth under Tiberius. The first two books treat of astronomy as the foundation of astrology; the rest, of the influence of constellations on human destiny. The author certainly intended to write a sixth book, but it has either been lost or was never written. The poet, who shows extensive knowledge, frequently boasts of having been the first among Roman poets to treat the subject, and handles his difficult theme with a dexterity and a moral earnestness that recall Lucretius, whose language he has frequently imitated. In metrical skill he is on a par with the best poets of the Augustan age.