Quick Facts
- Flourished:
- 1st century ad
- Flourished:
- c.1 - c.100
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Gaius Julius Hyginus
Roman author
Gaius Julius Hyginus (flourished 1st century ad) was a Latin author and scholar who, according to Suetonius (De Grammaticis, 20), was appointed by Augustus superintendent of the Palatine library. He went to Rome from Spain or Alexandria as a slave or perhaps a prisoner of war and was freed by Augustus.
Hyginus was a pupil of the learned Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor and a friend of Ovid. Of his numerous works, including topographical and biographical treatises, commentaries on Helvius Cinna and the poems of Virgil, and disquisitions on agriculture and beekeeping, nothing has survived.
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