Macer, Aemilius

of Verona, was senior to Ovid, and died in Asia, B. C. 16, three years after Virgil, as we learn from the Eusebian Chronicle.

Works

He wrote a poem or poems upon birds, snakes, and medicinal plants, in imitation, it would appear, of the Theriaca of Nicander. His productions, of which not one word remains, are thus commemorated in the Tristia:--

Saepe suas volucres legit mihi grandior aevo,
Quaeque necet serpens, quae juvet herba,
Macer.

Medieval work ascribed to Macer

The work now extant, entitled Aemilius Macer de Herbarum Virtutibus, belongs to the middle ages. Of this piece there is an old translation, "Macer's Herbal, practys'd by Doctor Lynacro. Translated out of Laten into Englysshe, which shewynge theyr Operacyons and Vertues set in the margent of this Boke, to the entent you myght know theyr vertues." There is no date; but it was printed by "Robt. Wyer, dwellynge at the sygne of Saynt Johan evangelyste, in Seynt Martyns Parysshe, in the byshop of Norwytche rentes, besyde Charynge Crosse."

Macer, Aemilius

Works

Bellum Trojanum

2. We must carefully distinguish from Aemilius Macer of Verona, Macer who was one of the Latin Homeristae, and who must have been alive in A. D. 12, since he is addressed by Ovid in the 2d book of the Epistles from Pontus (Ep. x.), and is there spoken of as an old travelling companion, his literary undertaking being clearly described in the lines: --

Tu canis aeterno quidquid restabat Homero,
Ne careant summa Troica bella manu;

while elsewhere (ex Pont. 4.16. 6) he is designated as" Iliacus Macer." We gather from Appuleius that the title of his work was Bellum Trojanum.

Further Information

Hieron. in Chron, Euseb. Ol. cxci.; Ov. Tr. 4.10. 43; Quintilian. 6.3.96, 10.1. §§ 56, 87, 12.11.27; Appuleius, de Orthograph. § 18; Maffei, Verona Illustruta, 2.19; Broukhus. ad Tibull. 2.6; Wernsdorf, Poet. Lat. Min. vol. iv. p. 579.

Macer, Aemilius

Works

Tetrasticha

If the Macer named by Quinctilian in his sixth book be the same with either of the above, we must conclude that one of them published a collection of Tetrasticha, which were turned aside from their true meaning, and pieced together by Ovid, so as to form an invective on good-for-nothing poets, "Adjuvant urbanitatem et versus commode positi, seu toti, ut sunt (quod adeo facile est, ut Ovidius ex tetrastichon Macri carmine librum in malos poetas composuerit)," &c.

[W.R]

From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.