Niger
a Latin writer (judging by his name) on Material Medica, who lived later than Cratevas, and a little before Dioscorides (Dioscor. De Mat. Med. i. praef., vol. i. p. 2), and therefore probably about the beginning of the first century after Christ. He seems to have enjoyed some reputation as a writer, as he is mentioned by St. Epiphanius (ad v. Haeres. 1.1. 3. p. 3), and several times by Galen among eminent pharmaceutical authors (De Simplic. Medicam. Temper. ac Fault. vi. praef. vol. xi. p. 797, De Antid. 1.2. vol. xiv. p. 7, Gloss. Hippocr. praef. vol. xix. p. 64). Caelius Aurelianus calls him the friend of Tullius Bassus (De Morb. Acut. 3.16. p. 233), and Galen says he was a follower of Asclepiades l.c. vol. xi. p. 794.). He is perhaps the person called Sextus Niger by Pliny (Index to H. N xx.), and some suppose his name to have been Petronius Niger. [PETRONIUS.]
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.