Nigidius Figulus

"Figulus" redirects here. For other uses, see Figulus (disambiguation).

Publius Nigidius Figulus (c. 98 – 45 BC)[1] was a scholar of the Late Roman Republic and one of the praetors for 58 BC.[2] He was a friend of Cicero, to whom he gave his support at the time of the Catilinarian conspiracy.[3][4] Nigidius sided with the Optimates in the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompeius Magnus.

Among his contemporaries, Nigidius's reputation for learning was second only to that of Varro. Even in his own time, his works were regarded as often abstruse, perhaps because of their esoteric Pythagoreanism, into which Nigidius incorporated Stoic elements. Jerome calls him Pythagoricus et magus,[3] a "Pythagorean and mage," and in the medieval and Renaissance tradition he is portrayed as a magician, diviner, or occultist. His vast works survive only in fragments preserved by other authors.

  1. ^ Jerome, in his Chronicon, is the authority for the date of Nigidius's death.
  2. ^ Gian Biagio Conte (4 November 1999). Latin Literature: A History. JHU Press. pp. 220–. ISBN 978-0-8018-6253-3.
  3. ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
  4. ^ Plutarch, Cicero, 20; Cicero, Pro Sulla, XIV. 42.