Macrobius and the New Testameni a Contribution To the Corpus Hellenisticum

Macrobius is a late Latin author, who probably wrote in the beginning of the fifth century A.D. Apart from some fragments of a grammatical treatise, two works have been preserved: his Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis and his Saturnalia. The former is a commentary in two books on Cicero's well-known treatise, which Macrobius interprets in the light of the Neoplatonist doctrines of Porphyry, a pupil of Plotinus. The Saturnalia is a compilation made up of a variety of materials, which he presents in the form of a symposium in seven books, just like Athenaeus' Deipnosophists. The guests at this table-talk are the men of the circle which gathered around the famous defender of paganism Symmachus, eine tragische Gestalt des ausgehenden Heidentums (Richard KLEIN). In their conversation about all possible kinds of subjects which interest them, or rather Macrobius, they present a lot of antiquarian lore, which is of great importance, not only for the students of Macrobius and his time, but also for those who study earlier periods. For it is common knowledge that, due to the fragmentary state in which Greek and Latin literature has been handed down, very often much later authors only have preserved specific materials from a given previous period, so that ideas current in that period may first become visible to us centuries afterwards. This justifies the fact that Macrobius is dealt with in the Corpus Hellenisticum project. We know nothing of Macrobius' life, except that he was a high Roman official. This led some scholars to the assumption that he was a Christian, because a holder of such a high rank as a vir clarissimus et illustris must have been a Christian in the beginning of the fifth century. This is harldy convincing. J. GEFFCKEN,Der Ausgang des griechisch-romischen Heidentums, Heidelberg I929 (repr. Darmstadt I963), I89 points out that even under the reign of the emperor

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