MACROBIUS, AMBROSIUS THEODOSIUS, Roman grammarian and philosopher, flourished during the reigns of Honorius and Arcadius (395-423). He himself states that he was not a Roman, but there is no certain evidence about his descent. He is generally supposed to have been praetorian praefect in Spain (399), proconsul of Africa (410), and lord chamberlain (442). But the tenure of high office at that date was limited to Christians, and there is no evidence in the writings of Macrobius that he was a Christian. The identification is thus doubtful.
The most important of his works is the Saturnalia, containing an account of the discussions held at the house of Vettius Prae textatus (c. 325-385) during the Saturnalia. It was written by the author for the benefit of his son Eustathius, and contains a great variety of curious historical, mythological, critical and grammatical disquisitions. There is but little attempt to give any dramatic character to the dialogue ; in each book some one of the personages takes the leading part, and the remarks of the others serve only as occasions for calling forth fresh' displays of erudition. The first book contains a history and discussion of the Roman calendar, and an attempt to derive all forms of worship from that of the sun. Most of the second book, which begins with a collection of bons mots, is lost. The next four books
are devoted to Virgil, and the seventh book consists largely of the discussion of various physiological questions. The work has little original merit and its value lies in the quotations from earlier writers; the main authorities are Gellius, Seneca the phil osopher, Plutarch (Quaestiones conviviales), Athenaeus and the commentaries of Servius (excluded by some) and others on Virgil. We have also two books of a commentary on the Somnium Scipionis narrated by Cicero in his De republica. The moral ele vation of the fragment of Cicero thus preserved to us gave the work a popularity in the middle ages to which its own merits have little claim. Of a third work, De differentiis et societatibus graeci latinique verbi, we only possess an abstract.
See editions by L. von Jan (5848-52, with bibliography of previous editions and commentary) and F. Eyssenhardt (1893, Teubner text) on the sources of the Saturnalia see H. Linke (188o) and G. Wissowa (188o). The grammatical treatise will be found in Jan's edition and H. Keil's Grammatici latini, v. ; see also G. F. Schomann, Commentatio macrobiana (1871) and T. Whittaker, Macrobius (Cambridge, 1923).