Macrobius, Ambrosius Theodosius (c. 370 - 430)

Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius (c. 370 - 430) was a Roman author, grammarian, and philosopher active in the 5th century. He survives only in his writings and of his life, little is certain. In his Saturnalia, he writes that he was 'born under a foreign sky', so we can be confident he was not born in Rome (or even Italy), but of which sky, scholarship is uncertain though most lean towards Tunisia (Africa Vetus). Some believe he was Greek, though his fluency in Latin, greater than his fluency in Greek, has led others to speculate that Latin was his first language. He is associated most often with a 'Macrobius Theodosius' cited in the Codex Tehodosianus as a praetorian prefect of Spain from 399 - 400, a proconsul of Africa in 410, and praepositus (lord chamberlain) in 422. Many believe he was an early Christian convert, though such is not evident in any his writings. He does mention a beloved son, Macrobius Plotinus Eustathius. Regardless of his biographical obscurity, he was a prodigious scholar whose works had a long and substantial influence. Macrobius' commentaries on Cicero's Somnium Scipionis ('Dream of Scipio') became the key source for Neoplatonism in the Latin world and included some foundational discussion of the nature of the world and the cosmos. Other works include the Saturnalia, a collection of Roman religious and antiquarian lore, and the now-lost linguistic work De Differentiis et Societatibus Graeci Latinique Verbi ('On the Differences and Similarities of the Greek and Latin Verb').