Page "Marcus Manilius" Paragraph 1

The author of Astronomica is neither quoted nor mentioned by any ancient writer.

Even his name is uncertain, but it was probably Marcus Manilius ; in the earlier books the author is anonymous, the later give Manilius, Manlius, Mallius.

The poem itself implies that the writer lived under Augustus or Tiberius, and that he was a citizen of and resident in Rome.

According to the early 1700s classicist, Richard Bentley he was an Asiatic Greek ; according to the 19th-century classicist Fridericus Jacob an African.

His work is one of great learning ; he had studied his subject in the best writers, and generally represents the most advanced views of the ancients on astronomy ( or rather astrology ).