A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(or Samonicus), enjoyed a high reputation at Rome, in the early part of the third century, as a man of taste and varied knowledge. He lived upon terms of intimacy with the court, and must have been possessed of great wealth, since he accumulated a library amounting, it is said, to 62,000 volumes (Capitolin. Gordian. 18). As the friend of Geta, by whom his compositions were studied with great pleasure, he was murdered while at supper, by command of Caracalla, in the year A. D. 212 (Spartian. Caracall. 4, Get. 5), leaving behind him many learned works (cuius Libri plurimi ad doctrinam exstant, Spartian. l.c.). Sidonius Apollinaris (Carm. 13.21) celebrates his mathematical lore, and that he turned his attention to antiquarian pursuits may be gathered from Arnobius (ad v. Gentes, 6.17) and Macrobius (Macr. 2.13), of whom the latter quotes some remarks by Sammonicus upon the sumptuary Lex Fannia, while in another place (Sat. 3.9), he extracts at full length from the fifth book of his Res Reconditae, the ancient forms by which the gods of a beleaguered town were summoned forth by the besiegers, and the place itself devoted to the destroying powers. In the Saturnalia also (2.12), is preserved a letter by Sammonicus addressed to the emperor Septimius Severus, on the honours rendered at solemn banquets to the sturgeon. According to Lampridius he must have been either an orator or a poet, or perhaps both, for it is recorded by the Augustan historian in his life of

Alexander Severus (100.30) that this prince was wont to read " et oratores et poetas, in queis Serenum Sammonicum, quem ipse noverat et dilexerat, et Horatium." His son, who bore the same name, was the preceptor of the younger Gordian, and bequeathed to his pupil the magnificent library which he had inherited from his sire. (Capitolin. Gordian. 18.)

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