Hyginus Gromaticus

Hyginus Gromaticus (Gromaticus from groma, a surveying device) was a Latin writer on land-surveying, who flourished in the reign of Trajan (AD 98–117). Fragments of a work on legal boundaries attributed to him will be found in C. F. Lachmann, Gromatici Veteres, i (1848) and in Carl Olof Thulin, Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum, I Opuscula agrimensorum veterum (Leipzig, 1913). The 'surname' Gromaticus was falsely attributed to Hyginus: There is only one reading in the manuscripts (Arcerianus A 161) which ascribes the work to a KYGYNVS GROMATICVS. The other mss. give the work the title LIBER HYGINI GROMATICVS, so undoubtedly the book was called Liber gromaticus.

A treatise on Roman military camps (De Munitionibus Castrorum), was formerly attributed to him, but is probably of later date, about the 3rd century AD (ed. W. Gemoll, 1879; A. von Domaszewski, 1887) and is now attributed to "Pseudo-Hyginus".

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hyginus". Encyclopædia Britannica. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 175.