A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1208 NONIUS. NONNUS.
and Tacitus, who mentions his death in A. D. 60, probable that he was his son. (Weichert, De
praises his character as well as his talents. Lucii Varii et Cassii Parmensis Vita, &c., Grimae.
(Quinctil. x. 1. ~ 102; Plin. Epist. 1. 13; Plin. 1836, pp. 197-199, and Excursus I., "DeC. Nonio
II. AN. xxviii. 2. s. 5; Tac. Ann. xiv. 19, Dial. de Asprenate," p. 301, &c.; comp. Meyer, Orator.
Orat. 23.) Roman. Fraym. p. 492, &c., 2nd ed.) For the
NO'NIUS. 1. A. NONIUS, a candidate for the other persons of the name of Nonius Asprenas, see
tribuneship of the plebs for B. c. 100, was mur- ASPRENAS.
dered by Glaucia and Appuleius Saturninus, 9. NONIUS REcEPTUS, a centurion, remaining
because he was opposed to their party. (Appian, firm to Galba, when his comrades espoused the
B. C. i. 28; Plut. Mar. 29; Liv. Epit. 69.) side of Vitellius, A. D. 69, was thrown into chains
2. NONIUS, a friend of Fimbria, in whose army by them and shortly after put to death. (Tac. Hist.
he was in B. C. 84, when Sulla was preparing to i. 56, 59.)
attack him; but when Fimbria wished his 10. NONIuS ACTIANUS, an infamous delator
soldiers to renew their military oath to him, and under Nero, was punished at the beginning of,called upon Nonius to do so first, he refused. Vespasian's reign, A. D. 70. (Tac. Hist. iv. 41.)
(Appian, Mithr. 59.) NO'NIUS MARCELLUS, the grammarian.
3. NONIUS STRUMA was raised to one of the [MARCELLUS.]
curule magistracies by Julius Caesar, but appears NO'NNOSUS (No'yvovos), was sent by the
to have been unworthy of the honour. Hence emperor Justinian I. on an embassy to the AethioCatullus exclaims (Carte. 52):- pians, Ameritae, Saracens, and other Eastern'" Quid est, Catulle, quid moraris emori? nations. On his return he wrote a History of his
Sella in curuli Struma Nonius sedet." embassy, which has perished, but an abridgment of
it has been preserved by Photius (Bibl. Cod. 3).
4. NONIUS, the son of Nonius Struma [No. 3], From the account of Photius we learn that the
was proscribed by M. Antonius in consequence of father of Nonnosus, whose name was Abraham, had
his possessing an opal stone of immense value. He been also sent on an embassy to the Saracens, and
was the grandfather of Servilius Nonianus [NONI- that his grandfather Nonnosus had likewise been
ANUS]. (Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 6. s. 21.) sent on a similar embassy by the emperor Anasta5. NONIUS, a centurion of the soldiers, was sius. The abridgment of Photius has been remurdered by his comrades in the Campus Martius, printed, in the Bonn collection of the Byzantine
B. C. 41, because he endeavoured to put down writers, in the volume containing the fragments of
some attempts at disorder and mutiny. (Appian, Dexippus, Eunapius, &c., edited by Niebuhr and
B. C. v. 16.) Bekker, 1829. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p.
6. NON1us had the charge of one of the gates of 543; Voss. de Hist. Graec. p. 326, ed. WesterRome in what is called the Perusinian war, B. c. mann.)
41, and admitted L. Antonius into the city. NONNUS (Novvos), a Greek poet, was a native
(Appian, B. C. v. 30.) of Panopolis in Egypt, and seems to have lived
7. NoNIus ASPRENAS had the title of proconsul shortly before the time of Agathias (iv. p. 128),
in B. C. 46, and served under Caesar in the African who mentions him among the recent (VyoL) poets.
war, in'that year, and also in the Spanish war, B. c. Whether he is the same person as the Nonnus
45. (Auct. B. Af'. 80, Hisp. 10.) whose son Sosena is recommended by Synesius to
8. C. NONIUS ASPRENAS, probably a son of his friends Anastasius and Pylaemenes, is uncerthe preceding, was accused, in B. c. 9, of poisoning tain. (Synes. Ep. ad Anast. 43, ad Pylaem. 102.)
130 guests at a banquet, but the number in Pliny Respecting his life nothing is known, except that
is probably corrupt, and ought to be thirty. The he was a Christian, whence he cannot be confounded
accusation was conducted by Cassius Severus, and with the Nonnus mentioned by Suidas (s. v. Sathe defence by Asinius Pollio. The speeches of Aoeu'rios). He is the author of an enormous epic
these orators at this trial were very celebrated in poem, which has come down to us under the name
antiquity, and the perusal of them is strongly of ALovvarafca or Baeapucd,'and consists of fortyrecommended by Quinctilian. Asprenas was an eight books. As the subject of the poem is a pagan
intimate friend of Augustus, and was acquitted divinity and a number of mythological stories, some
through the influence of the emperor. (Plin. H. N. writers have supposed that it was written previous
xxxv. 12. s. 46; Suet. Aug. 56; Dion Cass. lv. to his conversion to Christianity or that it was
4; Quinct. x. 1. ~ 23.) In his youth, Asprenas composed in ridicule of the theology of the pagans;
was injured by a fall while performing in the but neither opinion appears to be founded on any
Ludus Trojae before Augustus, and received in sound argument, for it does not appear why a
consequence from the emperor a golden chain, and Christian should not have amused himself with
the permission:to assume the surname of Torquatus, writing a poem on pagan subjects. The poem itboth for himself and his posterity. (Suet. Aug. self shows that Nonnus had no idea whatever of
43.) The Torquatus, to whom Horace addresses what a poetical composition should be, and it is, as
two of his poems (Carm. iv. 7, Sat. i. 5), is sup- Heinsius characterises it, more like a chaos than a
posed by Weichert and others, to be the same literary production. Although the professed subas this Nonius Asprenas, since all the Manlii ject of the poem is Dionysus, Nonnus begins with
Torquati appear to have perished, which was the the story of Zeus carrying off Europa; he proceeds
reason probably why Augustus gave him the to relate the fight of Typhonus with Zeus; the
ancient and honourable surname of Torquatus. story of Cadmus and the foundation of Thebes,
Some modern writers have supposed that the the stories of Actaeon, Persephone, the birth of
C. Asprenas, who was accused of poisoning, was Zagreus and the deluge, and at length, in the
the same as the proconsul of this name in the seventh book, he relates the birth of Dionysus.
African war [No. 7]; but Weichert has brought The first six or seven books are so completely deforward sufficient reasons to render it snuch more void of any connecting link, that any one of them