Gaius Julius Hyginus ( /hɨˈdʒaɪnəs/; c. 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the famous Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was by Augustus elected superintendent of the Palatine library according to Suetonius' De Grammaticis, 20. It is not clear whether Hyginus was a native of Spain or of Alexandria.
Suetonius remarks that he fell into great poverty in his old age, and was supported by the historian Clodius Licinus. Hyginus was a voluminous author: his works included topographical and biographical treatises, commentaries on Helvius Cinna and the poems of Virgil, and disquisitions on agriculture and bee-keeping. All these are lost.
Under the name of Hyginus there are extant what are probably two sets of school notes abbreviating his treatises on mythology; one is a collection of Fabulae ("stories"), the other a "Poetical Astronomy".
The lunar crater Hyginus and the minor planet 12155 Hyginus are named after him.
Read more about Gaius Julius Hyginus: Fabulae, De Astronomia or Poeticon Astronomicon
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