What is "antonius"

Antonius is the nomen of the gens Antonia, one of the most important families in ancient Rome, with both patrician and plebeian branches. It is also the source of the English personal name Anthony, as well as a number of similar names in various European languages.

Marcus Antonius claimed that the gens was descended from Anton, a son of Heracles. Women of the family were called Antonia. The Antonii produced a number of important generals and politicians, some of whom are listed below. For other persons with this name, see Antonia (gens).

• Marcus Antonius (83–30 BC), ally of Caesar, triumvir and afterwards enemy of Augustus. Probably the most famous of the Antonii, his life is depicted in William Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra. He promulgated the leges Antoniae of 44 BC, abolishing the office of dictator, re-adjusting provincial commands, confirming Caesar's acta, and granting provocatio to those convicted de maiestate and de vi.

Antonius was a neoplatonist philosopher from the 4th century. He was a son of Eustathius and Sosipatra, and had a school at Canopus, near Alexandria in Egypt. He devoted himself wholly to those who sought his instructions, but he never expressed any opinion upon religious topics, which he considered beyond man's comprehension. He and his disciples were strongly attached to the pre-Christian Roman religions; but he had acuteness enough to see that Christianity was fast becoming the dominant religion, and he predicted that after his death all the splendid temples of the gods would be changed into tombs. His moral conduct is described as truly exemplary.

Antonius was a Greek monk, and a disciple of the Syriac ascetic saint Simeon Stylites. He lived around the year 460.

Antonius wrote a life of his master Simeon, whom he knew closely. It was written in Greek, and the theologian Leo Allatius claims that he saw a Greek manuscript of it; but the only edition which we know to have been published is a Latin translation in Boland's Act. Sanctor. i. p. 264. Theologian Gerardus Vossius, who knew only the Latin translation, was doubtful whether he should consider Antonius as a Latin or a Greek historian.

Antonius was a physician of ancient Greece. He was mentioned by the medical writer Galen, and referred to as "the herbalist" . He must have lived in or before the second century.

The medical formulae of Antonius are several times quoted by Galen, and he is perhaps the same person who is called " the druggist" elsewhere . Possibly they may both be identical with Antonius Castor, but of this there is no proof whatever.

A treatise on the pulse, which goes under Galen's name, but which is probably a spurious compilation from his other works on this subject, is addressed to a person named Antonius, who is there called "studious and philosophical" ; and Galen wrote his work The Passions of the Soul (De Propriorum Animi Cuiuslibet Affectuum Dignotione et Curatione) in answer to a somewhat similar treatise by an Epicurean philosopher of this name, who, however, does not appear to have been a physician.

He is possibly the same man as Antonius Castor, the renowned botanist and pharmacologist mentioned Pliny the Elder.