What is "hortensius"

Hortensius is a small, bowl-shaped lunar impact crater that is located in the northern part of the Mare Insularum. It lies some distance to the west-southwest of the prominent crater Copernicus. Hortensius is circular and cup-shaped, with a small floor at the midpoint of the sloping interior walls. The interior has a higher albedo than the surrounding lunar mare, despite traces of ray material from Copernicus.

To the north of this feature is a collection of six lunar domes, many having a tiny craterlet at the summit. These are shield volcanoes that were formed by a highly viscous type of lava. The domes are generally circular in form, with a diameter of 6–8 kilometers (4–5 mi), and rising as high as 400 meters (1300 ft). They are formed of the same material as the surrounding mare, although from a different process.

Hortensius can refer to:

• Quintus Hortensius (dictator), Roman dictator in 286 BC.
• Quintus Hortensius Hortalus (114-50 BC), Roman orator.
• Hortensius (Cicero), a lost dialogue by Cicero from 45 BC, which Augustine of Hippo says (in Confessiones) turned him to the way of philosophy
• The Dutch astronomer Martin van den Hove (1605–1639), also known as Martinus Hortensius.
• Hortensius crater, on the Moon, which is named after this Dutch astronomer.
• Hortensius is the name of the steward in the opera La fille du régiment, by Gaetano Donizetti.

Hortensius or On Philosophy is a lost dialogue written by Marcus Tullius Cicero in the year 45 BC. The work had followed the conventional form of a protreptic, and taught that genuine human happiness is to be found by using and embracing philosophy. The dialogue is named after Cicero's friend, the speaker and politician Quintus Hortensius Hortalus. The two other discussants are Quintus Lutatius Catulus and Lucius Licinius Lucullus. This meeting takes place in Lucullus' villa. While the dialogue was extremely popular in the ancient world, the dialogue only survived into the sixth century AD. Today, it is extant in the fragments preserved by Martianus Capella, Servius, Nonius Marcellus, and Augustine of Hippo. Out of the four, Augustine preserved the largest portion of text, although the work is still considered lost.