MACER

macer, aemilius, of verona, roman didactic poet, author of two poems, one on birds (_ornithogonia_), the other on the antidotes against the poison of serpents (_theriaca_), imitated from the greek poet nicander of colophon. according to jerome, he died in 16 b.c. it is possible that he wrote also a botanical work. the extant hexameter poem _de viribus_ (or _virtutibus_) _herbarum_, ascribed to macer, is a medieval production by odo magdunensis, a french physician. aemilius macer must be distinguished from the macer called _iliacus_ in the ovidian catalogue of poets, the author of an epic poem on the events preceding the opening of the iliad. the fact of his being addressed by ovid in one of the epistles _ex ponto_ shows that he was alive long after aemilius macer. he had been identified with the son or grandson of theophanes of mytilene, the intimate friend of pompey. see ovid, _tristia_, iv. 10, 43; quintilian, _instit._ x. 1, 56, 87; r. unger, _de macro nicandri imitatore_ (friedland, 1845); c. p. schulze in _rheinisches museum_ (1898), liii. p. 541; for macer iliacus see ovid, _ex ponto_, ii 10, 13, iv. 16, 6; _amores_, ii. 18.