Aggenus Urbicus

Aggenus Urbicus (also Agennius Urbicus) was an ancient Roman technical writer appearing in the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum, a collection of works on land surveying from Late Antiquity. It is uncertain when he lived, but he may have been a Christian living in the later part of the 4th century, judging by expressions he uses.^[1]

There are three extant works ascribed to him:

• Aggeni Urbici in Julium Frontinum commentarius, a commentary on the De agrorum qualitate, a work ascribed to Frontinus. Aggenus' commentary was not well regarded in later times: Karl Lachmann in the early 19th century would call it "the wretched work of some Christian schoolmaster".^[2]
• In Julium Frontinum commentariorum liber secundus qui Diazographus dicitur.
• Commentariorum de controversiis agrorum pars prior et altera, a commentary on De Controversiis Agrorum ("On Land Disputes"), ascribed to Frontinus. William Smith reports in his Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1892) that Carsten Niebuhr thought this work may have actually been written by Frontinus as well, probably in the time of Domitian near the end of the 1st century, as the author speaks of praestantissimus Domitianus ("most excellent Domitian"), an expression Niebuhr considered unlikely to be applied after his death.^[1]

References[]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Aggenus Urbicus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. p. 71.