GELLIUS, Aulus, author of the Noctes Atticoe, was born in the first half of the 2d century of the Christian era, most probably in Rome, and died about 180. Nothing is known of his personal history except from incidental notices in his own book. He studied grammar and rhetoric at Rome and philosophy at Athens, after which he returned to Rome, and held there a judicial office. His only work, the Noctes Atticoe, takes its name from having been begun during the long nights of a winter which he spent in Attica. He afterwards continued it at Rome. It is compiled out of an “Adversaria,” or common-place book, in which he had jotted down everything of unusual interest that he heard in conversation or read in books, and incomprises notes on grammar, geometry, philosophy, history, and almost every other branch of knowledge. The work, which is utterly devoid of sequence or arrangement, is divided into twenty books. All these have come down to us except the eighth, of which nothing remains but the index. The Noctes Atticoe is valuable for the insight it affords into the nature of the society and pursuits of those times, and for the numerous excerpts it contains from the works of lost ancient authors.

The editio princeps of Aulus Gellius appeared at Rome in 1469, and was speedily followed by many others in various cities of Italy, especially Venice. The best editions are those of Gronovius (Leyden, 1706), Lion (Gottingen, 1824-1825), and Hertz (Leipsic, 1853). Aulus Gellius has been translated into English by Beloe (London, 1795); into French by the Abbé de Verteuil (Paris, 1776 - 89), and by Victor Verger (Paris, 1820-30);into German by Walter-stern (Lemberg, 1785), and by Weiss, 2 vols. (Leipsic, 1875-76).