Lessico

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Antonio Castore

In latino Antonius Castor. Plinio aveva studiato botanica a Roma sotto la guida dell’ultracentenario Antonio Castore. È lo stesso Plinio a tessere le lodi e a riferire le scarne notizie biografiche, forse le uniche disponibili, relative a questo insigne botanico romano che godeva di ottima salute, sia fisica che mentale. Naturalia historia XXV,9:

Quare ceteri sermone eas tradidere, aliqui ne effigie quidem indicata et nudis plerumque nominibus defuncti, quoniam satis videbatur potestates vimque demonstrare quaerere volentibus. Nec est difficilis cognitio: nobis certe, exceptis admodum paucis, contigit reliquas contemplari scientia Antonii Castoris, cui summa auctoritas erat in ea arte nostro aevo, visendo hortulo eius, in quo plurimas alebat centesimum annum aetatis excedens, nullum corporis malum expertus ac ne aetate quidem memoria aut vigore concussis. Neque aliud mirata magis antiquitas reperietur.

Pline l’Ancien parle quelque part d'expériences qu'il aurait faites sur le chant du cygne; il ira voir volontiers une collection de plantes médicinales dans le jardin d'un célèbre amateur de son temps, Antonius Castor; tout ce qu'il peut voir de curieux, il le voit : témoin sa mort mémorable.

Pliny in Rome he studied botany in the topiarius (garden) of the aged Antonius Castor (xxv. 9), and saw the fine old lotus-trees in the grounds that had once belonged to Crassus (xvii. 5).

Castor Antonius, an eminent botanist at Rome in the first century after Christ, who is several times quoted and mentioned by Pliny. He enjoyed a great reputation, possessed a botanical garden of his own (which is probably the earliest on record), and lived more than a hundred years, in perfect health both of body and mind. (Pliii. H.N. xxv.9.) (Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, William Smith, Boston, 1867)