Pompōnius

1. Lucius Pomponius, of Bonōnia, see ATELLAN FARCES.

2. Pomponius Secundus, Roman tragic dramatist of the mid-first century AD who incurred the suspicion of the emperor Tiberius but survived to attain consular rank and military command in Germany after the latter's death. Pliny the Elder served under him against the Germans and wrote his Life, and mentions having seen in his possession papers written by the Gracchi about 200 years previously. Quintilian regarded him as the best tragic poet of his day. Only the title of one of his plays, Aeneas, a fabula praetexta, survives.

3. Pomponius Mēla, of Tingentera (in Spain, near Gibraltar), the author c. AD 43 of the earliest surviving Latin work on geography, De chōrographia (or De situ orbis), ‘on places’, in three books. The work is intended for general readers and is based on earlier accounts. After a summary description of the earth and the three continents Europe, Asia, and Africa, he describes in greater detail the countries around the Mediterranean, starting from Mauretania and working round to Spain; then passing to Gaul, Germany, Scythia, the islands (including the British Isles), India, and the Persian Gulf. He occasionally preserves information not found elsewhere, as, for example, on the Druids. He enlivens his account by descriptions of national characteristics and customs, scenery, and natural phenomena, and by references to birthplaces, battle-fields, and historical and legendary associations. He offers explanations of the tides (the action of the moon is one of them) and of the midnight sun; he writes of the earth as if it were a disc.