Antonius Musa

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Antonius Musa was a botanist and the Roman emperor Augustus's physician. In the year 23 BC, when Augustus was seriously ill, Musa cured the illness with cold compresses and became immediately famous.

Musa, the plant group which includes the banana, the plantain and numerous other species, was apparently named after him.

Musa's brother was Euphorbus, physician to king Juba II of Numidia, after whom the plant Euphorbia, which has given its name to a scientific genus, was originally named.

[edit] Sources

• Pliny the Elder, Natural History 19.128; 25.77.
• Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars Augustus 59; 81.1.

[edit] External links

• Antonius Musa (fuller article in the Latin Vicipaedia)