Trebius Niger

Trebius Niger was an ancient Roman author and statesman of the second century B.C. He was a companion of a certain Lucullus and in 150 B.C. was the proconsul for Hispania Baetica.^[1] He wrote a large work on natural history which was used by Pliny the Elder.^[1]

As a fish

Pliny credited Trebius for his work on ichthyology. However, this acknowledgment was misinterpreted by Thomas of Cantimpré when he wrote his Opus de natura rerum, using Pliny as a source. As such, Thomas records a nonexistent fish called the "black trebius" (trebius niger in Latin). He is followed in this error by St. Albert the Great in his monumental treatise De Animalibus.^[2]

References

1. W. Smith (1870). "Niger, Trebius". A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, II, London. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
2. Beullens, Pieter. Like a Book Written by God's Finger: Animals Showing the Path toward God, in A Cultural History of Animals in the Medieval Age, ed. Brigitte Resl, 2009.