Greek poet of the Roman period
Marianus (Greek: Μαριανóς; fl. c. AD 513) was a Greek poet of the Roman period.
Marianus was the son of Marsus, a Roman advocate and procurator who had settled at Eleutheropolis in Palestine. According to the Suda, Marianus flourished in the reign of Anastasius, and wrote paraphrases (παράφρασεις) in iambics of the works of famous Greek poets: the "Idylls" of Theocritus; the "Argonautica" of Apollonius; the "Hecale", "Hymns," "Aetia", and "Epigrams" of Callimachus; the "Phenomena" of Aratus; and the "Theriaca" of Nicander, among many others. The historian Evagrius calls him Marinus (Μαρινóς) the Syrian, and states that he held the praetorian prefecture in 513 during the rebellion of Vitalian.
There are also five epigrams from the "Cycle" of Agathias preserved in the Greek Anthology and ascribed to a Marianus Scholasticus, who may have been the same person. Four of the epigrams are descriptions of the origins and attributes of the groves, baths and statue of Eros in the suburbs of Amaseia in Pontus. It has been suggested that one of these indirectly influenced Shakespeare's last two sonnets.