Gaius Julius Hyginus (pronounced: /hɨˈdʒaɪnəs/; circa 64 BCE – 17 CE) was a Latin author, a pupil of the famous Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was by Augustus elected superintendent of the Palatine library according to Suetonius' De Grammaticis, 20. It is not clear whether Hyginus was a native of Spain or of Alexandria. Under the name of Hyginus there are extant what are probably two sets of school notes abbreviating his treatises on mythology; one is a collection of Fabulae ("stories"), the other a "Poetical Astronomy".