Note 813 — BOOK XIII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF EXOTIC TREES, AND AN ACCOUNT OF UNGUENTS.
John Bostock translation
Athenæus, B. xiv. c. 22, tells us that these dates were thus called from Nicolaus of Damascus, a Peripatetic philosopher, who, when visiting Rome with Herod the Great, made Augustus a present of the finest fruit of the palm-tree that could be procured. This fruit retained its name of “Nicolaän,” down to the middle ages.