Priscian

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Priscian

Priscianus Caesariensis (fl.

Floruit

Floruit refers to a period of time during which a person, school, movement or even species was active or flourishing. It is the third person, singular, perfect tense, indicative, active form of the Latin verb florere ? "to flourish"....
500 AD), commonly known as Priscian, was a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
grammarian

Latin grammar

The grammar of Latin language, like that of other ancient Indo-European languages, is highly inflection, which allows for a large degree of flexibility when choosing word order....
. He wrote the Institutiones grammaticae ("Grammatical Foundations") on the subject. This work was the standard textbook for the study of Latin during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
and provided the raw material for the field of speculative grammar

Modistae

The Modistae were the members of a school of grammarians of the 13th century, known as Modism, with members known as most of them active in northern France, Germany, UK and Denmark, their influence being much less felt in southern part of Europe, where the somewhat opposing tradition of the so-called "pedagogical grammar" never lost i...
.

Biography
The details of Priscian's life are largely unknown. Priscian was of Greek descent, and was born and raised in Caesarea (modern Cherchell

Cherchell

Cherchell is a seaport town in the provinces of Algeria of Tipaza Province, Algeria, 55 miles West of Algiers. It is the districts of Algeria of Cherchell District....
, Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
) the capital of the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis

Mauretania Caesariensis

File:Roman Africa.JPGMauretania Caesariensis was a Roman province located in northwestern Africa. It was the easternmost of the North African Roman provinces, mainly in present Algeria, with its capital at Caesaria , now Cherchell....
.

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Priscianus Caesariensis (fl.

Floruit

Latin

Latin grammar

Middle Ages

Modistae

Biography

The details of Priscian's life are largely unknown. Priscian was of Greek descent, and was born and raised in Caesarea (modern Cherchell

Cherchell

Cherchell is a seaport town in the provinces of Algeria of Tipaza Province, Algeria, 55 miles West of Algiers. It is the districts of Algeria of Cherchell District....
, Algeria

Algeria

Mauretania Caesariensis

Cassiodorus

Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator , commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman Empire statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths....
, he taught Latin at Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
. Priscian's minor works include a panegyric

Panegyric

A panegyric is a formal public speech , or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or object , a generally highly studied and discriminating eulogy, not expected to be critical....
to Anastasius (491—518), written about 512, which helps establish his time period. In addition, the manuscripts of his Institutiones grammaticae contain a subscription to the effect that the work was copied (526, 527) by Flavius Theodorus, a clerk in the imperial secretariat.

Works

Priscian's most famous work, the Institutiones grammaticae, is a systematic exposition of Latin grammar. The dedication to Julian probably indicates the consul and patrician

Julian the Apostate

Flavius Claudius Julianus, known also as Julian or Julian the Apostate , was Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty. He was the last non-Christian Roman Emperor, and expended much energy during his reign attempting to supplant the growing power of Christianity within the empire with officially revived Religion in ancient Rom...
, not the author of a well-known epitome of Justinian

Justinian I

Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus , AD 482 or 483 ? 13 or 14 November 565, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and List of Roman Emperors from 527 until his death....
's Novellae, who lived somewhat later than Priscian. The grammar is divided into eighteen books, of which the first sixteen deal mainly with sounds, word-formation and inflexions; the last two, which form from a fourth to a third of the whole work, deal with syntax.

Priscian's grammar is based on the earlier works of Herodian

Aelius Herodianus

Aelius Herodianus or Herodian, ca. 180-250, was one of the most celebrated grammarians of Greco-Roman antiquity. He is usually known as Herodian except when there is a danger of confusion with the historian also named Herodian....
and Apollonius

Apollonius Dyscolus

Apollonius Dyscolus is considered one of the greatest of the Greek language grammarians. He was born at Alexandria, son of Mnesitheus. The dates for his life are not known....
. The examples it includes to illustrate the rules preserve numerous fragments from Latin authors which would otherwise have been lost, including Ennius

Ennius

Quintus Ennius was a writer during the period of the Roman Republic, and is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was of Greeks descent....
, Pacuvius

Pacuvius

Marcus Pacuvius was the greatest of the tragic poets of ancient Rome prior to Lucius Accius.He was the nephew and pupil of Ennius, by whom Roman tragedy was first raised to a position of influence and dignity....
, Accius

Lucius Accius

Lucius Accius , or Lucius Attius, was a Roman Republic tragic poet and literary scholar. The son of a freedman#Ancient Rome, Accius was born at Pisaurum in Umbria, in 170 BC....
, Lucilius

Lucilius

Lucilius is the nomen of the gens Lucilia of ancient Rome.*Gaius Lucilius, satirist 2nd century BC. Lucilius was credited by Horace and others with originating the genre of satire....
, Cato

Cato

Cato may refer to:...
and Varro

Marcus Terentius Varro

Marcus Terentius Varro , also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Ancient Rome scholar and writer....
. But the authors whom he quotes most frequently are Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
, and, next to him, Terence

Terence

Publius Terentius Afer , better known as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC, and he died young probably in Greece or on his way back to Rome....
, Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Ancient Rome philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Constitution of the Roman Republic. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest rhetoric and prose stylists....
, Plautus

Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as Plautus, was a Ancient Rome playwright. His comedy are among the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature....
; then Lucan, Horace

Horace

This article is about the Roman poet Horace. For other uses, see Horace .Quintus Horatius Flaccus, , known in the English language world as Horace, was the leading Roman Empire Lyric poetry during the time of Augustus....
, Juvenal, Sallust

Sallust

For the philosopher, see Sallustius; for other uses, see Sallust .Gaius Sallustius Crispus, generally known simply as Sallust, , a Roman Republic historian, belonged to a well-known plebeian family, and was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines....
, Statius

Statius

Publius Papinius Statius was a Roman poet of the Silver Age of Latin literature, born in Naples, Italy. Besides his poetry, he is best known for his appearance as a major character in the Purgatorio section of Dante Alighieri epic poem The Divine Comedy....
, Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
, Livy

Livy

Titus Livius , known as Livy in English language, was a Ancient Rome historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita, from its founding through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own time....
and Persius.

The grammar was quoted by several writers in Britain of the 8th century--Aldhelm

Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne

Saint Aldhelm , Abbot of Malmesbury of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, Latin poet and Anglo-Saxon literature scholar, was born before the middle of the 7th century....
, Bede

Bede

Bede , , was a monasticism at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria....
, Alcuin

Alcuin

Alcuin of York or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus was a scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria....
--and was abridged or largely used in the next century by Hrabanus Maurus

Rabanus Maurus

Rabanus Maurus Magnentius , also known as Hrabanus or Rhabanus, was a Franks Benedictine monk, the archbishop of Mainz in Germany and a Theology....
of Fulda and Servatus Lupus of Ferrières. About a thousand manuscripts exist, all ultimately derived from the copy made by Theodorus. Most copies contain only books i.—xvi. (sometimes called Priscianus major), some include only (with the three books Ad Symmachum) books xvii. and xviii. (Priscianus minor), and a few contain both parts. The earliest manuscripts are of the 9th century, though a few fragments are somewhat earlier.

Priscian's minor works include

Three treatises dedicated to Symmachus (the father-in-law of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

Anicius Manlius Severinus Bo?thius was a Christian or pagan philosopher of the 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many Roman consul....
): on weights and measures; on the metres of Terence
Terence

Publius Terentius Afer , better known as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC, and he died young probably in Greece or on his way back to Rome....
; and the Praeexercitamina, a translation into Latin of Greek rhetorical exercises from Hermogenes
Hermogenes of Tarsus

Hermogenes of Tarsus in Cilicia was a Greek rhetorician, surnamed the polisher . He flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius .His precocious ability secured him a public appointment as teacher of his art while he was only a boy, attracting the note of the emperor himself; but at the age of twenty-five his faculties gave way, and he...
.
De nomine, pronomine, et verbo ("On noun, pronoun, and verb"), an abridgment of part of his Institutiones for teaching grammar in schools
Partitiones xii. versuum Aeneidos principalium: another teaching aid, using question and answer to dissect the first twelve lines of the Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
. The metre is discussed first, each verse is scanned, and each word thoroughly and instructively examined.
The poem on Anastasius mentioned above, in 312 hexameter
Hexameter

Hexameter is a literature and poetry form, a Line consisting of six metrical foot, as in the Iliad. It was the standard epic metre in Greek and became standard for Latin too....
s with a short iambic introduction
A verse translation into 1087 hexameters of Dionysius
Dionysius Periegetes

Dionysius Periegetes was the author of a description of the habitable world in Greek language hexameter verse written in a terse and elegant style....
's Periegesis, or geographical survey of the world.

Priscian

Biography

Works

External links