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Nonius Marcellus

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Nonius Marcellus was a Roman Grammarian of the 4-5th century. His only surviving work is the De compendiosa doctrina, a dictionary in 20 books.

Life

Little is known about the author. The title of his work is Noni Marcelli Peripatetici Tubursicensis de Conpendiosa Doctrina ad filium which indicates that he was a peripatetic philosopher and came from Thubursicum in Numidia. An inscription from that town dated to 323 AD was dedicated by a certain "Nonius Marcellus Herculius" which indicates that the family of the author was indeed based in that area. [1] He does not mention Christianity in his work, calls himself a peripatetic, and so was perhaps a pagan.[2]

He quotes Aulus Gellius and other second century compilers, and is himself quoted and praised three times by Priscian in the fifth century, so must have lived between these dates. [3] According to the Cambridge History of Classical Literature, he was probably active in the first half of the fourth century, [4] although older scholars considered that he might have lived later in the 4th or even in the 5th centuries. [5] Paul Keyser has recently argued that he must be a contemporary of Severan authors such as Apuleius, or shortly after.[6]

Works

The De compendiosa doctrina is a Latin dictionary or encyclopedia of Republican Latin, which is one of our major sources for lost works of the Roman Republic. It consists of words, a short definition, and then quotations of authors using the word. [7] It has been printed under a number of titles, including De proprietate latini sermonis and De varia significatione Verborum.

The De compendiosa doctrina is in twenty books. The first twelve books are based around words or forms of words. The remaining eight are organised by subject matter, such as clothing, weapons, food, etc. The entries consist of brief definitions, followed by quotations. These are taken from sources of the Second century, like Aulus Gellius or Fronto, rather than directly.[8]

The research of W.M.Lindsay[9] and later of Strzelecki[10] has shown that Nonius obtained many of his lemmata (entries) and the first citation for it from earlier grammatical texts which are now lost. The remainder of the entries and the extra citations belong to 41 books, which were either his own or borrowed from a library in the local town. For each section (either a book or a letter entry within a book) Nonius worked through his 41 lists from 41 volumes in the same order, first to find the lead-citation, and then again in order for additional citations. Because of this it is possible to work out whether Nonius is quoting an author first hand or from a grammar. The latter source is full of errors.[11]

The Doctrina is preserves fragments from old dramatists, annalists, satirists, and antiquarian writers. It is remarkable that in the quotations from the authors cited Nonius always follows the same order, beginning with Plautus and ending with Varro and Cato. The grammarians Priscian and Fulgentius borrowed largely from his book; in the 5th century a certain Julius Tryphonianus Sabinus brought out a revised and annotated edition.[12]

The Doctrina was edited with notes by J. Mercier in 1614 at Paris under the title De varia significatione Verborum.[13] The page numbers of the Mercier edition are used as a reference in later editions (e.g. 121 M. means "page 121 of the Mercier edition").

He also wrote a volume of letters On the neglect of study, which is lost but to which he refers in the Doctrina.[14]

References

  1. ^ W. M. Lindsay, Noni Marcelli, vol. 1, Teubner, 1903, p.xiii. The inscription is CIL VIII 4878.
  2. ^ H. Nettleship, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 3, No. 9 (1882), pp. 1-16. p.2-3: "His assumption of the title Peripateticus justifies us in concluding further that he was not a Christian; the contents of his book prove that he was an eager student of ancient and classical Latin. He may fairly therefore be classed, for literary purposes, among the non-Christian scholars and antiquarians of the fourth and fifth centuries; with Servius the commentator on Vergil, Macrobius, and the elder Symmachus."
  3. ^ W. M. Lindsay, Noni Marcelli, vol. 1, Teubner, 1903, p.xiii. Note 2 lists references to Nonius by Priscian in Inst. I, p.35; I. p.269, and 499.
  4. ^ Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. 2: Latin Literature, p.769: "A rather different kind of grammatical activity is represented by the De compendiosa doctrina of Nonius Marcellus, an African who was probably active in the first half of the fourth century."
  5. ^ W.M.Lindsay, Nonius Marcellus, St. Andrews University Publications 1, Oxford: Parker (1901), p.1: "Of Nonius himself little is known. From various indications it has been inferred that he lived in the fourth or fifth century A.D., and was a dignitary in the small town of Thubursicum in North Africa."
  6. ^ Paul T. Keyser, Late Authors in Nonius Marcellus and Other Evidence of His Date, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 96 (1994), pp. 369-389. p.388-9: "The prevailing belief that Nonius must belong roughly to the fourth century A.D. is based on little more than the tendency to presume that an undatable Latin work associated with a Roman aristocrat dates from the fourth century A.D. ... The inference that Nonius is Severan is ... based on ... the otherwise isolated and inexplicable cluster of quotations of authors dated to ca. A.D. 160-210 in the context of Nonius' express preference for the auctoritas of Republican and Augustan authors. Furthermore, this is supported by some items of contemporary language he records, by his heavy use of rolls rather than codices, and by his designation as a Peripatetic. In the end, one can conclude that he is to be dated to ca. A.D. 205 +- 20."
  7. ^ W.M.Lindsay, Nonius Marcellus, St. Andrews University Publications 1, Oxford: Parker (1901), p.1: "Of the three large Latin Dictionaries or Encyclopaedias which have been transmitted from ancient to modern times, (1) Festus' Epitome of Verrius Flaccus 'De Verborum Significatu,' (2) Nonius Marcellus 'de Compendiosa Doctrina,' (3) the 'Etymologiae' of Isidore, the second excels in its wealth of quotations from the literature of the Republic. Most of what has been preserved of the lost Republican writers, such as Accius the tragedian, Lucilius the satirist, Sisenna the historian, we owe to the quotations with which Nonius has illustrated the words of his Dictionary."
  8. ^ Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. 2: Latin Literature, p.769: "The first twelve books are arranged grammatically, i.e. the entries are based on words or forms, the remaining eight are organized by subject matter, e.g. articles of clothing, weapons. The entries in each case are substantially of the same character, and consist of brief definitions supported by a series of citations from Republican authors. ... Nonius Marcellus works largely at second hand, from earlier collections of excerpts rather than from the original texts. His ignorance and inattention diminish but cannot destroy the value of his compilation. Without him our knowledge of such major Republican writers as Lucilius, Pacuvius and Accius would be sadly reduced."
  9. ^ Nonius Marcellus' Dictionary of Republican Latin, 1901. Reference from Habinek.
  10. ^ Paulys Real-Encyclopadie 33.882-97. Reference from Habinek.
  11. ^ Thomas N. Habinek, The colometry of Latin prose, p.115-6. Preview here.
  12. ^ 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica entry.
  13. ^ George Crabb, Universal historical dictionary, volume 2, no page numbers, online here: "NONIUS, Marcellus, (Biog.) a grammarian and peripatetic philosopher and a native of Tibur, whose treatise, 'De varia significatione verborum' was edited by Mercer, 8vo, Paris, 1614."
  14. ^ W.M.Lindsay, Nonius Marcellus, St. Andrews University Publications 1, Oxford: Parker (1901), p.1: "He published a volume of letters 'On the Neglect of Study,' from which he quotes a pompous sentence in illustration of the word meridies (page 451 of Mercier's edition)."

Literature

Editions

Studies

  • Articles in the Classical Review, Dec. 1888, June and July 1889.
  • J. H. Onions, Classical Review Oct. 1890, Oct. 1895, Feb. 1896, Feb. 1902.
  • W. M. Lindsay; Journal of Philology, xvi. (1888), xviii. (1890), (JH Onions), xxi. (1893). ("The Printed Editions of Nonius," by H Nettleship)
  • W. M. Linday, 1901 article online at Google books here
  • Paul Monceaux, Les Africains. Etude sur la littérature latine d'Afrique (1894)
  • Teuffel, History of Roman Literature (Eng. trans.), 404A;
  • Martin Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Literatur, iv. 1 (1904).
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