Marcus Valerius Probus, also known as M. Valerius Probus Berytius or Probus the Berytian (c. 20/30 – 105 AD), was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

grammarian Grammarian may refer to: * Alexandrine grammarians, philologists and textual scholars in Hellenistic Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE * Biblical grammarians, scholars who study the Bible and the Hebrew language * Grammarian (Greco-Roman ...

and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...

, who flourished during

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...

's reign.

Probus, Marcus Valerius – De iuris notarum, fragm

He was a student rather than a teacher, and devoted himself to the criticism and elucidation of the texts of classical authors (especially the most important Roman poets) by means of marginal notes or by signs, after the manner of the

Alexandrine grammarians The Alexandrine grammarians were philologists and textual scholars who flourished in Hellenistic Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, when that city was the center of Hellenistic culture. Despite the name, the work of the Alexandrine gramma ...

. In this way he treated

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...

and

Persius Aulus Persius Flaccus (; 4 December 3424 November 62 AD) was a Roman poet and satirist of Etruscan origin. In his works, poems and satires, he shows a Stoic wisdom and a strong criticism for what he considered to be the stylistic abuses of hi ...

, the biography of the last-named being probably taken from Probus's introduction to his edition of the poet. With the exception of these texts, he published little, but his lectures were preserved in the notes taken by his pupils. Some of his criticisms on

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

may be preserved in the commentary on the ''

Bucolics The ''Eclogues'' (; ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. Background Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offe ...

'' and ''

Georgics The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...

'' which goes under his name. We possess by him part of a treatise ''De notis'', probably an excerpt from a larger work. It contains a list of abbreviations used in official and historical writings (especially proper names), in laws, legal pleadings and edicts. The following works have been wrongly attributed to him. #''Catholica Probi'', on the declension of nouns, the conjugation of verbs, and the rhythmic endings of sentences. This is now generally regarded as the work of the grammarian Marius Plotius Sacerdos (3rd century). #''Instituta artium'', on the eight parts of speech, also called ''Ars vaticana'' from its having been found in a

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

manuscript. As mention is made in it of the

Baths of Diocletian , alternate_name = it, Terme di Diocleziano , image = Baths of Diocletian-Antmoose1.jpg , caption = Baths of Diocletian, with the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri built in the remains of the baths. , map_dot_ ...

, it cannot be earlier than the 4th century. It is possibly by a later Probus, whose existence is, however, problematical. #''

Appendix Probi The ''Appendix Probi'' ("Probus' Appendix") is the conventional name for a series of five documents believed to have been copied in the seventh or eighth century in Bobbio, Italy. Its name derives from the fact that the documents were found atta ...

'', treating of the noun, the use of cases, rules of

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

(valuable in reference to the pronunciation of Latin at the time), and a table of ''Differentiae''. As the author has evidently used the Institute, it also must be assigned to a late date. #''De nomine excerpta'', a compilation from various grammatical works. #''De ultimis syllabis ad Caelestinum'', a work explaining the quantities and other features of word-endings in the Latin language. See J Steup, ''De Probis grammaticis'' (1871); W.S. Teuffel & Ludwig von Schwabe, ''A History of Roman Literature'' (Wilhelm Wagner trans., G.C.W. Warr ed., rev. ed. 1891) (1873), Vol. 2, p. 73, par. 295, available a

References

External links

Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum: complete texts and full bibliography
*
In Vergilii bucolica et georgica commentarius, accedunt scholiorum veronensium et aspri quaestionum vergilianarum fragmenta
', Henricus Keil (ed.), Halis sumptibus Eduardi Anton, 1848. {{DEFAULTSORT:Valerius Probus, Marcus Grammarians of Latin Silver Age Latin writers 1st-century births 105 deaths 1st-century Romans 2nd-century Romans 1st-century writers 2nd-century writers Valerii Lebanon in the Roman era

See also

References

External links