Dositheus Magister () was a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
grammarian who flourished in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
in the 4th century AD.
Life
He was the author of a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
translation of a
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
grammar, intended to assist the Greek-speaking inhabitants of the empire in learning Latin. The translation, at first word for word, becomes less frequent, and finally is discontinued altogether.
The Latin grammar used was based on the same authorities as those of
Charisius
Flavius Sosipater Charisius ( 4th century AD) was a Latin grammarian.
He was probably an African by birth, summoned to Constantinople to take the place of Euanthius, a learned commentator on Terence.
''Ars Grammatica''
The ''Ars Grammatica'' ...
and
Diomedes Grammaticus Diomedes Grammaticus was a Latin grammarian who probably lived in the late 4th century AD. He wrote a grammatical treatise, known either as ''De Oratione et Partibus Orationis et Vario Genere Metrorum libri III'' or '' Ars grammatica'' in three boo ...
, which accounts for the many points of similarity. Dositheus contributed very little of his own. Some Greek-Latin exercises by an unknown writer of the 3rd century, to be learnt by heart and translated, were added to the grammar. They are of considerable value as illustrating the social life of the period and the history of the Latin language. Of these Ἑρμηνεύματα ("Interpretamenta"), the third book, containing a collection of words and phrases from everyday conversation (κατημερινὴ ὁμιλία) has been preserved. A further appendix consisted of Anecdotes, Letters and Rescripts of the emperor
Hadrian
Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...
; fables, of
Aesop
Aesop ( ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE; formerly rendered as Æsop) was a Greeks, Greek wikt:fabulist, fabulist and Oral storytelling, storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence re ...
; extracts from
Hyginus
Hyginus may refer to:
People
*Hyginus, the author of the '' Fabulae'', an important ancient Latin source for Greek mythology.
*Hyginus, the author of the ''Astronomia'', a popular ancient Latin guide on astronomy, probably the same as the author ...
; a history of the
Trojan War
The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...
, abridged from the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
''; and a legal fragment, Περὶ ἐλευθερώσεων ("De manumissionibus").
Editions
*Grammatica in
Heinrich Keil
Theodor Heinrich Gottfried Keil (25 May 1822, Gressow – 27 August 1894, Friedrichroda) was a German classical philologist. He was a son-in-law to educator Friedrich August Eckstein (1810–1885).
He studied classical philology at the Univer ...
, ''Grammatici Latini'', vii. and separately (1871)
*''Hermeneumata'' by
Georg Götz (1892) (in
Gustav Loewe's ''Corpus glossariorum Latinorum'', iii.)
*
Eduard Böcking (1832), which contains the appendix (including the legal fragment)
See also
*
Karl Lachmann, ''Versuch der Dositheus'' (1837)
*
Hermann Hagen, ''De Dosithei magistri quae feruntur glossis'' (1877)
References
External links
Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum: complete texts and full bibliographyH. Keil ''Grammatici Latini'' vii
{{authority control
Grammarians of Latin
Latin–Greek translators
4th-century Greek writers
Ancient Greeks in Rome
4th-century Romans