Nonius Marcellus 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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

grammarian of the 4th or 5th century AD. His only surviving work is the ''De compendiosa doctrina'', a dictionary or encyclopedia in 20 books that shows his interests in

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

ism and

Latin literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literatur ...

from

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

Apuleius Apuleius ( ), also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (c. 124 – after 170), was a Numidians, Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was born in the Roman Empire, Roman Numidia (Roman province), province ...

. Nonius may have come from

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Life

Little is known about Nonius. The full title of his work, ''Noni Marcelli Peripatetici Tubursicensis de Conpendiosa Doctrina ad filium'', indicates that he was a Peripatetic philosopher from Thubursicum in

Numidia Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. The polity was originally divided between ...

. An inscription at Thubursicum dedicated by a certain "Nonius Marcellus Herculius" in 323 AD indicates that his family was based in that area. Since Nonius does not mention Christianity and calls himself a peripatetic, he seems not to have converted. Nonius quotes

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...

and other 2nd-century compilers, and is himself quoted and praised three times by

Priscian Priscianus Caesariensis (), commonly known as Priscian ( or ), was a Latin grammarian and the author of the ''Institutes of Grammar'', which was the standard textbook for the study of Latin during the Middle Ages. It also provided the raw materia ...

in the 5th century, and so must have lived between these dates. According to the ''Cambridge History of Classical Literature'', he was probably active in the first half of the 4th century, although some scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries thought he might have lived later in the 4th or even in the 5th century. More recently it has been argued that Nonius lived in the

Severan The Severan dynasty, sometimes called the Septimian dynasty, ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235. It was founded by the emperor Septimius Severus () and Julia Domna, his wife, when Septimius emerged victorious from civil war of 193 - 197, ...

period and can be dated to around A.D. 205–20.

Works

The ''De compendiosa doctrina'' is one of the major sources for lost works of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

, including the tragedies of Accius and

Pacuvius Marcus Pacuvius (; 220 – ) was an ancient Roman tragic poet. He is regarded as the greatest of their tragedians prior to Lucius Accius. Biography He was the nephew and pupil of Ennius, by whom Roman tragedy was first raised to a position ...

, the satires of Lucilius, and the

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

of Sisenna. It consists of words, a short definition, and then quotations of authors using the word. It has been printed under a number of titles, including ''De proprietate latini sermonis'' and ''De varia significatione Verborum''. It is one of three major Latin dictionaries preserved from antiquity, along with that of Festus, which was an epitome of Verrius Flaccus' work ''De verborum significatu'', and the ''

Etymologiae (Latin for 'Etymologies'), also known as the ('Origins'), usually abbreviated ''Orig.'', is an etymological encyclopedia compiled by the influential Christian bishop Isidore of Seville () towards the end of his life. Isidore was encouraged t ...

'' of

Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville (; 4 April 636) was a Spania, Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville, archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of the 19th-century historian Charles Forbes René de Montal ...

. The first twelve of Nonius's twenty books are organized grammatically around words or forms of words, and the remaining eight by subject matter such as clothing, weapons, food, etc. Each entry of either type consists of a brief definition and quotations from Republican-era writers, taken from 2nd-century sources, including

and Fronto, rather than the original texts. "His ignorance and inattention," notes the ''Cambridge History of Classical Literature'', "diminish but cannot destroy the value of his compilation." The research of W. M. Lindsay and later of Strzelecki has shown that Nonius obtained many of his lemmata (entries) and the first citation for each from earlier grammatical texts which are now lost. The remainder of the entries and the extra citations belong to 41 books which he either owned or borrowed from a local library. 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. Based on this methodology, it can be determined whether Nonius is quoting an author first-hand, or from a grammar which was full of errors. The ''Doctrina'' preserves fragments from early dramatists,

annalists Annalists (from Latin ''annus'', year; hence ''annales'', sc. ''libri'', annual records), were a class of writers on Roman history, the period of whose literary activity lasted from the time of the Second Punic War to that of Sulla. They wrote th ...

, satirists, and antiquarian writers. In arranging quotations from authors, Nonius always follows the same order, beginning with

and ending with

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...

and Cato. The grammarians

and Fulgentius borrowed largely from his book, and in the 5th century a certain Julius Tryphonianus Sabinus brought out a revised and annotated edition. The ''Doctrina'' was edited with notes by J. Mercier in 1614 at Paris under the title ''De varia significatione Verborum''. 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"). Nonius also wrote a volume of letters ''On the neglect of study'', which is lost but to which he refers in the ''Doctrina''.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'' (p. 451 of Mercier's edition)."

Literature

Editions

Christophe Plantin Christophe Plantin (; – 1 July 1589) was a French Renaissance humanist and book Printer (publisher), printer and publisher who resided and worked in Antwerp. He established in Antwerp one of the most prominent publishing houses of his time, th ...

(1565)
''(Nonii Marcelli Compendiosa Doctrina ad filium) de Proprietate Sermonum''
* L. Müller (1888)
vol. 1vol. 2
* J. H. Onions (1895) * W. M. Lindsay (Teubner, 1903, also with Müller's pagination)
vol. 1vol. 2vol. 3

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

Henry Nettleship Henry Nettleship (5 May 1839 – 10 July 1893) was an English classical scholar. Life Nettleship was born at Kettering, and was educated at Lancing College, Durham School and Charterhouse schools, and gained a scholarship for entry to Corpus Chr ...

) * W. M. Lindsay, 1901 article online at Google book
here
* Paul Monceaux
''Les Africains. Etude sur la littérature latine d'Afrique : les Païens''
P., Lecène, Oudin & Cie, V+500pp (1894) * W. S. Teuffel, ''History of Roman Literature'' (Eng. trans.), 404A; *

Martin Schanz Martin Schanz (12 June 1842 – 15 December 1914) was a German classicist and Plato scholar. He was a Dozent and Professor at the University of Würzburg from 1867 to 1912, and is especially known for his history of Roman literature and his groun ...

, ''Geschichte der römischen Literatur'', iv. 1 (1904).

References

External links

* Roger Pearse
How the text of Nonius Marcellus reaches us
– Information on manuscripts
10th century British Library manuscript of Nonius Marcellus in digital form
* http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DM%3Aentry+group%3D9%3Aentry%3Dmarcellus-nonius-bio-1 {{DEFAULTSORT:Marcellus, Nonius Grammarians of Latin 4th-century writers in Latin Lexicographers Ancient Roman antiquarians People from Souk Ahras Province Nonii 4th-century Romans 5th-century Romans Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown Encyclopedias in classical antiquity