Flavius Sosipater Charisius ( 4th century AD) was a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
grammarian.
He was probably an
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n by birth, summoned to
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
to take the place of
Euanthius, a learned commentator on
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 ...
.
''Ars Grammatica''
The ''Ars Grammatica'', in five books, is addressed to his son (not a Roman, as the preface shows). The surviving text is incomplete: the beginning of the first, part of the fourth, and the greater part of the fifth book are lost.
[
The work, which is a ]compendium
A compendium (plural: compendia or compendiums) is a comprehensive collection of information and analysis pertaining to a body of knowledge. A compendium may concisely summarize a larger work. In most cases, the body of knowledge will concern a sp ...
, is valuable as it contains excerpts from the earlier writers on grammar, who are in many cases mentioned by name: Remmius Palaemon
Quintus Remmius Palaemon or Quintus Rhemnius Fannius Palaemon. was a Roman grammarian and a native of Vicentia. He lived during the reigns of Emperors Tiberius and Claudius.
Life
From Suetonius, we learn that he was originally a slave who o ...
, Julius Romanus (Gaius Iulius Romanus), Comminianus
Comminianus (also referred to as Cominianus or Comminian) was a Latin grammarian of the late fourth century. His writings no longer exist and he is only known through the '' Ars grammatica'' of Charisius. He is the final author mentioned in Alc ...
.[
The edition of ]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 ...
, in ''Grammatici Latini'', i. (1857), has been superseded by that of Karl Barwick (1925).
References
* Article by G. Gotz in Pauly-Wissowa, III. 2 (1899)
* Teuffel, Wilhelm Sigismund and Schwabe, Ludwig von, ''History of Roman Literature'' (Engl. trans), Vol. I. 2
* Frohde, in ''Jahr. f. Philol.'', 18 Suppl. (1892), 567–672
External links
Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum: complete texts and full bibliography
Grammarians of Latin
Ancient linguists
4th-century Latin writers
{{AncientRome-bio-stub