Terentianus, surnamed Maurus (a native of
Mauretania), 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 and writer on
prosody who flourished probably at the end of the 2nd century AD.
His references to
Septimius Serenus and
Alphius Avitus, who belonged to the school of "new poets" (''poetae neoterici'' or ''novelli'') of the reign of
Hadrian and later, seem to show that he was a near contemporary of those writers. He was the author of a treatise (incomplete) in four books (written in a variety of metres), on letters, syllables, feet and metres, of which considerable use was made by later writers on similar subjects. The most important part of it is that which deals with metres, based on the work of
Caesius Bassus, the friend of
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 his ...
.
By some authorities Terentianus has been identified with the prefect of
Syene
Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate.
Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of t ...
mentioned in
Martial (i. 86), which would make his date about a century earlier; others, again, who placed
Petronius at the end of the 3rd century (a date no longer held), assigned Terentianus to the same period, from his frequent references to that author.
See also
* ''
Habent sua fata libelli''
*
Trochaic septenarius In ancient Greek and Latin literature, the trochaic septenarius or trochaic tetrameter catalectic is one of two major forms of poetic metre based on the trochee as its dominant rhythmic unit, the other being much rarer trochaic octonarius. It is use ...
Notes
References
*Edition by
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'', vi.
*Edition of the above with commentary by L. Santen (1825)
*Teuffel-Schwabe, ''History of Roman Literature'' (Eng. tr.), 3730
External links
''De litteris, de syllabis, de metris''at
Bibliotheca Augustana, digitized from Heinrich Keil, ed. (1923)
''Grammatici Latini'' Vol. VI
Terentianus Maurus, ''De Litteris, Syllabis, Pedibus, et Metris'', ed L. Santen (1825), with commentary
{{EB1911 article with no significant updates
2nd-century Berber people
Berber writers
Berber grammarians
Ancient linguists
Grammarians of Latin