Theodosius of Alexandria was an Ancient Greek

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 ...

, purported to have lived about the time of

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...

. A ''

terminus ante quem ''Terminus post quem'' ("limit after which", sometimes abbreviated to TPQ) and ''terminus ante quem'' ("limit before which", abbreviated to TAQ) specify the known limits of dating for events or items.. A ''terminus post quem'' is the earliest da ...

'' is yielded by a letter of

Synesius Synesius (; el, Συνέσιος; c. 373 – c. 414), was a Greek bishop of Ptolemais in ancient Libya, a part of the Western Pentapolis of Cyrenaica after 410. He was born of wealthy parents at Balagrae (now Bayda, Libya) near Cyrene between ...

(floruit ca. 400 CE) to the "wonderful grammarian Theodosuis". Theodosius himself cited

Apollonius Dyscolus Apollonius Dyscolus ( el, Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Δύσκολος; reached his maturity sometime around 130 CE) is considered one of the greatest of the Greek grammarians. Life Little is known of Apollonius Dyscolus, other than that he ...

and Herodian in his works. Theodosius' main work were the Κανόνες εἰσαγωγικοί περὶ κλίσεως ὀνομάτων καὶ ῤημάτων (''Introduction to The Rules of Noun and Verb Declension''), essentially an

epitome An epitome (; gr, ἐπιτομή, from ἐπιτέμνειν ''epitemnein'' meaning "to cut short") is a summary or miniature form, or an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment. Epitomacy represents "t ...

Dionysius Thrax Dionysius Thrax ( grc-gre, Διονύσιος ὁ Θρᾷξ ''Dionýsios ho Thrâix'', 170–90 BC) was a Greek grammarian and a pupil of Aristarchus of Samothrace. He was long considered to be the author of the earliest grammatical text on the G ...

's ''

Art of Grammar ''The Art of Grammar'' ( el, Τέχνη Γραμματική - or romanized, Téchnē Grammatikḗ) is a treatise on Greek grammar, attributed to Dionysius Thrax, who wrote in the 2nd century BC. Contents It is the first work on grammar in Greek ...

'', from where he mechanically copied the verb and noun inflectional paradigms. This work, and most importantly the

scholia Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of th ...

on it by Georgius Choeroboscus, constituted the main primary source for the grammarians later onwards down to the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

. Theodosius was also known as the author of Περὶ ὅρου and other grammatical works. The Κανόνες, amplified by the additions of later

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

grammarians, were published by

Karl Wilhelm Göttling Karl Wilhelm Göttling (Latin: Carolus Guilielmus Goettling; January 19, 1793 – January 20, 1869) was a German philologist and classical scholar. Biography He was born in Jena, the son of chemist Johann Friedrich August Göttling (1753–1820) ...

under the title of ''Theodosii Alexandrini Grammatica'' (

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, 1822), the Preface having been published before in Osann's ''Philemonis grammatici quae supersunt'' (

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, 1821), and a portion of this work, entitled ''Theodosii Grammatici Alex. Canones de Declinatione Nominum et Conjugatione Verborum'', was included by

August Immanuel Bekker August Immanuel Bekker (21 May 17857 June 1871) was a German philologist and critic. Biography Born in Berlin, Bekker completed his classical education at the University of Halle under Friedrich August Wolf, who considered him as his most promis ...

in the third volume of his ''Anecdota Graeca'' (Vol. 3, Berlin, 1821).

References

* Alfred Gudemann:
Theodosios 6
', in '' Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft'', Band VA, Halbband 10, Thapsos-Thesara (1934), p. 1935 * Smith, William. ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology''. Vol. 3, London, 1849, p. 1071.

Sources

* Ancient Greek grammarians {{greece-linguist-stub