Roman Ars Grammatica, including Priscian

Abstract

This chapter explains the work of the Roman ars grammatical. It comprises Roman grammatical works written between the third and the sixth century AD. They are all intended as textbooks in the schools or as handbooks for teachers. The term ars grammatica means “the art of grammar” and is a translation of Greek techne grammatike with the same meaning. The first extant ars grammatica is the work in three books by Marius Plotius Sacerdos. Consentius (fourth century AD) and Phocas (fifth century AD) both limited their Artes to the noun and verb. Consentius also wrote a separate treatise about grammatical and stylistic errors. In contrast to the monolingual Greek grammar, Latin linguistics was bilingual, covering both Latin and Greek. Priscian represents both the culmination and the end of Roman linguistics. Writing at a time when Christianity had taken over and medieval linguistics was well on its way, he collected and systematized the results of centuries of grammatical studies in the Roman world. Born in Mauritania in North Africa and working in the largely Greek-speaking Constantinople, he was destined to become one of the most influential grammarians in history, and much of linguistics in the Middle Ages was based on his works.