Priscian

Details of Priscian's life are unknown. It is believed that he was a Greek, born and raised in Caesarea (modern Sharshal , Algeria ) - the capital of the Roman province of Mauritania . If you believe the prominent Roman writer and scholar Cassiodorus , then Priscian was engaged in teaching the Latin language in Constantinople . ^[1] In addition, Priscian is known as the author of the Latin poetic panegyric to Emperor Anastasius (491-518), written approx. 512 g ^[2]

The degree of vitality of the Latin language in Constantinople VI century. quite controversial. The opinion of Gilbert Dagron, according to which Greek was the dominant language of culture, while knowledge of Latin was limited by officials of the imperial administration, and Latin was not usually used by the imperial environment, was challenged by M. Salamon, who claims that Latin was not limited to the administration and small communities immigrants from Italy and Africa, and that interest in Latin culture was very strong. He shows that the circle of aristocrats and officials, equally interested in Greek and Latin studies, as well as in relations with intellectuals in the west, concentrated in a wide intellectual circle around Priscian’s grammar. He also indicates that the need for Latin as a language of culture was largely preserved during the VI century. However, this view seems to be exaggerated by most experts.

Priscian's most famous work, Institutiones Grammaticae , is a systematic study of Latin grammar. Grammar consists of 18 books. Of these, sixteen understand phonetics, word formation and the inflective system of the language; the other two volumes are related to syntax. The manuscripts of the “Grammar Instructions” contain a note that the work was copied (526, 527) by Flavius ​​Theodore, scribe of the imperial secretariat.

Priscian's grammar is based on the early works of the Greek scholars Herodian and Apollonius . Its main advantages are the completeness of the presentation and the abundance of examples. Thanks to Priscian, many fragments from the works of old Latin authors have survived, which otherwise could have been lost forever, in particular, Ennia , Pacuvia , Share , Lucius , Cato and Varron . But most often, Priscian quotes Virgil , Terence , Cicero and Plautus , and also Lucan , Horace , Juvenal , Sallust , Stazia , Ovid , Libya and Persia .

Priscian’s grammar has been repeatedly referred to by some of the VIII century British writers — Aldhelm , Misfortune Venerable , Alcuin . In the IX century, the Frankish monk Raban of Moor from Fulda issued its abridged version. There are about a thousand manuscripts, which are based on a copy made by Flavius ​​Theodore. Most copies contain books from the first to sixteenth (sometimes called Priscianus major ), some include (along with the three books of Ad Symmachum ) only the seventeenth and eighteenth books ( Priscianus minor ). And only a few publications contain both parts. The earliest manuscripts date from the ninth century, although some fragments were written earlier.

"Small" works of Priscian - 6 grammatical and 2 poetic:

• De figuris numerorum (On cases of numbers) .
• De metris (fabularum) Terentii (About Terence meter) .
• Praeexercitamina rhetoricis (Grammar Preliminary Exercises) in books III give a brief instruction in rhetoric based on the Greek rhetorical exercises of Hermogenes .
• De nomine, pronomine, et verbo (On ​​the noun, pronoun and verb) , an abridged version of his "Grammar Instructions", designed to teach Latin grammar in schools.
• Partitiones xii versuum Aeneidos principalium - an analysis of the first twelve lines of the Aeneid of Virgil , which is a curious example of the ancient teaching methodology. When parsing, the question-and-answer technique is used. First, the author examines the meter of the work, then each stanza, and finally each word undergoes a careful and constructive analysis.
• De accentibus (On Accents) is a later treatise of a somewhat different structure and style attributed to Priscian ("Pseudo-Priscian").
• Panegyric to Emperor Anastasius . In this work of 312 lines, Priscian acts as the continuation of the traditions of the Latin poetic imperial panegyric, taking the place between Claudian and Sidonius, on the one hand, and Cresconius Coripp, on the other. This is the first of two (along with Korypp) examples of such a panegyric in Constantinople. The composition is interesting because in parallel to it the Greek prose panegyric to the same emperor released Procopius of Gaza .
• Periegesis , a poetic periphrase of the geographical composition of Dionysius Perieget .

• This article (section) contains text taken (translated) from the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica , which went into the public domain .
• Prisciani grammatici Caesarensis Institutionum grammaticarum libri XVIII // Grammatici Lalini. Vol. II-III / Rec. H. Keil / Ed. M. Hertzil. Lips., 1855-1859.
• Prisciani institutionum grammaticalium librorum I-XVI, indices et concordantiae / Curantibus Cirilo Garcia Roman, Marco A. Gutierrez Galindo. Hildesheim, New York: Olms-Weidmann, 2001.
• Priscianus Periegesis // GGM. V.II. P. 190-191.
• Coyne P. Priscian's De laude Anastasii imperatoris. McMaster Univ., 1988.
• Priscian Panegyric Anastasia / prose translation N.N. Bolgova // Classical and Byzantine tradition. 2014. Belgorod, 2014.S. 279-286. ISBN 978-5-9905516-8-8
• Encarta Encyclopedia , 2002. +
• Baratin M., Colombat B., Holtz L. (éds.). Priscien. Transmission et refondation de la grammaire, de l'antiquité aux modernes. Brepols Publishers, 2009. ISBN 978-2-503-53074-1
• Croke B. Poetry and Propaganda: Anastasius I as Pompey // Greek, Roman and Byzantine studies. 48. 2008. R. 447-466.
• Salamon M. Priscianus und sein Schülerkreis in Konstantinopel // Philologus. 123. 1979. S. 91-96.
• Davis MT Priscian and the West // Byzantine Studies Conference. Chicago, 1982.
• Bolgov K.N. Priscian and the final systematization of Latin grammar in Constantinople VI century. // Karazinsky reading (historical science). Kharkiv, 2012.S. 132-133.
• Bolgov K.N. The final systematization of Latin grammar in Constantinople VI century. // Problems of history and archeology of Ukraine. Kharkov, 2012.S. 82-83.
• Bolgov K.N. Latin epic panegyric in Early Byzantium (Priscian and Koripp) // Youth - science. 2012.V. 1. Pskov, 2012.S. 93-95.
• Bolgov N.N. “Panegyric to Emperor Anastasius” of Priscian // Sophia Kiev: Vіzantіya. Russia. Ukraine Vip. ІV: zbіrka of science prats, awarded 170th anniversary of the day of the birth of N.P. Kondakova (1844-1925) / Від. ed. d.ist. sciences, prof. Yu.A. Mitzic; orderlies D.S. Gordіnko, V.V. Kornіnko. - K., 2014. - S. 270–293.
• Bolgova A.M., Agarkova Yu.N. The rhetorical structure of the eulogies of Procopius of Gaza and Priscian // Classical and Byzantine tradition. 2014. Belgorod, 2014.S. 177-185. ISBN 978-5-9905516-8-8

• Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum: complete texts and full bibliography