Quintus Remmius Palemon

Palemon was born in Vicenza (modern Vicenza ) and was a slave by birth ^[1] . According to Suetonius, he subsequently received freedom, taught at a school in Rome and was considered the best grammar of his time.

Suetonius described Remmy Palemon as a wasteful and arrogant man. He led such a chic lifestyle that he washed several times a day. Emperors Tiberius and Claudius believed that Remmy Palemon was too arrogant to entrust him with the upbringing of boys and youths. So, Palemon called the great scientist Varron a pig. At the same time, Remmy Palemon possessed a wonderful memory and wrote verses of various and unusual sizes; mastered the art of poetic improvisation. He enjoyed a reputation as an outstanding teacher, and there is evidence that Quintilian and Persia were his students.

His work “Ars” ^[2] , which has not been preserved to this day, contained a grammar system that was widely used at that time; subsequent grammars also relied on it. It reflected the norms of correct pronunciation, examples of barbarism and solecism ^[3] . The “Ars grammatica” that came to us, discovered in the 15th century by Giovanni Pontano , and other minor scientific works on the same subject are attributed by mistake to Remmy Palemon.

• Remmius Palemon // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Marschall C. De Remmii Palaemonis libris grammaticis (1887)
• Nettleship H. Latin Grammar in the First Century // Journal of Philology, 15 (1886)
• Sandys JE History of Classical Scholarship (2nd ed., 1906).
• Olenic RM Reconstitution de l'Ars grammatica de Q. Remmius Palémon // Problèmes de philologie classique, III. Lvow: Univ. I. Franka, 1963: 98-107.
• Kolendo J. De Q. Remmio Palaemone grammatico et agricola // Meander, 39 (1984): 407-418.