X - NONIUS MARCELLUS

Summary

The name of Nonius Marcellus is associated, in the minds of most persons who have thought it worthy of remembrance at all, with dulness and ignorance. At the same time his work De Compendiosa Doctrina is, in its way, of such importance, if only on account of the numerous quotations from ancient Latin authors which it contains, that no student of Latin can afford to ignore it. More than this, it is incontestable that many among the notes of Nonius are of great value in themselves, and many again deserve notice, if not from their intrinsic merit, at least as illustrating a particular phase of philological criticism among the ancients. But it is not only in detail that the De Compendiosa Doctrina deserves attention and requires a correct appreciation. Nonius occupies an important position, not only in the history of Latin grammar and criticism, but in that of Latin literature, so far at least as his work can be shown to stand in organic connection with the literary tendencies of the age in which he lived. It is mainly in this light that I propose, in the following remarks, to consider the work which bears his name.

The flourishing province of Africa, an account of which and of its organization is given by Mommsen at the beginning of the eighth volume of the Corpus Inscriptionum, contributed, from the end of the first century a.d. and onwards, many names of mark to the history of Roman literature.