Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

858 29. education in the roman empire
equally no accident that it is in the late antique west that we find such statements
as Tanto maxime rudibus praestare cognoscimur, qui rusticitatis enormitate
incultique sermonis ordine sauciant, immo deformant examussim normatam orationis
integritatem, politumque lumen eius obfuscant, quanto ipsi a pecudibis videantur 10 (We
are recognized to be as much superior to the uneducated, who by the formlessness
of their rusticity and the disorder of their untrained speech wound
and even maim the purity of language guided by strict rule, and obscure the
brilliance of its elegance, which is the fruit of art, as they themselves seem
superior to beasts) and Experiere per dies quanto excellunt beluis homines, tanto
anteferri rusticis institutos 11 (You will find out as you go on that just as men
surpass beasts, so the educated surpass the rustic). It is worth remarking
that the first work is addressed to a certain Athanasius, evidently a
Christian, and that Sidonius Apollinaris when he wrote the letter cited was
already a bishop.
Surviving Greek handbooks from the fifth and sixth century are more
original in their approach than their Latin counterparts. They include an
Introductory Rules for the Inflection of Greek Nouns and Verbs 12 (Eisagogikoi
kanones peri kliseōs onomatōn kai rhēmatōn) of Theodosios of Alexandria (late
fifth/early sixth century), the General Rules on Composition 13 (kanones katholikoi
peri syntaxeōs) of Timotheos of Gaza (late fifth/early sixth century), the
Spelling Book 14 (Peri orthographias) of John Charax (sixth century), and several
lexica of uncommon words, including one by a certain Cyril, sometimes
identified with Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria 412–44, a lexicon of rare
words used in literature by Hesychius of Alexandria (fifth/sixth century)
and the Ethnica of Stephanus of Byzantium, a vast geographical and ethnographical
dictionary, which survives only in a later epitome.
In the Latin west the fourth century saw Artes grammaticae by
Victorinus, 15 Charisius 16 and Aelius Donatus, 17 all of which are derivative
from earlier manuals. In the fifth century Servius and Pompeius wrote long
commentaries on Donatus, 18 whose longer and shorter Artes had become
standard handbooks, while others compiled Artes grammaticae which drew
almost exclusively on Donatus. The most original work on Latin grammar,
the Institutiones of Priscian, 19 written about 500 in Constantinople, was
influenced by contemporary Greek grammatical doctrine, as was the
shorter Ars of his pupil Eutychius, 20 written in the mid sixth century.
These works were intended as handbooks for teachers, not as textbooks
for pupils, and they reveal little about oral teaching, which no doubt varied
10 Diomedes, Ars Grammatica (Grammatici Latini ed. H. Keil (Leipzig 1857–80) 1) 299.19–23.
11 Sid. Ap. Ep. 4.17.2. 12 Hilgard (1889–94). 13 Cramer (1839–41) iv.239–44.
14 Cramer (1835–7) iv.331–9 (partial edition; the bulk of the work remains unpublished).
15 Grammatici Latini 6.3–184. 16 Grammatici Latini 1.1–269, 524–65.
17 Grammatici Latini 4.355–402. 18 Grammatici Latini 4.405–48; 5.95–312.
19 Grammatici Latini 2–3. 20 Grammatici Latini 5.447–89.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008