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PRISCIAN [PRISCIANUS CAESARIENSIS]

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 360 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PRISCIAN [PRISCIANUS CAESARIENSIS] , the celebrated Latin grammarian, lived about A.D. 500, i.e. somewhat before Justinian. This is shown by the facts that he addressed to See also:Anastasius, See also:emperor of the See also:East (491–518), a laudatory poem, and that the See also:MSS. of his Institutiones grammaticae contain a subscription to the effect that the See also:work was copied (526, 527) by Flavius See also:Theodorus, a clerk in the imperial secretariat. Three See also:minor See also:treatises are dedicated to See also:Symmachus (the See also:father-in-See also:law of See also:Boetius). See also:Cassiodorus, See also:writing in the ninety-third See also:year of his See also:age (56o? 573?), heads some extracts from Priscian with the statement that he taught at See also:Constantinople in his (Cassiodorus's) See also:time (Keil, Gr. See also:Lat. vii. 207). His See also:title Caesariensis points, according to See also:Niebuhr and others, to Caesarea in See also:Mauretania. Priscian's teacher was Theoctistus, who also wrote an Institutio artis grammaticae. Priscian was quoted by several writers in See also:Britain of the 8th See also:century—See also:Aldhelm, See also:Bede, See also:Alcuin—and was abridged or largely used in the next century by Hrabanus Maurus of See also:Fulda and Servatus See also:Lupus of Ferrieres. There is hardly a' library in See also:Europe that did not and does not contain a copy of his See also:great work, and there are about a thousand MSS. of it.

The greater See also:

part of these contain only books i.–xvi. (sometimes called Priscianus See also:major); a few contain (with the three books Ad Symmachum) books xvii., xviii. (Priscianus minor); and a few contain both parts. The earliest MSS. are of the 9th century, though a few fragments are somewhat earlier. All are ultimately derived from the copy made by Theodorus. The first printed edition was in' 1470 at See also:Venice. The Institutiones grammaticae is a systematic exposition of Latin See also:grammar, dedicated to See also:Julian, See also:consul and patrician, whom some have identified with the author of a well-known See also:epitome of Justinian's Novellae, but the lawyer appears to be somewhat later than Priscian. It is divided into eighteen books,of which the first sixteen See also:deal mainly with sounds, word-formation and inflexions; the last two, which See also:form from a See also:fourth to a third of the whole work, deal with syntax. Priscian informs us in his See also:preface that he has translated into Latin such precepts of the Greeks Herodian and See also:Apollonius as seemed suitable, and added to them from Latin grammarians. He has preserved to us numerous fragments which would otherwise have been lost, e.g. from See also:Ennius, See also:Pacuvius, See also:Accius, See also:Lucilius, See also:Cato and See also:Varro. But the authors whom he quotes most frequently are See also:Virgil, and, next to him, See also:Terence, See also:Cicero, See also:Plautus; then See also:Lucan, See also:Horace, See also:Juvenal, See also:Sallust, See also:Statius, See also:Ovid, See also:Livy and See also:Persius. His See also:industry in See also:collecting forms and examples is both great and methodical, His See also:style is somewhat heavy, but sensible and clear; it is See also:free, not of course from usages of See also:Late Latin, but from anything that can be called barbarism.

Its defects may be referred in the See also:

main to four heads. (I) Priscian avowedly treats See also:Greek writers on (Greek) grammar as his supreme authorities; and bears too little in mind that each has a See also:history of its own and is a law to itself. (2) There had been no scientific study of See also:phonetics, and consequently the changes and combinations of See also:languages are treated in a See also:mechanical way: e.g. i passes into a, as genus, generis, generatum; into o, as saxi, saxosus; q passes into s, as torqueo, torsi, &c. (3) The See also:resolution of a word into See also:root or See also:stem and inflexional or derivative affixes was an See also:idea wholly unknown, and the rules of formation are often based on unimportant phenomena; e.g. See also:Venus, like other names ending in us, ought to have genitive Veni, but, as this might be taken for a verb, it has Veneris. Ador has no genitive because two rules conflict; for neuters in or have a See also:short penult (e.g. aequor, aequoris), and adoro, from which it is derived, has a See also:long penult. (4) The See also:practical meaning of the inflexionsis not realized, and syntactical usages are treated as if they were arbitrary or accidental associations. Thus, after laying down as a See also:general See also:rule for declinable words that, when they refer to one and the same See also:person, they must have the same See also:case, gender and number, Priscian adds that when there are transitive words we may use different See also:numbers, as doceo discipulos, docemus discipulum. He often states a rule too broadly or narrowly, and then, as it were, gropes after restrictions and extensions. His etymologies are of course sometimes very See also:wild: e.g. caelebs from caelestium vitam ducens, b being put for consonantal u because a consonant cannot be put before another. consonant; deterior from the verb detero, deteris; potior (adj.) from potior, poliris; arbor from robur; verbum from verberatus aeris, &c. Nor is he always right in Greek usages. Priscian's three short treatises dedicated to Symmachus are on weights and See also:measures, the metres of Terence, and some rhetorical elements (exercises translated from the Ilpoyvµvavµara of See also:Hermogenes).

He also wrote De nomine, pronomine, et verbo (an abridgment of part of his Institutiones), and an interesting specimen of the school teaching of grammar in the shape of See also:

complete parsing by question and See also:answer of the first twelve lines of the Aeneid (Partitiones xii. versuum Aeneidos principalium). The See also:metre is discussed first, each See also:verse is scanned, and each word thoroughly and instructively examined. A See also:treatise on accents is ascribed to Priscian, but is rejected by See also:modern writers on the ground of See also:matter and See also:language. He also wrote two poems, not in any way remarkable, viz. a See also:panegyric on Anastasius in 312 hexameters with a short See also:iambic introduction, and a faithful See also:translation into 1087 hexameters of See also:Dionysius's Periegesis or See also:geographical survey of the See also:world. The best edition of the grammatical See also:works is by See also:Hertz and Keil, in Keil's Grammatici See also:latini, vols. ii., iii.; poems in E. Bahrens' Poetae latini minores, the " Periegesis also, in C. W. See also:Muller, Geographi graeci minores, vol. ii. See J. E. See also:Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship (ed. 1906), pp.

272 sqq.

End of Article: PRISCIAN [PRISCIANUS CAESARIENSIS]

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