De verborum significatu

De Verborum Significatione

Volume XX of André Dacier's edition (1700)
Author	Sextus Pompeius Festus
Country	Ancient Rome
Genre	Epitome, encyclopedia
Publication date	2nd century

De Verborum Significatione, fully Twenty Books on the Meaning of Words (Latin: De Verborum Significatione Libri XX) and also known as De Verborum Signficatu and The Lexicon of Festus, is an epitome compiled, edited, and annotated by Sextus Pompeius Festus from the encyclopedic works of Verrius Flaccus. Festus's epitome is typically dated to the 2nd century, but the work only survives in a partial 11th-century manuscript and copies of its own separate epitome.

Verrius Flaccus (c. 55 BCE – c. 20 CE) was a prominent Roman grammarian known for his writings on the Latin language and for tutoring the grandsons of Caesar Augustus during his reign. He is best known for De verborum significatu, the name which Festus later adopted for his epitome, the first major alphabetical Latin dictionary. The 40-volume lexicon is regarded as among the most important such works of Classical Antiquity, though all but a few fragments of the original have been lost, perhaps in part due to its impractical size.

Sextus Pompeius Festus, also a grammarian, likely flourished in the later 2nd century and is thought to have come from Narbo in Gaul, though few details are known about his life. Festus wrote his epitome of Flaccus's works during a time in the history of the Roman Empire when greater priority was placed on defense after a long period of expansion. There was an anxious effort by many scholars to record their history and culture as means of preservation. Though another of Festus's books is mentioned in De Verborum Significatione, none of his other works have survived.