Nonius Marcellus

Nonius Marcellus was a Roman grammarian of the 4th or 5th century AD. His only surviving work is the De compendiosa doctrina, a dictionary or encyclopedia in 20 books that shows his interests in antiquarianism and Latin literature from Plautus to Apuleius. Nonius may have come from Africa.

Little is known about Nonius. The full title of his work, Noni Marcelli Peripatetici Tubursicensis de Conpendiosa Doctrina ad filium, indicates that he was a Peripatetic philosopher from Thubursicum in Numidia. An inscription at Thubursicum dedicated by a certain "Nonius Marcellus Herculius" in 323 AD indicates that his family was based in that area. Since Nonius does not mention Christianity and calls himself a peripatetic, he seems not to have converted.

Nonius quotes Aulus Gellius and other 2nd-century compilers, and is himself quoted and praised three times by Priscian in the 5th century, and so must have lived between these dates. According to the Cambridge History of Classical Literature, he was probably active in the first half of the 4th century, although some scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries thought he might have lived later in the 4th or even in the 5th century. It has also been argued that Nonius was a contemporary of Severan authors such as Apuleius, or lived shortly after.

The De compendiosa doctrina is one of the major sources for lost works of the Roman Republic, including the tragedies of Accius and Pacuvius, the satires of Lucilius, and the history of Sisenna. It consists of words, a short definition, and then quotations of authors using the word. It has been printed under a number of titles, including De proprietate latini sermonis and De varia significatione Verborum. It is one of three major Latin dictionaries preserved from antiquity, along with that of Festus, which was an epitome of Verrius Flaccus' work De verborum significatu, and the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville.

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