MARCUS

See also:

• VALERIUS, PUBLIUS

VALERIUS

See also:

• PROBUS, MARCUS AURELIUS
• MARCUS VALERIUS PROBUS

PROBUS  , of Berytus, Roman grammarian and critic, flourished during the reign of Nero . He was a student rather than a teacher, and devoted himself to the criticism and elucidation of the texts of classical authors (especially the most important Roman poets) by means of marginal-PROCESS notes or by signs, after the manner of the Alexandrine grammarians . In this way he treated Horace, Lucretius, Terence and Persius, the biography of the last-named being probably taken from Probus's introduction to his edition of the poet . With the exception of these texts, he published little, but his lectures were preserved in the notes taken by his pupils . Some of his criticisms on Virgil may be preserved in the commentary on the Bucolics and Georgics which goes under his name . We possess by him part of a treatise De notis, probably an excerpt from a larger work . It contains a list of abbreviations used in official and historical writings (especially proper names), in laws, legal pleadings and edicts . The following works have been wrongly attributed to him . (I) Catholica Probi, on the declension of nouns, the conjugation of verbs, and the rhythmic endings of sentences . This is now generally regarded as the work of the grammarian Marius Plotius Sacerdos (3rd century) . (2) Institute artium, on the eight parts of speech, also called Ars vaticana from its having been found in a Vatican MS . As mention is made in it of the baths of Diocletian, it cannot be earlier than the 4th century .

It is possibly by a later Probus, whose existence is, however, problematical . (3) Appendix Probi, treating of the noun, the use of cases, rules of

orthography (valuable in reference to the pronunciation of Latin at the time), and a table of Differentiae . As the author has evidently used the Institute, it also must be assigned to a late date . (4) De nomine excerpta, a compilation from various grammatical works . See J . Steup, De Probis grammaticis (1871); Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans.), 301 .