Priscian

Priscian (Lat. Priscianus), surnamed CÆSARIENSIS, born or educated in Cesarea, is in point of reputation the first of Latin grammarians; his treatise was in universal use as a text-book during the middle ages. Priscian flourished in the beginning of the 6th century: Paulus Diaconus calls him a contemporary of Cassiodorus (468-562 A.D.). He taught Latin at Constantinople, and enjoyed a government salary. The work which has preserved his name is his Commentariorum Grammaticorum Libri XVIII. The first sixteen books treat of the different parts of speech; the remaining two, of syntax. The work shows great learning and good sense, and contains quotations from many Greek and Latin authors no longer extant. Priscian also wrote six smaller grammatical treatises, and two hexameter poems of the didactic sort, De Laude Imperatoris Anastasii and a free translation of the Periegesis of Dionysius. The best edition of the grammatical works is that by Hertz and Keil in Keil's Grammatici Latini, vols. ii. and iii. (1855-60); of the poems, by Bährens, in Poetæ Latini Minores, vol. v. (1883).