Suetonius: DE POETIS

[1] Grammatica Romae ne in usu quidem olim, nedum in honore ullo erat, rudi scilicet ac bellicosa etiam tum civitate, necdum magnopere liberalibus disciplinis vacante. Initium quoque eius mediocre extitit, siquidem antiquissimi doctorum, qui iidem et poetae et semigraeci erant, (Livium et Ennium dico, quos utraque lingua domi forisque docuisse adnotatum est) nihil amplius quam Graecos interpretabantur, aut si quid ipsi Latine composuissent praelegebant. Nam quod nonnulli tradunt duos libros de litteris syllabisque, item de metris ab eodem Ennio editos, iure arguit L. Cotta non poetae sed posterioris Ennii esse, cuius etiam de augurandi disciplina volumina ferantur.

[1] Grammar at Rome was not even formerly in use, much less in any honor, the commonwealth being of course still rough and warlike, and not yet much at leisure for liberal disciplines. Its beginning too was mediocre, since the most ancient of the teachers—who were the same men as poets and half-Greeks (I mean Livius and Ennius, whom it has been noted taught in both tongues, at home and abroad)—did nothing more than interpret the Greeks, or, if they themselves had composed anything in Latin, read it out with exposition. For as to what some hand down, that two books on letters and syllables, likewise on meters, were published by that same Ennius, L. Cotta rightly argues that they are not the poet’s, but of a later Ennius, of whom volumes also on the discipline of augury are reported.

[2] Primus igitur, quantum opinamur, studium grammaticae in urbem intulit Crates Mallotes, Aristarchi aequalis, qui missus ad senatum ab Attalo rege inter secundum ac tertium Punicum bellum sub ipsam Ennii mortem, cum regione Palatii prolapsus in cloacae foramen crus fregisset, per omne legationis simul et valitudinis tempus plurimas acroasis subinde fecit assidueque disseruit, ac nostris exemplo fuit ad imitandum. Hactenus tamen imitati, ut carmina parum adhuc divulgata vel defunctorum amicorum vel si quorum aliorum probassent, diligentius retractarent ac legendo commentandoque etiam ceteris nota facerent; ut C. Octavius Lampadio Naevii Punicum bellum, quod uno volumine et continenti scriptura expositum divisit in septem libros: ut postea Q. Vargunteius annales Ennii, quos certis diebus in magna frequentia pronuntiabat; ut Laelius Archelaus Vettiasque Philocomus Lucilii satyras familiaris sui, quas legisse se apud Archelaum Pompeius Lenaeus, apud Philocomum Valerius Cato praedicant.

[2] The first, so far as we suppose, to bring the pursuit of grammar into the city was Crates of Mallos, a contemporary of Aristarchus, who, sent to the senate by King Attalus between the Second and the Third Punic War, just at the time of Ennius’s death, when he had slipped from the region of the Palatine into a sewer’s opening and broken his leg, throughout the whole period both of his embassy and his ill‑health gave many lectures from time to time and continually discoursed, and was for our people an example to imitate. Thus far, however, they imitated, that they would more carefully rework poems as yet little divulged either of deceased friends, or, if they had approved any of others, make them known to the rest also by reading and commenting: as C. Octavius Lampadio divided Naevius’s Punic War, which had been set forth in one volume and in continuous script, into seven books: as later Q. Vargunteius [did with] the Annals of Ennius, which he would recite on set days before a large crowd; as Laelius, Archelaus, and Vettias Philocomus [did with] the Satires of their intimate Lucilius, which Pompeius Lenaeus proclaims that he read at Archelaus’s, and Valerius Cato at Philocomus’s.

[3] Instruxerunt auxeruntque ab omni parte grammaticam L. Aelius Lanuvinus generque Aelii Ser. Cloduis, uterque eques Ro. multique ac varii et in doctrina et in re p. usus. Aelius cognomine duplici fuit; nam et Praeconinus, quod pater eius praeconium fecerat, vocabatur, et Stilo, quod orationes nobilissimo cuique scribere solebat; tantus optimatium fautor, ut Metellum Numidicum in exilium comitatus sit.

[3] L. Aelius of Lanuvium and, Aelius’s son-in-law, Ser. Clodius, each a Roman knight, equipped and augmented grammar on every side, men of many and varied experiences both in learning and in the republic. Aelius had a double cognomen; for he was called both Praeconinus, because his father had served as a herald, and Stilo, because he was wont to write orations for each most noble man; so great a favorer of the Optimates that he accompanied Metellus Numidicus into exile.

Servius cum librum soceri nondum editum fraude intercepisset, et ob hoc repudiatus pudore ac taedio secessisset ab urbe, in podagrae morbum incidit; cuius impatiens veneno sibi perunxit pedes et enecuit ita, ut parte ea corporis quasi praemortua viveret.

Servius, when by fraud he had intercepted his father-in-law’s book not yet published, and, repudiated on account of this, from shame and weariness had withdrawn from the city, fell into the disease of podagra; unable to bear it, he anointed his feet with poison and so killed them, so that he lived with that part of his body as if already pre-dead.

Posthac magis ac magis et gratia et cura artis increvit, ut ne clarissimi quidem viri abstinuerint quo minus et ipsi aliquid de ea scriberent, utque temporibus quibusdam super viginti celebres scholae fuisse in urbe tradantur; pretia vero grammaticorum tanta mercedesque tam magnae, ut constet Lutatium Daphnidem, quem Laevius Melissus per cavillationem nominis Panos agasma dicit, DCC. milibus nummum a Q. M. Catulo emptum ac brevi manumissum, L. Apuleium ab Eficio Calvino equite Romano praedivite quadringenis annuis *conductos multos edoceret. Nam in provincias quoque grammatica penetraverat, ac nonnulli de notissimis doctoribus peregre docuerunt, maxime in Gallia Togata; inter quos Octavius Teucer et Pescennius Iaccus et Oppius Chares; hic quidem ad ultimam aetatem, et cum iam non ingressu modo deficeretur sed et visu.

Thereafter, more and more both the favor and the care of the art increased, so that not even the most illustrious men refrained from writing something about it themselves, and it is handed down that at certain times there were in the city more than twenty celebrated schools; and truly the fees of grammarians were so great and the remunerations so large, that it is established that Lutatius Daphnis—whom Laevius Melissus, by a cavillation on the name, calls Panos agasma—was bought by Q. M. Catulus for 700,000 coins and soon manumitted, and that L. Apuleius, by Eficio Calvinus, a Roman eques of immense wealth, at 400 annually, taught many who had been *hired. For grammar had penetrated into the provinces as well, and some of the most well-known teachers taught abroad, especially in Togate Gaul; among whom were Octavius Teucer and Pescennius Iaccus and Oppius Chares; this last indeed up to his latest age, even when he was failing not only in walking but also in sight.

[4] Appellatio grammaticorum Graeca consuetudine invaluit; sed initio litterati vocabantur. Cornelius quoque Nepos libello quo distinguit litteratum ab erudito, litteratos quidem vulgo appellari ait eos qui aliquid diligenter et acute scienterque possint aut dicere aut scribere, ceterum proprie sic appellandos poetarum interpretes, qui a Graecis grammatici nominentur. Eosdem litteratores vocitatos Messala Corvinus in quadam epistola ostendit,non esse sibi dicens rem cum Furio Bibaculo, ne cum Ticida quidem aut litteratore Catone; significat enim haud dubie Valerium Catonem, poetam simul grammaticumque notissimum.

[4] The appellation of grammarians gained currency by Greek custom; but at the beginning they were called literati. Cornelius Nepos too, in the little book in which he distinguishes the litteratus from the eruditus, says that those are commonly called literati who can either speak or write something diligently and acutely and knowledgeably; but properly the interpreters of poets are to be so called, who are named grammatici by the Greeks. Messala Corvinus shows in a certain letter that the same were called litteratores, saying,that he had no business with Furius Bibaculus, nor even with Ticida or with the litterator Cato; for he undoubtedly signifies Valerius Cato, a most well-known poet and grammarian at once.

Sunt qui litteratum a litteratore distinguant, ut Graeci grammaticum a grammatista, et illum quidem absolute, hunc mediocriter doctum existiment. Quorum opinionem Orbilius etiam exemplis confirmat; namque apud maiores ait, cum familia alicuius venalis produceretur, non temere litteratum in titulo, sed litteratorem inscribi solitum esse, quasi non perfectum litteris, sed imbutum.

There are those who distinguish a literate man from a literator, as the Greeks distinguish a grammarian from a grammatist, and they consider the former learned in the absolute sense, the latter moderately taught. Orbilius also confirms their opinion with examples; for he says among the ancestors, when someone’s slave-household for sale was brought forward, it was not readily “literate” that was written on the placard, but “literator” was accustomed to be inscribed, as though not perfected in letters, but only imbued.

Veteres grammatici et rhetoricam docebant, ac multorum de utraque arte commentarii feruntur. Secundum quam consuetudinem posteriores quoque existimo, quanquam iam discretis professionibus, nihilo minus vel retinuisse vel instituisse et ipsos quaedam genera institutionum ad eloquentiam praeparandam, ut problemata, paraphrasis, allocutiones, ethologias atque alia hoc genus; ne scilicet sicci omnino atque aridi pueri rhetoribus traderentur. Quae quidem omitti iam video, desidia quorundam et infantia; non enim fastidio putem.

The ancient grammarians also taught rhetoric, and commentaries by many on both arts are extant. According to which custom I think that the later ones too—although the professions were by then separated—nonetheless either retained or themselves instituted certain kinds of instruction for the preparation of eloquence, such as problemata, paraphrasis, allocutions, ethologies, and other things of this kind; lest, to wit, boys be handed over to rhetoricians altogether dry and arid. These practices I now see being omitted, through the sloth of certain persons and their childishness; not, I would think, from distaste.

Me quidem adolescentulo, repeto quendam Principem nomine alternis diebus declamare, alternis disputare, nonnullis vero mane disserere, post meridiem remoto pulpito declamare solitum. Audiebam etiam, memoria patrum quosdam e grammatici statim ludo transisse in forum atque in numerum praestantissimorum patronorum receptos.

When I was indeed a young man, I recall a certain Princeps by repute who used to declaim on alternate days, and on the alternate days to debate; and on some days, in the morning he would discourse, while in the afternoon, with the platform removed, he would declaim. I also heard that, within the memory of our fathers, certain men passed straight from the grammarian’s school into the forum and were received into the number of the most outstanding patrons.

Clari professores et de quibus prodi possit aliquid dum taxat a nobis fere hi fuerunt.

Famous professors, and those about whom at least something can be put forth by us, were for the most part these.

[5] Sevius Nicanor primus ad famam dignationemque docendo pervenit, fecitque praeter commentarios, quorum tamen pars maxima intercepta dicitur, satyram quoque, in qua libertinum se ac duplici cognomine esse per haec indicat:

[5] Sevius Nicanor was the first to attain fame and distinction by teaching, and, besides commentaries—the greatest part of which is said to have been intercepted—he also composed a satire, in which he indicates by these words that he is a freedman and of a double cognomen:

Sevius Nicanor Marci libertus negabit:
Sevius post huius * idem ac Marcus docebit.

Sevius Nicanor, freedman of Marcus, will deny it:
Sevius, after this man*, will teach the same as Marcus.

Sunt qui tradant, ob infamiam quandam eum in Sardiniam secessisse ibique diem obisse.

There are those who hand down that, on account of a certain infamy, he withdrew to Sardinia and there met his day.

[6] Aurelius Opilius, Epicurei cuiusdam libertus, philosophiam primo, deinde rhetoricam, novissime grammaticam docuit. Dimissa autem schola, Rutilium Rafum damnatum in Asiam secutus, ibidem Smyrnae simul consenuit, composuitque variae eruditionis aliquot volumina,ex quibus novem unius corporis, quia scriptores ac poetas sub clientela Musarum iudicaret, non absurde et fecisse et scripsisse se ait ex numero divarum et appellatione. Huius cognomen in plerisque indicibus et titulis per unam L litteram scriptum animadverto, verum ipse id per duas effert in parastichide libelli, qui inscribitur pinax.

[6] Aurelius Opilius, the freedman of a certain Epicurean, taught philosophy first, then rhetoric, and most recently grammar. But, his school having been dismissed, having followed Rutilius Rafus, condemned, into Asia, there at Smyrna he grew old together with him, and he composed several volumes of varied erudition,of which nine are of a single corpus—since he judged writers and poets to be under the clientela of the Muses—he says that he not absurdly both fashioned and entitled them from the number and the appellation of the goddesses. I notice this man’s cognomen written in most indices and titles with a single letter L; but he himself brings it forth with two, in the parastichis of the little book which is entitled pinax.

[7] M. Antonius. Gnipho, ingenuus in Gallia natus sed expositus, a nutritore suo manumissus institutusque (Alexandriae quidem, ut aliqui tradunt, in contubernio Dionysi Scytobrachionis: quod equidem non temere crediderim, cum temporum ratio vix congruat) fuisse dicitur ingenii magni, memoriae singularis, nec minus Graece quam Latine doctus; praeterea comi facilique natura, nec unquam de mercedibus pactus, eoque plura ex liberalitate discentium consecutus. Docuit primum in Divi Iulii domo pueri, deinde in sua privata.

[7] M. Antonius. Gnipho, freeborn, born in Gaul but exposed, manumitted and educated by his fosterer (in Alexandria, indeed, as some hand down, in the companionship of Dionysius Scytobrachion: which I for my part would not readily believe, since the reckoning of the times scarcely accords) is said to have been of great ingenium, of singular memory, and no less learned in Greek than in Latin; moreover of a kindly and easy nature, and he never bargained about fees, and on that account obtained more from the liberality of his students. He taught first in the house of the Deified Julius when he was a boy, then in his own private school.

Docuit autem et rhetoricam, ita ut quotidie praecepta eloquentiae traderet, declamaret vero nonnisi nundinis. Scholam eius claros quoque viros frequentasse aiunt, in iis M. Ciceronem, etiam cum praetura fungeretur. Scripsit multa, quamvis annum aetatis quinquagesimum non excesserit.

He also taught rhetoric, such that every day he handed down precepts of eloquence, but he declaimed only on market-days. They say that renowned men too frequented his school, among them M. Cicero, even when he was discharging the praetorship. He wrote many works, although he did not surpass the fiftieth year of age.

Etsi Ateius Philologus duo tantum volumina de Latino sermone reliquisse eum tradit; nam cetera scripta discipulorum eius esse, non ipsius; in quibus et suum alicubi reperiri nomen, ut hoc *.

Although Ateius Philologus reports that he left only two volumes on the Latin language; for the other writings are those of his disciples, not his own; among which his own name is also found somewhere, as in this *.

[8] M. Pompilius Andronicus, natione Syrus, studia Epicureae sectae desidiosior in professione grammatica habebatur minusque idoneus ad tuendam scholam. Itaque cum se in urbe non solum Antonio Gniphoni, sed ceteris etiam deterioribus postponi videret, Cumas transiit ibique in otio vixit et multa composuit; verum adeo inops atque egens, ut coactus sit praecipuum illud opusculum suum annalium Ennii elenchorum XVI. milibus nummum cuidam vendere, quos libros Orbilius suppressos redemisse se dicit vulgandosque curasse nomine auctoris.

[8] M. Pompilius Andronicus, a Syrian by nation, was regarded as rather slothful in the studies of the Epicurean sect within the grammatical profession, and less fit to maintain a school. And so, when he saw himself set after not only Antonius Gnipho but even others who were worse, he went over to Cumae and there lived in leisure and composed many works; but he was so poor and needy that he was forced to sell that chief little work of his, the Elenchi of Ennius’s Annals, to someone for 16,000 coins—books which Orbilius says, after they had been suppressed, he bought back and took care to have published under the author’s name.

[9] L. Orbilius Pupillus Beneventanus, morte parentum, una atque eadem die inimicorum dolo interemptorum, destitutus, primo apparituram magistratibus fecit; deinde in Macedonia corniculo, mox equo meruit; functusque militia, studia repetit, quae iam inde a puero non leviter attigerat; ac professus diu in patria, quinquagesimo demum anno Romam consule Cicerone transiit docuitque maiore fama quam emolumento. Namque iam.persenexpauperem se et habitare sub tegulis quodam scripto fatetur. Librum etiam, cui est titulus Perialogos, edidit continentem querelas de iniuriis, quas professores neglegentia aut ambitione parentum acciperent.

[9] L. Orbilius Pupillus of Beneventum, left bereft by the death of his parents, who on one and the same day were slain by the treachery of enemies, at first served as an apparitor to the magistrates; then in Macedonia he served as a cornicularius, soon afterward on horseback; and, having completed his military service, he returned to studies, which from boyhood he had not lightly touched; and, after professing for a long time in his native place, at last in his fiftieth year—Cicero being consul—he crossed over to Rome and taught with greater renown than emolument. For indeed, already a very old man, he admits in a certain writingthat he is poor and dwells under the tiles. He also published a book entitled Perialogos, containing complaints about the injuries which teachers receive through the negligence or ambition of parents.

Fuit antem naturae acerbae, non modo in antisophistas, quos omni in occasione laceravit, sed etiam in discipulos, ut et Horatius significat plagosum eum appellans, et Domitius Marsus scribens:

He was, however, of a harsh nature, not only against the anti-sophists, whom he tore to pieces on every occasion, but also against his pupils, as Horace too indicates by calling him plagosum , and Domitius Marsus by writing:

Si quos Orbilius ferula scuticaque cecidit.

If there are any whom Orbilius beat with the ferule and the scourge.

Ac ne principum quidem virorum insectatione abstinuit; siquidem ignotus adhuc cum iudicio frequenti testimonium diceret, interrogatus a Varrone diversae partis advocato, quidnam ageret et quo artificio uteretur, gibberosos se de sole in umbram transferre respondit; quod Murena gibber erat. Vixit prope ad centesimum aetatis annum, amissa iam pridem memoria, ut versus Bibaculi docet:

Nor did he abstain even from assailing men of the foremost rank; inasmuch as, still unknown, when he was giving testimony before a crowded court, questioned by Varro, advocate of the opposite party, what he did and what art he employed, to transfer hunchbacks from the sun into the shade, he answered; because Murena was a hunchback. He lived to nearly the 100th year of his age, his memory long since lost, as a verse of Bibaculus teaches:

Orbilius ubinam est, litterarum oblivio?

Where on earth is Orbilius, the oblivion of letters?

Statua eius Beneventi ostenditur in Capitolio ad sinistram latus marmorea habitu sedentis ac palliati, appositis duobus scriniis. Reliquit filium Orbilium, et ipsum grammaticum professorem.

His statue is displayed at Beneventum on the Capitol, on the left side, of marble, in the guise of one seated and cloaked, with two book-chests set beside. He left a son, Orbilius, himself also a professor of grammar.

[10] L. Ateius Philologus libertinus Athenis est natus.Hunc Capito Ateius notas iuris consultus inter grammaticos rhetorem, inter rhetores grammaticum fuisse ait. De eodem Asinius Pollio in libro, quo Sallustii scripta reprehendit ut nimia priscorum verborum affectatione oblita, ita tradit: In eam rem adiutorium ei fecit maxime quidam Ateius Praetextatus nobilis grammaticus Latinus, declamantium deinde auditor atque praeceptor, ad summam Philologus ab semet nominatus. Ipse ad Laelium Hermam scripsit, se in Graecis litteris magnum processum habere et in Latinis nonnullum, audisse Antonium Gniphonem eiusque * Hermam, postea docuisse.

[10] L. Ateius Philologus, a freedman, was born at Athens.This man the well-known jurisconsult Capito Ateius says to have been a rhetor among grammarians, and among rhetors a grammarian. About the same man Asinius Pollio, in the book
in which he reproves Sallust’s writings as overlaid with an excessive affectation of ancient words,
thus transmits: In that matter, the greatest assistance was afforded him by a certain Ateius Praetextatus, a noble Latin grammarian, thereafter a hearer and also a preceptor of declaimers, in sum, named “Philologus” by himself. He himself wrote to Laelius
Herma, that he had great progress in Greek letters and some in Latin, that he had listened to Antonius Gnipho and his * Herma, and afterwards had taught.

Praecepisse autem multis et claris iuvenibus, in quis Appio quoque et Pulchro Claudiis fratribus, quorum etiam comes in provincia fuerit. Philologi appellationem assumpsisse videtur, quia sic ut Eratosthenes, qui primus hoc cognomen sibi vindicavit, multiplici variague doctrina censebatur. Quod sane ex commentariis eius apparet, quanquam paucissimi extent; de quorum tamen copia sic altera ad eundem Hermam epistola significat: Hylen nostram aliis memento commendare, quam omnis generis coegimus, uti scis, octingentos in libros. Coluit postea familiarissime C. Sallustium et eo defuncto Asinium Pollionem, quos historiam componere aggressos, alterum breviario rerum omnium Romanarum, ex quibus quas vellet eligeret, instruxit, alterum praeceptis de ratione scribendi. Quo magis miror Asinium credidisse, antiqua eum verba et figuras solitum esse colligere Sallustio; cum sibi sciat nihil aliud suadere quam ut noto civilique et proprio sermone utatur, vitetque maxime obscuritatem Sallustii et audaciam in translationibus.

He is said to have instructed many and illustrious youths, among whom also the Claudian brothers, Appius and Pulcher, whose companion he even was in a province. He seems to have assumed the appellation “Philologus,” because, just as Eratosthenes, who first claimed this cognomen for himself, he was esteemed for manifold and various doctrina. This indeed appears from his commentaries, although very few are extant; yet of their abundance another letter to the same Herma signifies thus: Remember to commend our Hyle to others, which of every kind we have compiled, as you know, into eight hundred books. Thereafter he cultivated a most intimate friendship with Gaius Sallustius and, after he died, with Asinius Pollio; and when they undertook to compose history, he furnished the former with a breviary of all Roman affairs, from which he might select what he wished, and the latter with precepts on the method of writing. Wherefore I the more wonder that Asinius believed he was wont to collect archaic words and figures for Sallust; since he knows that he advised nothing else to him except that he should use a known, civil, and proper speech, and should especially avoid Sallust’s obscurity and boldness in translations.

[11] P. Valerius Cato, ut nonnulli tradiderunt, Burseni cuiusdam libertus ex Gallia; ipse libello, cui est titulus Indignatio, ingenuum se natum ait et pupillum relictum, eoque facilius licentia Syllani temporis exutum patrimonio. Docuit multos et nobiles, visusque est peridoneus praeceptor, maxime ad poeticam tendentitus, ut quidem apparere vel his versiculis potest:

[11] P. Valerius Cato, as some have handed down, a freedman of a certain Bursenus from Gaul; he himself, in a little book whose title is Indignation, says that he was born freeborn and left a ward, and on that account the more easily stripped of his patrimony by the license of Sulla’s time. He taught many and nobles, and seemed a very suitable preceptor, especially for those tending toward the poetic art, as indeed can appear even from these little verses:

Cato grammaticus, Latina Siren,
Qui solus legit ac facit poetas.

Cato the grammarian, the Latin Siren,
Who alone reads and makes poets.

Is scripsit praeter grammaticos libellos etiam poemata, ex quibus praecipue probantur Lydia et Diana. Lydiae Ticida meminit:

He wrote, besides grammatical little books, also poems, of which Lydia and Diana are especially approved. Of Lydia, Ticida makes mention:

Lydia doctorum maxima cura liber;

Lydia, a book, the greatest care of the learned;

Dianae Cinna:

For Diana, Cinna:

Secula permaneat nostri Dictynna Catonis.

May the ages of our Cato endure, Dictynna.

Vixit ad extremam senectam, sed in summa pauperie et pene inopia, abditus modico gurgustio, postquam Tusculana villa creditoribus cesserat, ut auctor est Bibaculus:

He lived to extreme old age, but in the utmost poverty and almost destitution, hidden in a modest hovel, after the Tusculan villa had ceded to creditors, as Bibaculus is the authority:

Si quis forte mei domum Catonis,
Depictas minio assulas, et illos
Custodis videt hortulos Priapi:
Miratur, quibus ille disciplinis,
Tantam sit sapientiam assecutus,
Quem tres cauliculi, selibra farris,
Racemi duo tegula sub una
Ad summam prope nutriant senectam.

If by chance anyone sees the house of my Cato,
the boards painted with vermilion, and those
little gardens of the guardian Priapus:
he marvels by what disciplines
he has attained so great a sapience,
whom three little cabbage-stalks, a half-pound of spelt,
and two clusters beneath a single tile
almost nourish to the very end of old age.

Et rursus:

And again:

Catonis modo, Galle, Tusculanum
Tota creditor urbe venditabat.
Mirati sumus, unicum magistrum,
Summum grammaticum, optimum poetam
Omnes solvere posse quaestiones,
Unim difficile expedire nomen.
En cor Zenodoti, en iecur Cratetis!

Just now, Gallus, Cato’s Tusculan
a creditor was hawking throughout the whole city.
We were amazed that a single teacher,
the highest grammarian, the best poet,
could solve all questions,
yet not clear one difficult account.
Behold the heart of Zenodotus, behold the liver of Crates!

[12] Cornelius Epicadus, L. Cornelii Syllae dictatoris libertus calatorque in sacerdotio augurali, filio quoque eius Fausto gratissimus fuit; quare nunquam non utriusque se libertum edidit. Librum autem, quem Sylla novissimum de rebus suis imperfectum reliquerat, ipse supplevit.

[12] Cornelius Epicadus, freedman of L. Cornelius Sulla the dictator and calator in the augural priesthood, was most dear also to his son Faustus; wherefore he never failed to declare himself the freedman of both. Moreover, the book which Sulla had left most recently, about his own affairs, unfinished, he himself completed.

[13] Staberius Eros suomet aere emptus de catasta et propter litterarum studium manumissus, docuit inter ceteros Brutum et Cassium. Sunt qui tradant tanta eum honestate praeditum, ut temporibus Syllanis proscriptorum liberos gratis et sine mercede ulla in disciplinam receperit.

[13] Staberius Eros, purchased off the auction-block at his own expense and manumitted on account of his study of letters, taught, among others, Brutus and Cassius. There are those who relate that he was endowed with such probity that, in the Sullan times, he received the children of the proscribed into instruction gratis and without any fee whatsoever.

[14] Curtius Nicia haesit CN. Pompeio et C. Memmio; sed cum codicillos Memmi ad Pompei uxorem de stupro pertulisset, proditus ab ea, Pompeium offendit, domoque ei interdictum est. Fuit et M.Ciceronis familiaris; in cuius epistola ad Dolabellam haec de eo legimus:Nihil Romae geritur quod te putem scire curare, nisi forte scire vis, me inter Niciam nostrum et Vidium iudicem esse. Profert alter, opinor duobus versiculis, expensum [Niciae;] alter Aristarchus hos obelizei: ego tanquam criticus antiquos iudicaturus sum, utrum sint tou [poietou an parembeblemenoi.] Item ad Atticum: De Nicia quod scribis, si ita me haberem ut eius humanitate frui possem, in primis vellem mecum illum habere; sed mihi solitudo et recessus provincia est.

[14] Curtius Nicia attached himself to Pompey and to Gaius Memmius; but when he had carried little notes from Memmius to Pompey’s wife about adultery, betrayed by her, he offended Pompey, and he was forbidden his house. He was also a familiar of M. Cicero; in whose letter to Dolabella we read this about him:Nothing is transacted at Rome that I think you care to know, unless perhaps you wish to know that I am judge between our Nicia and Vidius. The one produces, I think, with two little verses, “paid out [to Nicia;]”; the other, an Aristarchus, obelizes these: I, as a critic about to judge the ancients, shall decide whether they are of the [poet or have been interpolated.] Likewise to Atticus: As to Nicia, what you write: if I were so situated that I could enjoy his humanity, I would especially wish to have him with me; but for me solitude and retreat is a province.

Praeterea nosti Niciae nostri imbecllitatem, mollitiam, consuetudinem victus. Cur ergo illi molestus esse [velim, cum mihi ille iucundus esse non] possit? Voluntas tamen eius mihi grata est. Huius de Lucilio libros etiam Santra comprobat.

Moreover, you know our Nicia’s imbecility, softness, and habit of living. Why, then, could I be troublesome to him [should I wish, since he cannot be pleasant to me]? His goodwill, however, is pleasing to me. Santra also approves his books about Lucilius.

[15] Lenaeus, Magni Pompei libertus et pene omnium expeditionum comes, defuncto eo filiisque eius schola se sustentavit; docuitque in Carinis ad Telluris, in qua regione Pompeiorum domus fuerat, ac tanto amore erga patroni memoriam extitit, ut Sallustium historicum, quod eumoris probi, animo inverecundo scripsisset, acerbissima satyra laceraverit, lastaurum et lurconem et nebulonem popinonemque appellans, et vita scriptisque monstrosum, praeterea priscorum Catonisque verborum ineruditissimum furem. Traditur autem puer adhuc Athenis surreptus, refugisse in patriam, perceptisque liberalibus disciplinis, pretium suum retulisse, verum ob ingenium atque doctrinam gratis manumissus.

[15] Lenaeus, the freedman of Pompey the Great and the companion of almost all his expeditions, after he and his sons had died, supported himself by a school; and he taught in the Carinae by the Temple of Tellus, in the region where Pompey’s house had been, and he showed such love toward the memory of his patron that he tore the historian Sallust with a most bitter satire, because he had written him to beof honest speech, with a shameless spirit, calling him a glutton and a gormandizer and a good-for-nothing and a tavern-haunter, and monstrous in life and in writings, moreover a most unlearned thief of the words of the ancients and of Cato. He is reported, while still a boy, to have been snatched at Athens, to have fled back into his homeland, and, after receiving the liberal disciplines, to have repaid his price; in truth, on account of his natural talent and his learning he was manumitted gratis.

[16] Q. Caecilius Epirota, Tusculi natus, libertus Attici equitis Romani, ad quem sunt Ciceronis epistolae, cum filiam patroni nuptam M. Agrippae doceret, suspectus in ea et ob hoc remotus, ad Cornelium Gallum se contulit vixitque una familiarissime, quod ipsi Gallo inter gravissima crimina ab Augusto obiicitur. Post deinde damnationem mortemque Galli scholam aperuit, sed ita ut paucis et tantum adulescentibus praeciperet, praetextato nemini, nisi si cuius parenti hoc officium negare non posset. Primus dicitur Latine ex tempore disputasse, primusque Virgilium el alios poetas novos praelegere coepisse, quod etiam Domitii Marsi versiculus indicat:

[16] Q. Caecilius Epirota, born at Tusculum, a freedman of Atticus, a Roman knight, to whom are Cicero’s letters, when he was teaching his patron’s daughter, married to M. Agrippa, was suspected in regard to her and on this account removed; he betook himself to Cornelius Gallus and lived together with him most intimately, which is thrown in against Gallus himself by Augustus among the most grievous charges. After then the condemnation and death of Gallus he opened a school, but in such a way that he instructed only a few and only adolescents; to no one wearing the praetexta (i.e., a boy) did he give lessons, unless he could not refuse this service to someone’s parent. He is said to have been the first to dispute in Latin ex tempore, and the first to begin to lecture on Virgil and other “new” poets, which a little verse of Domitius Marsus also indicates:

Epirota, tenellorum nutricula vatum.

Epirota, foster-mother of tender poets.

[17] M. Verrius Flaccus libertinus docendi genere maxime claruit. Namque ad exercitanda discentium ingenia aequales inter se committere solebat, proposita non solum materia quam scriberent, sed et praemio quod victor auferret. Id erat liber aliquis antiquus, pulcher aut rarior.

[17] M. Verrius Flaccus, a freedman, became most renowned for his manner of teaching. For, to exercise the talents of learners, he was accustomed to pit equals against one another, with not only a subject proposed on which they should write, but also a prize which the victor would carry off. This was some ancient book, handsome or more uncommon.

Quare ab Augusto quoque nepotibus eius praeceptor electus, transiit in Palatium cum tota schola, verum ut ne quem amplius posthac discipulum reciperet; docuitque in atrio Catulinae domus, quae pars Palatii tunc erat, et centena sestertia in annum accepit. Decessit aetatis exactae sub Tiberio. Statuam habet Praeneste, in superiore fori parte circa hemicyclium, in quo fastos a se ordinatos et marmoreo parieti incisos publicarat.

Wherefore, chosen by Augustus also as tutor to his grandsons, he passed into the Palatium with his whole school, but on condition that he should not thereafter receive any further pupil; and he taught in the atrium of the house of Catiline, which was then a part of the Palatium, and he received a hundred thousand sesterces per year. He died at an advanced age under Tiberius. He has a statue at Praeneste, in the upper part of the forum around the hemicycle, in which he had made public the Fasti arranged by himself and engraved on a marble wall.

[18] L. Crassicius, genere Tarentinus, ordinis libertini, cognomine Pasicles, mox Pansam se transnominavit. Hic initio circa scenam versatus est, dum mimographos adiuvat; deinde in pergula docuit, donec commentario Zmyrnae edito adeo inclaruit, ut haec de eo scriberentur:

[18] Lucius Crassicius, by stock a Tarentine, of the freedman order, by surname Pasicles, soon renamed himself Pansa. He at first busied himself around the stage, while he aided the mime-writers; then he taught in a pergula, until, a commentary on “Smyrna” having been published, he became so famed that the following were written about him:

Uni Crassicio se credere Zmyrna probavit:
Desinite indocti coniugio hanc petere!
Soli Crassicio se dixit nubere velle,
Intima cui soli nota sua extiterint.

Smyrna has proved she entrusts herself to Crassicius alone:
Cease, you unlearned, to seek her for conjugal union!
To Crassicius alone she said she wishes to wed,
to whom alone her own intimacies would be known.

Sed cum edoceret iam multos ac nobiles, in iis Iulium Antonium, triumviri filium, ut Verrio quoque Flacco compararetur, dimissa repente schola, transiit ad Q. Sexti philosophi sectam.

But when he was already instructing many and nobles, among them Julius Antonius, the son of the triumvir, so that he was even compared to Verrius Flaccus, with his school suddenly dismissed, he passed over to the sect of the philosopher Q. Sextius.

[19] Scribonius Aphrodisius, Orbilii servus atque discipulus, mox a Scribonia Libonis filia, quae prior Augusti uxor fuerat, redemptus et manumissus, docuit quo Verrius tempore, cuius etiam libris de orthographia rescripsit, non sine insectatione studiorum morumque eius.

[19] Scribonius Aphrodisius, slave and disciple of Orbilius, later bought and manumitted by Scribonia, daughter of Libo, who had formerly been the wife of Augustus, taught at the time when Verrius did; he also wrote a reply to that man’s books on orthography, not without inveighing against his studies and his character.

[20] C. Iulius Hyginus, Augusti libertus, natione Hispanus, (nonnulli Alexandrinum putant et a Caesare puerum Romam adductum Alexandria capta) studiose et audiit et imitatus est Cornelium Alexandrum grammaticum Graecum, quem propter antiquitatis notitiam Polyhistorem multi, quidam Historiam vocabant. Praefuit Palatinae bibliothecae, nec eo secius plurimos docuit; fuitque familirarissimus Ovidio poetae et Clodio Licino consulari, historico, qui eum admodum pauperem decessisse tradit et liberalitate sua, quoad vixerit, sustentatum. Huius libertus fuit Iulius Modestus, in studiis atque doctrina vestigia patroni secutus.

[20] Gaius Julius Hyginus, a freedman of Augustus, by nation a Spaniard,
(some think him an Alexandrian and that he was brought to Rome by Caesar as a boy when Alexandria
was captured) both diligently listened to and imitated Cornelius Alexander, a Greek grammarian,
whom, on account of his knowledge of antiquity, many called Polyhistor, some called History.
He presided over the Palatine library, and nevertheless taught very many besides; and he was most familiar with the poet Ovid and with Clodius Licinus, a consular and historian, who relates that he died very poor and was supported by his liberality as long as he lived. His freedman was Julius Modestus, who in studies and learning followed in the footsteps of his patron.

[21] C. Melissus, Spoleti natus ingenuus, sed ob discordiam parentum expositus, cura et industria educatoris sui altiora studia percepit, ac Maecenati pro grammatico muneri datus est. Cui cum se gratum et acceptum in modum amici videret, quanquam asserente matre, permansit tamen in statu servitutis praesentemque condicionem verae origini anteposuit; quare cito manumissus, Augusto etiam insinuatus est. Quo delegante, curam ordinandarum bibliothecarum in Octaviae porticu suscepit.

[21] C. Melissus, born free at Spoleto, but exposed on account of discord
between his parents, through the care and industry of his educator attained higher studies,
and was given to Maecenas for the office of grammarian. Seeing that he was pleasing and acceptable
to him in the manner of a friend, although his mother was asserting (his status), he nevertheless remained in the state
of servitude and preferred his present condition to his true origin; wherefore, soon manumitted,
he was also introduced to Augustus. By his delegation, he undertook the care of ordering
the libraries in the Portico of Octavia.

Atque, ut ipse tradit, sexagesimum aetatis annum agens, libellos Ineptiarum, qui nunc Iocorum inscribuntur, componere instituit, absolvitque C et L, quibus et alios diversi operis postea addidit. Fecit et novum genus togatarum inscripsitque trabeatas.

And, as he himself relates, while passing the sixtieth year of his age, he began to compose little books of Ineptitudes, which are now inscribed Jokes, and he completed 150, to which he later added others of a different kind. He also made a new kind of togatae and inscribed them Trabeatae.

[22] M. Pomponius Marcellus, sermonis Latini exactor molestissimus, in advocatione quadam (nam interdum et causas agebat) soloecismum ab adrersario factum usque adeo arguere perseveravit, quoad Cassius Severus, interpellatis iudicibus, dilationem petiit, ut litigalor suus alium grammaticum adhiberet;quando non putat is cum adversario de iure sibi, sed de soloecismo controversiam futuram. Hic idem, cum ex oratione Tiberium reprehendisset, affirmante Ateio Capitone, et esse illud Latinum, et si non esset, futurum certe iam inde: Mentitur inquit Capito; tu enim, Caesar, civitatem dare potes hominibus, verbo non potes. Pugilem olim fuisse, Asinius Gallus hoc in eum epigrammate ostendit:

[22] M. Pomponius Marcellus, a most troublesome exactor of Latin speech, at a certain advocacy (for at times he also conducted cases), persisted in arraigning a solecism made by his adversary to such a degree, until Cassius Severus, after interrupting the judges, asked for a postponement, that his litigant might bring in another grammarian;since he does not suppose that he will have a controversy with his adversary about the law, but about a solecism. This same man, when he had criticized Tiberius for a point in his oration, with Ateius Capito affirming both that that was Latin, and that, if it were not, it would certainly be so from that time on: “Capito lies,” he says; “for you, Caesar, can give citizenship to men; to a word you cannot.” That he had once been a boxer, Asinius Gallus shows in this epigram against him:

Qui caput ad levam didicit, glossemata nobis
Praecipit: os nullum, vel potius pugilis!

Who has learned to hold his head to the left prescribes glosses to us:
no mouth at all—or rather a pugilist’s!

[23] Q. Remmius Palaemon, Vicetinus, mulieris verna, primo, ut ferunt, textrinum, deinde herilem filium dum comitatur in scholam, litteras didicit. Postea manumissus docuit Romae ac principem locum inter grammaticos tenuit, quanquam infamis omnibus vitiis, palamque et Tiberio et mox Claudio praeidicantibus,nemini minus institutionem puerorum vel invenum committendam. Sed capiebat homines cum memoria rerum, tum facilitate sermonis; nec non etiam poemata faciebat ex tempore. Scripsit vero variis, nec vulgaribus metris.

[23] Q. Remmius Palaemon, a Vicentine, a woman’s homeborn slave, at first, as they say, in a weaving-shop; then, while accompanying the master’s son to school, he learned letters. Afterwards, manumitted, he taught at Rome and held the principal place among grammarians, although infamous for every vice, and with both Tiberius and soon Claudius publicly proclaiming thatto no one less should the instruction of boys or youths be entrusted. But he captivated people both by his memory for things and by the facility of his speech; and he also made poems extempore. He wrote indeed in various, and not common, meters.

Arrogantia fuit tanta, ut M. Varronem porcum appellaret; secum et natas et morituras litteras iactaret; nomen suum m Bucolicis non temere positum, sed praesagante Virgilio, fore quandoque omnium poetarum ac poematum Palaemonem iudicem. Gloriabatur etiam, latrones quondam sibi propter nominis celebritatem parsisse. Luxuriae ita indulsit, ut saepius in die lavaret, nec sufficeret sumptibus, quanquam ex schola quadringena annua caperet, ac non multo minus ex re familiari; cuius diligentissimus erat, cum et officinas promercalium vestium exerceret, et agros adeo coleret, ut vitem manu eins insitam satis constet CCCLX uvas edidisse. Sed maxime flagrabat libidinibus in mulieres, usque ad infamiam oris; dicto quoque non infaceto notatum fernut cuiusdam, qui cum in turba osculum sibi ingerentem quanquam refugiens devitare non posset. Vis tu, inquit, magister, quotiens festinantem aliquem vides, abligurire?

His arrogance was so great that he called M. Varro a pig; he bragged that letters were both born with him and would die with him; that his name in the Bucolics was not placed rashly, but with Virgil foretelling that someday Palaemon would be the judge of all poets and poems. He also boasted that robbers once spared him because of the celebrity of his name. He so indulged in luxury that he bathed several times in a day, nor did his expenses suffice, although from his school he took 400 annually, and not much less from his private estate; of which he was most diligent, since he both ran shops of ready-made garments and cultivated his fields to such a degree that it is well attested that a vine grafted by his own hand produced 360 grapes. But he blazed most of all with lusts toward women, even to the infamy of the mouth; and they say he was also noted by a not un-witty remark of a certain man, who, when in a crowd he could not avoid him, though shrinking back, as he thrust a kiss upon him: “Do you wish, teacher, whenever you see someone in a hurry, to lick him up?”

[24] M. Valerius Probus, Berytius, diu centuriatum petiit, donec taedio ad studia se contulit. Legerat in provincia quosdam veteres libellos apud grammatistam, durante adhuc ibi antiquorum memoria, necdum omnino abolita sicut Romae. Hos cum diligentius repeteret atque alios deinceps cognoscere cuperet, quamvis omnes contemni magisque obprobrio legentibus quam gloriae et fructui esse animadverteret, nihilo minns in proposito mansit; multaque exemplaria contracta emendare ac distinguere et annotare curavit, soli huic nec ulli praeterea grammatices parti deditus.

[24] M. Valerius Probus, a Berytian, long sought a centurionate, until, out of tedium, he turned himself to studies. In the province he had read certain old little books at a grammarian’s, while the memory of the ancients still lasted there, not yet altogether abolished as at Rome. When he reviewed these more carefully and then desired to get to know others in turn, although he observed that all were despised and were more a reproach to those reading them than a glory and a profit, nonetheless he remained in his purpose; and he took care to correct, to mark off, and to annotate many copies that he had collected, devoted to this alone and to no other part of grammatical science.

Hic non tam discipulos quam sectatores aliquot habuit. Nunquam enim ita docuit ut magistri personam sustineret; unum et alterum, vel cum plurimos tres aut quatuor postmeridianis horis admittere solebat, cubansque inter longos ac vulgares sermones legere quaedam, idque perraro. Nimis pauca et exigua de quibusdam minutis quaestiunculis edidi.

This man had not so much disciples as a few followers. For he never taught in such a way as to sustain the persona of a master; he used to admit one and another, or, when at the most, three or four, in the afternoon hours, and, reclining, amid long and common conversations, to read certain things—and that very rarely. I have published all too few and slight pieces on certain minute little questions.

Reliquit autem non mediocrem silvam observationum sermonis antiqui.

He left, moreover, a not inconsiderable forest of observations on ancient speech.