Aelius Donatus facts for kids
Aelius Donatus (English: /doʊˈneɪtəs/; fl. mid-fourth century AD) was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric.
He once taught Jerome.
Works
He was the author of a number of professional works, of which several are extant:
- Ars maior – A commentary on Latin grammar.
- Ars minor – A commentary on parts of Latin Speech.
- Explicatio in Ciceronis De inventione (An Explanation of the Cicero's De Inventione)
- Vita Vergili (Life of Virgil) is thought to be based on a lost Vita by Suetonius, together with the preface and introduction of his commentary on Virgil's works. A greatly expanded version of Servius' commentary exists, however, which is supplemented with frequent and extensive extracts from what is thought to be Donatus' commentary on Virgil.
- Since the book is supposedly based on a Vita by Suetonius, it is also often titled Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana ["The Life [of Virgil], [actually] by Suetonius, [but] commonly called 'by Donatus'"], or Vita Suetoniana-Donatiana.
Donatus was a proponent of an early system of punctuation, consisting of dots placed in three successively higher positions to indicate successively longer pauses, roughly equivalent to the modern comma, colon, and full stop. This system remained current through the seventh century, when a more refined system created by Isidore of Seville gained prominence.
In "About Comedy and Tragedy" in his Commentary on Terence, Donatus was the first person known to document the system whereby a play is made up of three separate parts: protasis, epitasis, and catastrophe.
Aelius Donatus should not be confused with Tiberius Claudius Donatus, also the author of a commentary (Interpretationes) on the Aeneid, who lived about 50 years later.
Donatus auctus
During the Renaissance, Donatus' Vita Vergili is often collected in anthologies of ancient literature. The humanists had interpolated other materials into the Vita Vergili to add details and fill in gaps, and these interpolations are collectively called Donatus auctus ["the augmented Donatus"]. Donatus auctus was added some time around 1426–37, between the first and second redactions of the De scriptoribus illustribus latinae linguae ["On Famous Writers of the Latin Language"] of Sicco Polenton, and it became the standard account of Virgil's life up until the 18th century.
The text and translation is found in, with italics for the Donatus auctus and non-italics for Vita Vergili.
See for an evolutionary tree for all the versions of Vita Vergili.
This Vita depicted Vergil as a wise scholar and expert in science, while disregarding the anecdotes portraying Vergil as a magician, which were added during the medieval period in other Vita.
Donatus auctus contains one oft-quoted poem "sic vos non vobis", which was recorded in Codex Salmasianus. See section 251, 252 in I.1 of Latin Anthology (B. G. Teubner, 1982). The version recorded in Codex Salmasianus contained just two lines. It was expanded into 5 lines in Donatus auctus:meaningThe story went that Virgil wrote, over the gate of the Emperor's palace, an anonymous couplet praising AugustusmeaningAugustus sent an inquiry to find out who wrote it, but Virgil did not come forth, and mediocre poet Bacillus came forth to claim the credit. Augustus asked Bacillus to complete the lines, but Bacillus could not, and then Virgil came forth to complete the lines, proving his authorship.
See also
In Spanish: Elio Donato para niños
