PRISCIAN

Form: Priscianus.

A Latin grammarian of Caesarea in Mauritania; who lived, at the beginning of the 6th century A.D., as a teacher of the Latin language in Constantinople. He there compiled, in addition to a number of smaller grammatical works, his Institutiones Grammaticoe in 18 books, the fullest and completest systematic Latin grammar which has come down to us. This work, which is of great importance owing to its ample quotations from ancient literaturet was for a long time, in the Middle Ages, the school book in ordinary use, and formed the foundation for the earlier treatises on Latin Grammar in modern times. We also possess an insipid panegyrical poem written by Priscian on the emperor Anastasius, and a translation of the Cosmography of the geographer Dionysius, in hexameter verse.