Atilius Fortunatianus (flourished in the 4th century A.D.) was a Latin grammarian. He was the author of a treatise on metres, dedicated to one of his pupils, a youth of senatorial rank, who desired to be instructed in the Horatian metres.[1][2] The manual opens with a discussion of the fundamental ideas of metre and the chief rules of prosody, and ends with a detailed analysis of the metres of Horace. The chief authorities used are Caesius Bassus and the Latin adaptation by Juba the grammarian of the Τέχνη of Heliodorus. Fortunatianus being a common name in the African provinces, it is probable that the author was a countryman of Juba, Terentianus Maurus and Victorinus.[3]
Atilius' work on metrical treatise depends on that of Caesius Bassus.[4][2] His treatise on metrics also contains in the beginning some chapters on vowels, consonants and syllabus.[5]
There is an edition of his Ars in H. Keil, Grammatici Latini, vi.; also published by him separately (1885).[3]
Discovery at Bobbio
editIn 1493 a sensational trove of grammatical and late-Roman poetry was discovered in Bobbio,[6] and Atilius’s work was part of this discovery.[7]
References
edit- ^ Kaster, Robert A. (1 Jan 1997). Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity. Oakland, California: University of California Press. p. 409. ISBN 978-0-520-21225-1. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ a b von Albrecht, Michael (16 Sep 2019). A History of Roman Literature: From Livius Andronicus to Boethius : with Special Regard to Its Influence on World Literature. Leiden, Netherlands: BRILL. p. 1471. ISBN 978-9-004-10711-3. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ a b One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fortunatianus, Atilius". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 726.
- ^ Elliott, Jackie (16 April 2018). Ennius and the Architecture of the Annales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 448. ISBN 978-1-107-02748-0. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ Koerner, E.F.K. (28 Jun 2014). Concise History of the Language Sciences: From the Sumerians to the Cognitivists. Amsterdam: Elsevier. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-483-29754-5. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ Bischoff, Bernhard (12 April 1990). Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-521-36726-4. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ Zetzel, James E. G. (16 April 2018). Critics, Compilers, and Commentators: An Introduction to Roman Philology, 200 BCE-800 CE. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 283. ISBN 978-0-195-38051-4. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
