Donatus
- Aelius D., a celebrated Roman grammarian of the fourth century of our era, teacher of Jerome, and commentator on Terence; cf. Baehr's Lit. Gesch. p. 533 sq., and 68.—
- II Tiberius Claudius D., a commentator on Vergil, who lived about A.D. 400; cf. Baehr's Lit. Gesch. p. 91; Teuffel, Röm. Lit. § 423.
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pro ~is emptis London’ et datis confratribus
a donett , ~us
- 1. Aelius ~, Rom. grammaticus uit de 4e eeuw n. Chr., commentator op Terentius;
- 2. Tiberius Claudius ~, Rom. grammaticus (ca. 400 n. Chr.), commentator op Vergilius.
was bishop of Casa Nigra, in Numidia, in the early part of the fourth century (A. D. 312), and from him, together with another prelate of the same name, the successor of Majorinus in the disputed election to the see of Carthage, the Donatists derived their appellation.
This was the first important schism which distracted the Christian church; and, although in a great measure confined within the limits of Africa, proved, for three centuries, the source of great confusion, scandal, and bloodshed. The circumstances which gave rise to the division, and the first steps in the dispute, are given in another article. [Caecilianus.] Condemned, punished, but eventually tolerated by Constantine, fiercely persecuted by Constans, and favoured by Julian, the followers of this sect appear to have attained to their highest point of prosperity at the commencement of the fifth century, about which period they were ruled by four hundred bishops, and were little inferior in numbers to the Catholics of the province. The genius and perseverance of Augustin, supported by the stringent edict of Honorius (A. D. 414), vigorously enforced by the civil magistrates, seem to have crushed them for a time; but they revived upon the invasion of Genseric, to whom, from their disaffection to a hostile government, they lent a willing support; they were of sufficient importance, at a later date, to attract the attention, and call forth the angry denunciations of Pope Gregory the Great, and are believed to have kept their ground, and existed as an independent community, until the final triumph of the Saracens and Mohommedanism.
We ought to observe, that even the most violent enemies of the Donatists were unable to convict them of any serious errors in doctrine or discipline. Agreeing with their opponents upon all general principles and points of faith, they commenced simply by refusing to acknowledge the authority of Caecilianus, and were gradually led on to maintain, that salvation was restricted to their own narrow pale, because they alone had escaped the profanation of receiving the sacraments from the hands of traditors, or of those who, having connived at such apostacy, had forfeited all claims to the character of Christians. Asserting that they alone constituted the true universal church, they excommunicated not only those with whom they were directly at variance, but all who maintained any spiritual connexion with their adversaries; and adopting to the full extent the high pretensions of Cyprian with regard to ecclesiastical unity and episcopal power, insisted upon rebaptizing every one who became a proselyte to their cause, upon subjecting to purification all places of public worship which had been contaminated by the presence of their opponents, and upon casting forth the very corpses and bones of the Catholics from their cemeteries. This uncharitable spirit met with a fitting retribution ; for, at the epoch when their influence was most widely extended, dissensions arose within their own body; and about one-fourth of the whole party, separating from the sect under the denomination of Maximianists, arrogated to themselves, exclusively, the prerogatives claimed by the larger faction, and hurled perdition against all who denied or doubted their infallibility. Further Information
Our chief authorities for all that concerns the Donatists are the works of Optatus Milevitanus and Augustin. In the edition of the former, published by the learned and industrious Dut Pin, will be found a valuable appendix of ancient documents relating to this controversy, together with a condensed view of its rise and progress, while the most important passages in the writings of Augustin have been collected by Tillemont, in that portion of his Ecclesiastical Memoirs (vol. vi.) devoted to this subject. For the series of Imperial Laws against the Donatists from A. D. 400 to 428, see Cod. Theod. xvi. tit. 5. [W.R]
or, with all his titles as they are found in MSS., Aelius Donatus Vir Clarus Orator Urbis Romae, was a celebrated grammarian and rhetorician, who taught at Rome in the middle of the fourth century, and was the preceptor of Saint Jerome. Works Latin Grammar
Donatus' most famous work is a system of Latin Grammar, which has formed the groundwork of most elementary treatises upon the same subject, from the period when he flourished down to our own times. It has usually been published in the form of two or more distinct and separate tracts: 1. Ars s. Editio Prima, de literis, syllabis, pedibus, et tonis; 2. Editio Secunda, de octo parlibus orationis; to which are commonly annexed, De barbarismo; De soloecisnmo; De ceteris vitiis; De metaplasmo; De schmatibus; De tropis ; but in the recent edition of Lindemann these are all more correctly considered as constituting one connected whole, and are combined under one general title, taken from the Santenian MS. preserved in the Royal Library of Berlin, Donati Ars Grammatica tribus libris comprelcnsa.
It was the common schoolbook of the middle ages; insomuch, that in the English of Longlande and Chaucer a donat or donet is equivalent to a lesson of any kind, and hence came to mean an introduction in general. Thus among the works of Bishop Pecock are enumerated The Donat, into Christian religion, and The folower to the Donat, while Cotgrave quotes an old French proverb, Les diables estoient encores a leur Donat, i. e. The devils were but yet in their grammar. These, and other examples, are collected in Warton's History of English Poetry, sect. viii. Editions
The popularity of the " Ars Grammatica," especially of the second part, " De octo partibus Orationis," is sufficiently evinced by the prodigious number of editions which appeared during the infancy of printing, most of them in gothic characters, without date, or name of place, orof printer, and the typographical history of no work, with the exception of the Scriptures, has excited more interest among bibliographers, or given them more trouble. Even before the invention of printing from movable types, several editions seem to have been thrown off from blocks, and fragments of these have been preserved in various collections. The three parts will be found in the collection of Putschius (Grammaticae Latinae Auctores Antiqui, Hanov. 4to. 1605), together with the commentary of Sergius on the prima and secunda editio; and that of Servius Marius Honoratus, on the secunda editio only (see pp. 1735, 1743, 1767, 1779, 1826); and also in Lindemann's " Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum Veterum," vol. i. Lips. 1831. Commentaries on Terence
In addition to the Ars Grammatica, we possess introductions (enarrationes) and scholia, by Donatus, to five out of the six plays of Terence, those to the Heautontimorumenos having been lost. The prefaces contain a succinct account of the source from which each piece was derived, and of the class to which it belongs; a statement of the time at which it was exhibited; notices respecting the distribution of the characters; and sundry particulars connected with stage technicalities. The commentaries are full of interesting and valuable remarks and illustrations ; but from the numerous repetitions and contradictions, and, above all, the absurd and puerile traits here and there foisted in, it is manifest that they have been unmercifully interpolated and corrupted by later and less skilful hands. Some critics, indeed, have gone so far as to believe that Donatus never committed his observations to writing, and that these scholia are merely scraps, compiled from the notes of pupils, of dictata or lectures delivered viva voce; but this idea does not well accord with the words of St. Jerome in the first of the passages to which a reference is given at the end of this article. Editions
Of the commentary on Terence, at least four editions, separate from the text, appeared during the fifteenth century. That which is believed to be the first is a folio, in Roman characters, without place, date, or printer's name, but was probably published at Cologne, about 1470-1472; the second at Venice, by Spira, fol. 1472; the third at Rome, by Sweynheym and Pannartz, fol. 1472; the fourth at Milan, by Zarotus, fol. 1476. It will be found attached to all complete editions of the dramatist. Commentary on Virgil
Servius, in his annotations upon Virgil, refers, in upwards of forty different places, to a Donatus, who must have composed a commentary upon the Eclogues, Georgies, and Aeneid. " Scholia in Aeneida" bearing the name of Donatus, and corresponding, for the most part, with the quotations of Servius, are still extant, but, from their inferior tone and character, have been generally ascribed to Tiberius Claudius Donatus, who is noticed below. They are divided into twelve books, to which a supplemental thirteenth was to have been added ; the concluding portions of the fourth and eighth, and the commencement of the sixth and twelfth, are wanting. Their chief object is to point out the beauties and skill of the poet, rather than to explain his difficulties; but the writer, in a letter subjoined to the twelfth book, announces his intention, should a life already far advanced be prolonged, of compiling, from ancient authorities, a description of the persons, places, herbs, and trees, enumerated in the poem. Editions
The commentaries upon the Aeneid were first discovered by Jo. Jovianus Pontanus, were first published from the copy in his library, by Scipio Capycius, Neap. fol. 1535, and were inserted by G. Fabricius in the " Corpus Interpretum Virgilianorum."
The text is very corrupt and imperfect, but it would appear that MSS. still exist which present it in a more pure and complete form, although these have never been collated, or at least given to the world. (See Burmann, in the pref. to his ed. of Virgil.) Further Information
Hieron. ad vers. Ruf vol. iii. p. 92, ed. Bas., in Euseb. Chron. ad ann. ccclv p. c. ; in Eccles. c. i.; see also Lud. Schopfen, De Terentio et Donato, 8vo, Bonn. 1824, and Specimen emend. in Ael. Donati comment. Terent. 4to, Bonn. 1826. Osann, Beiträge zur Griechischen und Römischen Litteraturgeschichte, Leip. 1839. [W.R]
We find prefixed to all the more complete editions of Virgil a life of the poet, in twenty-five chapters, bearing the title," Tiberii Claudii Donati ad Tiberium Claudianum Maximum Donatianum filium de P. Virgilii Maronis Vita." Nothing whatsoever is known with regard to this Donatus; but it has been conjectured that some grammarian, who flourished about the commencement of the fifth century, may have drawn up a biography which formed the groundwork of the piece we now possess, but which, in its actual shape, exhibits a worthless farrago of childish anecdotes and frivolous fables, compounded by ignorant and unskilful hands. Indeed, scarcely two MSS. can be found in which it does not wear a different aspect, and the earlier editors seem to have moulded it into its present form, by collecting and combining these various and often heterogeneous materials. [W.R]
(1) Aelius. A celebrated grammarian, born in the fourth century of our era, about A.D. 333. He was preceptor to St. Jerome, who speaks with great approbation of his talents and of the manner in which he explained the comedies of Terence. Independently of his commentaries on Vergil and Terence, Donatus composed a treatise (Ars Donati Grammatici Urbis Romae) in two parts. In one (Ars Minor) he treats of the eight parts of speech only, and in the other (Ars Maior), deals with grammar more elaborately. This work was highly esteemed and so much used in the Middle Ages that the word donat (Chaucer) became the generic term for a grammar. The commentary on Vergil appears to have been worthy neither of the author commented on nor of the reputation of the grammarian to whom it is ascribed, if we may judge from the contemptuous allusions made to it by Servius; but of it only the preface and the introduction (enarrationes) are now extant, besides quotations given in Servius. The commentary on Terence, however, is extremely valuable, though we have it in a form different from that which it originally possessed. The chief MS. of the commentaries of Donatus is one at Paris of the eleventh century. The editio princeps appeared at Rome in 1472. The text of the Ars is contained in Keil's Grammatici Latini, vol. iv. (Leipzig, 1856- 1880). See Gräfenhan, Geschichte d. class. Philologie, iv. 107; J. Becker, De Donati in Terentium Commentario (Mayence, 1870); and Rosenstock, De Donato, etc. (Königsberg, 1886).
(2) Not to be confounded with the preceding is Tiberius Claudius Donatus, who wrote Interpretationes on the Aeneid, probably in the fourth century. Of the author, nothing is known. The work, which is preceded by a short epistle, was first published at Naples in 1535, and is included in the editions of Vergil by Fabricius (Basle, 1561), and Lucius (Basle, 1613). See Ribbeck's Prolegomena to Vergil, 185; and Burkas, De Ti. Claud. Donati in Aen. Commentario (Jena, 1889).
(3) A bishop of Numidia, in the fourth century. According to some writers he was the founder of the sect of Donatists, which grew out of a schism produced by the election of a bishop of Carthage. He was deposed and excommunicated in councils held at Rome and at Arles in the years A.D. 313 and 314, but was for some time after supported by a party at home. His end is unknown.