Plo'tius
whose full name was MARIUS PLOTIUS SACERDOS, a Latin grammarian.
Works
He was the author of
De Aletris Liber, dedicated to Maximus and Simplicius. All that we know with regard to the writer is comprised in the brief notice prefixed by himself to his work "Marius Plotius Sacerdos composui Romae docens de metris." From the prooemium which follows we learn that this essay formed the third and concluding book of a treatise upon grammar, the subject of the first book having been
De Institutis Artis Grammaticae, and of the second
De Nominum Verborumque Ratione nec non de Scripturarum Compositionibus.
Although we have no direct means of determining the period when Plotius flourished we are led to infer from his style that he cannot be earlier than the fifth or sixth century.
Editions
The "Liber de Metris" was first published by Putschius in his "Grammnaticae Latinae Auctores antiqui," 4to. Hannov. 1605. p. 2623-2663, from a MS. or MSS. belonging to Andreas Schottus and Joannes a Wouwer.
It will be found also in the "Scriptores Latini Rei Metricae" of Gaisford, 8vo. Oxon. 1837. u. 242-302.
Endlicher published in his "Analecta Grammatica" from a MS. which once belonged to the celebrated monastery of Bobbio a tract, entitled
M. Claudii Sacerdotis Artium Grammaticarum Libri Duo, which he endeavoured to prove were in reality the two books by Marius Plotius Sacerdos described above, but there is not sufficient evidence to warrant this conclusion.
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W.R]
