Donātus
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.
