A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

DONATUS.

PONATUS. 1065

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.
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 Du 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.]
DONA'TUS AE'LIUS, or, with all his titles as
they are found in MSS., Acdius Donatus Vir CGirus

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. Iis 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 partibus
orationis; to which are commonly annexed, De
barbarismio; De soloecismo; De ceteris viiiis; De
metaplusmo; De scheinmaiibus; De rcopis; 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 G'rammatica
trib/s libris comiprehensa. 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 Hisiory of English Poetry, sect. viii.
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 skilfhl 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.
Servius, in his annotations upon Virgil, refers, in
upwards of forty different places, to a Donatus,
wyho nmust have composed a commentary upon the
Eclogues, Georgics, 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 Donaltus, 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 sub