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

PROBUS. PROBUS. 531
and Tiberian libraries, the public acts, the journals I the Valerius Probus of Gellius is one and the same
of the senate, together with the private diary of a person with the Probus Berytius of Suetonius and
certain Turdulus Gallicanus, he was enabled to Hieronymus, for although Gellius, who speaks of
compile a loose and ill-connected narrative. We having conversed with the pupils and friends of
may refer also, but with much less confidence, to Valerius Probus, did not die before A. D. 180, it is
Zosimus, i. 64, &c., the concluding portion of the by no means impossible, as far as we know to the
reign being lost; to Zonaras, xii. 29; Aurel. contrary, that Probus Berytius might have lived on
Vict. de Caes. xxxvii, Epit. xxxvii; Eutrop. to the beginning of the second century, although
ix. 11. [W. R.] the words of Martial (Ep. iii. 2, 12) cannot be
admitted as evidence of the fact. This view has
been adopted and ably supported by Jahn in the
Prolegomena to his edition of'Persius, 8vo. Lips.
1843 (p. cccxxxvi. &c.). The chief difficulty, however, after all, arises from the chronology. Probus
of Berytus is represented by Suetonius as having
long sought the post of a centurion, and as having
not applied himself to literature until he had lost
all hopes of success; hence he must have been well
advanced in life before he commenced his studies,,
and consequently, in all probability, must have
COIN OF FROBUS. been an old man in A. D. 57, when he was recognised at Rome as the most learned of grammarians.
PROBUS, a name borne by several celebrated Moreover, a scholar who in the age of Nero underRoman grammarians, whom it is difficult to dis- took to illustrate Virgil, could scarcely with protinguish from each other. priety have been represented as devoting himself
1. M. VALERIUS PROBUS, of Berytus, who to the ancient writers, who had fallen into neglect
having served in the army, and having long ap- and almost into oblivion, for such is the meaning
plied without success for promotion, at length be- we should naturally attach to the words of Suetotook himself, in disgust, to literary pursuits. He nius.
belongs to the age of Nero, since he stands last in 3. The life of Persius, commonly ascribed to
order in the catalogue of Suetonius, immediately Suetonius, is found in many of the best MSS. of
after Q. Remmius Palaemon, who flourished in the the Satirist with the title Vita A. Persii F'lacci cle
reigns of Tiberius, Caius, and Claudius; this is Commentario Probi Talerii sublata. Now since
fully confirmed by the notice of Jerome in the this biography bears evident marks of having been
Eusebian chronicle under Olympiad ccIx. I. (A. D. composed by some one who lived at a period not
56-7): "Probus Berytius eruditissimus gramma- very distant from the events which he relates, we
ticorurn Romae agnoscitur." Chance led him to may fairly ascribe it to the commentator on Virgil.
study the more ancient writers, and he occupied 4. The name of the ancient scholiast on Juvenal
himself in illustrating (emendare ac distinguere et was, according to Valla, by whom he was first pubadnotare curavit) their works. He published a lished, Probus Gramnmaticus. (See In D. Junii
few trifling remarks on some matters of minute Juv. Satt. Comment. vetusti post Pothoei Curas, ed.
controversy (nimis pauca et exigua de quibusdanz D. A. G. Cramer, 8vo. Hamb. 1823, p. 5.)
zinzztis quaestiunculis edidit), and left behind him 5. In the "Grammaticae Latinae auctores antia considerable body of observations (silvare) on the qui," 4to. Hannov. 1605, p. 1386-1494, we find a
earlier forms of the language. Although not in work upon grammar, in two books, entitled M. Vathe habit of giving regular instructions to pupils, lerii Probi Granmoaticae Institutiones, with a preface
he had some admirers (sectatores), of whom he in verse, addressed to a certain Coelestinus. The
would occasionally admit three or four to benefit first book treats briefly of letters, syllables, the
by his lore. To this Probus we may, with con- parts of speech and the principles of prosody. The
siderable probability, assign those annotations on second book, termed Catholica, comprises general
Terence, from which fragments are quoted in the rules for the declension of nouns and verbs, with a
Scholia on the dramatist. (Sueton. de illus. few remarks on the arrangement of words and exGrannz. 24; Schopfen, de Terentio et Donato eius amples of the different species of metrical feet, corinterprete, 8vo. Bonn, 1821, p. 31.) responding throughout so closely with the treatise
2. VALERIUS PROBUS, termed by Macrobius of M. Claudius Sacerdos [see PLOTIUS MARIUS],'" Vir perfectissirnus," flourished some years before that it is evident that one of these writers must have
A. Gellius, and therefore about the beginning of copied from the other, or that both must have
the second century. He was the author of com- derived their materials from a common source. The
mentaries on Virgil, and possessed a copy of a text of this Probus has lately received important
portion at least of the Georgics, which had been improvements from a collation of the Codex Bocorrected by the hand of the poet himself. These biensis, now at Vienna, and appears under its best
are the commentaries so frequently cited by Ser- form in the "Corpus Grammaticornm Latinorum"
vius; but the Schlolia in Bucolica et Geosgica, now of Lindemann, 4to. Lips. 1831, vol. i. pp. 39-148.
extant, under the name of Probus, belong to a The lines to Coelestinus are included in the Anthol.
much later period. (Gell. i. 15. ~ 18, iii. 1. ~ 5, Lat. of Burmann, vol. i. addend. p. 739, or No.
ix. 9. ~ 12, 15, xiii. 20. ~ 1, xv. 30. ~ 5; Ma- 205, ed. Meyer.
crob. Sat. v. 22; Heyne, de antiq. Viygil. itnterprett. 6. In the same collection by Putschius, p. 1496.
subjoined to his notices "De Virgilii editionibus.") -1541, is contained M. Valerii Probi Girammnnatici
It must not be concealed, that many plausible de Notis Romanowum Interpretandis Libellus, an
reasons, founded upon the notices contained in the explanation of the abbreviations employed in inNoctes Atticae, may be adduced for believirg that scriptions and writings of various kinds.
M I0 2