Aelius Donatus (fl. late 4th century AD) was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. The only fact known regarding his life is that he was the tutor of St. Jerome. As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. ... This article is about grammar from a linguistic perspective. ... Rhetoric from Greek ρήτωρ, rhêtôr, orator) is the art or technique of persuasion, usually through the use of language. ... , by Albrecht Dürer Jerome (ca. ...

He was the author of a number of professional works, of which several are still extant:

A partly incomplete commentary on the playwright Terence compiled from other commentaries, but probably not in its original form;

His Life of Virgil is thought to be based on a lost Vita by Suetonius, with a few fragments of his notes on Virgil's poetry, which breaks off abruptly after the Eclogues, preserved and severely criticized by Servius, together with the preface and introduction.

• Life of Virgil text (English translation by David Scott)

His Ars grammatica and especially the section on the eight parts of speech, though possessing little claim to originality, and evidently based on the same authorities which were used by the grammarians Charisius and Diomedes, attained such popularity as a schoolbook that in the Middle Ages he became the eponym for a rudimentary treatise of any sort, called a donet. When books came to be printed in the 15th century, editions of the little book were multiplied to an enormous extent. It is in the form of an Ars Minor, which only treats of the parts of speech, and an Ars Major, which deals with grammar in general at greater length.

Aelius Donatus should not be confused with Tiberius Claudius Donatus, also the author of a commentary (Interpretationes) on the Aeneid who lived about fifty years later. Publius Terentius Afer, better known as Terence, was a comic playwright of the Roman Republic. ... A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD. For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ... Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (69 or 70 AD - after 130 AD ) or known as Suetonius was a prominent Roman historian. ... The Eclogues is one of three major works by the Latin poet Virgil. ... Maurus (or Marius) Servius Honoratius, Roman grammarian and commentator on Virgil, flourished at the end of the 4th century AD. He is one of the interlocutors in the Saturnalia of Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, and allusions in that work and a letter from Quintus Aurelius Symmachus to Servius show that he... In grammar, a part of speech or word class is defined as the role that a word (or sometimes a phrase) plays in a sentence. ... Flavius Sosipater Charisius (fl. ... Diomêdês (Gk:Διομήδης - God-like cunning) is a hero in Greek Mythology, mostly known for his participation in the Trojan War. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, which has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery or other item. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BCE (between 29 and 19 BCE) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he became the ancestor of the Romans. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.