Marcus Valerius Probus

Who is Marcus Valerius Probus?

Marcus Valerius Probus of Berytus, was a Roman grammarian and critic, who flourished during Nero's reign.

He was a student rather than a teacher, and devoted himself to the criticism and elucidation of the texts of classical authors by means of marginal notes or by signs, after the manner of the Alexandrine grammarians. In this way he treated Horace, Lucretius, Terence and Persius, the biography of the last-named being probably taken from Probus's introduction to his edition of the poet. With the exception of these texts, he published little, but his lectures were preserved in the notes taken by his pupils. Some of his criticisms on Virgil may be preserved in the commentary on the Bucolics and Georgics which goes under his name. We possess by him part of a treatise De notis, probably an excerpt from a larger work. It contains a list of abbreviations used in official and historical writings, in laws, legal pleadings and edicts.

The following works have been wrongly attributed to him.

Catholica Probi, on the declension of nouns, the conjugation of verbs, and the rhythmic endings of sentences. This is now generally regarded as the work of the grammarian Marius Plotius Sacerdos.