Sextus Pompeius Festus, usually known simply asFestus, was aRomangrammarian who probably flourished in the later 2nd century AD, perhaps at Narbo (Narbonne) inGaul.
He made a 20-volumeepitome ofVerrius Flaccus's voluminous and encyclopedic treatiseDe verborum significatione. Flaccus had been a celebrated grammarian who flourished in the reign ofAugustus. Festus gives theetymology as well as the meaning of many words, and his work throws considerable light on the language, mythology and antiquities of ancientRome. He made a few alterations, and inserted some critical remarks of his own. He also omitted such ancientLatin words as had long been obsolete; these he apparently discussed in a separate work now lost, entitledPriscorum verborum cum exemplis. Even incomplete, Festus' lexicon reflects at second hand the enormous intellectual effort that had been made in the Augustan Age to put together information on the traditions of the Roman world, which was already in a state of flux and change.
Of Flaccus' work only a few fragments remain; of Festus'epitome, only one damaged, fragmentary manuscript. The remainder, further abridged, survives in a summary made at the close of the 8th century byPaul the Deacon.
The Festus Lexicon Project has summed up Paul'sepitome of Festus'De Verborum Significatu as follows:
The text, even in its present mutilated state, is an important source for scholars of Roman history. It is a treasury of historical, grammatical, legal and antiquarian learning, providing sometimes unique evidence for the culture, language, political, social and religious institutions, deities, laws, lost monuments, and topographical traditions of ancient Italy.[1]
The 11th-centuryCodex Farnesianus atNaples is the sole surviving manuscript of Festus. It was rediscovered in 1436 atSpeyer by the Venetian humanist and bishopPietro Donato.[2] When he found it, half of the manuscript was already missing, so that it only contains the alphabetized entries M-V, and not in perfect condition. During the 15th century it was scorched by fire and then disassembled by the antiquarian humanistJulius Pomponius Laetus.
The project of the collation and republication with translations of these fragmentary abridgments is being coordinated atUniversity College London, with several objectives: to make this information available in usable form, to stimulate debate on Festus and on the Augustan antiquarian tradition upon which he drew, and to enrich and to renew studies on Roman life, about which Festus provides essential information.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Festus, Sextus Pompeius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 294.
Ramsay, William (1870)."Festus, Sext. Pompeius". InSmith, William (ed.).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.