FESTUS, POMPEIUS SEXTUS, a celebrated grammarian and philologist, who probably flourished towards the close of the fifth century of our era, and who was at all events posterior to Martial, whom he cites under the word Vespa. Festus abridged the great work of Verrius Flaccus, a learned grammarian, De Verborum Significatione, omitting obsolete expressions, which were to be treated of in a separate work. This abridgment, which is still extant, is divided into twenty books, in which each word is alphabetically arranged and explained; and it has justly been regarded as one of the most valuable works respecting the Roman language and antiquities which have come down to
our times. Indeed, of all the grammarians, Festus is the one who, in the opinion of Julius Scaliger, has rendered the greatest service to the Latin language. The abridgment of Paulus Diaconus is a complete mutilation of the work of Festus. The latter was printed for the first time at Milan, 1471, in small folio, and about the middle of the sixteenth century successively published by Aldus Manutius, Maffei, and, lastly, by the learned Augustin, with notes, Venice, 1560. The Venice edition, which contains the abbreviation of the work of Festus by Paulus Diaconus, and also fragments of Verrius, was reprinted at Paris, 1575, in 8vo, under the superintendence of Joseph Scaliger. About the same time, Fulvio Orsini published the Fragments of Festus, as Rallus and Pomponius Lætus had transmitted them to Politian and to J. B. Pius, Rome, 1581, in 8vo; and they were afterwards inserted by Denis Godeffroi in the collection of the Auctores Latine Lingua, published at Geneva, 1602, in 4to. Lastly, the excellent edition of Dacier, in usum Delphini, appeared at Paris in 1681, 4to, and was reprinted in the same form at Amsterdam in 1699, with the notes of Antony Augustin, Fulvio Orsini, and Joseph Scaliger.