Pseudo-Caper: Versus de Orthographia

These hexameter verses on correct usage are associated with the orthographical work transmitted under the name of the grammarian Caper. In a few lines they prescribe forms such as liburnica rather than liburna, note that every animal except man is called pecus, and warn against the solecism of using the superlative where only two things are compared. They are edited from Keil’s Grammatici Latini.

Versified rules were a common teaching device, making grammatical prescriptions easier to memorize. These lines are a small example of the genre and of the transmission of grammatical lore under the name of a respected earlier authority. They also illustrate how such prescriptions travelled with grammatical texts, sometimes inserted into the prose treatises they summarize.