SERVIUS, the commentator on Virgil, is all but unknown to us, so far as personal information goes. From notices in the Saturnalia of Macrobius, where he appears as an interlocutor, we may infer that in or about 380, though still quite young, he was already distinguished as. a “grammaticus,” that is, as an expert in the criticism, explanation, and teaching of the classical literature of Rome. Servius therefore belongs to the latter half of the 4th and the earlier years of the 5th century, to the age of Symmachus and Claudian, of Jerome and Augustine. The allusions of Macrobius and a short letter from Symmachus to Servius leave no doubt that the grammarian formed one of that band of cultivated men, led by Symmachus, whose eyes were turned towards the pagan past and away from the Christian future, and who breathed into pagan culture its last transient sparks of life and vigour. The race of “grammatici” to which Servius belonged, and which had now run at Rome a course of some 500 years, had done much evil to literature, had helped to corrupt, falsify, encumber, and even in some instances by abbreviations upon abbreviations to kill out the texts on which they worked; but on the whole they had done more good. They had helped to save what could be saved of education, culture, and history, and so had in the main contributed to the preservation of the ancient literature that has come down to us. Of all the “grammatici” none bears on his front more of the virtues and fewer of the vices of the race than Servius. But it must be noted that much which passes under the name of Servius in modern editions, and in modern quotations, most certainly did not proceed from his hand. The comments on Virgil to which his name has been attached come from three different sources. One ...class of MSS. contains a comparatively short commentary, definitely attributed to Servius. A second class (all going back to the 10th or 11th century) presents a much expanded commentary, in which the first is embedded; but these MSS. differ very much in the amount and character of the additions they make to the original, and none of them bear the name of Servius. The added matter is undoubtedly ancient, dating from a time but little removed from that of Servius, and is founded to a large extent on historical and antiquarian literature which is now lost. The third class of MSS., written for the most part in Italy and of late date, repeats the text of the first class, with numerous interpolated scholia of quite recent origin and little or no value.
The real Servian commentary (for so we must designate the text that we find in the first class of MSS.) practically gives the only complete extant edition of a classic author written before the destruction of the empire. It is constructed very much on the principle of a modern edition, but with very different ideas both as to the relative and the absolute value of the matters treated. Owing to the delicacy and originality of his veiled style, to the innumerable threads of ancient history, mythology, and antiquities shot through the texture of his poems, owing above all to the firm hold he early gained upon the Latin schools, Virgil had a continuous line of expounders stretching almost from his death to the destruction of the Roman government of the West. Servius built his edition in part on the extensive Virgilian literature of preceding times, much of which is known only from the fragments and facts he has preserved. The notices of Virgil’s text, though seldom or never authoritative in face of the existing MSS., which go back to, or even beyond, the times of Servius, yet supply valuable information concerning the ancient recensions and textual criticism of Virgil. In the grammatical interpretation of his author’s language, Servius does not rise above the stiff and overwrought subtleties of that day; while his etymologies, as is natural, violate every law of sound and sense. As a literary critic the shortcomings of Servius are great, if we judge him by a modern standard, but he shines if compared with his contemporaries. In particular, he deserves credit for setting his face against the prevalent allegorical methods of exposition. But the abiding value of his work lies in his preservation of facts in Roman history, religion, antiquities, and language which but for him might have perished. Not a little of the laborious erudition of Varro and other ancient scholars, to whom time has proved unkind, has survived in Servius’s pages. The older MSS. sometimes add to the name Servius that of Magister (given to other distinguished grammarians at different times); the later Italian MSS. in some cases give his name as Maurus Servius Honoratus. Besides the Virgilian commentary, we have other works of Servius,— a collection of notes on the grammar (Ars) of Donatus; a treatise on metrical endings; the tract De Centum Meteris or Centimeter.
The most noted editions of the Virgilian commentary are by Fabricius (1551); P. Daniel, who first published the enlarged commentary (1600); and by Thilo and Hagen (Leipsic, 1878-84). The Essai sur Servius by E. Thomas (Paris, 1880) is an elaborate and valuable examination of all matters connected with Servius; many points are treated also by Ribbeck in his “Prolegomena” to Virgil, and by Thilo and Hagen as above. The smaller works of Servius are printed in Keil’s Grammatici Latini.
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