Charisius

• A Greek orator, imitator of Lysias, Cic. Brut. 83, 286; Quint. 10, 1, 70.—
• II Flavius Sosipater Charisius, a Latin grammarian in the fourth Christian century.—
• III A Roman jurist of the time of Constantine the Great.

(Χαρίσιος), a son of Lycaon, to whom tradition ascribed the foundation of Charisiae in Arcadia. (Paus. 8.3.1; Steph. Byz. s. v.) [L.S]

(Χαρίσιος), a Greek orator and a contemporary of Demosthenes, wrote orations for others, in which he imitated the style of Lysias. He was in his turn imitated by Hegesias. (Cic. Brut. 83.) His orations, which were extant in the time of Quintilian and Rutilius Lupus, must have been of considerable merit, as we learn from the former writer (x. 1.70), that they were ascribed by some to Menander. Rutilius Lupus (1.10, 2.6) has given two extracts from them. (Comp. Ruhnken, ad Rutil. Lup. 1.10; Westermann, Gesch. der Griech. Beredtsamkeit. § 54, n. 34.)

a presbyter of the church of the Philadelphians in the fifth century. Shortly be fore the general council held at Ephesus, A. D. 431, Antonius and James, presbyters of Constantinople, and attached to the Nestorian party, came to Philadelphia with commendatory letters from Anastasius and Photius, and cunningly prevailed upon several of the clergy and laity who had just renounced the errors of the Quartodecimani (Neander, Kirchengesch. 2.2, p. 645), to subscribe a prolix confession of faith tinctured with the Nestorian errors. But Charisius boldly withstood them, and therefore they proscribed him as a heretic from the communion of the pious. When the council assembled at Ephesus, Charisius accused before the fathers that composed it Anastasius, Photius, and James, exhibiting against them a book of indictment, and the confession which they had imposed upon the deluded Philadelphians. He also presented a brief confession of his own faith, harmonizing with the Nicene creed, in order that he might clear himself from the suspicion of heresy. The time of his birth and death is unknown. He appears only in connexion with the Ephesian council, A. D. 431.

The indictment which he presented to the synod, his confession of faith, a copy of the exposition of the creed as corrupted by Anastasius and Photius, the subscribings of those who were misled, and the decree of the council after hearing the case, are given in Greek and Latin in the Sacrosancta Concilia, edited by Labbe and Cossart, vol. iii. p. 673, &c., Paris, 1671, folio. See also Cave's Historia Literaria, pp. 327, 328, ed. Lond. 1688, fol. [S.D]

a Roman jurist, one of the latest in time of those whose works are cited in the Digest. Herennius Modestinus, who was living in the reign of Gordianus III., is usually considered to be the last jurist of the classical period of Roman jurisprudence. " Hic oracula jurisconsultorum obmutuere," says the celebrated Jac. Godefroi (Manuale Juris, 1.7), " sic ut ultimum JCtorum Modestinum dicere vere liceat." For an interval of 80 or 90 years after Modestinus, no jurist appears whose works are honoured with citation in the Digest, unless Julius Aquila or Furius Anthianus belongs to that interval. The only two who can be named with certainty as posterior to Modestinus are Charisius and Hermogenianus. Of these two, the priority of date is probably, for several reasons, to be assigned to the former. It may be here mentioned, that Hermogenianus occupies the last place in the Florentine Index. Charisius cites Modestinus with applause (Dig. 50. tit. 4. s. 18.26), but his date is more closely to be collected from Dig. 1. tit. 11. s. un. § 1, where he states that appeal from the sentences of the praefecti praetorio has been abolished. Now, this appeal was abolished by Constantine the Great, A. D. 331 (Cod. 7. tit. 62. s. 19), and, from the language of Charisius in Dig. 1. tit. 11, it may be inferred, that Constantine was alive at the time when that passage was written. Charisius is sometimes (e. g. Dig. 22. tit. 5. s. 1. pr.) cited in the Digest by the name " Arcadius, qui et Charisius," and by Joannes Lydus (de Magist. Pop. Rom. 1.100.14), he is cited by the name Aurelius simply. The name Charisius was not uncommon in the decline of the empire, and, when it occurs on coins, it is usually spelled Carisius, as if it were etymologically connected with Carus rather than χάρις. The jurist, according to Panziroli (de Clar. Jur. Interpp. pp. 13, 59), was the same with the Arcadius to whom Carus, Carinus, and Numerianus directed a rescript, A. D. 283. (Cod. 9. tit. 11. s. 4.) There is a constitution of Diocletianus and Maximianus, addressed, A. D. 300-2, to Arcadius Chresimus. (Cod. 2. tit. 3. s. 27.) Panziroli would here read Charisius for Chresimus, and would also identify our Charisius with the Carisius (Vat. M. S.; vulg. lect. Charissimus), praeses of Syria, to whom was addressed (A. D. 290) an earlier constitution of the same emperors. (Cod. 9. tit. 41. s. 9.) These identifications, however, though not absolutely impossible, rest upon mere conjecture, and would require the jurist to have lived to a very advanced age. Three works of Charisius are cited in the Digest. Four extracts (Dig. 22. tit. 5. s. 1; Dig. 22. tit. 5. s. 21; Dig. 22. tit. 5. s. 25; Dig. 48. tit. 18. s. 10) are made from his Liber singularis de Testibus; one (Dig. 50. tit. 4. s. 18) from his Liber singularis de Muneribus civilibus; and one (Dig. 1. tit. 1. s. un.) from his Liber singularis de Officio Praefecti praetorio. In the inscription prefixed to the latter passage (Dig. 1. tit. 11. s. un.), he is styled magister libellorum, and Cujas (Obss. 7.2), probably suspecting that he held office under Constantine, conjectures that he was a Christian. For this conjecture, however, there is no sufficient ground, for, as Ritter has remarked (ad Heineccii Historiam Jur. Rom. § 358), even under Valentinianus the younger, Rome was still for the most part pagan, and men, the most addicted to paganism, held the highest dignities even in the imperial household.

Both the matter and the language of the extracts from Charisius in the Digest mark the declining age of jurisprudence and Latinity. The matter betrays the mere compiler. The language is disfigured by barbarisms, e. g. participales, regimentum, incunctabile, munus camelasiae. (Jac. Godefroi, ad Cod. Theodos. 11. tit. 30. s. 16; Guil. Grot. Vitae Jurisc. 2.11; Chr. Rau, de Aur. Arc. Charisio. Vet. Jurisc., 4to, Lips. 1773; Zimmern, R. R. G. 1.104.) [J.T.G]

a Latin grammarian. Works Institutiones Grammaticae

author of a treatise in five books, drawn up for the use of his son, entitled Institutiones Grammaticae, which has come down to us in a very imperfect state, a considerable portion of the first and fifth books being entirely wanting, as we at once discover by comparing the table of contents presented in the prooemium with what actually remains. It is a careful compilation from preceding writers upon the same subject, such as Flavius Caper, Velius Longus, Terentius Scaurus, and above all Comminianus and Julius Romanus, from whom whole chapters are cited, and is particularly valuable on account of the number of quotations, apparently very accurate, from lost works. We can detect a close correspondence with many passages in the Ars Grammatica of Diomedes, but Charisius is so scrupulous in referring to his authorities, that we are led to conclude, since he makes no mention of Diomedes, that the latter was the borrower. Comminianus is known to have flourished after Donatus and before Servius [Comminianus], therefore Charisius, being mentioned by Priscian, must belong to some period between the middle of the fourth and the end of the fifth centuries. Osann, who has investigated this question with great care, decides that he ought to be placed about the year A. D. 400, in which case he probably enjoyed the advantage of consulting the great libraries of the metropolis, before they were pillaged by the Goths. We gather from his own words that he was a native of Campania, in religion a Christian, by profession a grammarian, following his occupation at Rome. Editions

The Editio Princeps of Charisius was published by J. Pierius Cyminius, a pupil of Janus Parrhasius, who first discovered the work, at Naples, fol. 1532; the second, superintended by G. Fabricius Chemnicensis, was printed by Frobenius at Basle, 8vo., 1551, and contains many corrections and improvements, but likewise many interpolations, since the editor was not assisted by any MS.; the third, included in the " Grammaticae Latinae Auctores Antiqui," of Putschius, Hanov. 4to. 1605, professes to be far more complete and accurate than the preceding, in consequence of the additional matter and various readings obtained from an excellent codex, the property of Janus Douza, of which, however, no detailed account is given, and of which no trace now remains. Niebuhr had paved the way for a new edition by collating and making extracts from the Neapolitan MS. originally employed by Cyminius, which affords means for greatly purifying and enlarging the text. These materials were promised by Niebuhr to Lindemann, who, however, in consequence of the death of his friend and the destruction of a portion of his papers by fire, succeeded in obtaining only a copy of Putschius with the various readings of the Neapolitan MS. marked on the margin. These are given in the edition of Charisius, which forms the first part of the fourth volume of the " Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum Veterum," Lips. 4to. 1840. Further Information

Funceius, De inerti ac decrepita Linguae Latinae Senectute, c. 4.11; Osann, Beiträge zur Griech. und Röm. Litteraturgesch. vol. ii. p. 319 ; Lersch, Die Sprachphilosophie der Alten, vol. i. p. 163. [W.R]

A writer on Latin grammar, who flourished towards the end of the fourth century A.D. His Ars Grammatica, a work in five books, imperfectly preserved, is a compilation, made, without much intelligence, from the works of older scholars. Its value is derived from the numerous quotations it preserves from the older Latin literature. Our text is derived chiefly from the Codex Neopolitanus of the seventh or eighth century. The best critical text is that of H. Keil (in his Grammatici Latini), vol. i. (Leipzig, 1857).

• Paus. 8.3.4