The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · Character
Aelius Melissus
Also known as Melissus
- Supporting
- First seen · Book 1 · Ch. 195
There's something pedantic yet oddly endearing about the way he weighs his words, as though each definition were a delicate artifact requiring careful handling. His presence suggests a mind that finds profound meaning in the smallest distinctions of language.
- Gender
- male
- Age
- Adult
- First appears
- Book 1 · Ch. 195
- Books
- 1
Aelius Melissus appears in Gibbon's great work as a Roman grammarian whose scholarly precision led him to craft an elaborate and ultimately ridiculous definition of the term matrona. Rather than simply denoting a woman who had given birth once, he insisted it should distinguish between a woman who had given birth once and a mother of a family who had given birth often. This linguistic hairsplitting earned him a place in the historical record as an example of the sometimes absurd extremes of Roman grammatical scholarship.
Description
Aelius Melissus presents as a lean, scholarly Roman man of middle years, with dark hair showing early gray at the temples and a narrow face dominated by a prominent nose. His dark eyes carry the focused intensity of one who spends his days parsing ancient texts. He wears a simple white toga with narrow purple stripes, and his pale skin and ink-stained fingers mark him as a man of letters rather than of action. A stylus is often tucked behind his ear, completing the portrait of the dedicated grammarian.
Story so far
BOOK 1The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire / Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)
Appearances
Meet Aelius Melissus in Bookworm
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