DONATUS, AELIUS, Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric, flourished in the middle of the 4th century A.D. He was the tutor of St. Jerome. Of his numerous works, the following are extant: the Ars grammatica; most of his commentary on Terence (a compilation from other commentaries), but prob ably not in its original form; and a few fragments of his notes on Virgil, preserved and severely criticized by Servius, together with the preface and introduction, and life of Virgil. The Ars, though having little claim to originality, and based on the au thorities used by Charisius and Diomedes, became so popular as a school-book that in the middle ages the writer's name became a common metonymy (in the form donet) for any rudimentary treatise. It is extant in the form of an Ars Minor, which only treats of the parts of speech, and an Ars Maior, which deals with grammar in general at greater length.
Aelius Donatus is to be distinguished from Tiberius Claudius Donatus, the author of a commentary (Interpretationes) on the Aeneid (of far less value than that of Servius), who lived about so years later.
The best text of the Ars and the commentaries upon it by Servius and others is in H. Keil, Grammatici Latini, iv.; of the commentary on Terence there is an edition by P. Wessner (19oz, Teubner series), with bibliography and full account of mss. See generally E. A. Grafenhan, Geschichte der klassischen Philologie im Altertum, iv. (185o) ; P. Rosenstock, De Donato, Terrenti . . . explicatore (1886) ; H. T. Karsten, De Comm. Don. ad Terenti fabulas origine et com positione (Leyden, i9o7). For the commentary of Tiberius Donatus see O. Ribbeck, Prolegomena to Virgil, Grafenhan (as above), and V. Burkas, De Tiberii Claudii Donati in Aeneidem commentario (1889). The text will be found in G. Fabricius's edition of Virgil (1561), ed. by H. George, i. (19os foll.). See also R. Sabbadini, Storia e Critica di Test. Latini (Catania, 1914), dealing with the mss. of the commentaries of..Aelius and Tiberius.