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to the educational context of lessons.92 This structure mirrors the educational methods
of antiquity;93 a grammaticus used the framing he discussed as a mnemonic peg to
communicate all sorts of encyclopaedic knowledge.94
Fortunately, we have a written example of this method in the treatise of the sixth
century grammarian Priscian of Caesarea (end of the fifth century - ca. AD 530),95
namely the Partitiones duodecim versuum Aeneidos principalium.^ The structure of de
Mensibus is similar. Furthermore, some of the lists of Latin terminology from the
sphere of law, taxes and the military in Lydus recall similar glossary lists in the works
of Priscian.97 As it behoves a good teacher, John also quoted different handbooks.98
In fact, the parallels in the didactical methods used by Priscian and Lydus should
not surprise us. For both authors were professors of Latin in Constantinople, possibly
at the same institution, with Priscian’s teaching career only slightly earlier than Ly-
dus’- perhaps John’s appointment as professor could be linked to Priscian’s death in
the 530’s, which would make John the successor to Priscian. A passage in the works of
John the Lydian, indeed, could hint at the otherwise elusive figure of Priscian. In de
Magistratibus III 73, Lydus recounts how somebody asked his advice in his search for
a Latin teacher:

III 63 “"Oil δε τυχόν έλοντος του ιχθύος μνήμη παρήΛθεν, περί αυτού τά γνωσθέντα μοι
παραθήσομαι” (Schamp 2006b, p. 122), de Magistratibus III 64 “Τοιαύτα μεν τι να τού ιχθύος
χάριν είρήσθω” (Schamp 2006b, p. 123), de Magistratibus III 64 “πρός βραχύ δε τό προκείμενον
άφείς” (Schamp 2006b, p. 123), de Magistratibus III 65 “Τοιαύτα μεν αν τις ώς εν παρεκβάσει
λεγοι” (Schamp 2006b, p. 124).
92 For example, de Magistratibus III 31 “ώστε δεήσει διδασκαλίας” (Schamp 2006b, p. 82).
93 Maas (1992), p. 36) fails to see this educational method in Lydus’works: “It has been suggested that the
material compiled in his books originated as his “lecture notes”, but this sort of information would have
filled awkwardly into the usual curriculum.”.
94 An overview of educational trends in late antique Egypt can be found in Cribiore (2007), pp. 47-66. In
a first stage of education, the elementary teacher taught children to read. The second phase focused
predominantly on poetry under the guidance of the grammarian. The ultimate aim of these preliminary
phases was a rhetorical education with the rhetor, who focused on prose composition. The grammarian
started with a grammatical and metrical word-by-word analysis, or praelectio, of the text under scrutiny
and continued with the explanation of subject-matter or historia, which provided ample opportunity for
a wide range of encyclopaedic digressions (Clarke 1971, pp. 23-24).
95 For Priscian’s biography, see Salamon (1979), p. 92, Passalacqua (1987), p. xiii, Kaster (1988), pp. 346-348,
Ballaira (1989), pp. 17-19, Baratin (2005), pp. 247-249, Baratin (2009), pp. 1214-1217, Copeland and Slu-
iter (2009), pp. 167-170. On Priscian’s teaching career see Fuchs (1926), p. 6, Kaster (1988), p. 346, Ballaira
(1989), pp. 38-39, Rochette (1997), pp. 325-327. The testimonies to his teaching career are the subscrip-
tions of the Institutiones, letter of dedication of the Institutiones to Julian and Cassiodorus, de Or-
thographia 12 (Keil, GL VII 207.13) (Ballaira 1989, pp. 38-39). On the didacticism of his works, see Co-
peland/Sluiter (2009), p. 170 and Kaster (1988), p. 347 for the Partitiones and Kaster (1988), p. 347 for the
Institutio de nomine, pronomine et verbo. His known students were Theodorus Flavianus, Eutyches (Cra-
terus), and Terentius (Salamon 1979, p. 92).
96 Clarke (1971), pp. 23-24.
97 Lydus, de Magistratibus I 46 (Schamp 2006a, pp. 56-62), de Magistratibus III 70 (Schamp 2006b, p. 131),
and Priscian de Figuris numerorum (Passalacqua 1987, pp. 12-13).
98 Kelly (2004), p. 34.