Final comments

Abstract

This concluding chapter assesses the achievement of the Graeco-Roman grammarians, which can only be evaluated in its context. The context is in part that of their own profession, and the role it had, and they had, in ancient society. The grammarians whose writings survive were more than pedagogues. Even a simple manual could be written with an awareness of alternative views on many issues, which might be cited or criticized. Other grammars were works of scholarship, going well beyond what teachers could have needed in practice. Another part of the context is formed by the languages on which and in which ancient scholars worked. A Roman grammarian described Latin, though he might on occasion refer to ways in which it was different from Greek. A Greek grammarian, in turn, wrote only on Greek.