Benjamin Fortson, Professor of Classical Studies and Professor of Linguistics, has recently received a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) to support the creation of the first-ever English translation and historical linguistic commentary on a dictionary-cum-encyclopedia from ancient Rome called "On the Meaning of Words" by Sextus Pompeius Festus.
This dictionary is the earliest known alphabetically arranged lexicon and represents a storehouse of antiquarian lore, with rare and archaic vocabulary, quotations from otherwise lost authors, information on early Roman society and cultural institutions, and grammatical and etymological material. The work is of very high value to Classics, Indo-European linguistics, and the history of information, but unlike practically every other important text from the Greco-Roman world has hitherto lacked a reliable translation and commentary. During his upcoming sabbatical, Professor Fortson seeks to provide a go-to work for people to consult not only for general information about the text but also specifics on the content of, and scholarship on, each of its over 3,000 entries.
