Les citations d’atellanes chez Nonius

We know little about the atellane, the comedies which staged typical characters (Maccus, Pappus, Bucco and Dossennus) that originated with the Oscians and were in vogue under Sylla. In fact, only fragments have survived: we know of these plays only through indirect tradition, and mainly thanks to Nonius, a grammarian of the 4th century AD. In this article, I would like to demonstrate that the grammatical context is a valuable source for editing, classifying and interpreting the fragments of these comedies. Moreover, the fact that Nonius cites the authors of the atellane as authorities shows that this genre cannot be reduced to a mere popular farce.