Yes, there is one surviving work by the 4th-century Latin grammarian Messius Arusianus. [1]

Extant Work & Title

His sole surviving text is a small grammatical treatise titled Exempla Elocutionum (Examples of Style). [1, 2]

Key Details of the Work

• The "Quadriga": The text is an alphabetical guidebook of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and prepositions that accept more than one grammatical construction. To illustrate these constructions, Arusianus used phrasing examples from a standard "canon" of four primary Roman authors: Virgil, Sallust, Terence, and Cicero. Because of this four-author framework, the late-antique writer Cassiodorus famously referred to the work as the Quadriga Messii (The Four-Horse Chariot of Messius). [1, 2, 3, 4]
• Historical Date: The work can be dated precisely because it includes a dedication to Anicius Olybrius and Anicius Probinus, who served as Roman consuls in the year 395 A.D.. [1]
• Value to Modern Scholars: Because Arusianus quoted heavily from his four chosen authors, the Exempla Elocutionum is highly valuable today. It preserves unique fragments of ancient Roman literature that are otherwise entirely lost to history, including lines from Sallust’s lost Histories and fragments of Cicero's missing speeches. [1, 2, 3]

If you are researching late Roman grammar or text preservation, would you like to know more about how the manuscript was rediscovered or look into the specific lost literary fragments it preserves?

L'AI può commettere errori, quindi verifica le risposte 

can you provide a more careful table of contents and editions?

Table of Contents (Textual Structure)

The Exempla Elocutionum is not formatted with modern thematic chapters. It was transmitted capite podiceque nudo—meaning it completely lacks an authorial preface, introduction, or conclusion. [1]

Instead, the manuscript functions as a direct lexicon structured strictly as a dictionary of syntax. Each entry features a targeted grammatical variation followed immediately by classical citations. [1, 2, 3]

1. Dedication
   • A short heading dedicating the work to the prominent brothers Anicius Hermogenianus Olybrius and Anicius Probinus, consuls of 395 A.D. [1, 2]
2. Alphabetical Lexicon (Sections A to V)
   • Letter A: (e.g., Abundans illius rei vs. Abundans illa re, drawing citations from Virgil's Bucolics and Cicero's Pro Cornelio).
   • Letter B through Letter T
   • Letter V: (The final letter section in late Latin alphabetical ordering, as 'U' and 'V' were not separated). [1, 2]
3. Internal Entry Composition
   • Within each letter group, entries follow a strict visual template: Target Phrase/Verb \(\rightarrow \) Grammatical Rule/Case Requirement \(\rightarrow \) Author Attributions (Virgilius, Sallustius, Terentius, Cicero). [1, 2]

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Major Critical Editions

Because the work preserves invaluable fragments of lost Republican literature, it has been meticulously edited by classical philologists over the last two centuries. The text can be accessed across three primary modern standard editions: [1]

Editor / Scholar	Publication Details	Significance to Researchers
Heinrich Keil	Grammatici Latini, Vol. VII, pp. 449–514 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1880)	The historic, universally recognized landmark edition. It provides the standard page/line numbering still used by academics globally for cross-referencing citations.
Enzo V. Marmorale	Arusiani Messii Exempla elocutionum, Vol. 1 of Corpus scriptorum Romanorum Neapolitanum (Naples: Loffredo, 1939)	A major 20th-century revision that provides extensive philological notes exploring how the text was preserved in the critical 15th-century Bobiensis manuscript lineage.
Anita Di Stefano	Arusiani Messi "Exempla elocutionum", Bibliotheca Weidmanniana (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2011)	The definitive modern critical edition. It features a comprehensive 98-page introductory history, corrected Latin syntax, and extensive critical commentary detailing every authorial fragment.

Digital Accessibility

For immediate research, the complete text has been digitized from the Grammatici Latini and can be navigated online through the DigilibLT Digital Library of Late Antique Latin Texts. [1]

Are you hoping to cross-reference a specific lost fragment from Sallust or Cicero found within these editions, or are you investigating the Carolingian manuscript transmission of the lexicon? [1]