Nicanor Stigmatias

Nicanor of Alexandria, son of Hermias, was a distinguished Greek grammarian of the time of Hadrian (1st half of the 2nd century ), who lived in Alexandria.

Since the focus of his work was the punctuation teaching him the nickname " the puncturers " was given. To this end, he wrote two special studies ( About the punctuation in Homer and from this resulting different interpretations; About the punctuation in Callimachus ). The work to Homer is the best known work of Nicanor, from the work on Callimachus nothing has been handed down. Parts for Homer works are preserved in the Homeric scholia, additionally, it belonged to four men comment. In his work, On the general punctuation it makes its punctuation teaching systematically. The work of Nicanor is extensively referenced in the scholia to Dionysius Thrax ' Ars grammatica. Nicanor developed from the two characters comma and period a highly differentiated system containing eight different characters. These signs should not only facilitate understanding of the text, but also provide information on the lecture.

In addition to works for punctuation, he also wrote other works ( contents of comedy poetry; About the shape ONAX; About the naval camp, all the titles after known from the Suda; About Alexandria, at least two volumes, testified at Stephanos of Byzantium ). Possibly he is identical with Nikanor from Cyrene.