His only surviving work is the De compendiosa doctrina, a dictionary or encyclopedia in 20 books that shows his interests in antiquarianism and Latin literature from Plautus to Apuleius.
The full title of his work, Noni Marcelli Peripatetici Tubursicensis de Conpendiosa Doctrina ad filium, indicates that he was a Peripatetic philosopher from Thubursicum in Numidia.
[7] The De compendiosa doctrina is one of the major sources for lost works of the Roman Republic, including the tragedies of Accius and Pacuvius, the satires of Lucilius, and the history of Sisenna.
It is one of three major Latin dictionaries preserved from antiquity, along with that of Festus, which was an epitome of Verrius Flaccus' work De verborum significatu, and the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville.
The grammarians Priscian and Fulgentius borrowed largely from his book, and in the 5th century a certain Julius Tryphonianus Sabinus brought out a revised and annotated edition.