bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Notes on the Text of Pliny's Epistles
Authors: Postgate J. P.
Published: February 2009

The following notes are based on the apparatus criticus in the edition of E. T. Merrill (Teubner, 1922):

I. 20. 5 ‘uides ut statuas, signa, picturas, hominum denique multorumqne animalium formas, arborum etiam, si modo sint decorae, nihil magis quam amplitudo commendet.’ Why ‘many animals’ and not ‘many men’ and ‘many trees’ ? Read mutorum; with ‘animalia,’ a standing opposition to ‘homines,’ as in Seneca, Ep. 76. 26 'ea quae tam homini contingunt quam mutis animalibus, 'where also it has been corrupted to multis as in many other places.
A new Epithet of Juno
Authors: Whatmough J.
Published: February 2009

An inscription found in 1912 near Praeneste,1 and now easily accessible in the new edition of Vol. I. of the Corpus of Latin inscriptions (CIL. I. pars 2, fasc. 1, 1918, No. 2439), records a dedication in honour of Juno PALOS-CARIA(e) (dat. sg.), an epithet previously unknown, and not yet, I believe, satisfactorily explained. Rosenberg's attempted explanation (palus -i sens, obsc.—an extremely rare meaning, it should be observed—and stigare in the sense of ‘instigare,’ referring to Juno as the goddess of motherhood) will not secure many adherents, while that of Lommatzsch (CIL. l.c.), who would connect the word with palus -udis, and see an allusion to the ‘paludes Pomptinae,’ involves us in serious, though not insuperable, phonetic and morphological difficulties. If we were reduced to accepting the derivation from palus ‘marsh,’ I should prefer to see rather a reference to the festival of Juno on the Nonae Caprotinae (July 7), which took place near the Caprae (or Caprea) palus in the Campus Martius. There would then be at least a definite connexion of the goddess with the palus, whereas there is no such connexion, so far as I know, of Juno with the Pomptine Marshes.
Num in Direct Questions: A Rule Restated
Authors: Shackleton Bailey D. R.
Published: February 2009

What seems to be the prevailing doctrine of the particle num is thus set forth in the most recent of major Latin grammars:

‘num ist wahrscheinlich die unerweiterte Form von nunc … num diente also zunächst dazu, dieFragein der lebendigen Rede lebhaft an die Situation anzuknüpfen; es steht oft in erregten Erkundigungsfragen mit unentschiedener Erwartung (z. B. Pit. Merc. 173 obsecro, num nauis periit ?:: saluast nauis); auch bejahende Antwort wird vielfach erwartet … Der in der klassischen Sprache alleinherrschende Gebrauch in Fragen mit erwarteter Antwort ‘nein’ setzte sich zunächst in lebhaften Fragen der Entrüstung oder des Erstaunens fest wie Pit. Asin. 619 sed num fumus est haec mulier quam amplexare?’
The NEA ‘ΕΚΔΟΣΙΣ of Eunapius’ Histories
Authors: Chalmers Walter. R.
Published: February 2009

Eunapius makes it clear in his Lives of the Philosophers, published some time after A.D. 396, that he had already published the major part of his historical work, and that he was contemplating extending its scope. He refers to the Gothic invasion of Greece in 395, and states that he has already recorded some of the disasters which befell about that time, and that he hopes to relate others (52/476).
Aristotle and the Best Kind of Tragedy
Authors: Adkins Arthur W. H.
Published: February 2009

The literary criticism of the Greeks and Romans furnishes some of the most baffling documents which have come down to us from antiquity. Nor could it be otherwise. Few elements of language can be at once so ephemeral and so elusive as the overtones of words used in aesthetic contexts; even in our own language it is only with a conscious effort that the appropriate overtones of words used by quite recent critics can be recalled. Such recall must be much more difficult where the reader is concerned with a dead language; in the case of some terms it may well be virtually impossible; but where the ancient critic is discussing ethical criteria for literature, as Aristotle does in Poetics 13, the modern interpreter is in a somewhat better position, for ethical terms are used in wider contexts, contexts which involve action, and there is more opportunity for studying their usage and endeavouring to recapture their elusive overtones
Sophocles, Antigone 1226–30
Authors: Ledbetter Grace M.
Published: February 2009

‘Unhappy boy, what a deed you have done! What came into your mind? What disaster destroyed your reason?’ This version of 1228–9, by Andrew Brown in his recent commentary, represents the majority opinion. But what ‘deed’ has Haemon done that justifies such an outburst? Jebb, followed by Kamerbeek and Brown, claims that the deed which causes Creon to wail aloud with charges of insanity is Haemon's entry into Antigone's tomb. Kamerbeek and Brown justify the extremity of Creon's reaction by claiming that Creon knows that Haemon intends to kill himself. But is it reasonable to suppose that Creon's first reaction to the shocking scene of Antigone's hanging corpse and Haemon helplessly wailing would be that Haemon is on the verge of killing himself? Creon has not had time to predict his son's actions and his screams of dismay are most naturally read as a reaction to something he sees before his eyes. It would also be strange if Creon had absolutely no reaction to Antigone's death; he expected to find her alive.
Themistokles and Argos
Authors: Forrest W. G.
Published: February 2009

Themistokles was ostracized in the late 470's, probably in spring 471 or 470; if we are to believe Thucydides, he did not write to Artaxerxes in Persia until 465 at the earliest. In some way or other his stay in Argos and visits to the rest of the Peloponnese, his wanderings in northern Greece, and his delay in Asia Minor must be extended to fill this gap of at least five years. There is evidence of a sort, there are arguments good and bad for the lengthening or shortening of any of these episodes, but none of this evidence or argument is conclusive. Between 470 and 465 no event in Themistokles' life can be securely dated; there is no fixed chronological pattern into which a reconstruction of the political history of Athens and the Peloponnese during these years must fit. Since the reconstruction which I attempt here is itself based on evidence which is far from adequate, plausibility is the most that can be claimed for it or for the chronological scheme which I infer from it.
Homer and Modern Oral Poetry: Some Confusions
Authors: Kirk G. S.
Published: February 2009

One of the curious things about Homeric studies is the way in which, although opinions in this field fluctuate violently, from time to time certain among them tend to become crystallized for no particular reason and are then accepted as something approaching orthodoxy. It is to try to delay such a crystallization, if it is not already too late, that I direct this brief coup d'ail at some current opinions on whether Homer—for the sake of clarity I apply this name in the first instance to the monumental composer of the Iliad—used the aid of writing, and in general at the value of comparative inferences based on the heroic poetry of modern Yugoslavia.
On the Cruces of Horace, Satires, 2. 2.
Authors: Campbell A. Y.
Published: February 2009

The ‘four famous cruces’ (Gow, ed. p. 4) of this satire are as interesting as notorious. I regard the first as solved, since I cannot imagine anybody (Horace included) improving upon Postgate's line 13 (see below). But I find instead a hitherto undetected but quite palpable flaw in the opening words.
The Local Ablative in Statius
Authors: Williams R. D.
Published: February 2009

Of the unusual grammatical constructions which Statius employs for the sake of variety and novel effect, among the most remarkable is his use of the ablative case. There are striking instances at Th. 8. 157, Th. 10. 309, Ach. 1. 219, Ach. 2. 129; and W. C. Summers was led to say: ‘We see some traces in Valerius of the lax use of this case which became almost a disease with Statius, who employs it for almost any kind of idea.’ There are three passages in Statius which have been misinterpreted or emended through the failure to recognize a use of the ablative to which he was especially prone—the local ablative where the poetic dative of ‘motion towards’ would seem more normal. I shall first list examples of this use in Statius where there is little or no doubt about interpretation or reading, and in the light of this accumulated evidence consider the three passages which are disputed.
Elephant Tactics: Amm. Marc. 25. 1. 14; Sil. 9. 581–3; Lucr. 2. 537–9.
Authors: Meurig Davies E. L. B.
Published: February 2009

post hos elefantorum fulgentium formidandam speciem et truculentos hiatus uix mentes pauidae perferebant; ad quorum stridorem odoremque et insuetum aspectum magis equi terrebantur. (Amm. Marc. 25. 1.14.)

COKNELISSEN, Mnemosyne, xiv (1886), 280, comments: ‘Non intellego fulgentium. Minime audiendus est Wagnerus, qui fulgentes elephantes dictos esse contendit ob cutem glabram. Corrigendum puto ingentium. Porro non satis intellego quomodo hiatus elefantorum militibus pauorem incutere potuerit. Wagnerus, qui omnia con-coquere solet, interpretatur proboscidas. Nescio an scripserit A. barritus.’
Note on the Nova Hellenicorum Oxyrhychiorum Fragmenta
Authors: Fuks Alexander
Published: February 2009

Maas's annotation on Fr. C, col. I in his edition of the new fragments (C.Q. xliv. 8–11) says: ‘fortasse conferendi Diod. 13. 66. 6; Xen. Hell. 1. 3. 16–22; Dionys. Byz. Anapl. 13’.

The comparison of Fr. C, col. I with the passage in Dionys. Byz. De Bospori Navigatione 13 seems to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the city referred to in the fragment is Byzantion. Consequently the supposition that the papyrus tells the story of the siege of Byzantion—dealt with in the other two passages quoted by Maas—becomes almost a certainty.
Periplus Maris Erythraei
Authors: Palmer J. A. B.
Published: February 2009

The expression used in the Periplus M.E. has attracted a certain amount of attention. It is generally held to mean ‘a legal mart where foreign trade was officially allowed and taxed’ (E. H. Warmington, Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, pp. 53, 57): and this translation has sometimes been made the ground of comparison with the treaty ports of China or the échelles of the Levant. On closer examination of the usage of the Periplus M.E. it seems difficult to accept this meaning, and possible to suggest another.
Some Promblems in the Grammatical Chapters of Quintilian
Authors: Colson F. H.
Published: February 2009

In January, 1914, I published in the Classical Quarterly an article on t1he Five Grammatical Chapters of Quintilian, in which I endeavoured to set out the general scheme of the writer and his relation to the educational practice of his time. In the present paper I propose to deal with some of the numerous difficulties of detail—difficulties both of text and meaning—which crop up in chapters 4–7. The technicality of the subject and the abbreviated method of treatment produce much obscurity, even when we have no reason to doubt the text. And as to the text, one can but echo the words of Varro with regard to philological and grammatical questions, ‘librarios haec spinosiora indiligentius elaturos putaui.’ The result is that these chapters provide perhaps more problems than are to be found in the same limits in any first class Latin writer—problems which, though not perhaps of much intrinsic importance, have that interest which must always attach to questions which have baffled generations of commentators. I have divided the questions which I have treated into two classes. The first consists of passages in which I feel some confidence in the text which I have adopted or the meaning which I have proposed. The second consists of those which I fear must be left unsolved, though I hope that I have been able to advance the discussion a few steps.
Hirschfeld and Judeich on the Lex Pompeia Licinia
Authors: Holmes T. Rice
Published: February 2009

Before the year 1857, when Mommsen published his celebrated treatise Die Rechtsfrage zwischen Caesar und dem Senat, most scholars believed that Caesar's provincial command legally expired at the end of 49 B.C.; but Mommsen demonstrated the falsity of this opinion, and for nearly half a century it was an article of faith that the date fixed was the 1st of March. I may remark parenthetically that, although this date is usually quoted, it would be more correct to say the 28th of February. In 1904, however, Otto Hirschfeld gave reasons for believing that Caesar's command was not expressly secured beyond March 1, 50; and although Ludwig Holzapfel vigorously defended the orthodox view, Hirschfeld remained for several years in possession of the field. In 1913 Walther Judeich, while admitting that Hirschfeld had worsted Mommsen, argued, ‘convincingly’ as Mr. F. E. Adcock thinks, that the date was December 29, 50. The writers of the article on Latin Literature in The Year's Work in Classical Studies (1915), noticing the reissue of the third volume of The Correspondence of Cicero, remark that ‘the authors [Tyrrell and Purser] still hold the pious faith that Caesar's command in Gaul was to run out on the 1st of March in 49; it is a pity,’ they add, ‘in view of Hirschfeld and the rest, that they have not shown the English reader their grounds for that belief.’ I propose in this article to give mine for sharing it.
Notes on the Bacchae
Authors: Kovacs David
Published: February 2009

In 246 we should, as Dodds suggests, get rid of the feeble δεινς and adopt Mau's δειν κγχνης. (Dodds suggests that K was misread as IC and the resulting δειναῖς was ‘corrected’ to δεινς.) Verdenius, Mnemos. 41 (1988), 254, defends the reading of the MSS., saying that δεινς serves to distinguish the noose of punishment from that of suicide, but this is untenable: why is one noose more ‘terrible’ than the other, and who on hearing ‘worthy of the terrible noose’ would draw conclusions about it that could not be drawn from ‘worthy of the noose’? The question raised about the kind of noose is important (see below) but cannot be answered by these means.
Man and Beast in Lucretius and the Georgics
Authors: Gale Monica R.
Published: February 2009

The overwhelming importance of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura for the interpretation of the Georgics is recognized by almost all critics. As W. Y. Sellar expressed it over a hundred years ago, ‘the influence, direct and indirect, exercised by Lucretius on the thought, composition and even the diction of the Georgics was perhaps stronger than that ever exercised, before or since, by one poet on the work of another’. Richard Thomas' recent commentary attempts to play down the extent of this influence, contending that ‘the debt of Virgil to Lucretius in the Georgics is predominantly formal’, and manifests itself chiefly on a verbal level, whereby the poet seeks ‘to create a didactic appearance for his poem’. The aim of this paper is to reassert the pervasive importance of Lucretian ideas, as well as Lucretian language, throughout the poem, and particularly in Virgil's presentation of the physical and metaphysical relationships between man and beast.
Notes on Some Passages in Seneca's Tragedies: II
Authors: Hudson-Williams A.
Published: February 2009

A list of the principal works referred to is given in my previous article, ‘Notes on Some Passages in Seneca's Tragedies and the Octavia’, CQ 39 (1989), 186–96.
The Transmission of Florus and thePeriochaeAgain
Authors: Reeve M. D.
Published: February 2009

In a recent article I tried to disperse the fog in which modern editions envelop the transmission of the LivianPeriochaeand Floras'Epitoma de Tito Liuio. Working from editions and catalogues, and without looking at more than a few readily accessible manuscripts, I argued that thePeriochaereached the Middle Ages in the company of Floras and nothing else; that the mainstream of the medieval tradition, which probably issued from the region south-west of Paris, derived first from a manuscript that presented Florus and only 1–7 of the 142Periochae, Λ, and then from one that presented Florus alone, e; that after appearing for several centuries only in N (s. ix1) and P (s. xii2) the complete text of Florus and thePeriochaesaw a revival in the Italian Renaissance, probably thanks to Petrarch and Boccaccio; and that most Italian manuscripts contaminate the text of e with the complete text. Pending visits to libraries, I left open several questions: whether Λ derived from the source of NP; whether e derived from Λ; whether the Italian manuscripts of the complete text all derive from one source; whether, if so, it was P; whether any of them have escaped contamination in Florus; and whether contamination had already begun in France.
Damis the Epicurean
Authors: Edwards M. J.
Published: February 2009

Damis is a character in, and his memoirs the putative source of, Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Many scholars have doubted the existence of these memoirs, some the very existence of the man. Against the latter party Graham Anderson has advanced an ingenious argument, which attempts to prove that the Damis whose existence has been doubted is identical with a bearer of the same name to whom existence has hardly ever been ascribed. His evidence comprises: (1) Lucian's dialogue Zeus the Tragedian, in which a certain Damis appears as the Epicurean tormentor of the popular divinities; (2) a tale now extant in mediaeval Persian, in which a philosopher named Dini performs a similar function; (3) the testimony of Origen that Moiragenes numbered among the men seduced by Apollonius ‘the illustrious Euphrates and a certain Epicurean’ (Contra Celsum 6.41). Between these reports he detects the following parallels:
The Early Career of the Magister Equitum Jacobus
Authors: Woods David
Published: February 2009

Claudian's carm. min. 50 which is addressed ‘In Jacobum Magistrum Equitum’ has recently been the subject of a detailed study by J. Vanderspoel. In it he reviews what little we know about the career of Jacobus using as his second source in this matter the letter of Vigilius, bishop of Tridentum, to John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, the heading of which reports that the relics of the martyrs Sisinnius, Alexander and Martyrius reached Constantinople ‘per Jacobum virum illustrem’. Whilst I am willing to accept the argument that the relics must have been delivered by about A.D. 400, if not earlier, and that Jacobus received the office of magister equitum subsequent to this, I have some misgivings about the treatment afforded the earlier career of Jacobus, and it is to this matter which I wish to draw attention here.
Greek and Latin Word Studies
Authors: Fay Edwin W.
Published: February 2009

Cicero, in his letters (Fam. 9, 22), writes the following sentence (§ 2): memini in senatu disertum consularem ita eloqui: ‘hanc culpam maiorem an illam dicam?’ potuit obscenius? ‘non’ inquis ; ‘non enim ita sensit’ Wherein does the coarseness lie? Critics (cf. Tyrrell in his edition of the letters) find in (il)lam dicam a word ‘ landicam,’ which they define by ‘clitoris’. But possibly culpam is, whether by equivoque or by definition, the offending word (cf. Shuckburgh's translation, 3, p. 295, where, after characterizing the interpretation just mentioned as far-fetched, he suggests an equivoque between culpam and culleus).
On Four Passages of Pindar
Authors: Garrod H. W.
Published: February 2009

The spaced words are commonly rendered either (1) ‘desiring to ward off from his head,’ or (2) ‘expecting to strike his head.’ Of these two renderings the first gives to κεφαλ⋯ς βαλεῖν a sense which is seemingly without example and which the two words can hardly bear, if they can also bear the meaning given to them by the second rendering. The meaning which this second rendering gives to them is their natural meaning (βαλεῖν=τε⋯ξεσθαι, Gildersleeve): on the other hand μενοιν⋯ν does not mean, and cannot mean, ‘expecting.’ It means ‘strongly desiring.’ ‘Expecting it to strike his head’ would be μένωνοἱ κεφαλ⋯ς βαλεῖν, and this, I suggest, is what Pindar wrote.
Recent Excavations in Rome
Authors: Ashby Thomas
Published: February 2009

Since the date of my last report upon this subject there has been little to chronicle in regard to the excavations in the Forum. The work of clearing the superficial strata which cover the remainder of the site of the Basilica Aemilia is proceeding somewhat slowly, and the level at which interesting discoveries may be expected has not yet been reached. Nor is the Forum Museum as yet ready. New discoveries have been confined to small excavations on the S.E. and the S.W. sides of the Arch of Titus, where large blocks of travertine, which originally belonged to some other building, and floors in concrete and opus spicatum, with foundations and drains below them, have been found, orientated more or less in correspondence with the older Sacra Via. Two parallel walls at a lower level, however, of large blocks of tufa may well be connected with the earlier temple of Jupiter Stator, which preceded the massive concrete foundation of the temple as we have it, which is orientated with the temple of Venus and Rome and the Arch of Titus.
Varia Graeca
Authors: Allen T. W.
Published: February 2009

1. Some scholia on the Odyssey (γ 284–490), very brief but so far the most valuable as the oldest, have been published from a papyrus, parts of which have found their way to London and Vienna, by Kenyon (J. Ph. xxii. 238) and Wessely (Mittheilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer vi. 1894), and commented on by Ludwich (Homerica vi. 1894 and Ueber die Papyrus-Commentare zu den Homerischen Gedichten, 1902, p. 20 sq.).
Cartault's A Century on Tibvllvs.
Authors: Postgate J. P.
Published: February 2009

The Professor of Latin Poetry in the University of Paris has addressed himself to a piece of work which badly wanted doing, and he has done it, on the whole, very well. His object, as the first words of his preface declare, was not simply to produce a bibliographical repertory, however serviceable this might be, but a study in history and methodology. The labour of giving a summary of the contributions of scholars to the criticism and elucidation of the collection which passes under the name of Tibullus during the nineteenth century is, as he rightly says, ‘enormous,’ and M. Cartault has thrown in besides, to the great advantage of his readers, a chapter of 74 pages upon the century and a quarter preceding, which stretches from Scaliger 1577 to Heyne 1798.
Some Coptic Legends about Roman Emperors
Authors: Winstedt E. O.
Published: February 2009

I venture to call the attention of classical scholars to two legends about Roman Emperors gleaned amid the arid waste of theological nonsense which passed for literature among the Copts, in the hope that they may have better luck than I have had in tracing them to some classical source. The first is taken from MS. Par. Copte 131, fol. 40, a single leaf of what seems to be a geographical and historical encyclopaedia.1 The writer who is treating in a very discursive way of Ethiopia, states that Nero or Domitian—a strange pair to run in double harness—caused an island in the Red Sea to be watered with oil. The description of that island is mixed up with a mention of the original divisions of the Indians—a term which as usual in early days embraces both Indians and Ethiopians,—and their subsequent changes; and as that too may be of interest to students of ancient geography, I will translate the passage in full.
Corrigenda
Authors: Goodell T. D.
Published: February 2009

In my paper on Xρή and Δεῖ in this journal for April, 1914 (VIII. 91-102), some errors call for correction, though they do not affect the argument at all.
Hesiodea
Authors: Evelyn-White Hugh G.
Published: February 2009

(Works and Days, 172–181.)

In a note (C. Q. vii. p. 219) on the Geneva Papyrus, No. 94, I tried to show that of the four new lines (169 a-d) which that fragment adds to our text the last two formed an introduction to the Iron Age parallel to ll.127,143, 157. I may be mistaken, but I do not remember to have seen it remarked that in ll.179-181 (rejected by Lehrs) we have the conventional ending to the Iron Age.
(i.) NooΣ; (ii.) Ta AnaΞiΛea
Authors: McKenzie R.
Published: February 2009

The word νóoς (νoύς) must, if it is inherited from Indo-European, be a word of the λóγoς type, and come from Indo-Eur. nósos, nówos, or nóyos, since a consonant must have been lost, and it is known that only s, w, and y vanished between vowels in Greek. Neither nóyos nor nówos can be traced with a suitable meaning in any Indo-European language; nóyos, on the other hand, would be a very probable ancestor of Skr. nayas. The senses of nayas are, I submit, sufficiently close to those of νóoς to lend some support to the identification. They are: ‘leading, performance, behaviour, worldly wisdom, policy, fundamental principle, system, theory.’
Empedokles and his Klepsydra again
Authors: Last Hugh
Published: February 2009

Mr. Powell's ingenious observations on The Simile of the Clepsydra in Empedocles raise afresh the problem of the precise form and construction of the instrument with whose aid Empedokles is said to have reached his memorable conclusion that air is a corporeal substance. That ‘klepsydra’ was the name of the instrument in question is shown by a comparison of Aristotle, Phys. 213a, 22 sqq. with Empedokles, fr. 100; but though so far the fragment is plain, in its detailed interpretation there arises a difficulty which is the subject of the present note. Empedokles is explaining his theory of respiration, and the theory is illustrated by the action of this apparatus. To make clear the general drift of the passage, it may be well to quote again so much of it as is relevant. ‘Thus do all things draw breath in and breathe it out again. All have bloodless tubes of flesh extended over the surface of their bodies; and at the mouths of these the outermost surface of the skin is perforated all over with pores closely packed together, so as to keep in the blood while a free passage is cut for the air to pass through. Then, when the thin blood recedes from these, the bubbling air rushes in with an impetuous surge; and when the blood rushes back it’ (i.e. the air) ‘is breathed out again.
Some Other Explanations of Martial
Authors: Hudson-Williams A.
Published: February 2009

Mr. Alan Ker in Class. Quart., vol. xliv, 1950, pp. 12–24, discusses a number of Martial passages which appear to him to be in need of elucidation or textual amendment. That some of these passages require elucidation seems indeed clear, but few require any treatment of the kind prescribed by Mr. Ker. In so many cases does he seem to me needlessly to alter the epigrammatist's carefully chosen words and ascribe to him others which he would never have used that it seems but proper to call attention to some instances. The following notes are intended to show that Martial was a more able writer and the transmitters of his work more competent than Mr. Ker's paper would suggest; the conclusions accord with Heraeus' observation (p. vii) ‘coniecturis omnino non multum loci est in Martiale, minimum, ubi αβγ conspirant’.
Two Manuscripts of Suetonius' de Vita Caesarum
Authors: Dunston A. J.
Published: February 2009

There is in the British Museum a twelfth-century manuscript, Egerton 3055, of Suetonius' De Vita Caesarum which has not previously been noticed by editors or in the reports of manuscripts of Suetonius made by Professor C. L. Smith and Professor A. A. Howard, though summarily classified by E. G. Millar.
Two Old Jokes
Authors: Gomme A. W.
Published: February 2009

It is always a pity to spoil an old joke, especially one that belongs to one's own profession, which has been repeated time and again, for generations, whenever a teacher of Greek is concerned with the passages in question; but when the hearty laughter is over and the last echoes of it from our obedient pupils have faded away, let us examine the Greek again. .
The Importance of the Veronese Palimpsest in the First Decade of Livy
Authors: Knight Clara M.
Published: February 2009

The first excitement consequent upon the discovery of an ancient manuscript generally leads to an exaggeration of its importance. This was especially the case with the Veronese Palimpsest, first, because it is the only MS. of the first decade of Livy earlier than the ninth century, and secondly, because it is the only extant MS. for that part of Livy, which is not derived from the Nicomachian recension. Mommsen was naturally prejudiced in favour of the Veronese Palimpsest, which he collated and published, and, when the two families of MSS. differ from one another, he usually decides for the Palimpsest. He used only MPL for his comparison, which is consequently very inadequate. It is possible now, however, with our wider and moreaccurate knowledge of the Nicomachian MSS.,thanks to the patient research of Professor Flamstead Walters and Dr. Conway, more justly to estimate the importance of the Veronese Palimpsest in Livy's first decade.
On the Value of Modern Greek for the Study of Ancient Greek
Authors: Thumb Albert
Published: February 2009

The study of Hellenistic Greek, or of the Κοινή, which has flourished increasingly since the beginning of the present century, has brought Modern Greek more and more within the view of classical philologists. As I have insisted on utilizing Modern Greek for Hellenistic philology for about twenty years, I may claim some credit if a knowledge of Modern Greek is now admitted to be indispensable to Hellenistic studies; but philologists only reluctantly acknowledge this new demand, and hesitate to acquire as full an acquaintance with Modern Greek as the study of the Κοιή demands.
Octavia Praetexta: A Survey
Authors: Herington C. J.
Published: February 2009

TheOctaviais, on the face of it, one of the most bizarre documents which have reached us from antiquity. If the news of its discovery had broken yesterday, there would certainly have been a sensation at the bare idea, whatever the literary merits of the work. A few years ago the publication of a 15-line fragment of a Greek play about Gyges caused discussion enough; but here we have acompleteRoman historical play, unlike any other ancient play in structure, featuring Nero, Octavia, Poppaea, Seneca. …
Notes on Chronological Problems in the Aristotelian ἈΘΗΝΑΙΩΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ
Authors: Sumner G. V.
Published: February 2009

It is obvious that A.P. attached importance to chronology and considered it his business to supply his sketch of Athienian constitutional development, at every stage, with such chronological indications as were available. Thus his account of Peisistratos (14 ff.) largely follows Herodotus (1. 59 ff.), but with the addition of a more detailed chronology of the tyrant's comings and goings (and some other matter derived from the Atthidographers). From the archonship of Solon to that of Xenainetos he has constructed what is evidently intended to be a continuous chronological chain, by marking the intervals between events.
Temple Building at Segesta
Authors: Burford Alison
Published: February 2009

The hollow peristasis at Segesta presents two interrelated problems. The question of how Greek temples were constructed, and whether the method generally used was applied to the structure at Segesta, depends to some extent for its answer upon the Segestans' motives for building. And the problem of motive is affected by considerations of architectural method. Neither problem appears to have been fully discussed in the light of the other. The result is that at the moment the prevailing views of either problem stand quite unconnected. Thus while many scholars accept the structure as the sole surviving member of a projected scheme to build a complete temple, the theory is now widely held that it was meant to serve merely as a hellenizing decorative element round an Elymian shrine or open-air altar, and so, that the Segestans' interest in Greek temple-architecture was purely superficial.
The Leyden Manuscript of Tacitus
Authors: Martin R.H.
Published: February 2009

From the beginning of the seventeenth century it has generally been held that the second Medicean is the parent of all the other extant manuscripts. In two articles C. W. Mendell has demonstrated that Leidensis B.P.L. 16. B is the manuscript once owned by Rudolphus Agricola (d. 1485) and later by Th. Ryck, whose edition (Lugd. Batav. 1687) makes frequent allusion to its readings. Mendell's attempt to show further that L (= Leidensis) represents a tradition independent of the Medicean has found little support until recently, when E. Koestermann, in the course of preparing the latest Teubner edition of Annals (1960) and Histories (1961) became convinced from his own study of L that Mendell's view—in spite of some arguments of dubious validity—was essentially correct. In an article in Philologus (civ [i960], 92–115) and in the preface to his edition of Histories Koestermann has marshalled the arguments which he believes prove L's independence of the Medicean line of descent. Since the new valuation that Koestermann puts upon L has produced a drastic revision of both text and apparatus criticus in his new editions, it may be worth while to examine the evidence that Koestermann adduces in support of his belief in L's independence.
Augustus on Aegina
Authors: Bowersock G. W.
Published: February 2009

[Plutarch] records that Augustus passed a winter on the island of Aegina, rather than in Athens, as a sign of his wrath toward the Athenians. Paul Graindor assumed that the most likely time for Augustus to have been angry with the Athenians was immediately after Actium, and so he dated [Plutarch]'s anecdote to the winter of 31/30 (Athènes sous Auguste [Cairo, 1927], p. 17). This is impossible.
Some Persons in Plutarch's Moralia
Authors: Bowersock G. W.
Published: February 2009

Plutarch of Chaeronea was a voluminous writer whose experience of the Graeco-Roman world of his own day was quite as comprehensive as his knowledge of earlier ages. The ancient historian is often daunted by the sheer bulk of Plutarch's work and prefers customarily to concentrate his attention upon the Lives, which, if not history, at least contain much historical matter.
Horace, Odes 1. 4: A Sonic Circle
Authors: Lee M. Owen
Published: February 2009

Walter Savage Landor's exasperated marginal comment on line 13 of Horace, C. 1. 4 (‘pallida mors has nothing to do with the above’) has sent modern commentators scurrying to the poem's defence. The skirmish has been won for Horace, but at the expense perhaps of magnifying the importance of line 13: A. Y. Campbell insisted that pallida mors, far from being irrelevant, was ‘the focus of the whole poem’
The Construction with Mh Oy
Authors: Moorhouse A. C.
Published: February 2009

In line 1171 of Aeschylus' Agamemnon the MSS. read μή The remainder of the sentence, after μή, is much disputed, but I am not concerned with finding the true reading of it. The whole sentence runs, in the MSS., as follows: ἄκος δ' οὐδὲν ἐπήρκεσαντὸ μὴ πόλιν μὲν ὥσπερ ον ἔχει παθεν: which appears in Thomson's Oresteia as:… ἐπήρκεσεν τὸ μὴ oὐk ἔχειν πόλιν μὲν ὥσπερ ον ἔχει. It is the note on this passage in Thomson to which I wish to draw attention. It is from Headlam, and says, in justification of reading μὴ οὐκ, that in such phrases the scribes, finding μὴ οὐ, constantly omitted οὐ as περιττόν. It adds that οὐ should always be restored, at any rate where there is any trace of it.
Caeli Convexa Per Auras
Authors: Knight W. F. J.
Published: February 2009

Dr.CyrilBaileyand Dr. C. M. Bowra have most recently analysed Virgil's method of using the expressions of Lucretius and Ennius respectively, and Mile A.-M. Guillemin has lately added significant considerations to Father F.-X. M. J. Roiron's long examination of Virgil's method of using again his own former expressions. Since then other work has been done with the purpose of clarifying the less rational part of Virgil's self-repetition; it might be called complementary to the well-known researches of Mr. John Sparrow. With such a purpose I have tried to suggest how Virgil reached the strange phrase in the firstEclogue, rapidum Cretae, orcretae, Oaxen, by a not unparalleled confusion of the names of several different rivers and at least one town.
Notes on Lucan I. and VIII
Authors: Anderson W. B.
Published: February 2009

This well-known passage refers to the growth of latifundia, a symptom of Rome's decadence. In v. 170 ignotis is generally taken to mean ‘unknown to the owners,’ and thus, it seems to me, the point of the passage is missed. There is a double antithesis; longa is contrasted with breuίa, parua, and ίgnotίs with notίs, ίnlustrίbus, or the like. The latter antithesis is implied in Camίllί, Curίorum; the other is left to be understood. In the good old days farms were small, but were cultivated by the most eminent citizens, men like Camillus and Curius Dentatus; now these small farms are combined to form latίfundίa, managed by nobodies (ίgnotίs), whether slaves or tenant farmers. The juxta-position of longa and sub ίgnotίs is intentional.
Cinna, Calvus, and the Ciris
Authors: Thomas Richard F.
Published: February 2009

Among other things, R. O. A. M. Lyne's recent edition and commentary of the Ciris (Cambridge, 1978) has established the general method of composition followed by this pseudo-neoteric poet: he demonstrably lifted wholesale and applied to his own poem words, phrases, lines, and even entire sequences from the works of the neoterics and the poets of the following generation. Accordingly, one of the poem's chief attributes is that it serves as a means for recovering the general content, and at times the actual wording, of earlier, more important poetry. This paper offers some additional areas in the Ciris where such influence may exist. I confine myself to Cinna and Calvus, whose poetry may justly be considered the missing two-thirds of the neoteric movement.
The Evocation of Darius (Aesch. Persae 607–93)
Authors: Lawson J. C.
Published: February 2009

Itis a strange chance that our whole conception of that scene of the Persae in which Atossa and the Chorus evoke from the lower world the spirit of Darius should be dependent largely on the interpretation or the restoration of a single line.

ὦ πιστὦ πιστ⋯ν ἣλικ⋯ς θ' ἣβης ⋯μ⋯ς

Π⋯ρσαι γεραιο⋯, τ⋯να π⋯λις πονεῖ π⋯νονον;

στ⋯νει, κ⋯κοπται, κα⋯ χαρ⋯σσεται π⋯δον.

λε⋯σσων δ' ἂκοιτιν τ⋯ν ⋯μ⋯ν τ⋯φου π⋯λας

ταρβ⋯, χο⋯ς δ⋯ πρευμν⋯ς ⋯δεξ⋯μην.

ὑμεῖς δ⋯ θρηνεῖτ' ⋯γγὺς ⋯στ⋯τες τ⋯φου

κα⋯ ψυχαγωγοῖς ⋯ρθι⋯ζοντες γ⋯οις

οἰκτρ⋯ς καλεῖσθ⋯ μ' …
Stesichorus in the Peloponnese
Authors: Bowra C. M.
Published: February 2009

Most of the traditions about Stesichorus place him in Italy and Sicily. He was said to have been born at Mataurus and to have lived and died at Himera. Only two small and disputed pieces of evidence connect him with the Peloponnese. Suidas s.v. Στη⋯χορος says that he went to Catana when banished from Pallantium in Arcadia, and the Marmor Parium records that in the archonship of Philocrates (485 B.C.) the poet Stesichorus came to Greece. Both testimonies are embarrassing and both have been subjected to sceptical criticism. Stesichorus' connection with Pallantium has been reduced to a misunderstanding of his mention of it in his Γηρυον⋯σ (Paus. VIII 3, 2), and the entry in the Marmor Parium is so flatly in contradiction of the other evidence for his date that it has with some justice been regarded as a mere blunder. And yet it is possible that behind these two disputed testimonies there lies a genuine tradition based on the actual sojourn of Stesichorus in the Peloponnese. Some evidence for this may be found in what we know of his Ἑλ⋯νη and Ὀρεστεἰα.
Latin Verb Forms
Authors: Riedel Ernest
Published: February 2009

These forms would result regularly from the longer forms, audivisti, etc. The v drops out between two like vowels, and these then contract immediately (cf. divitis > ditis). Both the long and the short forms are used, but the intervening forms audiisti, etc., do not occur in early Latin, just as diitis is not found. (This is the ordinary explanation, and quite sufficient, but see under Class 5.)
Septima Aestas
Authors: Quinn Kenneth
Published: February 2009

Yet an interval of upwards of a year, apparently, separates the two occasions; already by 4. 193–4 t n e winter is well advanced; at 5. 46 Aeneas tells his men that exactly a year has elapsed since Anchises' death—the last event (3. 714: hie labor extremus) narrated in Book 3. Dido's words, therefore, and those of the false Beroe are commonly held to be irreconcilable.
Darkness from Light: The Beacon Fire in the Agamemnon
Authors: Tracy Stephen V.
Published: February 2009

The fire beacon in the opening scenes of the Agamemnon commands attention and creates the positive image of light from darkness. In the immediate context the light of the beacon relieves the watchman of his toil and brings joy to Argos. The image, however, is not totally positive. The fire signal announces both the fall of Troy and the return of Agamemnon to Clytemnestra. The negative aspect, furthermore, is emphasised at the opening — the watchman's joy at seeing the beacon (lines 22ff.) gives way at line 36 to foreboding (τ⋯ δ' ἄλλα σιγ⋯). For the original audience of 458 b.c. I suggest that this fire beacon proclaiming victory must have conveyed other negative overtones. In brief, it will have recalled to them vividly the signals used by the Persian commanders during the great invasion of 480 to announce Athens' capture to an expectant Persian court.
Plato, Phaedrus 263b6
Authors: Solmsen Friedrich
Published: February 2009

Οὐκο⋯ν τ⋯ν μέλλοντα τέχνην ῥητορικ⋯ν μετιέναι πρ⋯τον μέν δεῖ τα⋯τα ⋯δῷ διῃρ⋯σθαι, κα⋯ εἰληɸέναι τιν⋯ χαρακτ⋯ρα ⋯κατέρου το⋯ εἵδουδ, ⋯ν ᾧ τε ⋯ν⋯γκη τ⋯ πλ⋯θος πλαν⋯σθαι Kα⋯ ⋯ν ᾧ μή (Phaedrus 263b6–9). To the best of my knowledge the soundness of the first six words of this sentence (Οὐκο⋯ν…μετιέναι) has never been questioned, yet to accept them as they are in the manuscripts means to close one's eyes to the direction of the argument.

At 260d5–9 rhetoric personified and allowed to plead its case makes the ‘big’ statement that anyone learning how to speak would do well to know the truth about his subject but that even if he knows it he would not be able ἄνεν ⋯μο⋯, i.e. without the aid of rhetoric, πείθειν τέχνῃ. From that point on the issues are whether rhetoric justly claims to be a τέχνῃ, what territory it covers and how the procedure of someone practising it τέχνῃ may differ from that of one for whom it is an ἄτεχνος τριβή (see 260e3–5). Even if rhetoric engages in ⋯πάτη (261a6ff.) and proves e.g. one and the same thing to be both just and unjust (261c5ff., d3f.), success will be with ⋯ τέχνῃ το⋯το δρ⋯ν (clO); witness Zeno of Elea, a master in such arguments λέγοντα τέχνῃ when he makes the same things appear like and unlike or one and many (261d6–9). To judge shrewdly what kind of subjects deceive people more easily (261eff.) the rhetorician himself must have a firm grasp of the truth: λόγων ἄρα τέχνην, ⋯ ⋯ταῖρε, ⋯ τ⋯ν ⋯λήθειαν μ⋯ εἰδώς, δόξας δ⋯ τεθηρευκώς, γελοίαν τινά, ὡς ἔοικε, κα⋯ ἄτεχνον παρέξεται(262c 1 ff.).
An Early Laconian Lex Sacra
Authors: Beattie A. J.
Published: February 2009

The text of a Laconian inscription recorded by Fourmont is re-examined and found to be part of an early lex sacra relating to the cult of a goddess, probably Demeter.

Restoration of the text is attempted and, despite many uncertainties, the general structure and meaning are established. The first sentence deals with the weaving or dedication of certain garments by the votaries; the second excludes unmarried women from participation in the rites.
Codex Agenensis (Brit. Mus., Harl. 2493) and Laurentius Valla
Authors: Walters C. Flamstead
Published: February 2009

In a general account of this Livian MS. given in the Classical Review of 1904 (Vol. XVIII. p. 392) I dealt more especially with the text of the first decade; now that my study of its text of the third decade is completed, it is possible to give a brief estimate of its importance and interest in this portion also.
Varvs and Varivs
Authors: Garrod H. W.
Published: February 2009

These are not two adjectives. They are two men—or, rather, two shadows. If I said that they were two names I should be speaking inexactly. The name of Varus occurs five times in Vergil: and twice (Ecl. VI. 12, IX. 35) out of these five times the oldest Latin MSS. which we possess have confounded it with that of Varius. In the Vitae Vergilianae, recently edited with an adequate Apparatus Criticus, the names Varus and Varius are found, I think, twenty-eight times; and twenty-two times out of these twenty-eight all, or most, of our MSS. have confused them—and that though in thirteen cases we are dealing with codices of saec. IX.–X. The same names occur four times in Quintilian, and in one case all, in another all the respectable, MSS. have got them wrong. They occur thrice in Martial—twice right, once wrong. I have selected these particular writers for a reason that will appear later. But the MSS. of Horace tell a like tale.
The Classification of Greek Lyric Poetry
Authors: Harvey A. E.
Published: February 2009

Many years ago Wilamowitz desiderated a systematic collection of the texts which relate to the different types of poetry composed by the great lyric poets of Greece. He hoped that if we could only crystallize our admittedly scanty information about the characteristics of, say, the Paean or the Dirge, we might be able to reach a slightly better understanding than we have now of the formal structure and artistic design of the poems and fragments which have come down to us under these titles. Indeed, this kind of knowledge is very important.
Notes on Plutarch's Life of Marius
Authors: Carney T. F.
Published: February 2009

Translations show an appreciation of the technical sense with which is endowed in this passage but the terminology which they employ to express that sense is unfortunate. The English term ‘declination’ when used technically in an astronomical context is irreconcilable with the connotations of the Greek term as used in this particular astronomical context. Allowing the technical meaning normal for it in such passages, upon Plutarch's wording, here compressed almost into incomprehensibility, the following construction must be put.
The Prosody of Greek Proper Names in -A in Plautus and Terence
Authors: Martin R. H.
Published: February 2009

Editors and writers on the prosody of Plautus and Terence disagree about the prosody of the final -a in the nominative and vocative of proper names taken from the Greek First Declension. The fact that they are often quoted as examples of syllaba anceps either at the diaeresis of longer iambic lines or at loci Iacobsohniani would seem to imply that they normally scan as Latin First Declension nouns with short -a in the nominative and vocative singular. So R. Kauer in the commentary of his edition of Terence's Andria (1930) on line 301 writes ‘die griechischen Eigennamen auf -a (griech. -as)—Sosia, Byrria, Chaerea, Phaedria usw.—haben bei Terenz stets kurzes -a’.
Three Passages in Arrian
Authors: Hamilton J. R.
Published: February 2009

While Alexander is at Memphis an army arrives from Antipater including (Arr. 3.5. 1). It is a little surprising that Droysen's suggestion to read MevlSas for tevolras should have been accepted so readily by editors. We do at least hear fa Menoetas later (Diodorus 19. 47) as Berve remarks. He further points out lat Menidas does not elsewhere, so far as we know, command infantry.
Threshing-Floor or Vineyard
Authors: Ure A. D.
Published: February 2009

The word is generally regarded as having two distinct and separate meanings: (1) threshing-floor, and (2) garden, orchard, or vineyard. Like the classical the word must originally have denoted a threshing-floor. How the second, and apparently incongruous, meaning became attached to it has never been explained. Both are found in Homer. In the Iliad the horses of Achilles trample down the dead like oxen treading the barley on the well-built threshing-floor; the arrow rebounds from the breastplate of Menelaos like beans or chickpeas flying off the blade of the winnowing shovel on the great threshing-floor; the dust of the conflict that lay white on the Achaeans is likened to the whitening heaps when the wind drives off the chaff on the holy threshing-floors when men are winnowing and Demeter separates the chaff from the grain.