Brill’s New Pauly

Get access Subject: Classical Studies
Edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider (Antiquity) and Manfred Landfester (Classical Tradition).
English translation edited by Christine F. Salazar (Antiquity) and Francis G. Gentry (Classical Tradition)

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Brill´s New Pauly is the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, published by Verlag J.B. Metzler since 1996. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. The section on Antiquity of Brill´s New Pauly are devoted to Greco-Roman antiquity and cover more than two thousand years of history, ranging from the second millennium BC to early medieval Europe. Special emphasis is given to the interaction between Greco-Roman culture on the one hand, and Semitic, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavonic culture, and ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on the other hand. The section on the Classical Tradition is uniquely concerned with the long and influential aftermath of antiquity and the process of continuous reinterpretation and revaluation of the ancient heritage, including the history of classical scholarship. Brill´s New Pauly presents the current state of traditional and new areas of research and brings together specialist knowledge from leading scholars from all over the world. Many entries are elucidated with maps and illustrations and the English edition will include updated bibliographic references.

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Actarius

(168 words)

Author(s): Gizewski, Christian (Berlin)
[German version] ( actuarius.) Actarius can apply to   acta and also to actus (fast movement, transportation) and can therefore designate activities in various areas: 1. In private life, actarius (= actuarius) refers to the ‘fast scribe’, that is of court speeches or recitations (Suet. Iul. 55; Sen. Epist. 4,4,9; Tac. Ann. 5,4), and therefore also to the bookkeeper or accountant (Petron. Sat. 53,1). A. (= actarius) refers to a record-keeper in private and imperial households (CIL VI 5 182; VI 6 244; VI 9 106 f.). 2. In military life, actuarii are, since Septimius Severus, sometimes h…

Acta Sanctorum

(492 words)

Author(s): Makris, Georgios (Bochum)
[German version] Title of the collection of the entire Christian hagiographical corpus. 68 volumes ordered according to the calendar (1 Jan. - 10 Nov.), as well as several supplementary volumes, have been published in the Acta Sanctorum (AS) in Antwerp and Brussels since 1643. The term AS for genuine hagiographical sources ( Martyrs and  Saints' lives ) is derived from the title while praise oratory and sermons are included among homiletics. Acts of the Martyrs were initially written beginning in …

Acte

(5 words)

see  Claudia Acte

Actia

(269 words)

Author(s): Decker, Wolfgang (Cologne)
[German version] Augustus founded the penteteric Actia in commemoration of the decisive victory won by him over Marcus Antonius in the sea battle off Cape Actium on 2 September 31 BC (Str. 7,325; Suet. Aug. 18; Cass. Dio 41,1); they were probably celebrated for the first time on the anniversary of the battle in 27 BC [1.105-106] and elevated to the status of periodos. Cited in many victory rolls during the Imperial Age, sometimes in the same breath as the Olympic and Pythian games [2.275]. They comprised a programme that included gymnastics, the arts (Stat.…

Actio

(1,458 words)

Author(s): Stengl, Britta (Eningen u. A.) | Apathy, Peter (Linz)
[German version] [1] in rhetoric In Roman  rhetoric actio is used as a synonym for pronuntiatio, and signifies the delivery aspect of a speech. Actio is the last of five stages of the speech ( partes orationis/artis/rhetorices). The performance should work on the eyes as well as on the ears; thus the rules of actio relate to register, rhythm and volume of the voice (figura vocis), as well as to mimicry (vultus), gesture (gestus), and posture and movement ( motus corporis). Preoccupation with the theory of oratory began in the 5th cent. BC in the Attic democracy. Indications…

Actis, ab

(116 words)

Author(s): Eck, Werner (Cologne)
[German version] Someone occupied with the documentation and care of formal and formless administrative records (  acta ) of a public authority. Ab a. coincides only partially with the designation   act(u)arius , who held a higher rank in public service (Cod. Iust. 2,7,26). The optio ab a. (CIL VI 3884) is a military administrative official of the imperial era; the ab a. senatus (also curator actorum senatus), a senator with quaestorial rank, produced the senate records in the second and 3rd cents. AD; the procurator ab a. urbis directed the office for the acta diurna.  Commentariis, a Eck,…

Actisanes

(47 words)

Author(s): Jansen-Winkeln, Karl (Berlin)
[German version] According to Diod. Sic. 1,60, Ethiopian king who freed Egypt from the rule of one Amasis and founded Rhinocoloura (El-Arish) as a penal colony. Neither his historicity nor his chronological position are certain. Jansen-Winkeln, Karl (Berlin) Bibliography A. Burton, Diod. Sic., Book I, 1972, 180 f.

Actium

(808 words)

Author(s): Strauch, Daniel (Berlin)
[German version] (τὸ Ἄκτιον; tò Áktion, Actium). Flat, sandy promontory (medieval: Punta) opposite the modern Preveza at the entrance to the Ambracian Gulf (Str. 10,2,7; [9]), in ancient times belonging to  Anactorium; location of the decisive battle between Octavianus ( Augustus) and  Antonius [9]. It was also the location of the sanctuary of  Apollo Actius, founded by the Corinthian settlers of Anactorium in about 600 BC; its great age is confirmed by archaeological finds (kouroi of the early 6th c…

Actor

(342 words)

[German version] I. Personal name (Ἄκτωρ). Frequent (informative) heroic name (‘Guide’), often given to secondary figures in mythological stories, e.g. to: [No German version] [1] the father of the Argonaut  Menoetius, grandfather of Patroclus, from the Locrian Opus (Hom. Il. 11,785; 23,85), husband of Aegina (Pind. O. 9,69); [No German version] [2] the son of Deion of Phocis, brother of  Cephalus (Apollod. 1,86); [No German version] [3] an Argonaut, son of Hippasus, (Hyg. Fab. 14,40); [No German version] [4] the earthly father of the  Actorione. [No German version] [5] In the Peleu…

Actorione

(240 words)

Author(s): Auffarth, Christoph (Tübingen)
[German version] (Ἀκτορίωνε; Aktoríōne, dual). Monstrous pair of Siamese twins (Hes. fr. 18 M-W τερατώδεις); with their two heads, four arms and legs, and merged bodies, the pair are extremely strong (Hes. fr. 17; 18). In the Iliad, Nestor boasts that he would have been able to kill the Actorione Molione, Cteatus and Eurytus, if their father Poseidon had not supported them (Il. 11,750-752). On another occasion they defeat Nestor in chariot racing (Il. 23,638). The genealogy is threefold: alongside …

Actorius

(44 words)

Author(s): Will, Wolfgang (Bonn)
[German version] A. Naso, M., author of a work about  Caesar and his time. This work was obviously directed against Caesar, accused him of participating in the so-called first Catiline conspiracy and also contained gossip (Suet. Iul. 9,3; 52,1). Will, Wolfgang (Bonn)

Acts of the Apostles

(235 words)

Author(s): Niehoff, Johannes (Freiburg)
[German version] The title (πράξεις [τῶν] ἀποστόλων; práxeis [tôn] apostólōn or acta/actus apostolorum), which was first documented in the late 2nd cent., is almost certainly not its original. Paul is not really considered an apostle by the author. Acts is part of the Lukan historical corpus together with the Gospel designated as πρῶτος λόγος ( prôtos lógos) in 1.1. Repetitions and contradictions (e.g. Lk 24,50-53 and Acts 1,9-11) are explained as a variatio. The structure of Acts is presented in 1,8: spread of the gospel by ‘witnesses’ and the ‘power of the Holy Gh…

Actuariae

(4 words)

see  Battleships

Actus

(559 words)

Author(s): Schanbacher, Dietmar (Dresden) | Mlasowsky, Alexander (Hannover) | Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg) | Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen)
[German version] [1] Legal action An action, especially a legal action (Dig. 49,1,12) i. a. defining characteristic of   alienatio : omnis a., per quem dominium transfertur, Cod. Iust. 5,23,1. Formal legal actions in accordance with the old   ius civile , e.g. the   mancipatio , are described as acti legitimi. Any added condition renders them ineffective. Additionally, actus can mean a utility (  servitus ), for example the right to drive draught animals and beasts of burden over a plot of land, including the right of way ( iter, Dig. 8,3,1pr.). This actus is a res mancipi, and is obtained i…

A cubiculo

(5 words)

see  Cubicularius

Acumenus [of Athens]

(72 words)

Author(s): Nutton, Vivian (London)
[German version] (Ἀκουμενός; Akoumenós) [of Athens] Doctor from the late 5th cent. BC. As father of the doctor  Eryximachus, who was a friend of Socrates and Phaedrus, A. emerges briefly as a fictitious dialogue partner in Pl. Phdr. 268a and 269a, in order to emphasize the thesis that the art of medicine comprises more than merely knowledge, which has been gleaned from books and teachers. Nutton, Vivian (London)

Acus

(128 words)

Author(s): Hünemörder, Christian (Hamburg)
[German version] (Greek βελόνη ( belónē), also ῥαφίς ( rhaphís) or ἀβλεννής ( ablennḗs), Ath. 7,305d; 319cd; 8,355 f.). A saltwater fish that lives in a school (Aristot. Hist. an. 8(9),2,610 b 6) (Plin. HN 32,145), the pipefish [1. 9] of the syngnathus family or the garfish (Thompson and Jones in [1]) with an interesting spawning behaviour, i.e. the laying of large eggs in winter (Aristot. Hist. an. 5,11,543b11) by reversible bursting open of the abdomen (6,13,567b22-26; Plin. HN 9,166: reference to pouch of…

Acusilaus

(277 words)

Author(s): Montanari, Franco (Pisa)
[German version] (Ἀκουσίλαος; Akousílaos) from Argos. Lived at the end of the 6th and first half of 5th cent. BC, was according to Hecataeus of Miletus one of the first Greek prose writers and wrote in the Ionian dialect. He is traditionally regarded as belonging to the group of so-called logographoi (a generic term used in Thuc. 1,21,1) ( Logographer) and, as far as we can determine, was primarily concerned with  mythography. His Γενεαλογίαι or Ἱστορίαι comprised three books that, it seems, corresponded to the break-up into divine, heroic and …

Acutia

(31 words)

Author(s): Kienast, Dietmar (Neu-Esting)
[German version] Wife of P. Vitellius (died AD 31), was condemned in AD 37 for lèse-majesté (Tac. Ann. 6,47,1). PIR2 A. 102. Kienast, Dietmar (Neu-Esting) Bibliography Raepsat-Charlier 1, no. 5.

Acutius

(77 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Eck, Werner (Cologne)
[German version] [1] A., M. Tribunus plebis 401 BC Tribunus plebis 401 BC (MRR 1, 84). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [2] A. Rufus Supporter of Pompeius supporter of Pompeius (Caes. B Civ. 3,83,2). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [3] A. Nerva, Q. Cos. suff. in AD 100 cos. suff. in AD 100, probably identical to the governor of Lower Germany in 101/102 (CIL XIII 7697; 7715 f.; FOst 45; PIR2 A 101 [1]). Eck, Werner (Cologne) Bibliography 1 Eck, 161 f.
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