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[German version] [1] Legendary founder of Rome The legendary founder of Rome. Perhaps literally 'the Roman'. A possible correspondence between the Etruscan nomen gentile Rumelna (Volsinii, 6th cent. BC: ET Vs 1,35) and the alleged Roman nomen gentile Romilius - the name is securely attested only in an old tribus Romilia/-ulia (Paul Fest. 331 L.) - and between R. and an Etruscan praenomen * Rumele [1. 31 f.] proves nothing about the historicity of the figure of R. Also problematic is the attempt [2. 491-520; 3. 95-150] to connect the finds from the Roman Mons Palatinus, datable to the 8th cent. BC, with literary information about R. (allegedly written reflections of a reliable oral tradition) and with the ancient date of the founding of Rome in order to reconstruct the so-called Romulian era as the historical date of Rome's foundation. In literature, R. is not attested before the 2nd half of the 4th cent. BC: in Alcimus (FGrH 840 F 12), a Rhomylus is the son of Aeneas [1] and father of city-founder Rhomus; according to later authors ( cf. FGrH 840 F 21 f. = Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,72,1 f.), he is the brother of the latter along with Ascanius and Euryleon or is himself the first founder of Rome (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,73,3a). In Callias (FGrH 840 F 14), being a grandson of Aeneas (likewise Eratosthenes FGrH 241 F 45; Naevius and Ennius in Serv. …

[German version] [1] M. Aurelius N. Author of bucolic writings, before AD 284? As the name Carthagin(i)ensis appended in some MSS indicates, N. came from Africa. He wrote four bucolic poems ( Bucolica, Buc.) and a didactic poem about hunting ( Cynegetica, Cyn.), of which verses 1-325 are extant. The dedication of the …

[German version] Postumius (?) Rufius Festus. Roman poet of the mid 4th cent. AD. As an aristocrat of urban Rome, he is committed to the tendencies of the nobles of the time towards the restoration of paganism. In an inscription dedicated to the Etruscan goddess Nortia (CIL 6,537 = ILS 2944), he mentions Volsinii as his place of birth, traces his lineage back to the Stoic philosopher  Musonius Rufus and refers to his two proconsulships [8; 10; 11]. With his poetic reworking of texts from the fields of Greek science and didactic poetry, A. documents once again the continui…

[German version] Author of a collection of 42  fables written in distichs (beginning of the 5th cent. AD), which is probably dedicated to  Macrobius. Regarding A.'s name, see [8. 10-19]: no attempts should be made to identify A. with the didactic poet  Avienus or with the Avenius who appears in the ‘ Saturnalia by Macrobius [4. XI-XIV; 3. 392-396; cf. 11]. The subject matter of most of the fables is taken directly from  Babrius, and is not filtered through a Latin prose paraphrase [7. 71-73; 8. 163-191]. The efforts to create a pleasing poetic composition (metre, classical references) contrast with the linguistic and metrical licenses …

[German version] I. Ancient Orient No evidence exists of there being a term for the fable itself either in the Sumerian or the Akkadian fable. The fable is a short, fictitious story with an inherent moral, the characters of which are personified animals. Reduced to the moral, several fables have attained the status of a proverb. The fable has its origin in oral literature; it represents a simple form of the allegory. Rank disputes/tenzons (main protagonists: personified animals, natural phenomena and…

[English version] I. Alter Orient …

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[English version] [1] M. Aurelius N. Verf. bukolischer Schriften, vor 284? entsprechend dem Namenszusatz Carthagin(i)ensis in einigen Hss. aus Africa stammend, verfaßte vier bukolische Gedichte ( Bucolica, Buc.) und ein Lehrgedicht über die Jagd ( …

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[English version] Postumius (?) Rufius Festus. Röm. Dichter um die Mitte des 4.Jh. n. Chr. Als stadtr…