Search

[German version] A conversation between two monks and a person who appears to be a former member of the monastery, documented in the cod. Parisinus 7558 in 110 hexameters (with small gaps). The point of departure is the devastating invasion of Gaul by the Vandals and Alans (AD 407-409). While its effects are being smoothed out, the moral disaster continues and is rendered in a satirical fashion ( interior pestis, V. 15): the striving towards a knowledge denied to humankind, the vices of women, which, of course, are encouraged by men who thereby are held responsib…

[German version] A. Life A. lived in the 4th cent. AD ( c. 310-394). He was for many years a grammaticus and rhetor in his home city of Burdigala (Bordeaux), before being called to the court in Trier at an advanced age (probably in 367) by Valentinian I to act as tutor to the young Gratian -- a classic example of social mobility. This, and specifically the beginning of  Gratianus' reign (in 375), was the beginning of a political career which led to the eponymous consulship (in 379). He succeeded in securing influenti…

[German version] Attested as a concept ( invectiva oratio) from the 4th cent. AD, invective is not sharply defined. Before a wide or restricted public audience, by means of a generally valid canon of values, it seeks to discriminate seriously against or destroy an opponent (possibly indicated indirectly only; through whatever means it employs for the purpose, see  Satire). In a tradition going back to Plato, ψόγος ( psógos, reproach) forms a contrast with ἔπαινος ( épainos, praise), encomium and hymn; but, according to Pl. Leg. 934d-936b, in keeping with the theory's in…

[German version] A. Life Latin poet and scholar in the tradition of the Alexandrines. He …

[German version] (C. Chirius F. derives from a misunderstood title of a work: enchiridion/enchiriadis). Author of a Lat. manual Ars rhetorica in three bks in the form of question and answer. In bks 1 and 2 the inventio is discussed (status, partes orationis), with emphasis on the doctrine of status, and in bk. 3 dispositio, elocutio, memoria and pronuntiatio. Probably to be dated in the 5th rather than the 4th cent. AD [6], the work represents a comprehensive and highly systematic compendium, deriving from the declamatory school (p. 2,20) and is in the  Hermagoras-tradition of the …

…

[German version] [1] Aemilius Magnus, professor of rhetoric and lawyer in Tolosa Aemilius Magnus, son of Caecilius Argicius Arborius and Aemilia Corinthia Maura, and maternal uncle of the poet D. Magnus  Ausonius, whose education and career he influenced substantially (Auson. 162, p. 30 f.; 206, p. 63 f.). He worked as a respected professor of rhetoric and advocate in Tolosa and its neighbouring provinces, and, through this, must have become friends with the half-brothers of Constantine I. It is disputed whether he also held the office of …

…

Roman cognomen probably of Etruscan origin, as a praenomen passed down for the Aequian king G. Cloelius in 458 BC (Liv. 3,25,5). As cognomen prominent in the family of the Sempronii, especially with the people's tribunes Ti. and C.  Sempronius Gracchus. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] Writer of Lat. tragedies Writer of Latin tragedies ( Thyestes, Atalanta, Peliades), only a short fragment of each is extant (for Inc. inc. fab. 120-124 2R see [4]); Ov. Pont. 4,16,31 names him together with L.  Varius Rufus in a catalogue of contemporary writers. This…

[German version] [1] Military see  Ensigns Ego, Beate (Osnabrück) [German version] [2] Science See  Eagle; see  Constellations Ego, Beate (Osnabrück) [German version] [3] Proselyte from Sinope, Bible translator Proselyte from  Sinope, translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek ( c. AD 130). The source language orientation of the work stands in the foreground to the extent that many passages remain incomprehensible without knowledge of the Hebrew original. Specifically Hebraic syntactical structures are imitated, Hebrew concepts are repr…

(Ἄλκιμος; Álkimos). [German version] [5] Latinus A. Alethius Rhetorician, writer of panagyrics and poet Appears as a famous rhetorician (probably based on a catalogue of model speeches from Bordeaux) in  Sidonius, where he is praised for his oratorical fortitudo: Epist. 5,10,3 (see Jer. Chron. a. Abr. 2371). Probably also the author of a rhetorical handbook that is otherwise no longer distinguishable (Sid. Apoll. Epist. 8, 11, 2; in the same source: origin in Agen; concerning false identifications, see PLRE 2, Alethius 2, against [3…