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[German version] A. Term The junction of three or more roads is called a compitum (ThlL, s.v. 2075, 77ff.). It was the site of altars, chapels and other monuments (also called compita) at which farmers and their servants prayed in fundi villaeque conspectu (Cic. Leg. 2,27) to the Lares, offered sacrifices and where adjoining residents met for consultation (Trebatius in Serv. Georg. 2,382). Whatever older ideas one may assume to lie behind this custom (on this debate: Wissowa-Samter [4. 224ff.]), the earliest attested cultural practices and concepts of the compitum and the Compital …

[English version] A. Begriff Der Knotenpunkt von drei oder mehr Wegen heißt compitum (ThlL, s.v. 2075, 77ff.); dort standen Altäre, Kapellen oder andere Male (ebenfalls compita genannt), an denen die Bauern und ihre Diener in fundi villaeque conspectu (Cic. leg. 2,27) zu den Laren beteten und Opfer darbrachten, und sich die Angrenzenden zu gemeinsamer Beratung trafen (Trebatius bei Serv. georg. 2,382). Welche älteren Vorstellungen man dahinter auch vermuten mag (zur Kontroverse Wissowa-Samter [4. 224ff.]), die ältesten bezeugten Kultpraktiken und -vorstellungen des compitum…

Scholz, Udo W. (Würzburg) [German version] A. Concept (CT) In ancient (Greek) rhetoric (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Rhet. 10,17), the term ekphrasis describes a mode of epideictic speech, specifically a form of description that aims at depicting the subject so clearly (i.e., in such detail) that listeners or readers would have the impression of seeing the subject before their own eyes. Descriptio, the equivalent Latin rhetorical term, preserves this speech-related meaning, for example, in Quintilian, who presents the visualization evoked by a successful descriptio in the cont…

Roman patrician family name, probably derived from Etruscan fapi [1. 162]. According to ancient etymology, however, either from faba ‘(broad)bean’ (‘legume grower’: Plin. HN 18,10; [2]) or from the original ‘Fodius’, ‘Fovius’ (‘wolf pit hunter’: Plut. Fabius 1,2; Fest. 77 L.) because the Fabii with the Quinctii originally appointed the priesthood of the Luperci; the  Lupercalia were also the family celebration of the Fabii (Ov. Fast. 193ff.). Early Imperial pseudogenealogy, which perhaps arose in the literary ci…

Röm. patrizischer Gentilname, wohl von etr. fapi abgeleitet [1. 162]. Nach ant. Etymologie jedoch entweder von faba “(Sau)bohne” (“Bohnenpflanzer”: Plin. nat. 18,10; [2]) oder von urspr. “Fodius”, “Fovius” (“Wolfsgrubenjäger”: Plut. Fabius 1,2; Fest. 77 L.), weil die Fabii mit den Quinctii urspr. die Priesterschaft der Luperci stellten; die Lupercalia waren zudem das Familienfest der Fabii (Ov. fast. 193ff.). Frühkaiserzeitliche Pseudogenealogie, vielleicht entstanden im lit. Umkreis von F. [II 14], führte die…