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[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 influential places in office for vario…

[German version] Mentioned in Jer. Chron. for AD 324 as an exceptional orator; Ausonius also mentions him in the Commemoratio professorum Burdigalensium (14,9); he may even have taught at Burdigala/Bordeaux (otherwise [4. 243f.], against [5. 498f.]). His daughter matched him in eloquence (Jer. Chron. AD 336). The surviving panegyric to Emperor Constantinus [1] and the Caesars Crispus and Constantinus [2] II was held at Rome in AD 321 on the occasion of the Quinquennalia of the imperial sons in the absence of the addressees (cf. [3. 338]) and was adopted into the corpus of the …

[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 was born to freedpersons in the year 170 BC (Jer. Chron. a. ABr. 1878; 139 BC), most likely in Pisaurium, where the house of Accii is verifiable. In Rome he attached himself to D. Iunius Brutus Callaicus (cos. 138 BC; Cic. Brut. 107; Archaeology 27). An educational trip took him to Greece and Asia Minor (Gell. NA 13, 2). Characteristic are his distinctive self-confidence and striving for independence (see Gell. …

[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 status (…

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[German version] A. Definition Greek κέντρων ( kéntrōn) and Latin cento -- the linguistic historical relationship between the words is a matter of contention [20. 11-13] -- have in common, even though their meanings do not quite cover the same fields, the fact that they describe a quilt made of remnants of used material sewn together, and then in the figurative sense a text that was assembled of disparate verse parts (up to one and a half verses) from well-known poets to form a new continuous meaningful …

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. …

(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…

[German version] [1] Military see…

Name of an old patrician family, probably connected with the name of the god  Jupiter [1. 281; 2. 729]. The gens was one of the so-called ‘Trojan families’, who were said to have moved from Alba Longa to Rome under king Tullus Hostilius [I 4] (see below). The Iulii were prominent in the 5th and 4th cents. BC. Their connection to the family branch of the Caesares, which rose to prominence from the 3rd cent. and whose outstanding member was the dictator  Caesar (with family tree), is unclear. Caesar's adoptive son,…