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Public recital

(1,354 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] I. Origins and development The PR of literature (Latin recitatio), especially of poetry, represented one of the most important media of transient oral literature in the Roman Imperial Period, contributing enormously to a colourful cultural life. PR existed alongside, and in competition with, declamation (Rhetoric, Declamationes) and theatre (Tragedy, Comedy), of which the texts, not always published and sometimes fluid (improvised e.g. in the artful speeches and the dialogues of the mime), attained in performance the type of publication typ…

Praetexta

(372 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Ancient term (particularly Diom. 3, GL 1,489,14 ff.; on the pattern of the termini cf. [2]) designating the historical drama of the Romans in the Republican Period. Like the historical epic, the genre was introduced in Rome by Naevius [I 1]. A more rarely realized type - cf. Naevius' Lupus (vel Romulus?) - portrayed exemplary figures of early Roman history, while most of the pieces (Naevius' Clastidium, Ennius' Ambracia, Pacuvius' Paulus) were intended to honour patrons posthumously by praising their victories, i.e. they were probably performed at their ludi funebre…

Favorinus

(523 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Rhetorician with philosophical interests, author of  Buntschriftstellerei, a representative of the  Second Sophistic, born about AD 80-90 in Arelate. His life is recounted in Philostr. VS 1,8 and the Suda (also s.Gell. NA 16,3,1 et passim). He was described as a hermaphrodite (Philostr.: ἀνδρόθηλυς, εὐνοῦχος; andróthēlys, eunoûchos; Polemon in Förster Scriptores physiognomonici 1,160,10: sine testiculis natus, cf. [6]). He was trained in Massalia, heard Dio Chrysostom speak in Rome (?) and became an acclaimed speaker. In Ephesus he wa…

Differentiarum scriptores

(270 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] In antiquity the interest in identifying more closely the specific meaning ( proprietas ac differentia; Quint. Inst. 1 pr. 16) of synonyms that are related in their root or different in form but semantically very close ( polliceri/promittere, nullus/nemo, intus/intro, [1. 47]) extends back to Greek philosophy of language (Plato and the Sophists, the Stoa, later Cicero, Nigidius Figulus). In Rome it finds its place in oratory (Cato), rhetoric (Quint. Inst. 9,3,45ff.), jurisprudence and especially among the grammarians …

Iuvencus, C. Vettius Aquilinus

(264 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Spanish presbyter of aristocratic origin whose Latin epic Evangeliorum libri was written under Constantinus [1] probably after 325 (cf. the epilogue 4,802-812 and Jer. Chron. 232 H. re AD 329; Vir. ill. 84,2; Epist. 70,5); a second, likewise hexametric work regarding the Ordo sacramentorum (Jer. Vir. ill. 84,1) is lost. - The biblical epic to the New Testament, framed by a prologue and an epilogue, describes the story of Christ's life in 4 bks. of Virgilian scope (i.e. an average of about 800 vv.) in the style of a Gospel …

Quintipor Clodius

(43 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Author of palliata from the late Republican era, known only from the polemics of Varro (in Non. p. 168,719 L.). Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) Bibliography Lit.: M. Brožek, De Quintipore Clodio meliori famae restituendo, in: Eos 56, 1966, 115-118.

Gorgoneion

(371 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] According to the myth, the G. is the head of the  Gorgo [1] Medusa killed by Perseus which could still turn people into stone after Medusa's death. Perseus finally handed it to Athena, who attached it to her   aegis . The significance of the G. as an object of representation, however, far exceeds the myth of Perseus and has complex older foundations. It belongs to the group of grotesque masks whose polyvalent functions go far beyond those of causing terror and deterring evil. Even though there are cer…

Porphyrio, Pomponius

(258 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Early 3rd-cent. author of a commentary on Horace for use in schools (in the form of marginal glosses), perhaps from Africa (before Iulius [IV 19] Romanus, cf. Charisius p. 285,10 ff. Barwick); a short biography precedes the text. The function of the work forced P. to dispense with textual variants; the source citations may have been mediated by Helenius Acron's scholarly commentary. P. himself was not very interested in archaisms; instead he emphasized the contemporary distance fr…

Iuvenalis, D. Iunius

(929 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Juvenal, the last outstanding satirical poet of Rome, probably from Campanian Aquinum (cf. Juv. Sat. 3,318ff. and ILS 2926 = CIL 10,5382), contemporary of Tacitus; from Sat. 13,16f. and 15,27f., [1] deduces that he was born in AD 67. The silence of his poems concerning autobiographical detail - in contrast to  Horatius - and the fictitious nature of the vitae (no. 1 Jahn), which were not compiled until late antiquity, make any reconstruction of the details of his life circumstances impossible. The statement that I. was active as a reciter…

Excerpta Valesiana

(140 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Two different historiographic texts dating from late antiquity, which H. Valesius first edited in 1636 from what is today called the Cod. Berol. Phill. 1885 (9th cent.). The first excerpt (a), entitled Origo Constantini imperatoris, comes from a collection of biographies of emperors (mid 4th cent.) and outlines the life of emperor Constantine [1] I from the year 305. The second (b), an excerpt ex libris chronicorum (6th cent.), covers the era from 474 to 526, in particular the rule of Theoderic; the tradition of the text is contributed to by t…

Declamationes

(311 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Practice speeches, representing the ultimate stage of education in rhetoric. They treated (mostly fictitious) model cases (Suet. Gram. 25,9) with the aim of preparing pupils for the pugna forensis (Quint. Inst. 5,12,17), and were practised in schools of rhetoric modelled after the Greek pattern; the name is of later date (Cic. Tusc. 1,7; Sen. Controv. 1, pr. 12). Despite criticisms of excesses, Quintilian gives a more positive assessment of their pedagogical utility than, say, Messalla (Tac. Dial. 35), who t…

Ianuarius Nepotianus

(134 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Revisor of the collection of exempla by  Valerius Maximus for rhetoric instruction, probably from the 4th cent. AD (based on linguistic arguments [1]). While the original organization was maintained, there were stylistic revisions and additions - partially from Cicero (cf. 7,3; 9,24 etc.). A more complete copy of the excerpt, which has survived in the Codex unicus ( Vaticanus Latinus 1321, s. XIV) only up to Val. Max. 3,2,7, was used still by Landolfus Sagax ( c.1000). Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) Bibliography 1 F. Buecheler, Kleine Schriften 3, 1930, 331-335 (11906…

Lector

(191 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] (‘reader’). Especially the letters of Pliny the Younger illustrate the custom of culturally enriching the mealtimes with - next to comoedi and lyristae (Plin. Ep. 1,15,2; 9,17,3; 36,4) - lectores (Nep. Att. 14,1; Gell. NA 3,19,1: servus assistens mensae eius - sc. Favorini - legere inceptabat ‘a slave, who stood by his - Favorinus' - table, began to read’), and its exceptional use as preparation for excerption, as in the case of Pliny the Older in Plin. Ep. 3,5,11f. ( super hanc - sc. cenam - liber legebatur, adnotabatur ‘a book was read at the table, Pliny took note…

Culex

(245 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] ‘The Mosquito’, Lat. short epic poem ( Epic), dedicated to Octavian as a Virgilian pseudepigraphon (v.1) and received as an early work by Virgil since Lucan [1. 157ff.; 6] Suetonius' Life of Virgil; it is, however, more likely to come from the Tiberian period [1. 57ff.; 7]: a mosquito stings a sleeping shepherd and thus saves him from a snake but is killed by him; it recounts the tale to him in a dream from the underworld and receives a proper burial in appreciation. Bucolic setting and epic p…

Lavinius

(30 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Roman grammarian, probably of the 2nd cent. AD, whose De verbis sordidis (‘On Vulgar Expressions’) is cited appreciatively by Gell. NA 20,11. Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)

Phlegon

(445 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] (Φλέγων; Phlégōn). P. Aelius, of Tralleis [2] in Asia Minor, a writer of miscellanies. A freedman of the emperor Hadrianus [II], P. belonged to the latter's court and possibly administered his itinerare [II.] (cf. [7]); d. after AD 137, the terminus post quem of work (6), below. According to the list in the Suda (FGrH 257 T 1) P.’s œuvre included i.a. topographical-heortological writings: (1) Perì Olympioníkōn/'On Olympic Victors' (2 bks.); (2) Ékphrasis Sikelías/'Description of Sicily' (3 bks.); (3) 'On Roman Festivals' (3 bks.) and a topography of Ro…

Saloninus

(73 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] Died after AD 90, known from a funerary epigram by Martialis [1] Known from a funerary epigram by Martialis [1] (6,18), who calls him a friend of his friend Terentius Priscus; therefore, the death of S. must have occurred around AD 90, the date of origin of the 6th book of epigrams by Martialis. Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) [German version] [2] see Licinius [II 6] see Licinius [II 6]

Liber glossarum

(354 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Modern term for an alphabetical Latin encyclopaedia from the late 8th cent. covering Linguistic notes to explanations of terms, the most comprehensive and most important educational aid of the Carolingian epoch; prototypes are the MSS Parisinus Lat. 11529/30 and Cambrai 693 (both late 8th cent.; cf. [4]). Concerning the origin of the glossary ( Glossography) in the surroundings of Corby, in Tours, and in the Carolingian court library, and concerning Alcuin as terminus post quem, …

Largus

(58 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Epic poet of the Augustan period, mentioned by Ov. Pont. 4,16,17f. who praises him: as a counterpart of the Aeneis, his epic dealt with the settlement of the Trojan Antenor [1] in northern Italy. The identification with Valerius Largus, the prosecutor of the elegist Gallus, cannot be attested. Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) Bibliography Bardon, 2,66f.

Caesellius Vindex

(143 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Probably somewhat older than  Terentius Scaurus and  Sulpicius Apollinaris; with his alphabetical lexicalization of linguistic-antiquarian material under linguistic aspects, he produced a work, which in his archaizing tendency was characteristic of the Hadrianic era ( Stromateis sive Commentaria lectionum antiquarum, probably 20 bks.). The material was taken from republican authors up to Virgil and was likely substantially based on  Probus. As famous as it was disputed, it also exposed -- according to Gell. NA 2,16,5ff…

Nigidius Figulus, P.

(631 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] A. Life Roman naturalist and grammarian of the Late Republic. Remarks by his friend and contemporary Cicero and references in a biography of Suetonius ([9]; testimonials in [1. 158-161; 5. 9-36]) illuminate the last 20 years of his life in particular. Born around 100 BC from a plebeian family, he is first encountered in 63 as a senator and supporter of Cicero's against the Catilinarians (Catilina; Cic. Sull. 41f.; Fam. 4,13,2); praetor in 58 (Cic. Ad Q. Fr. 1,2,16). In July 51 he me…

Murredius

(57 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Roman rhetor of the Augustan-Tiberian period. His contemporary, Seneca the Elder, characterizes him whenever the opportunity arises with negative epithets: obscenitas, ‘vulgarity’ (Sen. Contr. 1,2,21); stultitia, ‘stupidity’ (1,4,12); ‘fatuity’ (7,5,10); ‘buffoonery’ (7,2,14); ‘empty magniloquence’ (9,2,27); insania, ‘madness’ (Sen. Suas. 2,16). Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) Bibliography J. Fairweather, Seneca the Elder, 1981, passim (Index 399).

Querolus sive Aulularia

(284 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Latin comedy by an author of the early 5th cent. AD who came from Gaul, if the addressee Rutilius is identical with Rutilius Namatianus, which is also in keeping with the latent anti-Christian tendency of the play. Intended for recitation at a banquet, the Querolus , which is written in rhythmic prose, implies an understanding of Plautus and Terentius as prose authors. The Plautine comedy Aulularia, to which the prologue alludes, is the basis of the Querolus down to the same characters and names. The episode of the hidden treasure, however, is modelled qu…

Fabullus

(151 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Friend of  Catullus, recipient of the poem of invitation of Catull. 13, mostly mentioned together with Veranius: from Hispania Citerior they send Catullus a serviette (Catull. 12,14ff., cf. Catull. 9); about the time of his journey to Bithynia (57/6 BC) they are part of the cohors of a governor Piso (probably L. Calpurnius [I 19] Piso Caesoninus) and are disappointed, just as Catullus, in their financial expectations (Catull. 28 and 47). So this probably concerns two different jou…

Marcomannus

(141 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Author of a commentary - based, among others, on Hermagoras [1] (of Temnus) - on Cicero's rhetorical works, from which Marius [II 21] Victorinus quotes, in part polemically [1. 173, l. 25ff.; 299, l.13ff.]. It is also used in the rhetoric of Consultus Fortunatianus [1. p. 98,26f.] and Sulpicius Victor [1. p. 339,2ff.; 340,14-341,28], as well as (according to title and subscription) of Iulius [IV 24] Victor, works which in part still belong to the 4th cent. Since Victorinus seems t…

Gargonius

(76 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Rhetoric teacher of the Augustan period, student of Buteo [1. 156f.], then his successor, who is perhaps identical with the example of lacking hygiene cited in Hor. Sat. 1,2,27 (= 1,4,92). His voice was rough and aggressive (Sen. Controv. 1,7,18). The older Seneca always connects the quotes form G. that illustrate his Colores with harsh reproach ( stultitia contr. 10,5,25; cacozelia 9,1,15, insaniens Suas. 2,16). Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) Bibliography 1 H. Bornecque, Les Déclamations, 1902, 168.

Phocas (Focas)

(324 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Roman grammarian probably of the early 5th cent. AD. His Ars de nomine et verbo (Regula) represents the type of rule-based grammar that came increasingly into use in the later 4th cent., and that makes the learning of correct Latin easier by means of numerous paradigms of declensions and conjugations. The text grew out of language teaching experience; the author intends to replace the grammars of his predecessors that were in part too short and in part too detailed (the greater danger) with a b…

Arusianus Messius

(108 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Teacher of rhetoric in late antiquity, author of an alphabetical phraseology of model idiomatic expressions published in 395 ( Exempla elocutionum). The excerpts from  Vergilius and  Sallustius,  Terentius and  Cicero form a quartet -- as a classicist stretto of the canon -- which from time to time in late antiquity was considered to be the quintessence of pagan culture ( quadriga Messii). There is evidence of only two Carolingian codices; a Bobiensis text discovered in 1493 and copied by G. Galbiati (today in Naples IV.A.11) was preserved. Schmidt, Peter L. (Const…

Neoteric poets

(295 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Modern term (from νεώτεροι/neṓteroi /‘the youngsters’ or poetae novi/ ‘new poets’ found in Cicero) for the poets’ community around the grammarian P. Valerius Cato (too sceptical: [6]), with Catullus [1], Licinius [I 31] Calvus, Helvius [I 3] Cinna, Furius [I 9] Bibaculus and Ticidas as its most prominent members ( c. mid-1st cent. BC). Their poetry focuses on mythological epyllia ( Epyllion) and collections of short poems dealing prevalently with personal and social relationships (friendship, love, political polemics). Traditio…

Saleius Bassus

(56 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Renowned Latin epic poet (Quint. Inst. 10,1,90) of the late 1st cent. AD (Tac. Dial. 9,2-5; 10,2; Juv. 7,80 f.), friend of Iulius [IV 21] Secundus ( ibid. 5,2 f.). Works do not survive; the attribution of the Laus Pisonis to him is not justified. Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) Bibliography Schanz/Hosius, vol. 2, 545.

Pollius Felix

(158 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] From Puteoli (modern Pozzuoli), magistrate and patron of Puteoli and Neapolis [2], landowner in Tibur (modern Tivoli), Puteoli (cf. ILS 5798) and Tarentum (Taras). His wife was called Polla; their daughter was the wife of Iulius Menecrates; he is congratulated on the birth of his third grandchild by Statius (Silv. 4,8; for a son of P. cf. Stat. Silv. 4,8,12). P., himself a poet, was en Campanie, le protecteur attitré ([1. 3235]) of the poet Statius, who described his villa at Surrentum (Silv. 2,2) and a statue of Hercules dedicated on its shores (S…

Kaisergeschichte

(239 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] A portrayal of the Roman Imperial period in short biographies, to be dated between AD 337 and 361, the date of the first user (Aurelius Victor), and extending to the death of Constantinus. The establishment of its date by A. Enmann [1], who explains the relationship (linguistic and structural properties, factual errors) of Victor, Eutropius, the Historia Augusta and the Epitome de Caesaribus (Aurelius Victor) has, in contrast to the Epitome of Livy, withstood the test of time. The literary standard appears to have been higher than that of t…

Opillus, D. (?) Aurelius

(188 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Scholar from the Republican period, Italic, freedman of an Epicurean and hence a teacher of philosophy at first, and later of rhetoric and grammar. In 92/91 BC he followed the exile Rutilius Rufus to Smyrna where he lived to a ripe old age; for his life as a whole, see Suet. Gram. 6 (cf. in this respect [5]), who calls him an antiquarian Buntschriftsteller. Of his works ( Musae/'Muses'; Pinax/'Tablet'), only grammatical fragments (explanations of words, etymologies) have attained a position in the glossographic tradition via the filter of Varro. O.…

Marullus

(237 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] Roman teacher of rhetoric from Cordoba, 1st cent. BC 1st-century BC Roman teacher of rhetoric from Cordoba, teacher of Seneca the Elder (Sen. Controv. 1, praef. 22-24) and his friend M. Porcius Latro (ibid., praef. 24; 2,2,7; 7,2,11). His method of instruction consisted of isolated practice in individual areas of inventio and elocutio (see ibid. praef. 23; partes orationis ). While Latro esteemed M.'s sententiae (ibid. 1,2,17), Seneca, citing a range of sententiae and colores, characterises him as a ‘dry fellow, who offers little that is attractive b…

Dirae

(220 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Bucolic poem of the early Imperial period, in which the poet puts a curse on his expropriated land. The link with Verg. Ecl. 1 and 9 resulted even before the Vergil biographies of Donatus (based on Suetonius) (§ 17) to its attribution to  Vergilius (but cf.[3]). Maintaining the topic, v. 104 begins a new poem without a topical break (cf. v. 41. 89. 95 with 107), known as Lydia, but without ancient evidence regarding that title, probably written by the same author (cf. [5]). It is an elegiac lament of a lover separated from his Lydia. Both piece…

Laus Pisonis

(168 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Panegyricus ( Panegyrics) by an unknown author probably around AD 39/40 [3], to C. Calpurnius [II 13] Piso (Caesoninus) who then in 65 became a figurehead in the conspiracy against the emperor Nero. Therefore an attribution to Calpurnius [III 3] Siculus (last [2. 71-76]) or Lucanus (most recently [1. 139ff.]) cannot be taken into consideration. In 261 carefully constructed hexameters the author engagingly expresses his intention to be received into the circle of the addressee. …

Ravenna Annals

(297 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] ( Chronica Italica in [1], better Chronicon Constantinopolitanum (cf. [7; 8. 41-43]). Originally simply an informative chronicle in Latin, based on the calendar structure of the Consularia Constantinopolitana [1. 197-245], written or expanded in Constantinople in the 4th century AD for a ruling class, eager for knowledge, on the periphery of the court  (for the images contained cf. [2; 3; 4]). An early phase extending as far as AD 387 is transmitted in the Fasti Vindobonenses posteriores (Cod. Vindobonensis no. 3416, 15th century) and Fasti Vindobonenses priores

Rhetorica ad Herennium

(224 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Latin textbook of rhetoric from the late Republican Period (dating to c. 50 BC compellingly argued in [5. 65 ff.]). It deals in 4 books with the canon of the officia oratoris ( officium [7]). Its source was a Latin textbook also used by Cicero for his De inventione ([4; 6];  [7. 271 ff.] newly adopted the old idea that Cicero used the Rhetorica ad Herennium). Attributed to Cicero from Late Antiquity on, the work is today - although with insufficient proof - often attributed to an author by the name of Cornificius named by Quint. Inst. 3,1,21 …

Asmonius

(185 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] ( Apthonius the communis opinio, but see Prisc. gramm. 3,420,1-7 and GL 6,80,30-81,3; [3. 62-68]). Aelius Festus Asmonius, Latin grammarian of the 4th cent. AD; author of a lost grammar dedicated to Constantius II (Prisc. gramm. 2,516,15-16) and of a comprehensive metrics in 4 books, which was already mutilated at the start as early as late antiquity and was combined with the beginning of the grammar of  Marius Victorinus (but cf. GL 6,173,32); furthermore A. may be the author of supp…

Priscianus

(740 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] The last important Latin grammarian, b. in Mauretanian Caesarea [1], pupil of Theoctistus, worked as professor of grammar at Constantinople into the first decades of the 6th cent. AD. On his circle, cf. [5]-[8]. His main work, the (1) Institutio de arte grammatica ('Textbook of Grammar'), consists (after an introductory epistle) of 18 books (1-7: De nomine; 8-10: De verbo; 11: De participio; 12-13 De pronomine; 14: De praepositione; 15: De adverbio et interiectione; 16: De coniunctione; 17-18: De constructione = 'syntax') and seems to have been written in se…

Dicta Catonis

(378 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Versified handbook of popular ethics from the 3rd cent. (cf. Carm. epigr. 1988, 51; [1. LXXIII]); widely known by the end of the 4th cent. at the latest. The text, of which the Dutch philologist M. Boas made a lifelong study [1. LXXXff.], exists in version Y (or V) with 306 vv. and in a more extensive version F, with 331 vv. but altered by interpolations and recasting, aside from the Barberini recension [1. XXXVIff.]. The title of Y runs Marci Catonis ad filium libri, where F (Codex Verona cap. 163) has Dicta M. Catonis ad filium suum [1. LXVff.; 2. 30ff.], since Erasmus …

Helenius Acron

(176 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Roman grammarian, especially commentator. His partial commentary on Terence ( Adelphoe and Eunuchus) is taken into account in grammatical tradition; traces of his more famous commentary on Horace ([3. 1,3] puts him above Porphyry and Modestus) are to be found in the various reviews of the scholia, in particular in  Porphyry. As Gellius appears not to know H., yet H. is used by Porphyry (on Hor. Sat. 1,8,25) and Iulius Romanus (Charisius, Gramm. p. 250,11ff. Barwick) dating to the later 2nd ce…

Ciris

(245 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Latin epic in 541 hexameters about  Scylla betraying her native city Megara to the Cretan king Minos and being transformed into a bird. The plot assumes knowledge of the mythical tradition and neglects narrative continuity and logic for the sake of individual scenes and profiling the heroine's emotions. This is characteristic of the epyllium in the elegiac tradition. Contrary to an ascription from late antiquity, Virgil (cf. Donat. Vita Verg. 17) has been ruled out as the author. …

Pacuvius

(912 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
Roman writer of tragedies in the Republican period, of Oscan-Messapian origin, nephew of Ennius (Plin. HN 35,19). [German version] A. Biography Born in 220 BC (cf. Cic. Brut. 229) in Brundisium (Jer. Chron. p. 142 H.), died shortly before 130 BC in Tarentum. Apart from this chronology, which comes from Accius' Didascalica and Varro’s De poetis [18. 48f., 53, 62] and has been preserved in works from Sueton’s De poetis [17. 36] to Jerome, there are traces of another tradition, which was perhaps shaped by Cornelius Nepos’ [2] Chronica. [2. 8, 5], which P.took up a generation later (…

Obsequens, Iulius

(381 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Author of a liber prodigiorum, which for the years 190-11 BC, i.e. at the end of Livy's [III 2] Roman history, arranges accounts of portents ( Prodigium ) of salient historical events by and alongside their dates. The title of the edition princeps of the work [4] shows that it was begun in 249 BC (for the significance of the starting date cf. [5. 76f.; 10. 158ff.], and that therefore the portents for 249-191 have been lost. O. evidently relates Rome's success to its observance of divine signs, whose expiation averts thre…

Aemilius Asper

(169 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] The grammarian A., most likely from the late 2nd cent. AD, sums up the tension between archaistic and classical tendencies of the school canon in the 2nd cent. with his explanations of  Terentius,  Vergilius and  Sallustius. In his exegesis, the interest in historical-linguistic detailed phenomena takes second place to textual criticism, stylistics and the comparison with Greek classics. In late antiquity, he together with  Probus and  Terentius Scaurus constitutes a triad of gram…

Pervigilium Veneris

(315 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Anonymous Latin poem in 93 trochaic tetrameters, purporting to be a processional song sung on the eve of a Venus festival in Hybla, Sicily. A refrain appearing at the beginning and end of the poem and at irregular intervals within it isolates a series of short sections, which add up to three major parts: 1. praise of spring and announcement of the festival (vv. 2-26); 2. vizualisation of the festival, place of the action (28-56); 3. praise of the power of Venus (59-79); the final part (81-92) culminates in a melancholy reflection by the poet. The poem, which raises a numbe…

Carmina triumphalia

(181 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] Song of the soldiers, whose parade concluded a triumphal procession. There is evidence to show that in the carmina triumphalia, the triumphant general received both praise (Liv. 4,20,2) and mockery. The reported antiphony may particularly refer to the latter (Liv. 4,53,11). Obscene ridicule and satire in this context were generally compared with the satirical poetry at weddings (Fescennine verses); they were seen as apotropaic, or rather seen as a further admonishment along with the hominem te esse memento of the bearer of the corona triumphalis. The evidence is …

Excerpta Barbari

(198 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] A medieval Latin MS. (Parisinus Latinus 4884) contains the translation ( c. AD 700) of the Alexandrian version of a Christian world chronicle, which, because of its Vulgar Latin language, has been known as the ‘E.B.’ since J. J. Scaliger; it is based on a Greek version from the 5th cent. AD. The extant text, which ends in 387, is divided into three sections: a world chronicle from Adam to Cleopatra (p. 184-280 Frick); a list of rulers from the Assyrians to the Roman emperors (until Anastasiu…

Collegium

(1,076 words)

Author(s): Herz, Peter (Regensburg) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] Society A collegium is a group of people coming together for religious, professional and social reasons. The legal basis for the collegia is set out in the Law of Twelve Tables (8,27 = Gaius Dig. 47,22,4): his (sodalibus) potestatem facit lex, pactionem quam velint sibi ferre, dum ne quid ex publica lege corrumpant; sed haec lex videtur ex lege Solonis translata esse. In terms of their internal organization, the collegium followed the model of the civic municipalities with magistrates, a council and plebs. The financial assets of the collegium included the income …

Remmius

(255 words)

Author(s): Schottky, Martin (Pretzfeld) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] Commander of the guard for the detained Parthian king Vonones I, whom he killed in AD 19 Commander of the guard for the Parthian king Vonones I, who was detained in Pompeiopolis, Cilicia; in AD 19, he killed the king at the river Pyramus during an escape (Tac. Ann. 2,68; cf. Suet. Tib. 49,2). He is probably identical to the C. R. Rufus mentioned in CIL V 2837 (= ILS 2022). Schottky, Martin (Pretzfeld) [German version] [2] R. Palaemon, Q. Roman teacher of grammar, 1st cent. Famous Roman teacher of grammar (cf. Juv. 6,451 ff.; 7,215 ff.) of the 1st cent. AD from V…

Glossography

(1,631 words)

Author(s): Tosi, Renzo (Bologna) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
I. Greek [German version] A. The ancient concept of ‘Glosses’ Glosses (γλῶσσαι; glôssai) are words that are rare and difficult to explain. The Greeks' interest in such words dates back to the earliest periods: even in works of archaic and classical poets, glosses were accompanied by more common synonyms (‘glossarial synonymity’); this kind of ‘self-exegesis’ is perhaps already evident in the first two verses of the Odyssey (Hom. Od. 1.1-2).  Antisthenes [1] and the Sophists saw the exact interpretation of words as the root of all teaching (παίδευσις, paídeusis). For that reason, gl…

Persius

(1,141 words)

Author(s): Rüpke, Jörg (Erfurt) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] P., C. Roman teacher of rhetoric and orator, 2nd cent. BC A Roman distinguished by his education (Lucil. 592-596 Marx; Cic. Fin. 1,7; Plin. HN pr. 7), who was believed by some contemporaries to have written the speech De sociis et nomine latino (against C. Sempronius Gracchus' policies concerning the allies) for C. Fannius [I 1] in 122 BC, a speech which far outshone Fannius' other speeches in terms of rhetoric (Cic. Brut. 99: 'from the Elders'). More likely one of the first teachers of rhetoric at Rome than a senator.…

Croesus

(1,028 words)

Author(s): Högemann, Peter (Tübingen) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
(Κροῖσος; Kroîsos, Latin Croesus). [German version] A. Historic person Lydian king ( c. 560-547 BC), last of the Mermnad dynasty ( Mermnadae). The most important source remains  Herodotus' Lydian Logos (Hdt. 1,6-94), even though he preserved little that is Ancient Anatolian. C.'s mother was Carian ( Caria), that of his brother Pantaleon Ionian (Hdt. 1,92). A queen is never mentioned. As prince Croesus was the mercenary captain and governor in  Adramyttium (FGrH 90 F 65), later perhaps co-regent at the side of his father  Alyattes and finally his succes…

Carminius

(326 words)

Author(s): Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] (M. Ulpius) C. Athenagoras Official, 2nd cent. AD Proconsul of Lycia-Pamphylia, cos. suff. possibly under Commodus [1. 151]. The family came from Attuda (for his relatives: EOS 2, 633). Eck, Werner (Cologne) [German version] [1a] C. C. Gallus Suffect consul AD 120 Suffect consul AD 120 [1]. Probably to be identified with the proconsular legate of the same name. PIR2 A 1065. Eck, Werner (Cologne) Bibliography 1 W. Eck, P. Weiß, Hadrianische Suffektconsuln: Neue Zeugnisse aus Militärdiplomen, in: Chiron 32, 2002 (in print). [German version] [2] L.C. Lusitan…

Laevius

(374 words)

Author(s): Prescendi, Francesca (Geneva) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] L. (Baebius or Manius), dictator Latinus L. (Baebius or Manius) Egerius [2] had the sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis (Cato fr. 58 Peter) dedicated in his capacity as dictator Latinus. Prescendi, Francesca (Geneva) Bibliography C. Ampolo, Ricerche sulla lega latina, II. La dedica di Egerius Baebius, in: PdP 212, 1983, 321-326. [German version] [2] Probably the first lyric love poet of Rome, 2nd or early 1st cent. BC Probably the first lyric love poet of Rome, 2nd (cf. [8]) or early 1st cent. BC (for example, according to [2. 118]), and in the latt…

Lactantius

(1,240 words)

Author(s): Heck, Eberhard (Tübingen) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[1] Christian Theologist and apologist, c. 250-325 [German version] A. Life L. Caelius Firmianus qui et L., Christian Latin writer, born in Africa around 250, probably died in Gaul in 325. Diocletian summoned him to teach rhetoric at Nicomedia in Bithynia where he converted, and after the outbreak of the Great Persecution of Christians in 303 he became an apologist ( Apologists). Around 315, Constantine [1] brought him to Gaul, probably to Trier, to be the teacher of his son Crispus. Heck, Eberhard (Tübingen) [German version] B. Works De opificio dei (‘On the Workmanship of God’; 303…

Literary activity

(5,619 words)

Author(s): Paulsen, Thomas (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
I. Greece [German version] A. Definition and general remarks Literary activity (LA) is defined as any form of interaction between authors or interpreters of their work (e.g. Rhapsodes, actors) and others participating in their processes of production or reception (e.g. patrons, audience, readers). Three types of occasions are characteristic of LA from the Homeric period (late 8th cent. BC) to the last phase of the Hellenistic period (1st cent. BC): symposia ( Banquet II. C., for an audience of invited g…

Letter

(2,221 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Neumann, Hans (Berlin)
[German version] A. Types of letter In addition to the few texts on letter theory and letter writers ( Epistolography), the ancient genre of ‘letters’ comprises the following: 1. official letters (edicts) comparable to laws, 2. everyday official correspondence, 3. ‘open’ letters akin to oratory a) with one or several senders and multiple addressees (e.g. letters to the Christian community) or b) letters sent to a specific addressee that had a potentially broad public, and finally 4. letters of a priva…

Ecloga

(320 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Makris, Georgios (Bochum)
(Ἐκλογή; eklogḗ, ‘excerpt’, ‘selection’). [German version] Ecloga [1] Varro (in Charisius, gramm. p. 154 B.) uses the foreign term in its literal meaning (‘selection’). It is unclear how the meaning has developed into the usage we encounter from the end of the 1st cent. AD on: Ecloga may refer to individual lyrical poems (Stat. Silv. 3, pr. 23 = 3,5; 4, pr. 21 = 4,8, later in a similar way Auson. 8 Peiper) and in the plural form Eclogae to the entire collection (Plin. Ep. 4,14,9). The term is used in particular for  Horatius (Suet. Vita: Epist. 2,1; Sid. Apoll. Epist. 9,1…

Hyginus, C. Iulius

(841 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Schneider, Helmuth (Kassel)
[German version] I. Life and Work a) A philologist and polymath of the Augustan era from Spain or Alexandria; a freedman of Augustus who served as the prefect of the Palatine library after 28 BC while simultaneously engaging in extensive teaching activities (for biography, cf. Suet. Gram. 20). Nevertheless, he had to be supported his whole life by Clodius [II 6] Licinus and died in poverty. Ov. Tr. 3,14 is addressed to him. His substantial œuvre includes works of philology (comm. to the Propempticon Pollionis of  Helvius [I 3] Cinna; discussion of selected passages of  Vergili…

Passienus

(148 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Eck, Werner (Cologne)
[German version] [1] Roman orator, Augustan period One of the leading orators of the Augustan period (Sen. Controv. 2,5,17), died in 9 BC (Jer. Chron. p. 167 H.), a friend of the Elder Seneca (Sen. Controv. 3, pref. 10). Nothing survives of his speeches, but Seneca quotes highlights from his declamations, whose aridity apparently detracted from their success (Sen. Controv. 3, pref. 10f.; 10, pref. 11). Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) Bibliography J. Fairweather, Seneca the Elder, 1981 (Index 400). [German version] [2] L. P. Rufus Son of the orator P. [1]. He entered the Senate as a homo nov…

Mevius

(347 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Eck, Werner (Cologne)
I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] Poet and critic of Virgil, Augustean period Supposedly a poet (Porph. in Hor. Sat. 2,3,239) of the Augustean period, brother of Bavius, with whom he allegedly quarreled over a woman (Domitius Marsus fr. 1 M.). M was a critic of Virgil (Serv. Georg. 1,210), which made the poets of the circle around Maecenas count him among their opponents (Verg. Ecl. 3,90; Hor. Epod. 10; Domitius Marsus fr. 5 M.). Some notes may have been obtained from Suet. De poetis via the life of Domitius [III 2] Marsus. The possibility of guild banter can not be excluded. Schmidt, P…

Iordanes

(968 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Bieberstein, Klaus (Fribourg)
[German version] [1] Writer of the Justinian period (6th cent. AD) Writer of the Justinian period (6th cent. AD), a German, probably of Gothic descent, grandson of Paria (secretary to the Prince of the Alani Candac), son of Alanoviamuth. Probably born in the late 5th cent. AD, I. also served as secretary to Cantac's nephew Gunthigis (Iord. Get. 265). Following his conversio (from Arianism to Orthodoxy?, from a secular to a clerical position?), in Constantinople in 551 (Iord. Rom. 4. 363; cf. Iord. Get. 104) he was asked by a friend named Vigilius (unlik…

Matius

(507 words)

Author(s): Frigo, Thomas (Bonn) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] Matius, C. Friend of Cicero and Caesar, who sought to mediate between them in 53 BC. Contemporary and friend of Cicero (Cic. Fam. 11,27f.) and Caesar, who played a kind of mediating role between the two. In 53 BC he was in Gaul (Cic. Fam. 7,15,2) with Caesar, for whom M. remained a useful assistant even after the outbreak of the Civil War, although he tended to operate behind the scenes. In the summer of 47, M. was the addressee of the message announcing Caesar's victory at Zela, which became proverbial (‘I came, I saw, I conquered’: veni, vidi, vici, Plut. Caesar 50,3: the …

Placidus

(330 words)

Author(s): Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] Equestrian military tribune in the Syrian army (1st cent. AD) Equestrian military tribune in the Syrian army, sent by the governor of Syria, Cestius [II 3] Gallus, against the rebellious Jews in AD 66. From 67, he served under Vespasian (Vespasianus) in the same capacity, fighting the Jewish military commander Flavius Iosephus [4] on several occasions, the last in 67, when the city of Iotapata was conquered (Jos. BI 3,144; 323-326). The last reference to him is from  68, when he subjugated Transjordanian Perea (Jos. BI 4,419-439). PIR2 P 437. Eck, Werner (Cologne) …

Florus

(838 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
Roman cognomen (‘blond’, ‘radiant’, with ablaut, related to flavus [1]), in the Republican period epithet of C. Aquilius [I 11] F. and L. Mestius F. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] P. Annius F. Lat. poet and writer, 1st/2nd cent. AD Under the cognomen Florus (in conjunction with the family name Annius or Ann(a)eus and the first name P. or L.) four works or groups of works are known: 1. the introduction to a dialogue Vergilius orator an poeta (P. Annius F.), 2. and 3. fragment of a correspondence (Charisius, Gramm. 66,10f.; 157,21f. B.) and an exchange o…

Melissus (Μέλισσος; Mélissos)

(825 words)

Author(s): Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) | Bodnár, István (Budapest) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] Chariot race victor M. of Thebes, son of Telesiades, addressee of Pind. I., 3 and 4 ( Pindarus). Two victories are mentioned, one in the horse or chariot race at Nemea (ibid. 3,9-13), the other in the pankration (ibid. 4,44). The two metrically identical poems are not treated separately in all MSS. The race victory was probably later, I. 3 being appended to the longer poem I. 4 in regard to a single celebration [1. 202-203]. M.'s father belonged to the family of the Cleonymidae, h…

Laberius

(821 words)

Author(s): Frigo, Thomas (Bonn) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Eck, Werner (Cologne)
Plebeian nomen gentile of Etruscan origin, more frequent references only towards the end of the Republic. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] L. Military tribune 258 BC Military tribune during the First Punic War, in 258 BC he secured the retreat of consul A. Atilius [I 14] Calatinus (Claudius Quadrigarius fr. 42 HRR) near Camarina. All 400 legionaries of L. were killed, he himself survived badly wounded, but nevertheless was celebrated as ‘The Leonidas of Rome’ (Gell. NA 3,7,21). Other war heroes mentioned are: Q.…

Nonius

(2,494 words)

Author(s): Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
N. (also Nonnius, Nunnius), Italic nomen gentile derived from the numeral praenomen Nonus (evidence: [3. 229; 424]). Several families are attested since the 1st cent. BC, among which the - probably Picene [1. 925] - Nonii Asprenates stand out. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] N. Asprenas, L. Consul suff. in 36 BC Follower of Caesar during the Civil War, propraetor in Gaul before late 49 BC. (ILS 884; [1. 138-142]), proconsul in Africa in 46 (Bell. Afr. 80,4) and cavalry commander in Spain in 45 (Bell. Hisp. 10,2). In 44 N. was people'…

Lucillus

(404 words)

Author(s): Hoesch, Nicola (Munich) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Baumbach, Manuel (Zürich)
[German version] [2] Roman wall painter, late 4th cent. AD Roman wall painter of late antiquity from the end of the 4th cent. AD. He decorated the house of the aristocratic orator and philosopher Q. Aurelius Symmachus, which the latter mentioned with praise in various letters (Symmachus, Ep. 2,2; 8,21; 9,50b). The nature and appearance of this painting may have resembled that of contemporary catacombs or mosaics from late Imperial villas. Hoesch, Nicola (Munich) Bibliography L. Guerrini, s.v. L., EAA 4, 721 S. Roda, Commento Storico al Libro 9 dell'Epistolario di Q. Aurelio Si…

Musa

(99 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] Roman cognomen Roman cognomen (‘Muse’) of the family of the Pomponii (Pomponius). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) Bibliography Kajanto, Cognomina, 53; 216. [German version] [2] Roman rhetor of the Augustan-Tiberian period Roman rhetor of the Augustan-Tiberian period. His contemporary Seneca the Elder (Contr. 10, pr. 9f.) characterised him as talented but tasteless, since he had a tendency towards unnatural bombast (cf. also Sen. Contr. 7,5,13; Sen. Suas. 1,13). However, M. appears to have found the approval of Seneca's sons (Sen. Contr. 10, pr. 9). Schmidt, Pet…

Luscius

(369 words)

Author(s): Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Eck, Werner (Cologne)
Rare Italic surname, derived from luscus, ‘one-eyed, squinting’ (early examples: CIL I2 182-184; AE 1992, 586). I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] L., L. Centorio under Sulla Centurion under Sulla, enriched himself during the Proscriptions in 82 BC and was condemned in 64 for triple murder (Ascon. 90 C). Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] L. Lanuvinus Writer of fabula palliata, rival of Terentius As a writer of palliata , a rival of Terentius (Donat. Andria 7), author of a Phasma (‘The Ghost’; according to Menander) and of a Thesaurus (‘The Treasure’; content in Don…

Aetna

(665 words)

Author(s): Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | di Mattia, Margherita (Rome)
(Αἴτνη; Aítnē). [German version] [3] Latin  didactic poem to explain volcanism, most likely from Neronian times, perhaps by Seneca's penfriend Lucilius (cf. Sen. Epist. 79). The author distances himself not only from the (mythological) epic (vv. 9-23), but also in his own genre -- with polemics against  Manilius -- from cosmological and astrological speculation (vv. 228-250). Among his informants,  Posidonius stands out (transmitted partially via Sen. Nat. 6?). Ascribed doubtfully to Virgil in the 2n…

Labienus

(862 words)

Author(s): Frigo, Thomas (Bonn) | Will, Wolfgang (Bonn) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
Nomen gentile of Etruscan origin; the family, which belonged to Rome's equestrian class, came from northern Picenum (Cic. Rab. perd. 22; Caes. B Civ. 1,15,2). [German version] [1] L., Q. Slain in the Curia c. 100 BC Uncle of L. [3], supported L. Ap(p)uleius [I 11] Saturninus in 100 BC and was slain at his side in the Curia on the Forum Romanum (Cic. Rab. perd. 14; 18; 20-22; Oros. 5,17,9). Frigo, Thomas (Bonn) [German version] [2] L. (Parthicus), Q. Commander in Asia Minor and Armenia c. 40 BC Son of L. [3]. At the end of 43 BC he undertook treaty negotiations at the behest of the m…

Pompilius

(148 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
Roman nomen gentile of Etruscan origin ( pumple). King Numa Pompilius was considered as the first ancestor of the family. The known bearers of the name are historically insignificant. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] P. Andronicus, M. Grammarian, 1st cent. BC According to Suet. Gram. 8, a 1st century BC grammarian and freedman from Syria; because of his Epicurean philosophical focus, he failed to establish himself in Rome and so moved to Cumae (Cyme [2]). His main work, a criticism of the Annales of Ennius [1] ( Annalium Enni Elenchi in 16 books), was published by …

Granius

(730 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Frateantonio, Christa (Gießen) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
Name of a Latin family which belonged to the upper class in Puteoli (Schulze 480). I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] Duumvir of Puteoli 78 BC As duumvir of Puteoli, he entered into a dispute with Cornelius [I 90]  Sulla in 78 BC, who was so upset that he died (Val.Max. 9,3,8; Plut. Sulla 37,3). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [I 2] G., Q. Public crier and auctioneer Public crier and auctioneer ( praeco) in the late Republican period (Cicero claims to have known him, Brut. 172). Many anecdotes about his wit and repartee (Cic. De or. 2,244; 28…

Domitius

(5,665 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Bleckmann, Bruno (Strasbourg) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
Roman plebeian family name, attested from the 4th cent. BC onwards (ThlL, Onom. 3,217-227). The most important families into the 1st cent. AD are the Ahenobarbi [I 1-8] and the Calvini [I 9-12]. Identification of some members of the family in the 2nd cent. BC is uncertain. I. Republican period [German version] Domitii Ahenobarbi Family history in Suet. Ner. 1-5. Legend of the origin of the cognomen (ThlL, 1,135; in manuscript also Aenobarbus) ‘Red-beard’, ‘Bronze-beard’ in Suet. Ner. 1,1; Plut. Aem. 25. The family was probably accorded patrician st…

Octavia

(1,153 words)

Author(s): Fischer, Klaus (Bonn) | Fischer, Robert (Baden-Baden) | Strothmann, Meret (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] O. maior Augustus' half sister She was the child from C. Octavius’[I 2] first marriage to Ancharia and was therefore the half sister of Octavian who later became Augustus. She was married to Sex. Appuleius [II 2]; their son was Sex. Appuleius [II 3]. O. is honoured as the sister of Augustus and the mother of Sex. Appuleius on an inscription from Pergamon (ILS 8783 = IGR 4, 323). Fischer, Klaus (Bonn) Bibliography PIR2 O 65  M.W. Singer, The Problem of Octavia Minor and Octavia Maior, in: TAPhA, 79, 1948, 270-271. [German version] [2] O. minor Older sister of Augustus Born …

Phaedrus

(2,008 words)

Author(s): Döring, Klaus (Bamberg) | Engels, Johannes (Cologne) | Dorandi, Tiziano (Paris) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] I. Greek (Φαῖδρος; Phaîdros). [German version] [I 1] 5th cent. BC Son of Pythocles, from the Attic deme of Myrrhinus, born probably c. 450 BC. Accused of participation in the profanation of the Eleusinian Mysteria and the mutilatation of the herms, P. went into exile in 415 BC. His property was confiscated (And. 1,15; ML 79,112-115). By 404 BC at the latest, he had returned to Athens; he subsequently married a cousin (Lys. 19,15). Died before 393. Participant in the meeting in Plato's Protagoras (315c), interlocutor of Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus and first speaker in his Sy…

Probus

(1,292 words)

Author(s): Birley, A. R. (Düsseldorf) | Tinnefeld, Franz (Munich) | Gutsfeld, Andreas (Münster) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] Imperator Caesar M. Aurelius Probus Augustus Roman emperor AD 276-282 Roman emperor 276-282 AD. Born on 19 August 232 AD in Sirmium; the information about his father in SHA Probus 3,2 and in [Aur. Vict.] epit. Caes. 37,1 is probably fictitious. P.'s career prior to his elevation to emperor in the East in the summer of 276 (Zos. 1,64) (in SHA Probus he is confused with a dux Tenagino P.) is unknown. During his six-year reign ( cos. I-III 277-279, cos. IV 281, cos. V 282) he fought first on the Rhine against the Alamanni, then against the Franci, Burgundiones an…

Egnatius

(1,031 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Eck, Werner (Cologne)
Roman family name, maybe originally Samnitic (cf. Schulze, 187f.), epigraphically also attested from central Italy. Name bearers in Rome are known from the 2nd cent. BC onwards. Egnat(i)us is uniquely also transmitted as a praenomen (Val. Max. 6,3,9. Plin. HN 14,89; [1]). I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] E., Gellius Leader of the Samnites in the 3rd Samnite War from 296 BC on Leader of the Samnites in the 3rd Samnite War, who brought about a coalition between the Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians and Celts against Rome in 296. Their united army was de…

Plotius

(1,222 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Richmond, John A. (Blackrock, VA) | Eck, Werner (Cologne)
Probably originally the vulgar Latin form of the Roman proper name Plautius, an independent nomen gentile at the latest from the 1st cent. BC onwards. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] P. Gallus, L. Lat. rhetoric teacher, 1st cent. BC The first teacher of Latin rhetoric attested for Rome at the beginning of the 1st cent. BC who held his classes in Latin and on Roman matters and was very popular (cf. Cic. in Suet. Gram. 26). An edict of the censors of 92 BC, especially Cicero's teacher Licinius [I 10]…

Asinius

(1,625 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Degani, Enzo (Bologna) | Eck, Werner (Cologne)
Plebeian family name, documented in Rome since the 1st cent. BC (on the derivation of asinus [1], on Etruscan parallels [2]). The family, whose most famous name-bearer was Asinus Pollio, originally came from Teate Marrucinorum (modern Chieti), was a member of the patrician class since the Augustan period and was particularly prominent in the 1st cent. AD. I. Republic [German version] [I 1] A. Senator (mid-1st cent. BC) Senator, supporter of Antony at Mutina in 43 BC (Cic. Phil. 13, 28). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) Bibliography 1 A. Hug, s.v. Spitznamen, RE 3 A, 1829 2 Schulze, 129. …

Rabirius

(614 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Fündling, Jörg (Bonn)
Latin nomen gentile. [German version] [1] R., C. Took part in the murder of the tribune of the people Appuleius [I 11] in 100 BC, accused of this crime in 63 and defended by Cicero Wealthy Roman equestrian with estates in Apulia and Campania. In 100 BC, he took part in the murder of the tribune of the people L. Appuleius [I 11] Saturninus, for which he was probably later rewarded with a seat in the Senate; in 89, he was on the staff of Cn. Pompeius [I 8] Strabo (ILLRP 515). Attacked on numerous occasions by the populares as a supporter of the Senate, in 63 he was accused of the murder of A…

Festus

(1,041 words)

Author(s): Portmann, Werner (Berlin) | Eigler, Ulrich (Zürich) | Johne, Klaus-Peter (Berlin) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
[German version] [1] see Marcius Festus see  Marcius Festus Portmann, Werner (Berlin) [German version] [2] Iulius F. Hymetius Rom. official, proconsul Africae AD 366-368 served around AD 350 as corrector Tusciae et Umbriae, later as praetor urbanus and consularis Campaniae cum Samnio (before 355). In 362, he became vicarius urbis Romae (Cod. Theod. 11,30,29), and from 366 to 368 proconsul Africae (Cod. Theod. 9,19,3; his entire career: ILS 1256). As proconsul, he helped to alleviate a famine in Carthage, and in this context was sentenced to a fine as a result of b…

Iustinus

(1,495 words)

Author(s): Tinnefeld, Franz (Munich) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Rist, Josef (Würzburg) | Holzhausen, Jens (Bamberg)
[German version] [1] I. I Eastern Roman general AD 518-527 (AD 518-527), emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, born a farmer's son around 450 in Bederiana (like  Iustinianus [1] I.), he came to Constantinople with  Leo I and was soon a member of the palace guard; under  Anastasius I he was comes rei militaris and from 515 comes excubitorum. In the dispute over the succession to Anastasius, who died without an heir, a majority in the Senate supported his candidacy and eventually he was also acclaimed by the army and the people, and was crowned on 10 Jul…

Maecenas

(1,274 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Franke, Thomas (Bochum)
(Μαικήνας; Maikḗnas). Etruscan family name (cf. mehnate, mehnati and similar); the family is recorded in inscriptions for Perusia (modern Perugia) and was probably originally settled there. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] Friend and counsellor of Octavian (Augustus), 1st cent. BC Father of M. [2], mentioned as early as 44 BC among the friends and counsellors of Octavian ( Augustus) (Nicolaus of Damascus, Vita Caesaris 31,133). Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) [German version] [2] Patron of literature, 1st cent. BC M., less often - with the family name of the…

Fronto

(1,010 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
Roman cognomen (‘wide-browed’), first attested in the Imperial period. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] Rich patron of Martial A rich patron of Martial (1,55,2). He could be identical with Ti. Catius Caesius F., cos. suff. in AD 96. Eck, Werner (Cologne) [German version] [2] Praetorian governor of Galatia under Tiberius Praetorian governor of Galatia under Tiberius, perhaps AD 27-31. Eck, Werner (Cologne) Bibliography S. Mitchell, in: Chiron 16, 1986, 23ff. PIR2 F 485). [German version] [3] [...]us F. Cos. suff. AD 165 Cos. suff. in AD 165, (Vidman, FO2 52; there a…

Novius

(803 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Frigo, Thomas (Bonn) | Eck, Werner (Cologne)
Oscan praenomen, shortened to No., attested for N. Calavius [2], the maker of the Ficoronian cista Novios Plautios (ILS 8562), and in other inscriptions. Probably a particularly frequent gentilicium from the 3rd cent. BC onwards in Campania and spreading from there into the eastern Mediterranean. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] Representative of the literary Atellana, early 1st cent. BC As a representative of the literary atellana, N. appears to have been at work ahead of Pomponius (leading representative of the genr…

Florentinus

(324 words)

Author(s): Leppin, Hartmut (Hannover) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Giaro, Tomasz (Frankfurt/Main)
[German version] [1] Gaulish correspondent of Symmachus Came from a Gaulish family; correspondent of Symmachus (Epist. 4,50-57), probably a pagan. In AD 379 he probably held the notary's office. It is doubtful whether he is identical with the homonymous comes sacrarum largitionum [1. 100-103]; in 395 quaestor sacri cubiculi; from 395 to 397, thus for an unusually long time, attested as praefectus urbi Romae, proved successful during a famine. Claudian [2] dedicated the second book of De raptu Proserpinae to him (praef. 50). Leppin, Hartmut (Hannover) Bibliography 1 Delmaire. PLRE…

Sallustius

(3,055 words)

Author(s): Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Portmann, Werner (Berlin)
Italian nomen gentile, see also Salustius. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] S., Cn. Friend and correspondent of Cicero Close friend of Cicero, with whom he demonstrably exchanged letters between 67 and 45 BC (Cic. Att. 11,11,2; Cic. Fam. 14,11). In 58, he accompanied Cicero on the first leg of his journey into exile, in 47, he lent him money, and they were together pardoned by Caesar (Cic. Fam. 14,4,6; Cic. Div. 1,59). S. read the draft of Cicero's De re publica and urged him - in vain - to state his views clearly and unambiguously (Cic. Ad Q. Fr. 3,5,1), a request…

Flavius

(4,130 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Giaro, Tomasz (Frankfurt/Main) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Nutton, Vivian (London) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance)
Roman plebeian gentile name, derived from the individual cognomen Flavus (‘the blond one’) through the suffix of affiliation -ius, abbreviated form Fl. The bearers of the name that was already common in the Republican period were initially politically unimportant; F. [I 5] was the first one to attain to Roman nobility. In the Imperial period the name was spread further in the Roman empire as a result of the granting of citizenship by the Flavian Emperors Vespasian, Titus and Domitian (AD 68-96). In Late Antiquity (4th-6th cents.) F. was initially gentilicium of the family of  Consta…

Gavius

(1,035 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Walde, Christine (Basle) | Rüpke, Jörg (Erfurt)
Roman family name, frequently attested in inscriptions, also in the form Cavius [1. 76f.]; in the Republican period its bearers are still politically insignificant; also a Faliscan praenomen [2. 103]. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] G., P. Crucified as a spy of Spartacus 72 BC from Compsa (Lower Italy), was captured and crucified in Sicily in 72 BC by C.  Verres as an alleged spy of the slave leader  Spartacus (Cic. Verr. 2,5,158-170). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [I 2] G. Bassus Roman grammarian and antiquarian of the late Republic Roman grammarian and…

Naevius

(1,767 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Schmitt, Tassilo (Bielefeld) | Frigo, Thomas (Bonn) | Eck, Werner (Cologne)
Italic personal name, perhaps derived from the praenomen Gnaivos ( Gnaeus, Cn.); popular etymology derives it from naevus, ‘birthmark’ (Arnob. 3,14). The antiquity of this name in Rome, which is also widely attested in inscriptions, is suggested by the name of porta Naevia in the Servian city wall (Varro, Ling. 5,163; cf. Liv. 2,11,8). However, the family emerged politically only in the 2nd cent. BC. The most important bearer of the name is the poet N. [I 1]. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] N., Cn. Dramatist and epic poet, 3rd cent. BC Roman drama…

Septimius

(3,206 words)

Author(s): Bartels, Jens (Bonn) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Beck, Jan-Wilhelm (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Franke, Thomas (Bochum) | Et al.
Nomen gentile, probably originally Etruscan, occurred at Rome only from the 1st cent. BC onwards. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] A certain S. from Camerinum was commissioned to recruit followers for Catilina at Picenum in 63 BC, presumably because he was of the Umbrian-Picenan municipal nobility (cf. CIL I2 1921; 1929) (Sall. Catil. 27,1). Bartels, Jens (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] Friend of Horace's; he hoped to enter the cohors amicorum of a member of the imperial household through his relationship with the latter (Hor. Carm.…

Livius

(6,493 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Müller, Christian (Bochum) | Nadig, Peter C. (Duisburg) | Giaro, Tomasz (Frankfurt/Main) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Et al.
Name of a Roman plebeian family, who probably came from Latium and was accepted into Roman nobility when Latium was integrated politically in 338 BC ( Latin law). The most important branches were first the Salinatores, then the Drusi (on the cognomen see Drusus). The third wife of Augustus and mother of the emperor Tiberius, Livia [2] Drusilla came from this branch (Stemma see Augustus; the family history of the branch is in Suet. Tib. 3). The line of the Salinatores was continued in the late Republic by the Livii Ocellae, who i.a. produced Livia Ocella, the stepmother of the emperor Galba [2]. E…

Sabinus

(1,149 words)

Author(s): Nutton, Vivian (London) | Weißenberger, Michael (Greifswald) | Albiani, Maria Grazia (Bologna) | Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Et al.
[German version] A. Greek (Σαβῖνος; Sabînos) [German version] [1] Hippocratic physician and commentator on Hippocrates, 1st-2nd cent. AD Hippocratic physician and commentator on Hippocrates, who was active in the 1st to 2nd cent. AD. He was the teacher of Metrodorus [8] and Stratonicus, who in turn was the teacher of Galen; the latter regarded S. as a more careful and concise interpreter of Hippocrates [6] than his predecessors had been (CMG 5,10,2,1, p. 17, 329-330; 5,10,2,2, p. 510). S.' weakness lay mainly in …

Iuventius

(1,470 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Schmidt, Peter L. (Constance) | Will, Wolfgang (Bonn) | Nadig, Peter C. (Duisburg) | Eck, Werner (Cologne) | Et al.
Roman cognomen [1. 281; 482; 2. 735]. The gens belonged to the municipal nobility of Tusculum, came into Roman politics around 200 BC and with I. [I 6] achieved the sole consulate in the middle of the 2nd cent. BC, to which they referred to also later (Cic. Planc. 12, 15; 18f. and others; cf. Catull. 24,1-3). The most important families were the Thalnae (also Talnae in inscriptions) and the Laterenses. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] Alleged first curule aedile of the plebs, 4th cent. BC According to fictitious family tradition, the first curule aedile of the plebs at the end …

Porcius

(3,528 words)

Author(s): Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) | Nadig, Peter C. (Duisburg) | Frigo, Thomas (Bonn) | Giaro, Tomasz (Frankfurt/Main) | Suerbaum, Werner (Munich) | Et al.
Name of a Plebeian family from Tusculum. In the belief that the family had been pig-breeders, in antiquity their name was derived from porcus  (Varro Rust. 2,1,10 etc.). From the middle of the 3rd century BC, the Catones and Licinii branches belonged to Rome's leading class and at the beginning of the 2nd century, they attained the consulship with  Cato [1] (Censorius) and P. [I 13]. The exact blood relationship between the most prominent bearer of the name, Cato [1], and his great-grandson, P. [I 7] Cato (Uticensis), is not completely clarified. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republic…
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