Varro

Abstract - Roma Triumphans by Biondo Flavio represents the first treatise offering a systematic investigation of the religious, civic and political institutions of ancient Rome, evaluating data from a historical-comparative viewpoint. Observations on the religious structures of ancient Rome show Biondo’s original aptitude for noticing some specific aspects of Roman Paganism, civic meaning of some of its rituals and values, their evolution and influence on Christian ceremonies. reflecting nonetheless a critical position on Paganism and his profoundly Christian perspective influenced by Eusebius of Caesarea and Augustin. Key words: Biondo Flavio, Pagan Rome, religious institutions, critical position on Paganism, Eusebius of Caesarea
Key words: Biondo Flavio, Pagan Rome, religious institutions, critical position on Paganism, Eusebius of Caesarea - Augustin. ---

Sintesi - La Roma Triumphans di Biondo Flavio costituisce il primo trattato che offre una ricognizione sistematica delle istituzioni religiose, civili e politiche dell’antica Roma, valutando i dati dal punto di vista storico-comparativo. Le osservazioni sulle strutture religiose dell’antica Roma mostrano l’inclinazione originale di Biondo nel rilevare alcuni aspetti specifici del Paganesimo romano pur riflettendo una posizione critica nei riguardi del Paganesimo e la sua prospettiva strettamente cristiana, influenzata da Eusebio di Cesarea e Agostino.
Biondo Flavio, Roma pagana, istituzioni religiose, posizione critica nei riguardi del paganesimo, Eusebio di Cesarea - Agostino

While recent readings of Varro’s De Re Rustica have emphasized a negative view of contemporary politics and mores across all three books, this ar- ticle identifies an oppositional contrast between Rust. 1 and 3, set in the temple of Tellus and the Villa Publica, respectively. Arguing that Varro intentionally casts the Villa Publica—and its analogue, villatica pastio—as the more success- ful integration both of Rome’s rural past and urban present, and of its elite and non-elite citizens, it suggests that Varro took a more populist view—of the Villa Publica, villatica pastio, and the governance of the res publica itself.

Lorsqu'en 387, à Milan, Augustin commence la rédaction d'un traité sur la musique, il ne semble pas faire oeuvre originale, puisqu'il s'inspire du projet encyclopédique de Varron : les arts libéraux doivent y servir de degrés assurés pour aller des choses corporelles aux incorporelles (Révisions I, 6). Selon le jugement sévère d'H.-I. Marrou, le De musica, privé de la partie consacrée à l'harmonique, et réduit à la rythmique, se résumerait en réalité à un exposé de métrique. Au-delà même du De musica, un héritage chrétien ambivalent lui fait recevoir à la fois les préventions à l'égard des pratiques musicales païennes, et la révérence à l'égard des Psaumes composés par David. Toutefois, si l'on rencontre à maintes reprises dans ses oeuvres des motifs musicaux, c'est que fut éminemment sensible à cette musique celui qui rédigea dans les Confessions de célèbres pages sur l'air d'un impossible détachement :  Pourquoi aime-ton la musique ? Cette interrogation renvoie à la diversité des phénomènes compris sous le terme d'amour-thème clé de l'anthropologie et de la théologie augustinienne, en ce qu'il fait précisément lien entre les deux-et dépend des différentes approches de la musique.

Von den ursprünglich 25 Büchern De ling11a Lati11a (= L.L.; einer systematischen Darstellung »Über die lat. Sprache«) des Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 v.Chr.), der von 1Cicero als homo polygmph6tatos (etwa »ein außerordentlich produktiver Autor«; Cic. Att. 13;18,2) und von Augustinus als honw 011111. iumfacile aw tissin11. 1s et sine 111/a r/11bitatione rloctissi,nus (»der weitaus

This paper reviews approaches to what is known as the septimus casus from Varro and Quintilian to the late grammarians. It emphasizes the different points of view adopted to describe the seventh case in the history of Latin grammar, and suggests that some descriptions have arisen from simple misinterpretations of earlier sources. The paper confirms that Varro may have had a concept of a seventh case. Interestingly, an unnoticed connection has been detected between the earliest approaches and those in Servius’s commentaries on Vergil, where the opinion differs greatly from those in the artes grammaticae.

Vesta and the Vestal priestesses represented the very core of Roman cultural identity, and Augustus positioned his public image beside them to augment his political legitimacy. Through analysis of material culture, historiography, and poetry that originated during the principate of Augustus, it becomes clear that each of these sources of evidence contributes to the public image projected by the leader whom Ronald Syme considered to be the first Roman emperor. The Ara Pacis Augustae and the Res Gestae Divi Augustae embody the legacy the Emperor wished to establish, and each of these cultural works contain significant references to the Vestals. The study of history Livy undertook also emphasized the pathetic plight of Rhea Silvia as she was compelled to become a Vestal. Livy and his contemporary Dionysius of Halicarnassus explored the foundation of the Vestal Order and each writer had his own explanation about how Numa founded it. The Roman poets Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Tibullus incorporated Vesta and the Vestals into their work in a way that offers further proof of the way Augustus insinuated himself into the fabric of Roman cultural identity by associating his public image with these honored clerics.

[This is the proof copy of the now-published paper available at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/712557.] The Asianist orator Hortensius Hortalus is a partial model for Horace's critique of Lucilius in his début collection Satires 1. Much mileage is derived from the metaphor of Lucilius as a "muddy river." The appearances of Hortensius, a wealthy lover of luxury and innovator in dining habits, in Varro's De Re Rustica 3, Cicero's Brutus (where, recently deceased, he is especially memorialized) and Orator, and Catullus 65 are grist to Horace's mill. Lucilius is tendentiously linked to Asianism as well as Asia itself, and the identification is pursued through recall of Lucilius' own statements, as Horace toys with Republican texts.

Who is the "scholasticus" responsible for the Roman Canon? Answer: Lactanctius. The study principally concentrates on reconstructing the Roman Canon to approximately AD 325. The reconstruction takes advantage of traditional sources and witnesses to the primitive Roman Canon but adds additional witnesses extracted from the so-called Gelasianium Vetus in order to fill in the chiastic structure of the Eucharistic Prayer. Furthermore, to justify each section of the chiastic structure of the reconstructed Roman Canon, the author provides a detailed analysis of Latin vocabulary and Roman institutions explaining exhaustively the author’s choices of texts. The utility of Roman law is necessary to grasp the formulae and theological points in both the reconstructed and extant versions of the Roman Canon. The study also provides solid arguments for attributing the redaction of the Roman Canon, as used in Rome in the fourth century, to the ecclesiastical writer Lactantius. This hypothesis is strengthened by textual comparisons drawn between the reconstructed Roman Canon and Lactantius’s style and vocabulary in his works. The study uncovers the contributions of Roman-pagan authors of classical antiquity and Roman jurists to explain peculiar features of the Roman Canon’s vocabulary and phraseology. Finally, an appendix suggests edits to the Roman Canon made by Pope Damasus of Rome in the late-fourth century.

By considering all the occurrences of humanitas and humanus in Varro’s works and fragments, the paper aims to show his special re-elaboration of this fundamental concept for Roman culture. According to Varro, all its meanings would stem from a single sense: for him, humanitas would be “human memory” or “tradition”, i.e. the cultural heritage that is passed down generation after generation creating a human cultural genealogy and thus enabling humankind to acquire a conscious cognatio. From this idea, probably it derives the purpose of Varro’s antiquarian work and especially of the first section, the Antiquitates rerum humanarum.

L’articolo, considerando tutte le occorrenze di humanitas e di humanus all’interno delle opere varroniane di tradizione diretta e indiretta, tenta di dimostrare la rielaborazione di questo concetto focale della cultura romana da parte del Reatino. Varrone sembrerebbe aver ricondotto tutte le accezioni del termine a unico significato da cui dipenderebbero gli altri: l’humanitas sarebbe per lui la “memoria” o “tradizione umana”, ovvero l’eredità culturale che trasmettendosi di generazione in generazione permette la creazione di una genealogia culturale umana e quindi di una consapevole cognatio fra gli uomini. Da questa idea doveva scaturire anche il senso della sua opera antiquaria e in particolare della prima sezione delle Antiquitates relativa alle res humanae.

UPDATE Summer 2024.

This article was earlier declined by a leading journal specialising in Islamic studies and another concerned with the ancient history and archaeology of the southern Levant, citing rather absurd and disingenuous objections, which included the lack of originality! I believe that they did so fearing its possible political ramifications. I therefore decided to make this important study freely available online here and let my peers decide on its merits. It has since clocked up more visitors than any of my other publications on this website. Shortly after an earlier draft was posted on Academia.edu, Ahmad Ahmadi of Teheran University expressed to me his appreciation of my article. He requested my permission to translate it into Farsi and have it published in the Iranian Islamic studies journal, JAP. I was happy to accede to his request, and the article was duly published under both our names in vol. 30, issue 178 [2019], of that journal. That Farsi version can be found in the listing of my journal publications.

This thesis examines divination at Rome and its role in Roman historiography, with particular reference to Livy and Tacitus. The focus of the thesis is why and how they used divination and the extent to which divination supported their historiographical aims.

Chapter One considers the meaning of divinatio and the types of diviners and supernatural sign encompassed by the term. I draw attention to the contradictions between types of divination observed by the Roman state and those observed by individuals in a personal or private capacity. This examination is supported by a full lexicography of divinatory terms in the appendix. The remainder of the chapter considers modern bibliography and the current scholarly position on divination and Roman historiography. I consider four main areas: divination, historiography, Livy and Tacitus. The final section of the chapter discusses Feeney (1998) on Literature and Religion at Rome and stresses the importance of regarding divination in Roman historiography as a text which could support the overall historiographical objectives of Livy and Tacitus.

The importance of divination at Rome is explored in Chapter Two. The chapter surveys Roman attitudes and approaches to divination from the late third century BC to the early second century AD. The analysis indicates a thriving competitive and mercenary atmosphere of diviners and divination that offered the Roman people an outlet outside of the more rigid practices of the Roman state. I argue that there was a plurality of views and approaches to divination. Even where Varro and Cicero seemed to promote a sense of a 'traditional' Roman approach to divination, both engaged with the subject from very different viewpoints. In contrast there was a plethora of authors and works that considered less acceptable types of divination, such as astrology. I suggest that an interest in forms of divination which were not practised by the Roman state was as much a concern for members of the Roman upper classes as it was for the lower classes. This interest meant Augustus was able to incorporate elements of astrology into his religious 'revival' without causing offence. I show too that 'traditional' Roman practice continued to be significant throughout the early Empire. I suggest that different types of divination were not practised to the exclusion of all other types, that Livy and Tacitus, in their desire to present a 'traditional' view of Roman divination, were subscribing to a literary construct laid down by Varro and Cicero and they have obscured the plethora of divinatory activity available at Rome.

Chapter Three considers why Livy and Tacitus included divinatory material in their histories. I consider briefly the nature of Roman historiography and the influence of poetry and drama and of rhetoric on the Roman historiographical tradition since these encouraged historians to indulge in inventio, in order to flesh out their historiographical narratives. I argue that both Livy and Tacitus were influenced by the character of the annalistic tradition which presupposed the inclusion of prodigies and other religious and divinatory material. This explains why both authors were aware of the dangers of fabulae but understood how that material could be manipulated to suit their own historiographical purposes.

Chapter Four shows how Livy used divination in Books 1 and 5 to emphasise the importance of Roman divinatory institutions and Rome's relationship with the gods. I show how he uses prophecy to direct his work towards the glorious years of the middle Republic and how the Third Decade deliberately echoes themes from the early books to point towards Rome's control over the Mediterranean. However, Livy also used divination to stress the sense of decline from the Fourth Decade onwards. Using the Liber Prodigiorum of Iulius Obsequens, I argue that this continued into the lost later books, but that Livy may have intended to bring his work round full circle by pointing towards the success of Augustus and his religious revival with conscious echoes of Book 1. Finally, I consider those types of divination that Livy included or omitted. I argue that the choices made stressed the sense of traditional divination and the antiquarian approach of his work. In particular, Livy used divination to emphasise the superiority of Roman divination to that of other nations and to private practices.

In Chapter Five, I consider how Tacitus adapted Livy's annalistic form for imperial historiography. The chapter begins with a survey of Tacitus' approach to prodigies and shows the different ways in which he could use prodigia as dramatic devices. I also show that, like Livy, Tacitus contrasted foreign and private forms of divinatory practice with the state practices in order to reflect the traditions of the annalistic form. But in the sections on the Histories and the Annals, I argue that Tacitus surpassed his predecessor in the use of divination for drama, characterisation and emphasis.

L’indagine svolta ha permesso di fare apparire come meglio condivisibile, tra le varie prospettive in tema di origine della compravendita consensuale romana, quella secondo cui essa sorse come istituto sganciato dalle radici del ius civile. In tal senso, almeno, depongono due ordini di considerazioni. In primo luogo, l’ipotesi sostenuta si può argomentare sulla base del passo di Paolo conservato in D. 18.1.1 e in D. 19.4.1pr.-2, dal quale emerge la convinta opinione del giurista classico, secondo la quale la compravendita consensuale doveva essere qualificata iuris gentium nel senso che i suoi caratteri fondanti erano emersi prima nel ius gentium e, solo successivamente, da esso erano stati recepiti nel ius civile (e non invece nel senso che, come viceversa accaduto per la traditio o per la stipulatio, essa fosse sorta nel ius civile e quindi fosse stata estesa ai rapporti con i peregrini). In secondo luogo, l’opinione può essere motivata sulla scorta di alcune osservazioni di dettaglio, che sono state sviluppate, da cui è sembrato emergere con sufficiente nitidezza che i Romani, in materia di compravendita con i peregrini, a partire da una certa epoca in poi, che si deve probabilmente collocare nel terzo secolo a.C., abbiano ritenuto non più soddisfacente il modello che avevano seguito fin dall’età arcaica. Tale modello arcaico era stato basato su quella che abbiamo potuto definire l’estensione “nei limiti del possibile” della disciplina civilistica ai casi di compravendite che intervenivano tra Romani e stranieri. Si trattava di un’estensione difficoltosa e a tratti anche illogica, dovuta al fatto che il diritto romano era stato pensato solo per la comunità dei cives: solo i Romani potevano avere la proprietà delle cose; solo ai cives era accessibile la mancipatio e pertanto solo per loro aveva senso compiuto la distinzione tra res mancipi e res nec mancipi; conseguentemente, solo per i cives poteva dirsi che esistesse una garanzia automatica dall’evizione in caso di vendita (reale) di res mancipi (in quanto tale garanzia derivava dalla mancipatio). L’estensione “nei limiti del possibile” di una siffatta disciplina ai rapporti di compravendita tra Romani e stranieri aveva prodotto un regime complesso, ma anche spurio e in gran parte contraddittorio, che infine apparve insoddisfacente, ciò che costituì la premessa per il suo superamento.

Che cos’era il pomerium? Varrone in un celebre passo del De lingua latina lo definisce l’orbis che costituisce l’urbis principium (V, 143). Quello che possiamo dire con certezza è che il pomerio costituiva il limite sacro della città, un perimetro che delimitava una topografia al tempo stesso religiosa e giuridica, uno spazio purificato, bonificato in senso religioso per mezzo di riti e parole magiche pronunciate dall’augure (un luogo effatus, liberatus e inauguratus). Questa frontiera dunque separava e distingueva due spazi eterogenei, l’urbs e l’ager, ma al tempo stesso anche due poteri, l’imperium militiae che si esercitava all’interno dell’urbs, e l’imperium domi che il magistrato assumeva appena varcato il pomerio. I problemi riguardanti il pomerio che la critica moderna ha ereditato dagli antichi sono essenzialmente tre: la sua posizione rispetto alle mura (all’interno o all’esterno o addirittura intorno alle mura); la sua configurazione areale (semplice linea o spazio anulare); la sua funzione originaria. Un riesame accurato delle fonti antiche ha dimostrato che il pomerio non è da identificarsi, come spesso si è creduto fin ora, con il sulcus primigenius che compare in una pagina del De verborum significatu di Verrio Flacco (p. 271 Lindsay). Esso in realtà va piuttosto riconosciuto in una linea di cippi terminali che nella fase archetipica immaginata da Varrone e Plutarco, i testi chiave del nostro dossier, doveva correre parallelamente e internamente al circuito delle mura. Tutti i problemi interpretativi relativi alla struttura del pomerio nascono dal fatto che esso, pur essendo distinto dal solco, appare nella documentazione letteraria intrinsecamente connesso a questo, tanto da aver indotto alcuni interpreti moderni a credere che per Varrone e Plutarco i due perimetri fossero realmente coincidenti. Se così fosse però saremmo costretti a invalidare tutti quei testi, in particolare un passo delle Origines di Catone, in cui viene detto esplicitamente che il solco tracciato Etrusco ritu costituisce il percorso della futura cinta muraria. In effetti il vomere dell’aratro, scrive Varrone, produce una fossa e un muro («là dove estraggono la terra la chiamano fossa, la terra gettata all’interno muro); il pomerio invece è l’orbis che viene a formarsi proprio dietro la fossa e il muro generati dal solco, quindi qualcosa che va distinto da questi due elementi, anche se in qualche modo imparentato con questi. Le definizioni fornite da Livio (Ab urbe condita libri I, 44) Tacito (Annales IV, 24) e Aulo Gellio (Noctes Atticae XIII, 14, 1-3) sembrano confermare questa ipotesi. Mentre il sulcus primigenius segna il percorso lungo il quale verranno erette le mura della città, il pomerio si configura invece come un limite più immateriale e, almeno apparentemente, più evanescente, contrassegnato dalla sola presenza di pietre terminali disposte ad una certa distanza le una dalle altre lungo una linea circolare retrostante le mura. Le funzioni dei due perimetri erano però profondamente integrate. Lo scavo del solco, che probabilmente seguiva la terminatio del pomerio, finiva di fatto per creare uno spazio intercalare tra l’urbs vera e propria, cioè la zona intrapomeriale, e l’ager al di là delle mura. La linea tracciata dall’aratro, infatti, creava in opposizione ai lapides retrostanti una sorta di corridoio circolare, l’orbis di Varrone, a tutela del suolo urbano inaugurato. Dobbiamo dunque presumere che esistesse un’area compresa fra la cinta muraria e la linea dei cippi pomeriali retrostante dove l’imperium militiate poteva essere esercitato liberamente senza intaccare l’integrità rituale dello spazio civico vero e proprio. D’altra parte è il rito dell’aratura che segue l’inauguratio a conferire al pomerio la pienezza delle sue funzioni: se non fosse, infatti, circoscritto dal sulcus primigenius, lungo il quale verranno poi costruite le mura, il circuito pomeriale resterebbe sprovvisto della sua protezione naturale: in tal modo verrebbe a mancare il limite più esterno del boulevard che cinge l’urbs e permette la sua difesa. Questo sistema così complesso e intricato da aver confuso persino i contemporanei riflette una rappresentazione dello spazio che distingue nettamente secondo un modello scalare luoghi e ruoli eterogenei: da una parte l’urbs e il mondo ordinato e pacifico della città, dall’altra l’ager, lo spazio della dimensione guerriera e della morte. Ecco perché almeno in origine sulcus primigenius e pomerium venivano rappresentati come due perimetri contigui e simmetrici, se non quasi fisicamente coincidenti. Soltanto più tardi, quando la crescita della città impose l’ampliamento della cinta muraria, la distanza fra i due confini cominciò a diventare topograficamente sensibile. E venne dunque ad allentarsi anche quel legame «sistematico» che invece compare quasi indiscriminatamente nelle nostre fonti.

This contribution focuses on the analysis of the presence of Italic divinities and cults in the Aeneis. In particular, some divinities (Angitia, Feronia, Marica, Mefitis, Iuppiter Anxur) and some rituals (the Hirpi Sorani) are taken into consideration. Some speculations on the Vergilian poem as depository of information on pre-Roman Italy lead to the vexata quaestio of the sources of the Aeneis, to the relationship between Virgil and Varro, and consequently to the connection between the poem and the Augustan cultural and political project. Among the conclusions, it comes out that the poet did not hesitate to modify the historical data at his disposal, using the references to Italic religions as a means to enrich the epic narration and to give to the reader a particular image of Italy at the moment of Aeneas' arrival.

HEFT 91/92 1 DEZEMBER 2013 dieval copyists who transcribed the works of the grammarians were facing a not very perspicuous text and undoubtedly further modified it; so the few words transmitted to us surely are not the original text of the Carmen. Last, the editors of the 19 th and 20 th centuries, in an attempt to give a more Latinate form to the text, made emendations and corrections that, in some cases, crystallized to the point of becoming the vulgata of the Salian text. Thus it is highly improbable that anyone can reconstruct the original texts of the hymn, but it is perhaps possible to remove at least the most recent layer of "encrustations" to get nearer to the ancient text. We will focus here on the two passages quoted by Varro in his De Lingua Latina (VII.26 and 27).

Arctos has been published since 1954, annually from vol. 8 (1974). Arctos welcomes submissions dealing with any aspect of classical antiquity, and the reception of ancient cultures in mediaeval times and beyond. Arctos presents research articles and short notes in the fields of Greek and Latin languages, literatures, ancient history, philosophy, religions, archaeology, art, and society. Each volume also contains reviews of recent books. The website is at www.journal.fi/arctos.

Latin words for ‘walls’ moenia and muri both derive from munio and are often used with particular relevance in latin literary tradition because of their connection with the legend of founding of Rome through ploughing a trench round it, a ritual described by Cato (orig. 1, 18) and Varro (ling. 5, 143) and still practiced until late antiquity for the foundation of coloniae. It is but completely ignored by Vitruvius who is concerned only to choose a healthful site for new settlements (1, 4). Words moenia and muri also recur within some sources of the myth of Romulus’ murder by Romulus or Celer (Livy 1, 7, 1-2; Virgil’ Aeneid; Ovid’s Fasti [4, 835 ff., but also 2, 133 f. and 3, 69 f.]: partially depending each other and
on Ennius’ Annales, 92 ff. Sk.) revealing different attitudes towards Romulus’ figure and its counterparts like Aeneas, Caesar and Augustus.

The high number of poetic citations contained in the surviving books of Varro’s "De lingua Latina" are relevant not only as mostly unique attestations of latin arcaic poetry, but also for the special place they hold within Varro’s linguistic treatise. Varro had the intention of going beyond the “second level of etymological explanation” ("secundus gradus etymologiae"), which was limited to poetic neologisms, and to deal with poetic words not necessarily as used only by poets but rather as found in poetic texts. Varro’s interest in poetic words seems to be stimulated in particular by their antiquity, but poetic texts, owing to the authority they possess, can be used also to explain words in common usage. The complete analysis of the citations shows that the drama is best represented, but there are also many epic quotations, and Varro cites prevalently from archaic or late-archaic authors. The poet most cited in "De lingua Latina" is without any doubt Ennius (Varro can ben considered one of the major supporters of the fame of Ennius), followed by Plautus, even from non-canonical comedies - not suprisingly, given Varro’s predilection for this author. Traces are brought out from the arrangement of the examples due to the alphabetical ordering of the titles of Plautus’ comedies and it is suggested the use of scholarly material that was unrelated to the problem of authenticity of the comedies. The poetic citations are mostly concentrated in Book 7, which is dedicated specifically to studying the etymology of poetic words; however many poetic citations are also found in the other two etymological books because of the non-exclusive use of certain words by the poets their authority and antiquity. It is noteworthy that not only the frequency but also the use and purpose of poetic citations differs between Books 5–6 and 7. Varro seems to have been influenced by the methods and results of previous generations of Roman philologists, but his purpose was clearly to "go Beyond" the methods of grammatica antiqua.

In his epitome Justin related Pompeius Trogus’ story, who apparently wanted to convince his readers that Attalos III, who was insane, accused his relatives of poisoning Berenike and Stratonike. Before he died he had bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. Sallust adduced the words of Mithridates VI, who considered Attalos’ testament a Roman forgery. What we know from Justin’s version is the Roman version, which was produced to justify the annexation of a foreign country and the seizure of the Attalids’ immense treasures. Attalos was one of the best educated Hellenistic monarchs, a lover and patron of the arts and sciences, a sculptor and a man of letters. With the slaying of Attalos III and his closest relatives the Roman senators also terminated the last great project of patronage over the Hellenic arts, letters and sciences.

Studi e Ricerche 175 I volumi pubblicati nella Collana sono sottoposti a un processo di peer review che ne attesta la validità scientifica Volume pubblicato con il contributo del Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici dell'Università degli Studi di Torino, fondi Linea B anno 2017: Edizione elettronica del codice D IV 39, Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino, del De aetatibus mundi et hominis di Fulgenzio. Edizioni dell'Orso Alessandria Età del mondo, età dell'uomo Nascita, vita, morte tra microcosmo e macrocosmo Atti del Seminario Internazionale (Torino, 26-27 settembre 2019) A cura di Elisabetta Berardi e Massimo Manca Realizzazione editoriale e informatica a cura di ARUN MALTESE (bibliotecnica.bear@gmail.com) Grafica della copertina a cura di PAOLO FERRERO (paolo.ferrero@nethouse.it) È vietata la riproduzione, anche parziale, non autorizzata, con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata, compresa la fotocopia, anche a uso interno e didattico. L'illecito sarà penalmente perseguibile a norma dell'art. 171 della Legge n. 633 del 22.04.41 ISBN 978-88-6274-985-5 INDICE Introduzione 1 Corrado Martone Il colosso dai piedi d'argilla. Osservazioni sulla periodizzazione della storia in Daniele 2 3 Bryan De Notariis Panoramica sull'età del mondo e dell'uomo nei testi del buddhismo Theravāda 15 Carlamaria Lucci Percezioni del tempo cosmico nell'epica greca arcaica: un confronto tra Erga e Iliade 27 Nicola Cusumano Vita di un impero: tracce di metafore biologiche in Tucidide 41 Andrea Taddei Buona fine e buon principio: le Scire nelle Ekklesiazousai di Aristofane 75 Irene Leonardis Le età di Roma e la fine di un mondo: vita e morte del popolo romano, secondo Varrone 95 Massimo Manca Verso un'edizione elettronica del De aetatibus mundi et hominis di Fulgenzio. Un saggio, incluso il nuovo manoscritto Bruxellensis 117 Étienne Wolff Le thème des âges de l'homme et du temps dans les Epigrammata Bobiensia 123 Francesco Mosetti Casaretto Il tempo dell'attesa nel Medioevo latino 133 Pasquale Porro Nobiltà, complessione e durata della vita: le età dell'uomo nel Convivio di Dante 165 Romana Brovia «Mundus iam senescens et ad extremum vergens» (Inv. med. II). Petrarca e la senilità del mondo, tra storia naturale e filosofia della storia 185 Sabrina Stroppa Velocitas temporis. Il Trionfo del tempo di Petrarca e i commenti cinquecenteschi 203 VI Indice

Short summary
In the final line of Lucretius' DRN II, everything goes "to the grave" (ire ad capulum, Voss' conjecture) and not "to the reef" (ire ad scopulum, transmitted text). Supporting evidence is given by a contextual and intertextual analysis (in primis Varro's Kosmotoryne, a satire on the end of the world).

Breve sintesi
Nel verso finale del secondo libro del DRN di Lucrezio, tutto "va alla tomba" (ire ad capulum, Voss) e non "allo scoglio" (ire ad scopulum, testo tràdito). Un'analisi stilistica del contesto e degli intertesti (in primis, una satira apocalittica di Varrone) fornirà prove decisive.

Abstract
The aim of this article is to support Voss’ conjecture "ire ad capulum" against the transmitted text "ire ad scopulum" in Lucretius’ De rerum natura 2,1173-1174. The tropic use of capulus, meaning "ruin, death", is attested in Latin poetry from Plautus onwards: “ire ad capulum” is not a misleading «Semitic metaphor» introduced by Voss (Merrill), but rather an expression belonging to a low level of language. Moreover, a stylistic and rhetorical analysis of the final passage of this book (2,1164-1174) proves that “ire ad capulum” better suits its comic-diatribic context. A comparison between these verses and a similar passage in the fifth book (5,826-827) reveals that the real protagonist of the process of consumption described in 2,1173-1174 is the Earth (Tellus), represented as a human being, in accordance with the “μακράνθρωπος” analogic model. Furthermore, we find capulus and the metaphor of life as a path ‘from the cradle to the grave’ in a fragment of Varro’s Κοσμοτορύνη (frg. 222 Astbury), a Menippean satire which shares with Lucretius’ passage the theme of the mortality of our world.

Per una sintesi del problema cf. E. Narducci, Cicerone. La vecchiezza, Milano 1983, pp. 5-104, in part. pp. 65-95 ; Idem, Il Cato Maior o la vecchiezza dell'aristocrazia romana, « Quaderni di storia » 16, 1982, pp. 121-163. Per l'ideologia alla base del Cato Maior, cf. L. Alfonsi, Sulla genesi del De senectute ciceroniano, « Ciceroniana » 3-4, 1961-1964, pp. 3-6. P. Wuilleumier, Cicéron. Caton l'ancien (De la vieillesse), Paris 1961, pp. 41-45. L. Alfonsi, La traduzione ciceroniana dell'Economico di Senofonte, « Ciceroniana » 3-4, 1961-1964, pp. 7-18. Per le linee fondamentali del problema, cf. J. G. F. Powell, Cicero. Cato Maior, Cambridge 1988, pp. 224-226. Narducci, Cicerone cit., pp. 83-88. Sulla parafarsi ciceroniana di questo passo, cf. S. Boscherini, Su di un errore di Cicerone, « Quad. Urb. Cult. Class. » 7, 1969, pp. 36-41.

The purpose of this article is to support Voss' conjecture ire ad capulum against the transmitted text ire ad scopulum in Lucretius, De rerum natura 2.1173-1174. The tropic use of capulus meaning "death" is attested in Latin poetry from Plautus onwards: ire ad capulum is not a misleading Semitic metaphor introduced by Voss, but rather an expression belonging to a low level of language. A stylistic and rhetorical analysis of the final passage of Lucretius' Book II (2.1164-1174) reveals its comic-satiric character. The low register clearly caricatures the worldview of the protagonists of this ending: two farmers, who personify Roman traditional agricultural values. In such a context, the vivid and vernacular phrase ire ad capulum seems more appropriate than the rhetorical ire ad scopulum.

JAANA VAAHTERA Apollonius Dyscolus believed that there is a linguistic order that is found on all levels of the linguistic system and that should be followed in grammar as well. This means that the order of the various lists used in grammar is rational and based on nature. Apollonius compares the list of the parts of speech to that of the letters of the alphabet. It is the parts of speech that are at the centre of this ordering, 1 but Apollonius also mentions the order of the cases, tenses, and genders, i.e. masculine, feminine, and their negation, neuter gender. 2 This

What makes an urban settlement a city (I deliberately avoid the suggestion of a hierarchy of towns and cities here) is done and felt very di!erently by di!erent agents and is often inaccessible to external as well as internal observers of these agents. Of high impact and more easily observable are actions that perform urbanity and give it specific flavours, for instance by building walls or holding processions. Looking at late Republican and Augustan reflections about the beginnings of Rome hardly tells us anything about the actual process of urbanisation on the river Tiber, but is indicative of what the authors thought about the essential elements of a (and their) city. The analysis of Livy's account in book 1 of his Ab urbe condita and Varro's systematics of spatial terms in De lingua Latina 5.143 o!er very di!erent, but also overlapping perspectives. Rather unsurprisingly, walls and clear dividing lines like the pomerium figure prominently.

In this paper, I provide a new way to read the “Sabine” gloss in Varro LL 5.97 substantiated by philological and linguistic arguments. While Varro explains Lat. porcus ‘pig’ as a loan word either from “Sabine” (apruno porco) or Greek (πορκη πορκος), it is clear that porcus is inherited from PIE. Based on the findings that both Lat. porcus as well as Umbr. abron- denote only the domesticated pig (and not the wild boar, as Lat. aper does), it is likely that the gloss apruno porco is Sabellic (Oscan) and denotes the “male domesticated pig”. It is furthermore argued that Gk. πόρκος ‘(kind of fish trap)’ is named after its pig-like shape and is thus cognate with Lat. porcus ‘pig’ etc.

This paper explores the scholarly relationship between Varro and Atticus by focusing on the attribution of a Varronian fragment (Gell. 17.21.24). Taking into account Gellius’s citation practices, it is argued that the fragment (concerning the execution of the tyrant Manlius) was mediated via Atticus, not taken directly from Varro. The evidence for Varro’s and Atticus’s friendship and scholarly cooperation undermines traditional attempts to identify any ultimate written source for this material, and prompts a re-evaluation of the relationship between the two friends’ antiquarian interests to outline the consequences of scholarly and social exchange. This investigation suggests that, like many apparent points of Attico-Varronian overlap (including Rome’s foundation-date), the fragment’s origins might owe more to personal acquaintance than secluded book-learning. Their antiquarian choices had the potential to be politically charged, and the version of Manlius’s death endorsed by Varro may thus indicate his political stance towards Caesar.

Over the past few years, students of ancient Mediterranean societies have shown consistent interest in the cultural construction of dogs as reflected in texts, artefacts, and other media. However, whereas the cultural and literary implications of the Greek representation of dogs have been the subject of thorough investigations, Roman dogs have remained at the margins of the scholarly debate. By adopting an interdisciplinary methodology that combines cognitive theory, rhetorical analysis, and socio-anthropological research, the present paper discusses some affordances of dogs (in the terms of James Gibson’s 'ecological approach to visual perception') that are given special significance within the metaphoric universe of Roman culture. In the first section, I shall point to some salient characteristics of dogs emerging from the moral, scientific and religious discourse of the Romans. By reassessing the often-overlooked evidence of Latin 'technical' writings in conjunction with relevant pieces of archaeological evidence, I will attempt to point out the central prominence of liminality as the most distinctive symbolic feature of Roman dogs. In the second part of the paper, I will switch to a vehement piece of forensic rhetoric, Cicero’s speech for Roscius Amerinus, in an attempt to show how Cicero intelligently exploits the traditional depiction of dogs as ambiguous beings, at the same time watchful and deceitful. For the sake of comparison, I shall also consider the case of a poet acting, in several respects, as a cultural outsider: Lucretius. While announcing the gospel of a philosophical community frequently associated with pigs and dogs by its opponents, Lucretius never indulges in the double-sided characterization of the canine most familiar to his readers. On the contrary, though clearly aware of the background of his Roman audience, Lucretius chooses to assign new meanings to old and already existing patterns of representation (the hunting hound, the house pet, the Molossian guard dog, the couple mating at a crossroads).