Infamem nimio calore Cypron: Ancient Epigrams on Flacci in Cyprus
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Margot Neger
Abstract
Book 9 of Martial’s epigrams contains a poem about the island of Cyprus as a place where Flaccus, one of Martial’s friends and patrons, is dwelling in 94 CE (9.90; cf. 8.45.7-8). In this poem, Martial first wishes that Flaccus may enjoy a pleasant locus amoenus together with wine and love in the notorious heat of Cyprus (1-12) and then invokes the Paphian goddess Venus and asks her to favour Flaccus’ safe return back home to Rome (13-18). The paper investigates the literary models of the poem - one of them being Horace, the Augustan Flaccus -, its position within the context of the book and its role within a series of other epigrams where Martial mentions or addresses the same individual. Martial’s friend is not the only Flaccus who visited Cyprus. A Greek epigram (AP 11.146) by Ammianus, a poet from the early second century CE, also mentions a Roman named Flaccus, in this case a rhetor who produces a considerable number of solecisms. His upcoming trip to Cyprus promises that his solecisms will increase considerably after he has arrived on the island, due to the terrible Greek which is spoken there.
Abstract
Book 9 of Martial’s epigrams contains a poem about the island of Cyprus as a place where Flaccus, one of Martial’s friends and patrons, is dwelling in 94 CE (9.90; cf. 8.45.7-8). In this poem, Martial first wishes that Flaccus may enjoy a pleasant locus amoenus together with wine and love in the notorious heat of Cyprus (1-12) and then invokes the Paphian goddess Venus and asks her to favour Flaccus’ safe return back home to Rome (13-18). The paper investigates the literary models of the poem - one of them being Horace, the Augustan Flaccus -, its position within the context of the book and its role within a series of other epigrams where Martial mentions or addresses the same individual. Martial’s friend is not the only Flaccus who visited Cyprus. A Greek epigram (AP 11.146) by Ammianus, a poet from the early second century CE, also mentions a Roman named Flaccus, in this case a rhetor who produces a considerable number of solecisms. His upcoming trip to Cyprus promises that his solecisms will increase considerably after he has arrived on the island, due to the terrible Greek which is spoken there.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface and Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Introduction 1
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Part I: Cyprus in Latin Literature
- Cyprus and its Myths on the Roman Stage 13
- Venus on Cyprus: Interlinked Lists of Aphrodite’s Cypriot Sanctuaries in Latin Poetry 33
- Idalion, Satrachus and the Annales of Volusius: The Reception of Cyprus in the Carmina Catulli 51
- Nil desperandum …. cras ingens iterabimus aequor (Hor. Carm. 1.7): The Foundation of Salamis by a Bastard Archer as an Exemplum in Latin Literature 65
- Balance and Excess in Ovid’s Pygmalion Story 87
- Was Cyprus Special? The Case of Two Latin Poets 103
- Infamem nimio calore Cypron: Ancient Epigrams on Flacci in Cyprus 111
- The Digression on Cyprus in Claudian’s Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii et Mariae 131
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Part II: Cyprus after Antiquity
- Venus and Adonis from Enheduanna to Shakespeare: The Significance of Ovid’s Cypriot Metamorphoses 153
- Pilgrims, Merchants and Lovers: The Island of Cyprus in Boccaccio’s Decameron (via Ovid’s Metamorphoses) 175
- Venus of Paphos in the Latin Poetry of the Quattrocento 201
- Ovid’s ‘Good’ Women: The Cypriot Exemplum Against the Background of the Statue (R)evolution 221
- Osmosis between High Genres: Ovid’s Tragic Formation of Myrrha’s Tale (Met. 10.298–502) and its Reception in Alfieri’s Homonymous Tragedy 249
- Travel, Classical Traditions and Empire: Western Travellers to Cyprus in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 265
- List of Contributors 289
- General Index 293
- Index Locorum 299
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface and Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Cyprus in Latin Literature
- Cyprus and its Myths on the Roman Stage 13
- Venus on Cyprus: Interlinked Lists of Aphrodite’s Cypriot Sanctuaries in Latin Poetry 33
- Idalion, Satrachus and the Annales of Volusius: The Reception of Cyprus in the Carmina Catulli 51
- Nil desperandum …. cras ingens iterabimus aequor (Hor. Carm. 1.7): The Foundation of Salamis by a Bastard Archer as an Exemplum in Latin Literature 65
- Balance and Excess in Ovid’s Pygmalion Story 87
- Was Cyprus Special? The Case of Two Latin Poets 103
- Infamem nimio calore Cypron: Ancient Epigrams on Flacci in Cyprus 111
- The Digression on Cyprus in Claudian’s Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii et Mariae 131
-
Part II: Cyprus after Antiquity
- Venus and Adonis from Enheduanna to Shakespeare: The Significance of Ovid’s Cypriot Metamorphoses 153
- Pilgrims, Merchants and Lovers: The Island of Cyprus in Boccaccio’s Decameron (via Ovid’s Metamorphoses) 175
- Venus of Paphos in the Latin Poetry of the Quattrocento 201
- Ovid’s ‘Good’ Women: The Cypriot Exemplum Against the Background of the Statue (R)evolution 221
- Osmosis between High Genres: Ovid’s Tragic Formation of Myrrha’s Tale (Met. 10.298–502) and its Reception in Alfieri’s Homonymous Tragedy 249
- Travel, Classical Traditions and Empire: Western Travellers to Cyprus in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 265
- List of Contributors 289
- General Index 293
- Index Locorum 299
