Volume 169, Issue 1

This paper analyses the ms. Matritensis 4625 (Pollux’s Onomasticon ), a witness neglected by Bethe in his edition. The text of this manuscript preserves a different and in several passages more complete redaction of the Onomasticon . It was therefore possible to identify, in Book 2, two unnoticed references to Aristophanes and one to Demosthenes.

There are two versions of a report attributed to Aristotle about a ‘half-ass’ (ἡμίονος) – a term usually applied to mules – in two versions of a pair of entries in Orion’s Etymologicum (5th century AD). The report is not found in Aristotle’s extant works, and yet this text does not appear in any of the collections of the fragments of his lost works. The present essay assesses the relevant texts and concludes that the Aristotle-reference in Orion’s entries may well go back to a lost work of Aristotle on animals, namely the Zoïka .

In his account of the islands of the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the third book of his Geography , Strabo introduces a lengthy debate about an unusual and apparently well-known phenomenon which could be witnessed there: a spring in the Heracleion of Gades whose flow behaved in reverse sympathy with the tides. This spring had previously been investigated by Polybius, Artemidorus, Silenus, and Posidonius, and featured ἐν τοῖς παραδόξοις. Of the three earlier authors, Polybius, Artemidorus, and Silenus, Polybius is judged by Strabo to be the first and only credible source, and it is against his account that Posidonius’ observations in situ are pitted. The opinion of Silenus is silenced, and his name shafted and reduced to a tertiary source employed by Artemidorus, and yet there are historical reasons supporting the notion that he was the original source. In this paper, we will advance further in this direction and propose the theory that this reverse sympathy spring described by Polybius was, in fact, created by Silenus, so his account of his patron Hannibal’s visit to the temple of Gades would echo Alexander’s famous expedition to the temple of Ammon in Siwah.

A philosopher named Hierocles is mentioned five times in the Synagoge . Prächter identified him with Hierocles the Stoic (1st–2nd century AD), on the basis of various arguments, none of which are really decisive. In this paper, I will first try to account for the presence of Hierocles’ fragments in the Synagoge : these are likely to have been added to the so-called Cyril’s lexicon (i. e., the Synagoge ’s main source) by an anonymous compiler between approximately the 5th and the 8th century – that is, roughly the termini post quos for the compilation of Cyril’s lexicon and the Synagoge respectively. I will then suggest that Hierocles of Alexandria (5th century AD), a Neoplatonic philosopher whose style and eloquence were particularly appreciated in antiquity, is a better candidate than the one indicated by Prächter. Indeed, Hierocles of Alexandria was skilled in aemulatio Platonica – something which is particularly important to our purpose here, given that the lemmas of the Synagoge which are the object of this study partly deal with expressions that are peculiar to Plato.

This paper examines the term devictus (“totally defeated”) in the opening verses of De Rerum Natura . The term carries the heavy baggage of violence and conquest that Rome visited upon its enemies and is most at home in patriotic slogans of victory. The basic argument of the study is that devictus is a highly charged descriptor and especially when applied to Mars. Lucretius, I contend, is tapping into and manipulating an existing discourse of victor and vanquished to recast the war god in an intentionally provocative manner.

This article re-examines a textual issue at Ov. Pont . 1.1.41 scimus ab imperio fieri nil tale Dianae . Specifically, it proposes the replacement of Dianae , the presence of which in this context is controversial, with Dionae , a reference to the oracular goddess at Dodona. This suggestion is supported through a comparative analysis with Strabo’s contemporary description of the oracle in Book 7 of his Geography .

Curtius Rufus’ History of Alexander contains three episodes, absent from all other ancient texts on the Macedonian king, that are clearly modelled on Virgil’s famous story of Nisus and Euryalus. This paper considers these passages in relation to the Virgilian model, as well as to one another, and argues that they are more than mere literary embellishment of the historical narrative: they serve as a device for the author to indirectly criticise the king’s increasingly reckless behaviour by showing the detrimental effect it has on his subjects – even if the king himself, protected by his perpetual good luck, always escapes unscathed. Moreover, this paper explores how the depiction of the corrupting influence of Alexander’s felix temeritas (“fortunate rashness”) is utilised by Curtius to present his own pessimistic reading of the story of Nisus and Euryalus.

This paper examines the authorship of the hymn in iambic dimeters Tibi laus perennis, auctor . It first considers the attribution to Venantius Fortunatus found in a ninth-century manuscript. A metrical analysis, comparing the hymn with Fortunatus’ two authentic poems in iambic dimeters ( Carm. 1.16 and 2.6), reveals notable similarities that distinguish Tibi laus from the other spurious poems of the Appendix . The study then assesses stylistic elements aligned with Fortunatus’ usus scribendi , including patterns of rhyme, figures of speech, recurring expressions and themes. Furthermore, the paper situates the hymn in sixth-century Gaul, with particular attention to its possible genesis in relation to the bishops of Paris, Germain and Ragnemod. The role of Gregory of Tours in the poem’s composition or dissemination is also considered. An appendix proposes two textual emendations ( apparavit , l. 17; udat , l. 27).