Etymology has recently become one of the most vibrant spheres of classical scholarship. Maltby’s epoch-making Lexicon has now been complemented by Marangoni’s Supplementum Etymologicum. The present article offers addenda to both. It limits itself to the scholia on Statius.
In Horace’s Epistle to Augustus the estimate of Terence may be less positive than is generally believed. This reinterpretation is based first on classical views of acoustic concinnity, then on etymological considerations.
Sinon’s speech to the Trojans falsely represents him as Palamedes’ friend. The present article endeavours to show how in this connection Virgil avails himself of etymology.
Virgil’s famous Sinon episode at the start of Aeneid II contains four hitherto unidentified acrostics. Examination of these particular instances sheds light on Virgil’s acrostical practice in general.
This article deals with the Virgilian onomastic in Georgic I 429-433: some fresh considerations are advanced. In particular this sphragis would seem to endorse an overlooked acrostic: “Kill Caesar!”
The undis-acrostic that has recently been discovered in Eclogue IX 34-38 has proved problematic. The present article argues that the acrostic’s point is the etymology of litus as the place where these “waves” do not “play” (39: ludus), but “strike” (43: feriant for synonymous but exceed
...ingly scarce lidant). This acrostic is accordingly hot-potato politics, since it pertains to the land confiscations round Virgil’s “wave”-begirt Mantua. The poet also provides endorsement in the form of an unidentified onomastic.
Recently Smolak has argued that in the famous account of Jerome’s dream (Epist. 22,30,2) the propheta whose language put him off is Daniel. This passage is also connected by Smolak with Jerome’s later reference to Daniel’s clarus sermo (Epist. 53, 8,16): in Smolak’s view Jerome is here claiming that he has now come to
...an understanding of Daniel’s “stilistische Klarheit”. The present article endeavours to refute both of these cases.
The cacata-acrostic (Ecl. IV 47-52) is considered accidental, as being inconsistent with the dignitas of this “Messianic” Eclogue. It is however possible to demonstrate that Virgil employs such acrostics on other occasions with the object of undercutting such political panegyric. The intentionality of thi
...s cacata-acrostic is further buttressed by clues in the lines it spans as well as by winks tipped in other parts of the poem. Pointers to this acrostic are also embedded in the foregoing third Eclogue, especially in the section devoted to Pollio, dedicatee of Eclogue IV. Problematic passages in both these Eclogues are elucidated by the presence of the cacataacrostic.