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Neue Beobachtungen zum Geschichtswerk des Iulius Florus als eines spätaugusteischen Autors
101–137Views:92Baldwin (1988) summarized the main problems of Florus 25 years ago. These are still unsolved. They deal with the identification of the Flori, the date of Florus’ history and the correct title of the work. The most vexing of all the questions associated with the history is its date: Trajan (98-117 A.D.), Hadrian (117-138 A.D.) or Antoninus Pius (138-161 A.D.). An Augustan date has been plausibly proposed by Neuhausen (1992 and 1994) against the „communis opinio”. Following his studies I can explain and solve all the „anachronisms”, which were caused by the false dating of Florus to the second century A.D. According to Neuhausen’s and my own studies Florus’ history must therefore be dated after the consecration of Augustus (17th of September, 14 A.D.) [~ first edition]; the second edition came from the time of Trajan, because the preface contains two short interpolations with the name of this emperor at its end. The writer of the history has to be identified with Iulius Florus, the famous addressee of Horace’s two epistles. The original work probably has only one volume. The title Epitoma de Tito Livio bellorum libri duo is wrong and has to be changed into Rerum gestarum populi Romani breviarium or tabella.
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When Was Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos Born?
147–155.Views:49This paper investigates the birth date of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, analyzing conflicting accounts of historical sources. The sources provide two primary narratives: the eulogies of Theodore Prodromos and Michael Italikos, which align Manuel's birth with his father John II Komnenos’ ascension in 1118, and the account of John Kinnamos, who suggests a birth year around 1122, based on Manuel's age during the Battle of Neokaisareia. This analysis is further enriched by examining the feast days of several saints named Stephen, as referenced by Prodromos. The paper seeks to reconcile these divergent perspectives, exploring the implications of each for our understanding of Manuel's life and reign. The study underscores the challenges in Byzantine historiography, where historical facts intertwine with literary motifs.
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Some preliminary remarks concerning sociolinguistic variation within the „Vulgar” Latin vowel system: as evidenced by the inscriptional data
97–112Views:184This paper aims to investigate whether a statistical analysis of linguistic data in inscriptions may serve for the study of sociolinguistic variation within the Latin Language. In particular, this study focuses on the quantitative vs. qualitative phonemic opposition within the vowel system of the so-called “Vulgar” Latin. In order to do so, we will study the relative frequency of the <ae>/<ē> and <ae>/<ĕ> graphemic oscillations in three different corpora of both synchronic and syntopic - but diaphasically and diastratically different - inscriptions from the city of Rome (cf. Mancini 2014). All the inscriptions considered in this sample date back from ca. 50 AD to ca. 250 AD (the last date referring to the “end” ofso-called Classical Latin according to Adamik 2015). Our results may point to the existence of a “disturbance” within the quantitative-based vowel system of Classical Latin, at least as far as some sub-standard varieties of the language are concerned.
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The cities of the Iazygians
173–186Views:93Ptolemy’ description of the Iazygian territory (Geogr. hyph. III 7) describes eight ‘poleis’ – which could be any kind of settlement indeed by name, and the boundaries of the region. The boundaries can be traced from the Greater Fatra range in the north to the river Temes or Krassó in the south, but the position of the settlements allows for some variations, taking as a fix point Partiskon = Szeged, from where a probable trade route started to the north or northwest, reaching most of the settlements mentioned. If the direction of the route in Ptolemy’s map were correct, some localities were outside of the actual territory (A), but supposing two different kinds of distortion, we may reconstruct a route heading to the Zagyva–Tarna region (B) or to Aquincum (C). Both possibilities seem realistic, but the most important settlement in the first part of the 1st c. was Bormanon (according to Geogr. hyph. VIII 11). The etymology of the name points to a warm or/and medicinal water spring. This fact and the date makes the B the most probable version.
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A Possible Interpretation
17–24Views:114This paper attempts to interpret a gem of uncertain date and questionable origin, with Greek inscriptions and letters, and which is in the National Library of France (BNF inv.58.2220). Based on previous interpretations and the surviving impression and description of a pendant which is very similar to it in material and subject, it can be shown that the gem is original, and Christian, based on the depictions on it and the clearly legible word "ΧΡΙCΤΟC".
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Empire and invention: the Elder Pliny's heurematology ("Nat." VII 191–215)
123–135Views:155This paper focuses on the catalog of inventions and inventors that concludes book VII of Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia (Nat. VII 191-215). While the list is certainly a fundamental source for the largely lost tradition of Greek invention-catalogs, the literary, rhetorical, and intellectual-historical importance of Pliny’s heurematography has, to date, rarely been appreciated for its own merits. I argue that, in spite of the seemingly irregular and heterogeneous character of the catalog, the underlying rhetorical strategy of Pliny’s heurematography allows the list to become a teleological narrative. As I argue, Pliny’s main goal is to show the Romans’ historical merit in unifying the whole Mediterranean world through the appropriation of its cultural and technological patrimony.
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Virgil’s Dido and the Death of Marcus Antonius
351-356Views:151Virgil’s account of the death of Dido at the end of Aeneid IV has been the subject of an appreciably extensive critical bibliography. What has not been recognized to date has been the influence of the tradition of the suicide of the former triumvir Marcus Antonius on Virgil’s depiction of Dido’s demise.
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The enactment of moderation in Plato's "Charmides"
5–34Views:138Plato’s dialogues are as much literary dramas as philosophical inquiries. In light of the scope and development of σωφροσύνη and the carefully crafted historical resonances of the dialogue’s dramatic date and cast of characters, it is argued here that σωφροσύνη is a foundational virtue, best understood as moderation, moderating one’s behavior, rather than on a par with other virtues. The Charmides is non-dogmatic, rather than skeptical or aporetic, and essentially political rather than ethical or epistemological, as often assumed. Rather than asserting any simple, propositional account of moderation, it enacts a complex moral and political view of moderation that unifies many strands of the term’s meanings in Greek through the persons and words of its characters and operating as much through the reader’s, imagination, and emotions as through reason and purely logical argument.
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The reasons behind Constitutio Antoniniana and its effects on the Roman military
131–155Views:326Reconsidering the contemporary sources concerning the constitutio Antoniniana, it can be argued that the edict of 212 AD disguised aims primarily connected to the needs of empire’s defence system. Caracalla intended at first place to increase state revenue earmarked for the army, and secondly to solve the recurring crises in the recruitment of Roman citizens joining the legions, by extending the pool for legionary enlistment to the empire’s entire territory. The new citizens surely felt the hardships of being legionnaires less than did the citizens of long date, who, on the other hand, could continue to prefer service in the auxilia. At the same time, the clause excluding dediticii from Roman citizenship was meant to safeguard the long ingrained practice of enlisting corps of specialists from subjected populations, which in the course of time would become elite units.
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Tropes and figures as arguments in textual criticism?
117–134Views:105In the first part of my paper, I present the so-called first homilies of St Gregory of Nyssa delivered in praise of the forty martyrs of Sebaste (Mart Ia and Ib) from two separate angles: on the one hand, focusing on how they can be related to stays of the Cappadocian Father in Sebaste and, on the other hand, identifying what sorts of internal arguments of textual criticism are cited when an effort is made to identify when they were delivered. By giving an overview of the most important research findings, I provide a basis for my query concerning whether certain tropes and rhetorical figures as well as rhetorical-stylistical-poetical solutions could be typical of specific time periods and genres in the oeuvre of the church father and, thereby, serve as arguments of textual criticism for identifying the dates for composition of his works. Using the opening lines of Mart Ib, I focus my investigation on the banquet-simile connected to the figure of yesterday/then and today/now, primarily in the epideictic speeches of the bishop of Nyssa. My conclusion is that this is a valid question, while the text analyses confirm the conventional date (383) identified for the production of Mart Ia and Ib.
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The date and circumstances of the Heliodoros affair: Considerations on the Seleucus IV dossier from Maresha
9–19Views:79In 2005 and 2006 in the Hellenistic city of Marise (Marisha/Bet Guvrin, Israel) five adjoining fragments of a Greek inscription has been found. The stele contains three letters: an order from Seleucus IV (187-175 B.C.) to his chancellor Heliodoros about a certain Olympiodoros, who was put in charge of the sanctuaries of Koilē Syria and Phoinikē; a letter from Heliodoros to Dorymenes (who was in all probability the strategos of Koilē Syria and Phoinikē at that time); and a letter from Dorymenes to a certain Diophanes (probably the hyparchos of the district of Marise). The letters are dated to the month Gorpiaios of the year 134 S.E. (summer of 178 B.C.). There is no doubt that Heliodoros in the dossier of Marise, and Heliodoros in the Second Book of Maccabees (ch. 3–4) is the same person who attempted to plunder the Temple of Jerusalem, but according to the 2Macc 3:25–27 he has suffered a divine punishment. In this paper I am arguing that the “Heliodoros-affair” happened in the earlier years of Seleucus IV’s reign, probably nine or eight years before Olympiodoros was put in charge of religious affairs in Koilē Syria and Phoinikē. If we accept this chronological order, the known list of four strategoi of Koilē Syria and Phoinikē can be easily put together.