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• Continuities in late antique literacy: the evidence from North Africa and Gaul

  177–185

  Zsuzsanna Várhelyi

  Views:

  53

  In this article I reconsider the evidence for ancient literacy from late antique North Africa and Gaul in order to reassess how the end of the “epigraphic habit” in the third century may have changed the popular contexts and notional associations of writing. Analyzing evidence for the Christian “epitaphic habit,” as well as for the production of legal and economic documents between the third and sixth centuries CE, I propose that late antique uses of writing attest to numerous continuities with their early imperial counterparts, including an interest not only in the pragmatic but also the performative character of ancient literacy.

• Characters and magic signs in the Picatrix and other Medieval magic texts

  69–77

  Benedek Láng

  Views:

  311

  The word „characters” covers a number of different phenomena in the Middle Ages. It might refer to a list of incomprehensible signs and astrological symbols inscribed in a talismanic sigil, to a series of Latin letters used for magical purposes, and also to a written form of verbal incantation, a written charm. Characters were often used in the field of talismanic or celestial magic in order to name spiritual beings. The paper reviews the use of characters in various medieval sources: textual amulets, necromantic manuals, texts on talismanic magic and the most famous medieval magical summary, the Picatrix.

• Empire and invention: the Elder Pliny's heurematology ("Nat." VII 191–215)

  123–135

  Marco Romani Mistrella

  Views:

  155

  This 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.

• Quirinius’ Sacrifice (Silius Italicus: Punica 4,192–215)

  57–75.

  Dániel Kozák

  Views:

  23

  Contrary to historical accounts, Silius inserts a preliminary encounter into his account of the Battle of Ticinus in the Punica in which, prior to facing Hannibal’s army, the Romans fight against the Gauls led by the Boian Crixus (4,143–310). Among Crixus’ victims, we found three soldiers whose names recall early kings of Rome: Tullus, Remulus, and Quirinius. After a brief overview of the significance of these names, the paper focuses on the character of Quirinius (4,192–215). I interpret this episode through three approaches. 1) Quirinius’ death recalls, by inversion, the miraculous survival of L. Sergius Silus (Plin. Nat. 7,104–106), 2) his plan to kill Crixus evokes the ritual of seizing and offering of the spolia opima, while 3) his being certain of impending death makes his case reminiscent of the devotio. Quirinius’ self-sacrifice thus can be seen as contributing to the Elder Scipio’s victory over Crixus, and is also paralleled by how the general’s life will be saved through external help (coming from the gods and his son) in the second half of the battle.

• Sofocle: Magia, Medicina, Religione

  53–69.

  Enrica Zamperini

  Views:

  167

  In Sophocles’ tragedies the interweaving of medicine, religion and magic produces a lot of meanings and concepts that show the complexity of the Greek thought of the Fifth century. In his tragedies, Sophocles shows his interest both in the magical and religious medicine and in the new Hippocratic medical science. The aim of this paper is to analyze the conceptual and lexical intertwining that reflects this interest, focusing on the character of Oedipus. In fact, Oedipus is the hero who best embodies this duplicity. At the beginning of the drama he assumes a rational investigation method through which he tries to discover Laius’ murderer and then to heal Thebes from the plague that afflicts it. However, his responsibility emerges during the tragedy; Oedipus’ fault has divine origin and makes him the first cause of the evil of the city. In the Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus’ body is released from the contamination that had made him the origin of the plague and the hero’s body turns into a sort of magic amulet to protect the polis that will guard it when he will be dead.