Appunti per la semantica di vicarius (dall’età arcaica alla prima età imperiale)

Abstract

[Notes on the Semantics of vicarius (from the Archaic Period to the Early Imperial Age)] This article analyzes the semantic development of vicarius between the third cent. bc and the second cent. ad, with the purpose of linking the most ancient technical meanings of the word to its subsequent nontechnical meanings (starting with Cicero). While the most common technical, including juridical, meanings of vicarius (‘substitute’ for a servus and, in an official function, a ‘proxy’) are regularly listed in lexicons, the meaning of vicarius as a ‘sacrificial substitute’, in a magical-religious context, has so far received little attention. This meaning appears in a devotio of the third cent. bc reported by Macr. Sat. 3.9.9-13. Most of the occurrences of vicarius in the period under consideration actually seem linked to this last meaning, which is taken up and multiplied by school declamation. Indeed, vicarius becomes a terminus technicus specific to declamation, referring to acts of self-sacrifice that commonly occur in school controversiae.