The Worlds of Aulus Gellius

Abstract

Abstract This collection of essays on the 2nd-century Roman miscellanist Aulus Gellius, the author of the Attic Nights, is the first multi-author study of his work in any language. It brings together the work of established and younger scholars with different specialities and approaches in order to study various facets both of Gellius' intellectual outlook and that of his later readers. The book is dived into three parts. Part I, ‘Contexts and Achievements’, examines the use of Greek by Gellius and other Romans, in particular the leading orator Fronto and Apuleius; the conflicting criteria of Fronto and Gellius for lexical choice outside the standard Latin vocabulary; Gellius' linguistic skills in etymology; his literary skills in narrative; and his relation to Roman antiquarianism. Part II, ‘Ideologies’, considers Gellius' work against the expectations aroused by writing a miscellany and his claim to offer moral education — which proves acceptable once stated in less than absolutist terms — and compares his attitude to intellectuals with that of Apuleius. Part III, ‘Reception’, reviews various aspects of Gellius' literary afterlife down to the 17th century, ranging from medieval florilegia and a baroque-era song, through false ascriptions and lost manuscripts, to his presence in Montaigne and other Renaissance French authors, humanism, and the Scientific Revolution.