This article deals with the question of possible reasons for Conrad Gessner quoting an aphorism from Julian the Apostate’s letter (Ep. 23, to Ecdicius, prefect of Egypt) under the name of Marcus Aurelius in the preface to his Bibliotheca universalis, the first European universal bibliography (1545). Basing on the articles in Bibliotheca devoted to the above-mentioned authors, we can conclude that Gessner was directly acquainted with Julian’s letters (he obviously relied on the collection of Greek letters published by Aldus Manutius in 1499 under the title Epistolae diversorum philosophorum, oratorum, rhetorum), whereas no texts of Marcus (including fragmentary ones) were available to him by 1545. The topic of the search for a library and the question of how to treat the books written by religious opponents, which occupy a central place in Julian’s letter to Ecdicius, must have attracted Gessner’s attention, especially since the solution proposed by Julian turned out to be consonant with Gessner’s thoughts expressed in Bibliotheca. Thus, the false attribution of the quotation, undoubtedly deliberate, was, on the one hand, to prevent possible reproaches from conservative readers for quoting an anti-Christian author, and, on the other hand, to draw attention of a competent reader to Julian’s text.

The publication in 1899 of the first volume of Alexander Pushkin’s works prompted the classical philologist Viktor Carlovich Jernstedt to re-read his lyceum lyrics, thoroughly imbued with ancient motifs. In Pushkin’s philosophical ode “Mustache”, written in 1816, Jernstedt’s attention was drawn to the line “where are the skinny dramas of Cleon?” and he dedicated a short note to it, which is being published and commented on for the first time. Here, Jernstedt made a witty guess that Pushkin was referring to the little-known ancient playwright Cleophon, but mistakenly wrote the name of the famous politician Cleon. Jernstedt wonders from what source Pushkin could have known about Cleophon. Lyceum students could get information about Aristotle’s “Poetics”, where the name of Cleophon occurs, from the first volume of Jean-François de La Harpe’s “Lycée ou cours de littérature ancienne et modern” (1799), which at that time was a manual for teaching literature. But the name of Cleophon is not found here, nor is it in the didactic work “L’art poétique” by Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, available to lyceum students both in the original language and in Russian translation. The classical philologist overestimated, however, the cultural baggage of the lyceum poet, the vastness and depth of the lyceum education. Later, Pushkinists established that under the name of Cleon the mediocre poet A. A. Shakhovskoy, a contemporary of Pushkin, was hiding. Jernstedt approached Pushkin’s text from the viewpoint of a classical philologist, underestimating the cultural context of the era. Nevertheless, his mistake in itself is quite remarkable, and his questions indicate his intention to continue the research and point out the direction of future quest.

A citharodic performance typically included a προοίμιον that preceded a νόμος. Theoretically, there are three possible options: a prooimion (1) was an inseparable introduction to a specific main part; (2) was not performed independently, but could precede various main parts; (3) was an independent piece. Most evidence points to option 2. Standard circumstances of performance must have stereotyped the subject matter that appeared in the introduction, so the proem became an autonomous song that could precede any narrative part, and even be performed independently (if there were no agonistic connotations and transitional formulas). Pseudo-Plutarch’s notions of ancient citharody (De mus. 1132В–С; 1132D; 1133B–C) are interpreted as follows: a proem addressed to the gods was a citharode’s own composition (hence ὡς βούλονται, despite its formal character and epic metre). It was immediately followed by a nome, whose epic narration could be either original or taken from Homer and other poets and set to music according to one of melodic patterns systemized by Terpander. Terpander’s proems likely offered two proofs of this theory: they ended with a formula of transition to another song, which itself did not follow. Apparently, the option to use someone else’s poetry in the main body led to the practice of writing down the proems without the subsequent nomes, so that they were seen as independent works. It is likely that Pseudo-Plutarch’s source was referring to minor Homeric hymns, since they correspond perfectly with the information that we have about citharodic proems.

This article examines the reproduction of classical philology staff at Petrograd Leningrad University in the late 1910s–1920s, a topic that has received limited scientific attention. The materials are primarily comprised of archival office documents and “Teaching Reviews” published during the specified chronological period. The study of the evolution of a discrete area of training enabled us to eschew the proclivity in post-Soviet historiography to portray the prerevolutionary generation of scholars as mere victims of Soviet policy and ideology. Instead, we were able to elucidate the strategies of adaptation deployed by professors of the “old” school in response to the advent of a new reality, one in which the science of classical antiquity was no longer supported by the state. The intention to modify the conceptualisation of the training system in classical disciplines and pedagogical experience in accordance with evolving circumstances is evident. Even the established system of studying ancient authors in class was presented as an “innovative” brigade-laboratory method of teaching, introduced by the Narkompros. Until 1927, the various departments, cycles and specialisations managed to maintain, in general terms, the previous approach to the training of a classical philologist, which was based on the complex nature of the discipline of antiquarian studies. The article uncovers several key trends in higher education during the 1920s that shaped the landscape of classical philology. These include the introduction and gradual increase in the share of the so-called “social disciplines”, which were unified across the entire faculty, the reduction in the number of specialised disciplines, and the curtailment of narrow specialisations under the banner of the struggle against “multi-subjectivity”. Additionally, there was a shift towards the graduation of professionals with practical skills, which gained prominence from 1928 onwards (the advent of the “cultural revolution”).

This paper offers a comprehensive and critical review of the most significant studies on the possible alternation between two specific encodings that can express, in a generic sense, the Manner in which a verbal process is developed: adverbial expressions (ADV) and Secondary Predicates (SP). The main types of SP/ADV to be addressed here are those which are Subject and/or event oriented. Both general and typological works will be taken into account, as well as others more focused on the Latin language; the central criterion of the study will essentially be to distinguish and analyse approaches which are more or less favourable to seeing the two types of constituents as equivalent. A section devoted to the work of one of the Latinists who has contributed most specifically and notably to the issue under discussion (H. Pinkster) will also be included. Following a critical review of the criteria which have the greatest explanatory potential for explaining the issue, some analytical approaches will be proposed which are as objective as possible for a subsequent corpus study; these criteria include parameters pertaining to different linguistic levels: syntax, lexical-semantics, pragmatics, etc.: their application — here only tentatively discussed — will provide clear and measurable results on the problem and on those questions arising from the critical review itself.

In the years between 1948 and 1954, several schools in the Soviet Union incorporated Latin into the curriculum for high school students. To implement the reform, S. P. Kondratyev and A. I. Vasnetsov developed a textbook that has gone through four editions. The textbook includes chrestomathic materials with excerpts from Latin texts and methodological recommendations. The manuals were compiled hastily without adequate discussion of their content. The innovation, which consisted in the reorganization of grammatical material, the different selection of original Latin texts (extracts from the works of Herodotus, Justin, and Maciej Miechowita describing the ancient state of territories that were part of the Soviet Union), and an increase in the proportion of historical and linguistic material in the explanation of grammar rules, met with disapproval from the professional community of classical philologists, who criticized the teaching and methodological approach of the course. Kondratyev and Vasnetsov only made concessions by 1953, but they tried to strengthen the ideological and educational components in the teaching of Latin in schools. The adapted texts and proverbs chosen for the students demonstrated those characteristics of the Romans that corresponded with the ideal of a Soviet person (collectivism, courage, determination in overcoming difficulties, humility, comradeship, selflessness, etc.). A number of historical and linguistic references in textbooks allude to contemporary events and, consequently, play the role of political education. For example, the preservation of the Roman vocabulary in conditions of dependence on the Etruscans can be compared to the resistance of the Slavic population in Bulgaria. However, the experiment was abandoned in 1954. This article considers the teaching and methodology of Latin as a marker of ideological processes. The introduction of this subject in secondary schools fits within the general context of late Stalinist classicism.

The aim of this article is to analyse the theme of envy and its complexity in Josephus’ works in rhetorical and strategic sense rather than just as a literary topos. The paper focuses on two cases motivated by envy: Korah’s rebellion against Moses and the conflict between Josephus and John of Gischala. In these two cases, both the characteristics of envious persons and the richest descriptions of their sinister activities appear. The idea of Korah’s envy was not based on the Bible or the Second Temple literature or traditions but on Josephus’ own experiences from the period of his short-term command in Galilee (December 66 — July 67) when he was in conflict with envious John of Gischala. Thanks to this procedure, he was able to create the self-apologetic impression that his fate and that of Moses were intertwined because they had opponents with similar characteristics who were motivated by the same vice. Moreover, Josephus in both narratives follows the specific sequence according to which the envy leads to a “plot” (ἐπιβουλή), then to “false accusations” (διαβολή) and finally to a “sedition” (στάσις). He strategically used the theme of envy for his own apology to condemn his enemy, John of Gischala. The envy he felt disclosed the character of a person who was worse than Josephus in terms of personality traits. Josephus instead appears before the readers as a stoic sage who is free from weakness such as envy. At the same time the author draws attention to his own well-deserved success, thus the presence of envy becomes an indicator of his achievements. He conceals his own negative actions during his command in Galilee and tries to direct the audience’s attention to a specific arrangement of events that will lead to blaming his opponent.

This piece studies the Portuguese version of the so-called Notarial Latin, the Latin of medieval documents. The author briefly overviews the reasons why these written records have been scarcely explored — the low availability of texts, the unreliability of existing editions and the perception of Notarial Latin as a corrupted language. The chronological framework of Notarial Latin, its correlation with Late and Medieval Latin and its sociolinguistic peculiarities are described. It is suggested to primarily focus on the morphosyntax of Notarial Latin. The results of the analysis of eighteen texts created between 1033 and 1183 are then presented followed by the analysis of various deviations from the grammatical norm of Latin caused by the interference of Galician-Portuguese. In nominals, there is a violation of the norms for the use of some prepositions (foremost, the preposition de). The case system generally remains. In the verb system, the regular use of Latin Futurum II in the function of the Portuguese Futuro de Conjuntivo which developed on its basis is evident. However, contrary to expectations, there are practically no traces of Romance verb analyticity. On the syntactic level, there is a tendency towards the SVO word order. The frequent cases of Romance interference indicate supposedly the most profound transformations that took place during the formation of Galician-Portuguese from vernacular Latin. It is concluded that the study of Notarial Latin is promising for a contrastive typology of Latin and Romance languages.

This article opens a series devoted to investigating the sources of the ample zoological excursus (vv. 916–1223) in the Hexaemeron by George of Pisidia, a 7th-century Byzantine poet. Since the two attempts to find a general formula for George of Pisidia’s treatment of his models have led to directly opposite results (according to Max Wellmann, the poet distanced himself from pagan zoologists; according to Luigi Tartaglia, on the contrary, he drew material from them, favouring Aelian), it seems that the question of the poem’s sources should be addressed by a step-by-step examination of passages, paying attention to such evidence as the coincidence of minor details or words. In v. 1116 the unusual metaphor “aithyia, bending its winged cloud” (in the sense of “spreading its wings”) makes one think of an (unconscious?) association with Arat. Phaen. 918–920, where “a stretching cloud” is mentioned in the catalogue of storm’s signs in immediate juxtaposition to the flapping of the wings of seabirds. In vv. 1117–1124 (the self-cleansing of the ibis) the reference to Galen is not a mere metonymy (= “the most skillful physician”), as interpreters have hitherto thought, but points to the poet’s source: in the Galenic corpus this story is attested three times, and the passage closest to George of Pisidia’s account is [Galen.] Introd. 1.2. In vv. 1154–1159 (the structure of the web) the confused sequence of the stages of the spider’s work (first concentric circles, then radial threads), that contradicts both reality and (which is more important) the ancient tradition going back to Book IX of Historia animalium, seems to betray the influence of John Philoponus (De opif. mundi, p. 257, 24 sqq. Reinhardt). In Philoponus’ text this sequence is justified by the fact that his rhetorical passage describes, strictly speaking, not the web itself, but a drawing of it made by a “diligent geometer”.

The Portrait of a Young Man, or Self-Portrait, by Michael Sweerts, remains poorly studied, although this is one of the two known works, dated by the master himself, and dated 1656, a pivotal year in his biography. Beside the date the sheet pinned to the green tablecloth displays the signature and the moralizing motto: Ratio Quique [sic!] Reddenda. Titled as “The Bankrupt” the painting appeared in the collection of I. I. Shuvalov and with this apparently false title went first to the St Petersburg Academy of Arts, then to the Hermitage. The reading of it as belonging to the vanitas genre also leads away from the point. That the Young Man is not a frivolous embezzler, but a calculating businessman follows from parallels in Flemish and Dutch art. Neither is he a “melancholic”, however similar his posture may be to many of them. The key to Sweerts’ message is the Latin pinacogram, of which each word is capitalized and one is spelled in a somewhat extravagant manner (dat. quique). Rationem reddere evokes associations with the Gospel debt parables. Flemish painters had turned to this subject already in the early 16th century; Van Hemessen’s depiction of the Unforgiving Slave is likely to be one of Sweerts’ direct sources. The parallelism of earthly and heavenly “banking” is emphasized in Th. Halle’s engraving Redde rationem being part of Veridicus Christianus by J. David. The engraving and the portrait have a number of details in common, and the relative comment abounds in references to the debt parables. The Young Banker of the Hermitage portrait puts aside his counting and muses that the same debit-credit law operates in the other world, and that the list of debtors includes every one of us: to get that message across was so important to the fanatically catholic Sweerts that he styled the Latin inscription as the title of this list.