Noctes Atticae Research Articles

Il rinvio abnorme del processo: due casi nelle «Noctes Atticae» di Gellio

Abstract - Using fallacious argumentative means, such as the antistréphon, causes dilemmas and leads the judge to not decide and therefore to postpone the trial, thus avoiding an injustice verdict. Noctes Atticae by Gellius contains an example (5.10.1-16). In another passage (12.7.1-7) the dilemma and the deferment of the trial are determined by the same facts advanced in the judgment. By both Gellian passages, postponing the judgement is a substantial non liquet but with the function of preventing an injustice.

El dilema de Gelio en Noctes Atticae XIV 2: enfoques legales y éticos en los procesos judiciales

En sus Noctes Atticae XIV 2, Aulo Gelio describe un caso que presidió como juez, y en el que fue incapaz de pronunciar un veredicto. Su indecisión está relacionada con el desequilibrio entre las características éticas de los litigantes y las pruebas (o la falta de ellas). Este trabajo examina el papel desempeñado por Favorino, que cita a Catón el Viejo con la intención de influir sobre Gelio para que, como juez, tomase su decisión. Enlazando esta anécdota con los debates modernos en torno a los argumenta ex persona en los juicios, este artículo defiende que Gelio no estaba confundido por una contradicción entre las pruebas, sino que, simplemente, no podía escoger entre ética y ley, los dos marcos de evaluación que podía haber utilizado para resolver el problema.

Reading and (Re)Writing the Auctores: Poliziano and the Ancient Roman Miscellany

This essay examins the influence of Aulus Gellius' Noctes Atticae (2nd c. CE) on Angelo Poliziano's Miscellaneorum centuria prima (1489); in particular, it reconsiders that manner in which the aesthetics of varietas are deployed in each as part of the broader literary program. First, by exploring ideas of auctoritas, this essay suggests that Gellius' own preferred categories influenced Poliziano's sense of the canon and contributed to the development of his own authoritative persona throughouth Preface of the centuria prima. Second, in examining the ways in which both authors describe their use of literary diversity, it becomes increasingly evident that both see their prose works as operating within a broader aesthetic of variety. After illustrating how both authors articulate these values, the essay concludes by examining two sets of chapters in the Centuria prima in which variety is put to use for didactic purpose, in a manner similar to the Noctes Atticae. While the influence of Gellius has long been acknowledged, including by Poliziano himself, this essay offers a reading of each author that reveals additional literary purpose underlying their use of the aesthetics of variety.

How Borges Wrote by Daniel Balderston

Reviewed by: How Borges Wrote by Daniel Balderston José J. Álvarez Balderston, Daniel. How Borges Wrote. U of Virginia P, 2018. 392 pp. How Borges Wrote is an ambitious and exhaustive scholarly endeavor that brings together "strands of different and apparently unrelated projects from [Balderston's] whole scholarly career" (6). The book is the result of the study of over 180 manuscripts organized and analyzed with the precision and care of a seasoned scholar who has devoted almost forty years to studying Borges's work and who has authored, co-authored, and edited numerous essential books, essays, indexes, and bibliographies on the Argentine writer. How Borges Wrote is also remarkably transparent and direct in its methods and objectives: in it, Balderston applies strategies extrapolated from genetic criticism to the study of Borges's marginalia, outlines, and drafts with the goal of shedding light on his compositional practices. Drawing general conclusions about Borges's writing process presents at least two major challenges. It demands extensive knowledge of his oeuvre and requires access to numerous manuscripts that (in Borges's case) are scattered throughout libraries and private collections. Successfully navigating both challenges, Balderston offers the reader an exemplary volume divided into eight content chapters plus three very useful appendices featuring a chronological list of manuscripts consulted and nearly 100 pages of facsimiles and transcriptions (both diplomatic and linear) that make the book an essential tool for future Borges scholarship. Balderston's book is interesting, engaging, and, at times, surprising. His clear, dynamic prose—which is generally divested of jargon—takes the reader through different stages in the composition of short stories, essays, and poems included in Fervor de Buenos Aires (1923), Evaristo Carriego (1930), El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (1941), and Otras inquisiciones (1952), to name a few. The analysis of variants, corrections, interpolations, and quotes throughout various drafts affords Balderston the space to display his knowledge of the subject while identifying and explaining references that speak to the internal cohesion of Borges's work as well as to his ample knowledge of philosophy, history, art, literature, Buddhism, and mathematics. To share the experience of approaching Borges's manuscripts, Balderston devotes significant space to discussing their materiality, accounting for the disposition of the text on the page, contextualizing deletions, additions, and revisions, and elaborating on Borges's idiosyncratic notation system, as well as on the [End Page 295] different handwriting styles and rubrics he used throughout the years. Balderston's interest in the manuscripts' materiality also dictates the organization of the volume, which favors drafting practices, notation strategies, and medium over a more rigid chronological configuration. The first three chapters of the book—"Readings," "Jottings," and "Note-books"—look at the copious notes, fragments, and drafts with which Borges crowded the books he was reading. After analyzing drafts of "Sobre el 'Vathek' de William Beckford," "Kafka y sus precursores," "La secta del Fénix," "El hombre en el umbral," "La espera," and "El escritor argentino y la tradición"—drafted in copies of Aulus Gelliu's Noctes atticae and Lisandro Segovia's Diccionario de argentinismos, as well as on two composition notebooks—Balderston concludes that Borges's library was essential to his creative process and observes that bibliographical references for his essays and lectures are usually documented with a rigor uncommon in his short stories. Chapters four and five—"Possibilities" and "Copies"—focus on two distinct composition strategies: interpolation and accretion. Looking at several drafts of each "A Francisco López Merino," "La muralla y los libros," "La lotería en Babilonia," and "El Aleph," Balderston determines that Borges used brackets to record the multiple alternatives he was considering at different stages. This becomes particularly clear in the section devoted to the study of the ineffable experience depicted in "El Aleph." Balderston's examination of the surviving drafts shows that Borges carefully revised sentence structure and word choice, reordered clauses multiple times, and expanded the text. In fact, the six clauses included in the first draft became thirty-seven in the published version. "Typescripts" and "Revisions" (chapters six and seven) are also closely related. Balderston shows that Borges—who did not know how to type—revised by hand a...

Römische Strafgerechtigkeit

Abstract Roman Criminal Justice. Legal-philosophical Traces in Aulus Gellius' "Noctes Atticae". The study reviews discussions of just punishment in Aulus Gellius' „Noctes Atticae". It embeds them in contemporary legal discussions based mainly on Cicero's and Seneca's works. The resulting picture of the Roman philosophy of criminal law stands in striking contrast to the historical prejudice of the sheer technicality and philosophical infertility of Roman legal culture. The analysed and partially highly sophisticated arguments belong nevertheless especially to the applied part of legal philosophy.

Aulus Gellius and Roman Reading Culture: Text, Presence, and Imperial Knowledge in the Noctes Atticae by J.A. Howley

Aulus Gellius and Roman Reading Culture: Text, Presence, and Imperial Knowledge in the Noctes Atticae by J.A. Howley

As Long as the Tree Blooms: A Short History of Frisian Literature by Joke Corporaal

history of his neighborhood. From there we’re led through a series of interrelated stories that together form a complex mosaic of hardships and transformations. In “Gotcha ,” a troubled youth gets a tattoo, which provokes beatings from junta-era police, feeding into his own fascinations with violence and a desire for more. In “Happiness Is a Sandwich,” a starving man finds a 5,000 drachmas note (something like 18 US dollars ), but no one will accept his money. A final solution, inspired by tactics used against Native Americans as well as various pest-control solutions, is proposed in horrific, dehumanizing apathy in “Another Night.” Meanwhile, the disinterested passenger cycles through emails on his mobile phone, distracted by spam and special offers, as the nationalist continues on. Throughout these several “chapters,” which are structured in a way that’s somewhat reminiscent of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, another book that’s a conversation in vignettes, the nationalist challenges the disinterested passenger with an assortment of economic, cultural, and authoritarian rationalizations for his beliefs. At the core of this pitch is Victoria, or Vic City, a neighborhood in Athens with disappearing boundaries and rapidly shifting demographics, and where the nationalist grew up. Even so, the book serves to inoculate the reader from such nativist appeal by identifying and engaging its various lures. While it can be a demanding read at times, Vic City Express is thoughtfully executed and occasionally melancholy, and readers familiar with Athenian culture may find unexpected humor in some of its passages . The translation by Fred A. Reed is more than capable, shifting styles and tones with ease while keeping its regional intricacies intact. Tsirbas has written a timely book here, one that’s also a convincing, localized tour of creeping fascism in Greece and the alarming conditions that are allowing it to take root. Michael Kazepis Portland, Oregon Joke Corporaal As Long as the Tree Blooms: A Short History of Frisian Literature Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Bornmeer. 2018. 143 pages. In 2018 tens of thousands of tourists from near and faraway places visited Leeuwarden on the occasion of its designation as the 2018 Cultural Capital of Europe. They discovered the province that makes the Netherlands bilingual. Visitors saw traffic signs in Frisian, heard the language spoken in stores and other public places, heard music and the news in Frisian if they tuned in to the Frisian broadcast station, and if they visited Tresoar , the provincial treasure house of Frisian literary history, they encountered a world of information: countless newspapers and magazines, hundreds of thousands of books including some books from the library of Erasmus, manuscripts and letters by famous Frisians, a manuscript of “Noctes Atticae” made by monks and dating back to 836 CE, the oldest and most recent Frisian literature, Esther Kinsky River Trans. Iain Galbraith Transit Books Showing the power of a walk by the waterside, this longlist candidate for the German Book Prize finally appears in English from one of Germany’s most fluid prose writers. As the narrator walks along the river to which she has moved under mysterious circumstances , she reminisces about the other rivers that she has drifted down in life. From its haunting first-page dedication, this novel will stay with you long after the last drop. Brice Matthieussent Revenge of the Translator Trans. Emma Ramadan Deep Vellum Brice Matthieussent is an award-winning translator of over two hundred novels from English to French; Revenge of the Translator is his debut novel. An intensely thrilling tale of intrigue and translation with a comedic undercurrent, the novel explores the transcendent power of obsessive dedication and the blurred lines between reality and text. Nota Bene WORLDLIT.ORG 95 and much, much more. They learned that there are some one hundred books published each year, comprising all the literary genres; that Frisian music includes classical , pop, folk, opera, hard rock, ballads, hymns, and more; that the more universal poetry by Frisian poets like Obe Postma and Tsjêbbe Hettinga has been translated into English; that best-selling prose authors like Rink van der Velde and Hylke Speerstra have been translated into English as well as Nynke van Hichtem’s classic children’s novel Afke’s Ten...

Monumenta rerum ac disciplinarum: Varro's Literary Role in Gellius Noctes Atticae Book 3

While traditional studies of authors cited by Aulus Gellius have focused on extracting the fragments quoted in the Noctes Atticae, this article examines the role these citations play within the work itself. The Republican scholar Varro looms large throughout the Noctes Atticae, and Gellius' use of his works represents an important hermeneutic for understanding Gellius' intellectual program. By examining the deployment of linked Varronian citations throughout Gellius' third book, this article argues for both the centrality of such quotations in recognizing a unified intellectual plan of the Noctes Atticae, and the corresponding importance of Varro for Gellius' literary persona.

Linguistic Didacticism in the Noctes Atticae by Aulus Gellius

The aim of this paper is to examine the didactic value of the Attic Nights from the linguistic point of view, and precisely, from the point of view of Gellius’ teachings on the meanings of words. In this context it has been stated that the author makes his readers aware of new meanings gained by certain words when used in contemporary colloquial idiom, describes and interprets the mechanism which had generated those meanings, evaluates the results of the process of semantic change, and, finally, comments on the way some grammarians assess the usage of certain words in ancient literary texts. In effect, the paper concentrates on the passages where A. Gellius, referring to ancient (archaic and classical) literature, describes the semantic differences occurring in various words, depending on their usage, whether in literary or colloquial language, defines the linguistic mechanism giving rise to colloquial variants of different linguistic items, and presents in a critical light the influence of colloquial language on the way in which interpretation is made of particular words as they occur in literary texts.

Terentianus Maurus, sonus tragicus and the masks

This paper aims at explaining a puzzling passage found in some Sotadic verses of the De litteris by Terentianus Maurus (end of the 2nd century CE - beginning of the 3rd century CE). The African author hints at a difference in the articulation and in the related acoustic effect in the velar pair, hence /o/ vs /o:/, of Late Latin. Terentianus says that the long phoneme /o:/ was characterised by the “intensification” of the sonus tragicus, but, albeit the acoustic referent of such phrase is out of question (a flat sound), the precise meaning is still an unsolved issue in the scientific literature. A new interpretation of a testimonium in Gellius’ Noctes Atticae (5, 7), together with relevant archaeological evidences, point out to an unexpected semantic value of sonus tragicus. The phrase indicates the typical timbre produced by the actors who wore tragic masks. The masks functioned as a sort of full face helmet for the actor and, thus, as proper filters, allowing the reinforcement of some bands of the laryngeal frequency, with an effect similar to that of lip protrusion. According to this new interpretation, the “sound pertaining to tragedy” was a sound made more powerful, grave and cavern-like: these, actually, are the typical features of a closed [o], which emerge also from the metalinguistic descriptions of other Roman grammarians.

URZĄD CENZORA W ŚWIETLE ‘NOCY ATTYCKICH’ AULUSA GELLIUSA

THE OFFICE OF CENSOR IN THE LIGHT OF THE NOCTES ATTICAE BY AULUS GELLIUSSummaryThe aim of the article is to analyse the passages in Aulus Gellius’ Noctes Atticae on the office of censor. This magistracy seems to have interested Gellius for various reasons: linguistic matters concerning the meaning of archaic words, but also things inspired by the books Gellius had read and where he found some amusing anecdotes which he decided to record. He treated the censors’ office as one of the most important Roman magistracies, and described the censors’ power to conduct auspices, issue edicts, deliver speeches, control morals, conduct the census, make the list of senators and equites, and mete out punishment with the issue of the censorial note. However, he never mentioned the censors’ administrative powers such as the conclusion of public contracts and the supervision of public places. The Attic Nights are not arranged in a systematic order, but they are a priceless source of information on legal institutions such as the office of censor; Gellius has saved for us some direct quotations from otherwise lost works by Roman orators and jurists.

Virgil and the Water of Nola in the Renaissance

Abstract The article focuses on the Renaissance debate about an anecdote reported by Gellius, Noctes Atticae 6.20, according to which Virgil erased the name of the city of Nola, in Campania, from Georgics 2.225, since the Nolans did not allow him to run some public water into a farm belonging to him. This essay offers an outline of how and where, between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the debate pro or contra Gellius developed. The epicentre of this debate was the Kingdom of Naples, since Gellius’ anecdote cast a shadow over Nola, which in the Renaissance period was a prosperous centre and wished to appear as the authentic descendant of the glorious ancient town that, according to Livy and Silius, was loyal to Rome during the Punic Wars. The citizens of Nola were concerned that Gellius’ words could be used to create an image of the city as one hostile to the most celebrated poet in antiquity, and thus damage its public reputation. Some voices emerged in defence of Nola while others argued against it. Whether as defenders or accusers, a number of the leading humanists of the Kingdom became involved in this querelle, namely Giovanni Pontano, Jacopo Sannazaro, and Ambrogio Leone, through whom the debate also reached the Netherlands, and Erasmus of Rotterdam.

O imionach bogów narodu rzymskiego – Diowisa i Wediowisa / De nominibus deorum populi Romani Diovis et Vediovis (Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae V 12)

The following article contains a Polish translation of one chapter of A. Gellius’ Noctes Atticae (V 12). It isaccompanied by an introduction and useful comments. In the introduction the present author explains two OldLatin theonyms from the etymological point of view, discussing the semantics of the Latin prefix ve-. Alsoshe reviews the exact location of the Vediovis’ sanctuary in Rome and describes the figure of young Vediovis,mentioned by Ovid and Aulus Gellius.

Miszellen. On the Legal Effects of Sponsalia

Abstract This article challenges the traditional view that informal sponsalia (as described in D. 23,1) were legally unenforceable in classical Roman law. After a close examination of the contents and structure of D. 23,1 and related Digest texts, it offers a new interpretation of a crucial passage from Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae 4.4), which has traditionally been read as showing that Roman sponsalia were unenforceable. The article then concludes with a consideration of the literary evidence offered by Varro, Plautus and Ovid.

Nota sull’uso di <em>dimidiatus</em> (Gell., Noct. XII 1. 6)

Lexical choices made by Aulus Gellius in the Noctes Atticae are characterised by originality: the analysis conducted on the use of the adjective dimidiatus in the passage in question, semantically marked in the previous attestations, aims to show how the author uses a term foreign to the moral vocabulary in order to support his thesis.

Miszellen. On the Legal Effects of Sponsalia

AbstractThis article challenges the traditional view that informal sponsalia (as described in D. 23,1) were legally unenforceable in classical Roman law. After a close examination of the contents and structure of D. 23,1 and related Digest texts, it offers a new interpretation of a crucial passage from Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae 4.4), which has traditionally been read as showing that Roman sponsalia were unenforceable. The article then concludes with a consideration of the literary evidence offered by Varro, Plautus and Ovid.

Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome by Rachael B. Goldman (review)

Reviewed by: Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Romeby Rachael B. Goldman Maria Michela Sassi Rachael B. Goldman. Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome. Gorgias Studies in Classical and Late Antiquity, 3. Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2013. Pp. ix, 193. $95.00. ISBN 978–1-61143–914–4. This book, a development of a portion of the author’s Ph.D. dissertation in History (“ Tinturae Romanorum:Social and Cultural Constructions of Color-Terms in Roman Literature,” CUNY 2011), is the latest addition to the ever-flourishing scholarship on colors in the ancient world, whose most recent notable fruits [End Page 301]are M. Bradley, Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome(Cambridge, 2009) and A. Grand-Clément, La fabrique des couleurs. Histoire du paysage sensible des Grecs anciens (VIII e—début du V esiècle avant notre ère)(Paris 2011). How Goldman’s agenda differs from that of her predecessor in the Roman field does not emerge clearly from her statement in the introduction (a brief treatment of the thorny issue of Greek and Roman color taxonomies) that she intends to examine “the color-terms at play in certain texts” so as “to grasp more readily the interplay among roles of gender, ethnicity, religion, economic and class differences, political affairs, and passions of the day” (7). However, apart from the inevitable overlap of the main topic, it becomes clear throughout the book that Goldman aims at a sort of antiquarian survey of her sources, selected from the whole of Latin literature, whereas Bradley focused on the intellectual debate about the moral and social values assigned to the various colores, and was rather sensible to the awarenessof the power of coloras a tool of information and evaluation in early Imperial Rome. Throughout seven chapters the discussion covers the famous color debate between Favorinus and Fronto on Greek and Latin linguistic categories in Gellius’ Noctes Atticae(Fronto’s treatment is oddly judged “almost comical,” 13); the pigments used for dyes, and the relevance of the production costs to the evaluation of the dyed objects; the colors of garments as signs of class and gender distinction; the effectiveness of colors for distinguishing the chariot teams in the circus; the notations of the colors of the skin, the eyes, and the hair in a few physiognomic descriptions; the analysis of such terms as versicolor, decolor, discolor, and other similar adjectives ending in color. The last is admittedly the most original part of the book, having been “rarely examined in the scholarship,” as the author observes in the final pages (163), the general conclusion being that “what was seen in Roman material culture is reflected in the literature of the day” (161). A few nice touches are scattered here and there. I was glad to learn, for example, that coccinus—just like the more famous purpureus—was an appreciated because expensive hue (32), and I was amused to read that the gilded ( subauratus) ring exhibited by that notorious freedman Trimalchio allowed him to bypass a senatusconsultumwhich permitted only freeborn men to wear golden rings (74). Unfortunately, the overall treatment is blurred. I registered an increasing number of typographical errors in the English idiom, the Latin, and the Greek (breathings and accents are often wrong), as well as several misquotations both of the ancient sources and the bibliography (I note here only 118, a messy translation of Cassius Dio, and 102 note 13, where Aristot. Hist. Anim.492a4 appears instead of Gen. Anim.779b15). Goldman is especially uncomfortable when it comes to Greek culture; for example, she claims that “the only work of literature attributed to Favorinus is the Corinthian Oration” (23); she extrapolates from the epithet of Athena glaukôpisthat “gray eyes are an ancient trope for descriptions of gods and goddesses” (102); she talks of “physiognomic principles outlined by the Aristotelean schools” (my emphasis: 163). Inconsistencies are ubiquitous: see, for instance, subflavus, translated as “golden” and “diminished yellow” just a few lines later, only the latter being correct, as the author knows (101 note 6); or the reading of Ovid Fast. 3.493, where preference for a “fair-skinned...

Quid sit pomerium: appunti su Gellio, Noctes Atticae XIII, 14. Le fonti e il confronto con Festo 294 L

“Quid sit pomerium”: some notes on Gellius, Noctes Atticae XIII, 14. Its sources and the comparison with Fest. 294 L. The chapter of Aulus Gellius’ Noctes Atticae entitled “Quid sit pomerium” is perhaps the most important source to define and explain the evolution of the pomerium and the ius proferendi pomerii. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that Messalla Rufus, an augur of the Late Republic, is the source for the whole chapter, including the paragraph dealing with the Aventinus matter (in contrast with modern critics). Finally, a comparison with Festus 294 L concludes this contribution and helps to underline the importance of Aulus Gellius N.A. XIII, 14. aurora.maccari@gmail.com

ZWEI NEUE DICHTERZITATE BEIM ALTEN CATO

Abstract A close reading of a chapter of Gellius’ Noctes Atticae (IV 7) on the quantity of prefixes reveals that the two prose quotations from the elder Cato, which seem to be inappropriate in a discussion that otherwise consists of nothing but poetic examples, are in fact not at all out of place, since Cato himself offered poetic material in these quotations. Through this, two fragments of Old Latin poetry can be recovered. The first (faenoribus copertus or faenoribus copertust), the ending of a hexameter, is probably taken from a satiric context. The content of the second fragment (ita nos fert ventus ad primorem Pyrenaeum quo proicit / in altum), an iambic octonarius, may indicate occasional poetry.

Adriano, il favorito dell’imperatrice Plotina (Riflessioni sulla questione dell’adozione di Adriano)

Between 24 July and 26 October 2008 a large exhibition was held in the British Museum in London with the title Hadrian: Empire and Conflict . It was the exhibition to give us the idea of reflecting on how Hadrian was adopted by Trajan. Trajan’s wife the Empress Plotina backed Hadrian’s career in every respect. Referring to Hadrian it is more appropriate to use the word adrogatio . The present study draws attention to the word vesticeps as used in Gellius’ work. (Gellius, Noctes Atticae 5. 19). Starting from the etymology of the word it can be claimed that adrogatio could only happen after putting on the toga virilis . It was one of the conditions of adrogatio that the adrogator had to be at least 60 years old. Trajan reached that age in 113, so the adoption could not happen before that. Hadrian had been considered to be Trajan’s successor since he became a legatus in Syria, so the takeover of power was not a result of court conspiracy.