Communis Opinio Research Articles

Ionic Art and Script in Archaic Macedonia: Origin(s), Medium(s), Effect(s)


 
 
 It is widely assumed that Macedonia in the late Archaic period was under East Greek influence. This view was formed decades ago, based on scant evidence, but has since been established through repetition and persists despite the growing number of reported and published finds that indicate otherwise. In this paper I intend to challenge this opinio communis and to reframe the issue of Ionic influence in archaic Macedonia within the wider Northern Aegean context. To this end, the relevant pieces of evidence are reviewed, focusing on works of sculpture in the Ionic style and inscriptions in Ionic script, but also examining the coinage in the name of Alexander I. In short, it is demonstrated that the available pieces of evidence do not support widespread East Greek influence in Macedonia in the late Archaic period and it is argued that it was rather through the Cycladic colonies in the Strymonic Gulf that Ionic art reached Macedonia; that mostly Ionians from these colonies were responsible for the inscriptions in Ionic script in Macedonia; and that it was possibly a Central, not East, Ionic script that was employed on Alexander I’s coinage.
 
 

Gegen wen ist Kuria Doxa 33 gerichtet?

Abstract Scholars usually understand Κύρια Δόξα (ΚΔ) 33 as an antiplatonic polemic. This paper denies the communis opinio. First, it argues for an ontological reading of the maxim according to which justice (understood as virtue) is not a body but a property. Second, it shows that the Stoics hold the very thesis disputed in ΚΔ 33, namely that virtue is a body. This makes the Stoa the natural target of the maxim. Finally, the paper deals with De rerum natura I.464-482: here Lucretius criticizes nameless opponents with regard to the thesis that events are to be understood as bodies. If these opponents can be identified with the Stoics, as is usually assumed, there is further evidence besides ΚΔ 33 that the Epicureans engaged with the Stoic thesis of corporealism.

К ВОПРОСУ О ЖАНРЕ PASSIO PERPETUAE ET FELICITATIS

Early Christian genres called in antiquity “passions” and “martyrias” or “acts” had no clear genre boundaries. Neither literary frameworks were established, nor fidelity to generic canon was much important to Christians who wrote about martyrdom. They often wrote epistles because they wanted to tell their fellow believers about the deeds of the martyrs, often relied on authentic records of trials and eyewitness accounts, often praised the passion-bearers, and used martyrologies as liturgical texts. Martyrology gradually developed into hagiography with its subgenres. But even against this background, the “Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas” demonstrates exclusively elusive generic nature. The traditional title “Passio” corresponds to the content of the text under discussion. However, the work is made up of many parts written by different authors, not simultaneously, and combined into a single book. At least five persons were involved in the compilation of this set of documents (the communis opinio – three persons). These five had different statuses and different tasks. Theologue and author of the Prologue and Epilogue preached and glorified the martyrs, Perpetua created extragenre commentaria or hypomnemata for her congregation about the events of the prison, mainly about her dreamy visions given to her by the Holy Spirit: a heavenly journey, two journeys to the underworld, and a symbolic dream of the coming martyrdom as a victory over the devil. The Vision of Saturus has apocalyptic features, but what he saw he saw as if already beyond his earthly life; the Eyewitness created an account of what happened in the prison and in the arena, very vivid, but not fulfilling the minimum conditions of acts and martyrdoms: interrogation, sentence, burial, cult. The fifth author brought all the texts together and provided explanatory inserts, thus turning the whole functionally into an epistle that could be sent from Carthage to the larger world to be read in the Church. The result is a genre to which there are no analogues in ancient literature, and attempts to define this book through the genres of ancient literature both as a whole and in parts are unsuccessful. However, the genre of the documentary book, written by different authors at different times, in different genres, including apocalyptic, acts and passions, sermons, epistles, and visions, had emerged by the time of our Passio as the whole collection of the New Testament, with all the disparate texts, though independent, all dealing with one great event: the life, death, and resurrection of Christ and the establishment of his church. It served as a model for the compilation of the “Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas”.

Representation in Business: Grotius’s Inleidinge and the Ius Commune Tradition in the Low Countries

Abstract In his Inleidinge tot de Hollandsche Rechts-geleerdheid, Hugo Grotius wrote an accessible introductory overview of Hollandic law, in which he combined insights from the learned law (ius commune) with the particular law of Holland. The Inleidinge was read by generations of Dutch law students, and would thus become very influential in the Roman-Dutch tradition. This contribution studies how the topic of representation, especially in a business context, was treated in Grotius’s Inleidinge. On the basis of an analysis of the Justinianic Corpus iuris, the medieval ius commune tradition and – especially – early modern scholarship from the Low Countries, it is argued that Grotius’s Inleidinge by and large followed the communis opinio among the learned scholars, although on one important point – namely the acquisition by a third party of a claim on the basis of a stipulatio alteri – Grotius went beyond that communis opinio and, thus, opened the way for a gradual wider legal acceptance of active direct representation.

New evidence of roman governors and officers on glandes inscriptae from Republican Hispania

Four glandes inscriptae from the Iberian Peninsula are presented in this paper. For two of them a connection to the Republican governors C. Flaminius and L. Mummius is proposed, and therefore a date in the 2nd century BC. A third slingshot bullet was most likely cast at the beginning of the governorship of the proconsul C. Valerius Flaccus, c. 92/91 BC. On the fourth specimen two names are inscribed, Afranius and Messalla, presumably two military leaders; it is carefully suggested that they could have been active during the Sertorian War. The communis opinio regarding the use of glandes inscriptae on the Iberian Peninsula must be modified: rather than being a phenomenon of the 1st century BC, peculiar to the Sertorian War (82‑72 BC) and the confrontation between Caesar and the Pompeian faction (48‑45 BC), they can now be traced back as far as the early 2nd century BC.

The Rot of the Bones: A New Analysis of קנאה (“Envy/Jealousy”) in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract This article reassesses the expression of jealousy and envy in the Hebrew Bible as well as their ethical status. Through a systematic analysis of the Hebrew root קנא, I argue that קנאה arises exclusively in scenarios involving a relative loss in status to a rival and that its closest English counterparts are therefore envy and jealousy. While some sort of link between קנאה and envy/jealousy is widely acknowledged, communis opinio has it that קנאה in the Bible regularly refers to other emotions and states, from anger and fury, to devotion and love, to vaguer feelings of passion, emotional excitement, zeal, or the desire for vengeance. Likewise, קנאה is widely considered to be ethically neutral—an emotion that might be positive or negative, good or bad. I challenge these views through new readings of several passages (esp. Song 8:6, Prov 14:30, Num 11:29, 2 Sam 21:1–2) and close with a brief discussion of the significance of these findings for biblical theology, religious zealotry, and the lexical expression of jealousy in cultures that evolved in contact with the Hebrew Bible and its translations.

Terminum figat : Remarks on a Difficult Phrase in the Eucharistic Prayer of the Traditio Apostolica

The former communis opinio, according to which the Traditio Apostolica (TA) was a church order written by Hippolytus of Rome and representing valuable insights into third-century Roman liturgy and church discipline, has been radically questioned in recent research. The similarities between the eucharistic liturgies in TA and oriental anaphoras no longer seem to support the theory of a transregional genre in the late antique Christian West and East, but probably indicate an eastern provenance of TA itself. In addition to many currently discussed problems regarding structure and literary unity, the famous eucharistic prayer in TA 4 also bears difficulties in textual understanding: e.g., it states that Jesus Christ terminum figat during his descent into the realm of death. The motif of Christ's descent, which fortunately is quite frequently attested in the early sources, emerged in the second century. Therefore, the diachronic development of the descensus Christi can be reconstructed in its different arrangements. This is helpful in defining the "border" that Christ "established" while he visited the underworld. Some accounts of Syrian provenance seem to be the closest parallels to TA 4: here, a dramatic version of this narrative predominates, in which Death quarrels with Christ because he fears losing his inhabitants (the souls of the dead). The story culminates in a ceasefire, the end of which will be the second coming of Christ.

Did Platon (Politeia 571d) Believe That Every One of Us Is a Repressed Cannibal?

Abstract At the beginning of Book 9 of the Politeia (571cd), Platon suggests that all people bear in themselves unlawful desires like the desire to have sex with their own mother or with any other human, god, or beast, the desire to murder anyone, or the desire to eat anything. Modern scholars take it for granted that by the desire to eat anything, Platon means cannibalism. This view is based on the fact that Platon discusses unlawful desires in connection with the tyrannical man and that the tyrant is, elsewhere in the Politeia, twice connected with anthropophagy (at 8.565d–566a and 10.619c). This paper challenges this communis opinio and argues that we have no reason to assume that at Politeia 9.571d Platon claims that every one of us has the hidden desire to consume human flesh. Also, the alleged cannibalism of the Platonic tyrant is questioned. A close reading of the passages 8.565d–566a and 10.619c reveals that in the depiction of the tyrant Platon makes use of mythological motifs and literary topoi but never literally claims that the tyrant has cannibalistic desires.

PROBLEM STOSOWANIA NIELEGALNYCH AKTÓW WYKONAWCZYCH PRZEZ ORGANY ADMINISTRACJI PUBLICZNEJ (NA PRZYKŁADZIE ROZPORZĄDZEŃ EPIDEMICZNYCH)

The paper concerns the application of illegal regulations by public administration authorities. This issue is presented in relation to regulations introduced to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The authors believe that the adoption of these regulations and their application prove that ‘the real constitution’ – as it was described by Ferdinand Lassalle – prevails over the written constitution, which in practice becomes only a ‘piece of paper’. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the epidemic regulations were enacted in clear violation of law as they: (i) crossed the limits of statutory delegation; (ii) violated the constitutional principle of the exclusivity of the statute on limiting civil rights and freedoms; and (iii) violated the constitutional prohibition against impairing the essence of rights and freedoms. Therefore, the public administration authorities should refuse their application. The authorities must observe the hierarchical rule regarding the sources of law. Consequently, they have to refuse the application of every regulation which manifestly violates a statute, a treaty or the Constitution. In cases other than a direct contradiction between the regulation and the higher-level source of law, in order to decide whether there is indeed a manifest violation, the authorities should refer to case law (consuetudo secundum legem principle) or the opinio communis of legal scholars. Moreover, applying a regulation despite the fact that it manifestly violates a statute, a treaty or the Constitution leads to the criminal liability of a public office-holder (e.g. an official, a police officer) under Article 231 of the Polish Criminal Code.

An Aramaic Verb Form in a Neo-Babylonian Letter

Abstract This paper offers an interpretation of an insufficiently understood verb form in the Neo-Babylonian letter OIP 114, 17:8, 29, thereby clarifying its contents. The word in question is shown to be an Aramaic verb form. This interpretation is supported by observations on the orthography and phonology of early Neo-Babylonian. It follows from the study that in eighth-century Neo-Babylonian two glottalized (‘emphatic’) consonants in the same word still underwent dissimilation, as in the second millennium bce (Geers’ law). The paper also demonstrates that, against communis opinio, erstwhile Aramaic fricative interdentals had shifted to stops by the eighth century bce, while the orthography of contemporaneous Aramaic alphabetic texts reflected an earlier stage of language evolution. This conclusion has been reached by means of comparing cuneiform renderings of proto-Semitic interdentals in West Semitic personal names in eighteenth-century bce Old Babylonian texts and in Neo-Babylonian texts from the ninth and eighth centuries bce.

The Beginning of the Cult of Relics by Robert Wiśniewski

Reviewed by: The Beginning of the Cult of Relics by Robert Wiśniewski Adrien Palladino Robert Wiśniewski The Beginning of the Cult of Relics Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019 Pp. 249. $85.00. Historian Robert Wiśniewski attempts to examine the birth of the Christian cult of relics from an all-encompassing perspective, examining texts, inscriptions, visual evidence, and archeological evidence of the manifestations of the cult from ca. 300–600 c.e. Such broad documentation, based on an impressive amount of data, has benefitted both from Wiśniewski’s long-lasting engagement with the topic and from his collaborative work on the Oxford ERC project The Cult of Saints, directed by Bryan Ward-Perkins. Wiśniewski’s monograph has previously received a number of reviews. I can only validate the communis opinio on the usefulness of the book, which constitutes one of the best surveys on this broad topic—alongside the 2018 study in German by Martina Hartl (Leichen, Asche und Gebeine. Der frühchristliche Umgang mit dem toten Körper und die Anfänge des Reliquienkults [Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner]). In eleven chapters—from the “prehistory” of the cult to beliefs and practices—Wiśniewski examines all aspects of the use of martyrs’ whole or fragmented bodies, highlighting the gradual transformation from undisturbed graves to sacred bodies as epicenters of magico-religious and cultural practices. Particularly interesting in this transformation are the modalities of accessing the sacred and how a society that “feared and avoided any contact with dead bodies, came to touch, rub, and kiss the bones of those whom they considered saints” (122). Considering the ways in which such taboo was overcome, Chapters Seven to Nine focus on anthropological, archaeological, and material aspects of the cult of relics, with which I am particularly engaged as an art historian and which have not been the central focus of previous reviews. In approaching the sacred and the bodies of saints, textual sources have often proven insufficient. A corpus of descriptions has been studied, from which we can recall the evidence from Gregory of Tours’s frequently cited sixth-century Liber in gloria martyrum mentioning fenestellae and other modalities of access. Wiśniewski evokes a myriad of other crucial sources, dissociating rhetoric and actual practices in a careful historical analysis. He mentions the existence of both public spaces (churches, martyria, etc.) needing reliquaries and small-scale private reliquaries that could be worn or carried on the body (140). Regretfully, in this [End Page 105] part the author mentions the episode (168) but does not cover the reliquary gifted by Manlia Dedalia to Ambrose of Milan, who buried it in the Basilica Apostolorum in Milan in the fourth century. This capsella is likely one of the only preserved pieces of evidence that we have of a “private” reliquary gifted by a wealthy woman to the church. This preserves evidence of the integration of a small-scale reliquary within a larger deposit, hinting at the need to examine material evidence in a more integrated way. This includes examination of the ways objects linked with the cult of relics have crossed the centuries because they were preserved in church treasures or in reliquary deposits. Sources are often elusive about practical dimensions such as the materials from which reliquaries were made, their shape, who was allowed to access and manipulate them, and their implementation within sacred spaces. Archeological evidence about this is relatively scarce, except for a significant corpus from the Middle East, constituted mainly of aniconic and simple typologies of reliquaries. More elaborate reliquaries bearing figurative imagery were often melted down, removed, or lost. In cases of reliquaries found in early archeological contexts in the nineteenth century or in church treasures, we must rely on limited second-hand accounts of archaeological excavations or art historical examinations. Wiśniewski’s approach to material culture is problematic because it is limited to a few pieces of individual archaeological and visual evidence—Wiśniewski is, after all, a specialist in texts, so he deals with objects and images in only a dozen pages (mainly 145–55). A stronger integration of material and visual culture within the book would have allowed the author to answer some...

Semito-Hamitic or Afro-Asiatic consonantism and lexicon: Episodes of a comparative research I (Part 1: The long century of Semito-Hamitology until the middle of the 20th century)

A retrospective account on past comparative research on Afro-Asiatic (AA) or Semito-Hamitic / Hamito-Semitic (SH/HS, resp.) phonology (first of all consonantism, also root structure) and lexicon, segmented into episodes according to diverse trends (often overlapping in time) is now under way and will be presented part by part in a series of papers. The present paper contains the first ever direction of this research, labelled “Semito-Hamitology” covering studies seeking, in their conception, the “African”, i.e. “Hamitic” kinship of Semitic, without a permanent communis opinio over the whole century of this ‘trend’ (better: amalgamate era) regarding the limits of the family.

"Treptele convertirii. Exegeză biblică și protreptic filosofic la Clement din Alexandria"

This article explores some aspects of Clement of Alexandria’s use of moral exhortation (or protreptic), a genre widely practiced both by Greek philosophers and early Christian writers. While modern scholars have commonly limited the analysis of Clement’s use of this genre to his Protrepticus to the Greeks, I will try to take a step further by pointing to some protreptic elements found in the first book of the Paedagogus. Along with discussing some biblical and philosophical topoi, I will focus my analysis on the medical language and imagery found in that book. As I intend to show, the use of medical imagery was a rhetorical device Clement made use of to reinforce his protreptic appeal to the Greeks to convert to Christianity. Reading Clement’s Paedagogus in light of the categories of the protreptic genre is important as it allows us to readdress not only the question of its purpose, but also that of its sources and intended readership. Against the communis opinio that the addressees of this book were only the already-converted Christians, I will try to argue that Clement’s intended audience also encompassed the Alexandrian pagan intellectuals of his day.

Tellers and Listeners

Abstract The collective voice of the eponymous community, the voice of communis opinio, has been recognized by George Eliot’s critics as playing a key part in the polyphony of Middlemarch, and especially in relation to the presentation of the major characters. The focus of this article is on the presentation of this community in its own right as a stratified society with regional voices at its base: an aspect of the novel hitherto not studied in any detail. I argue that this community is significantly highlighted in chapter 71, which is a key chapter in the development of the plot and the fates of Lydgate and Bulstrode. By deconstructing this chapter, I will show how the progress and power of “common opinion” is artfully directed by the narrator in a series of six scenes.

The Current Debate on the Relationship between Sin and Sickness in John 5:14

The article focuses on the understanding of sin in John 5:14, as well as the relationship between sin and sickness presented in this verse. It provides a thorough status quaestionis on both of these issues. After examining various hypotheses regarding the meaning of sin in John 5:14, the Johannine notion of sin as unbelief is expounded as the most convincing. This sin encompasses the past, present, and future life of the healed man. Thus, contrary to the exegetical opinio communis, the cause-and-effect relationship between sin and sickness does not apply to John 5:14. In light of this explanation, the messages of John 5:14 and 9:2–3 do not contradict each other. Jesus’ words in 5:14, intentionally pronounced in the temple, should be understood as an invitation to follow him in faith.

Den himmelske kungen och hans folk

This article examines the meaning and uses of the Greek term βασιλεία in the Gospel of Matthew. Contrary to the scholarly opinio communis, according to which the term should be construed dynamically as the "rule" of God, it argues with reference to Charles Ruhl's theory of semantic monosemy/pragmatic modulation that the pertinent term has a single abstract meaning – "that which pertains to royalty" – which is modulated pragmatically throughout the course of the narrative, to the effect that five distinct senses are engendered. Through an analysis of five examples in the text, it is submitted that Matthew employs the pertinent term both personally as to mean "king", abstractly to mean "majesty", dynamically to mean "rule", collectively to mean "people", and spatially as to mean "kingdom". At the same time, this article also argues that these distinct uses are best understood not in separation from each other, but as integrated parts of a coherent concept. Finally, the two dominant uses – the collective and the personal – are related to the overarching dual focus of Matthew's narrative, namely the new king and his people, to which they attest and contribute. While the wider scope of the pragmatic field opens up to a more nuanced understanding of Matthew's Basileiakonzeption in itself, it indirectly also has more far-reaching implications for how we understand βασιλεία in early Jewish and Christian literature at large.

The Consumer Benchmark, Vulnerability, and the Contract Terms Transparency: A Plea for Reconsideration

Abstract Transparency counts amid the most typical and inherent elements of the current consumer protection toolbox in EU law. For a long time, the exact premises of this requirement have been understood in a standardized way, taking the concept of an average consumer as the benchmark. The case of 93/13/EEC Directive (UCTD) is particularly striking in this regard. The necessary connection between the average consumer and transparency comes almost without saying in both the CJEU case law, and in the scholarship provisions on the UCTD. However, Articles 4(2) and 5 of the UCTD merely refer to a consumer. The focus on the average consumer therefore reduces the scope of application suggested by the plain meaning of these provisions. The article takes a critical stance towards the communis opinio that there is a necessary connection between the average consumer and transparency in the UCTD. Relying on both legal and economic reasons, the paper supports a twofold claim: (1) The system of EU law requires, sometimes, to assess the transparency of a term from the perspective of vulnerable consumers. (2) This more demanding standard shall be used when the average consumers operating on the market do not offer herd protection to the vulnerable consumers. The article shows that the communis opinio rests on a faulty assumption, namely that vulnerable consumers are protected when core terms are transparent for the average consumer. The article shows that this is not the case under common circumstances. Demanding core terms to be transparent for the vulnerable consumer in those circumstances contributes to reaching a high level of consumer protection.

Three notes on Asconius

This article deals with three passages from Asconius’ commentary on Cicero’s speeches. In the first of these fragments, Asconius reports that Cicero’s daughter Tullia died after childbirth in the house of her husband P. Lentulus. This version stands in contrast to the communis opinio in the scholarship (albeit rested on indirect evidence), according to which Tullia passed away at the Tusculan villa of Cicero after she had given birth to her son in Cicero’s house in Rome. Asconius’ testimony is compared with the account of Plutarch (Cic. 41. 7–8) who tells the same story as the commentator of Cicero. The author concludes that the reports of two ancient writers are based on a common source, namely Cicero’s biography composed by Tiro, in which only the place of birth of Tullia’s son, but not the place of her death was given. Based on this information, Asconius and Plutarch independently of each other came to the logical but wrong conclusion that Tullia died in the house belonged to her ex-husband. In the second passage Asconius mentions that M. Licinius Crassus sat on the jury upon the trial of C. Cornelius de maiestate in 65. In the same year Crassus held the censorship. However, office-holding magistrates were excluded from juries. Since the trial of Cornelius can be dated to the late spring or the first half of summer, we are to assume that Crassus gave up the office by this time. In the third part of the paper Asconius’ account on the murder of Lucretius Afella is examined. According to Asconius, Afella was killed by a L. Bellienus, whereas Plutarch reports that Afella was murdered by one of Sulla’s centurions. The identicalness of L. Bellienus and the anonymous centurion mentioned by Plutarch is usually called into doubt in the scholarship, but the author comes to conclusion that the ancient authors write about the same man.

Horse Insurance and the Katastasis in the Greek Cavalry: Two Separate Entities

AbstractThe cavalry of classical Athens remains an enigmatic part of the polis’ military forces. Although often described by historians as an insignificant arm of the classical Athenian army, in the fifth century BCE it was financially supported in two ways: a supposed insurance scheme for each cavalryman's mount, and what is often called an ‘establishment loan’, the κατάστασις (katastasis), to assist with the initial costs of joining the cavalry corps.1 These two unique economic supports are often tied together in modern discussions as parts of the same measure. The present article will instead argue that these two aspects not only could, but should, be separated. Further, it will be suggested that these two forms of support highlight the practical importance of the cavalry, in contrast to the communis opinio. In a military environment where resources were in high demand, the Athenian state made a conscious decision to offer considerable support – around 40 talents a year – to ensure they had a citizen cavalry ready for action.

Once Again on Claudian's Egyptian Origin

The life of Claudius Claudian (c. 370 – c. 404 AD), the great Latin poet active during the reign of Honorius, is unknown, especially the years before his great debut in 395 AD. Communis opinio holds that he was a pagan Egyptian Greek born in Alexandria c. 370 AD, who having come to Italy in 394 AD started a career of a political poet in the service of the elites of the Western Roman Empire. This view codified by Alan Cameron (1970) was challenged by Peder G. Christiansen (1997), who asserted that Claudian was actually a Westerner. The thesis of the poet’s Egyptian origin was defended by Bret Mulligan (2007) and then again attacked by Christiansen and Christiansen (2009). This article aims to reconsider the scarce textual evidence and to put an emphasis on some points that have been underestimated so far: the possibility of Claudian’s early connections with Constantinople and the ruling circles of the eastern capital.