Quinctilius Varus, son of the following. While son-in-law of Germanicus, he declaimed under *Cestius Pius, who commented on his father's disaster (Sen.Controv. 1. 3. 10). He fell foul of *Domitius Afer in
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M. Winterbottom
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Peter G. M. Brown
(d. 77
See
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Roland Gregory Austin and M. Winterbottom
Roman advocate and famous authority on rhetoric. He was born around 35 ce at Calagurris (Calahorra) in Spain. His father seems to have been an orator also (Inst. 9. 3. 73), but his relationship to the Quintilianus named by the Elder Seneca (L. *Annaeus Seneca (1)) (Controv. 10 pr. 2) is not to be known. The young Quintilian may have been taught in Rome by the grammarian *Remmius Palaemon (schol. on Juv. 6. 452); he certainly attached himself there to the orator *Domitius Afer (e.g. Inst. 5. 7. 7), who died in 59. At some point he returned to Spain, if *Jerome is correct in saying that he was brought to the capital by *Galba in 68. Jerome also states that he was the first rhetorician to receive a salary from the *fiscus, a practice instituted by *Vespasian (Suet.
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Edward Courtney
Epic poet ranked with Virgil ahead of *Ovid and Tibullus by Velleius (2. 36. 3), and described by Ovid (Pont. 4. 16. 5) as ‘resounding’, but evaluated by *Quintilian (10. 1. 90) with *Albinovanus Pedo as second-rate. Five lines survive, one (quoted by Sen. De ben.
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Natalia Lozovsky
Ravenna Cosmographer is an anonymous author of a Latin compilation commonly dated to the late 600s to early 700s. The Cosmographer describes the inhabited world, beginning with some theoretical questions and a general overview of the twelve southern and twelve northern regions (Book 1). His extensive lists of locations (Books 2–5) include over 5,000 place names, many otherwise unattested. Following earlier Christian authors such as Orosius, the Cosmographer incorporates Greco-Roman knowledge about the Earth into the framework of Christian scholarship. He cites the Bible and Christian theologians, and he mentions many secular authorities whose names only occur in this text. Although the Cosmographer never acknowledges his use of maps or itineraries, the forms of place names and the arrangement of toponyms by routes in Books 2–5 indicate that he was familiar with these sources. The similarities and differences to the Peutinger Map displayed by the text suggest that these works belong to different branches of the tradition, which ultimately goes back to a common exemplar. The Cosmography preserves the rich legacy of Roman and early medieval geographical knowledge, and its challenging material calls for a fresh examination.
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M. Winterbottom
Recitatio, the public reading of a literary work by the author himself. The practice certainly originated in Greece, though details are more or less untrustworthy (*Herodotus(1) reading his history at the *Olympian Games, *Sophocles (1) dying while reciting the Antigone, *Antimachus being left with an audience of one, *Plato(1)). At Rome we are told that C. *Asinius Pollio ‘was the first of all Romans to recite what he had written before an invited audience’ (Sen. Controv. 4 pr. 2), probably after 38 bce. Horace's allusion to reading his poems to select groups of friends (Sat. 1. 4. 73) probably refers to something less formal. The readings of poetry by grammarians, said to have started in Rome after the visit of *Crates (3) in 168 bce (Suet. Gram.2), are a different matter.Recitation became common under the empire. We hear of readings of tragedy (Tac. Dial.
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R. A. Kaster
Quintus Remmius Palaemon, a *freedman and highly successful grammarian under *Tiberius and *Claudius, admired for his learning and verbal facility but condemned for his vicious character (Suet. Gramm. 23). His grammatical handbook (*ars) is the first such work in Latin whose existence and authorship are explicitly attested: only fragments survive (the Ars Palaemonis printed in Keil, Gramm.
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J. H. D. Scourfield
Reposianus, author of a poem in 182 hexameters on the love-affair between *Mars and *Venus, in expression displaying debts to *Virgil and *Ovid. Date uncertain; conjectures range from the 2nd to the early 6th cent.
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Nicholas Purcell
Res gestae (of *Augustus). Augustus left four documents with the Vestal Virgins (see vesta) to be read, after his death, in the senate (Suet. Aug.101). One of these was a record of his achievements (Index rerum a se gestarum), in the style of the claims of the triumphatores of the Roman past, which was to be erected on bronze pillars at the entrance of his mausoleum in the *Campus Martius at Rome. This is known to us from a copy, updated after Augustus' death, which was piously affixed (with a Greek translation) to the antae of the front of the cella of the temple of Rome and Augustus at *Ancyra, capital of *Galatia and therefore centre of the imperial cult of the province. Small fragments of other copies have been found at *Apollonia and *Antioch (2) in Pisidia (also in the province of Galatia); it is likely but not established that copies were widely set up in the provinces.
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Sean Alexander Gurd
Revision happens when a text is changed. Its most common name in Greek was διόρθωσις; in Latin, emendatio. It was practised by writers of all styles and levels of ability, working alone and in consultation with others, and in many different genres. Evidence for revision comes from papyri and from descriptions in ancient literature. It occurred on papyri, in wax tablets, and in authors’ minds as they prepared a text, and it was understood by ancient writers as either the inevitable consequence of error or as a valuable exercise leading to greater cognitive and political skill. In addition to reminding us of the fluidity of textuality and the always contingent nature of every literary formation, the study of revision provokes reflection on the relationship between literature and natural language, and on writing’s place in social exchange.
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Harry Caplan and M. Winterbottom
The treatise on rhetoric in four books addressed to an unidentified C. Herennius (perhaps written c.86–82
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M. Winterbottom
Oratory at Rome was born early. Rhetoric—speaking reduced to a method—came later, an import from Greece that aroused suspicion. M. *Porcius Cato (1) (the Censor), himself a distinguished speaker, pronounced rem tene, verba sequentur, ‘get a grip on the content: the words will follow’; and rhetoricians professing to supply the words risked expulsion (as in 161 bce). But Greek teachers trained the Gracchi; *Lucilius(1) teased T. *Albucius for the intricacy of his Graecizing mosaics in words; and *Cicero marks out M. Aemilius Lepidus Porcina (consul 137) as the first master of a smoothness and periodic structure that rivalled the Greeks. In the last quarter of the 2nd cent. prose rhythms based on contemporary Hellenistic practice appear unmistakably in the orators' fragments. In 92 bce Latin rhetoricians came under the castigation of the *censors; Cicero for one wanted to be taught by them, but was kept by his elders to the normal path of instruction in Greek exercises, doubtless declamation. The respectable orator M.
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M. Winterbottom
Rubellius Blandus, from *Tibur (Tac. Ann. 6. 27), was the first eques to teach rhetoric (Sen. Controv. 2 pr. 5); the elder Seneca (L. *Annaeus Seneca(1)) quotes often from his declamations. He taught the philosopher *Papirius Fabianus, and may be the historian alluded to by Servius on Verg. G.
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Rolando Ferri
Rufinus is known only for a work transmitted by the manuscripts as A commentary on the metres of Terence (Commentarium in metra Terentiana), which includes a section clearly taken from a different treatise and reconstructed with the title On the composition and rhythms of the orators (De compositione et de numeris oratorum). In the two sections, Rufinus uses different styles of address, identifying himself as u. d. (uir deuotus, ‘a devout man’) in the former work and as u. c. (uir clarissimus, ‘a right honourable man’) in the latter, perhaps as a result of an intervening change in his status. The incipit also gives Rufinus the adjective Antiochensis, ‘of Antiochia’, thus identifying him as a Latin teacher active in the Greek East.1 The inclusion of Servius among his authorities provides a terminus post at the end of the 4th century, while the presence of Rufinus as a source in Priscian places him no later than the 5th century.
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M. Winterbottom
Produced a Latin abbreviation of a work on rhetorical figures by *Gorgias(2). Only two books survive, on figures of speech, though the whole was available to *Quintilian (esp. Inst. 9. 2. 102); they preserve valuable extracts from lost Hellenistic writers.
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J. H. D. Scourfield
Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, the author of an elaborate poetical itinerary in elegiacs conventionally referred to as the De reditu suo (the original title is lost), was a member of an aristocratic Gallo-Roman family, possibly from Toulouse (*Tolosa). He held the offices of *magister officiorum (c.ce 412) and *praefectus urbi (414). His poem has come down to us in an incomplete state. The beginning of the first book is lost, and 644 lines survive; of the second book two portions are extant, the first 68 lines and a further fragment of 39 half-lines first published in 1973. The poem recounts the voyage undertaken by the author in 417 (though the date has been disputed) from Rome to Gaul, where his estates had suffered from barbarian inroads; his party has reached Luna on the bay of La Spezia when the main part of the text breaks off. The account of the journey and the descriptions of the places visited or passed are interwoven with personal and historical reflections of the poet. The poem is most notable, however, for its intensely pro-Roman, classical outlook. In its existing form it opens with a long eulogy of Rome, most of it presented as an address to the city by the poet on the point of departure. This attitude, combined with other features of the work, such as the *invective against the Jews, the monks of Capraria, and *Stilicho, who had burned the Sibylline books, strongly suggests that Namatianus was an adherent of the old paganism; but he need not have been an extreme opponent of Christianity.
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Edward Courtney
Sabinus, friend of *Ovid, who composed replies from heroes to Ovid's letters from heroines (Heroides) and modelled a work on the Fasti (Ov. Am. 2. 18. 27–34, Pont. 4. 16. 13–16); perhaps identical with a Tullius Sabinus, author of two surviving Greek epigrams (Gow–Page, GP 2.
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The first large-scale Latin *ars to survive in (roughly) its original form (Keil, Gramm. Lat. 6. 427–546). Book 1, surveying the parts, ‘flaws’, and ‘virtues’ of speech, and Book 2, reviewing nominal and verbal endings and (briefly) prose rhythm, are preserved together in a defective Naples codex; a virtually identical version of Book 2 circulated as the Catholica falsely attributed to *Valerius Probus (Keil, ibid.
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Edward Courtney
Saleius Bassus, a respected but impoverished epic poet who died young; *Vespasian assisted him financially (Quint.Inst. 10. 1. 90, Juv. 7. 80. Tac.Dial. 5. 2, 9. 2–5).
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R. A. Kaster
Santra, Roman tragic poet and scholar (1st cent.
