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Article

textual criticism  

M. D. Reeve

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Latin Literature
  3. Reception
Textual criticism sets out to establish what a text originally said or meant to say. Anyone who checks a garbled message with the sender has given a faultless demonstration of it. Classical texts, which have mostly come down through a succession of copies, present stiffer challenges. Even some inscriptions (see epigraphy) are corrupt.Politian (Poliziano; see scholarship, classical, history of) in 1489 first refined ancient methods by showing that for historical reconstruction authorities were less to be counted than weighed and derivative ones ignored. He made such arresting discoveries as that all copies of Cicero's Ad familiares in circulation derived from one misbound ancestor. For 300 years these insights were seldom exploited even by critics good at picking out valuable witnesses, like Heinsius and Bentley; and when genealogical classification finally took hold, among editors of the Bible in the later 18th cent. and of classical texts in the 1820s, it was not until 1872 that the historical linguist Johannes Schmidt framed the cardinal principle, still often flouted, that in a family only shared innovations indicate a closer relationship.

Article

topos  

Glenn W. Most and Gian Biagio Conte

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
  2. Reception
Topos, a standard form of rhetorical argumentation or a variably expressible literary commonplace.In classical rhetoric, inventio aids the orator to find elements of persuasion: τόποι or loci are both the places where such elements (especially plausible argumentative patterns) lurk, and those patterns themselves (e.g. Arist.Rh. 2. 22–3; Quint. Inst. 5. 10); if universally applicable (in various senses) they can be called κοινοὶ τόποι or loci communes. They are the habitual tools of ordinary thought but can also be studied and technically applied. No two rhetoricians provide the same catalogue, but some of the more familiar τόποι include arguments ad hominem or a fortiori, from homonymy or *etymology, from antecedents or effects.Although in this sense the ancient discussions remain important for contemporary analyses of everyday argumentation, the general decline of rhetoric in modern culture has led topoi, like other rhetorical concepts, to seek refuge in literary studies. The recent critical topos of applying the term also, and especially, to commonly but variably expressed literary contents (clichéd metaphors and commonplace thoughts) ultimately derives from E.

Article

translation  

C. A. Martindale and Lorna Hardwick

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
06 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Reception
‘Translation is so far removed from the sterile equation of two dead languages that of all literary forms it is the one charged with the special mission of watching over the maturing process of the original language and the birth pangs of its own’ (W. Benjamin, The Task of the Translator (1923), trans. H. Zohn (1968)). In just this way the developing literature and culture of Rome can be seen as a series of acts of translation from Greek sources. Translation mediated the relationship between Greece and Rome and, thereafter, Rome and the European vernaculars; *Isidorus(2) of Seville (10. 123) etymologizes interpres, ‘translator’, as one standing inter partes ‘between the two sides’. Members of the Roman élite learned, read, and spoke Greek, competing with each other in the cultural fruits of Hellenization (see hellenism): M. *Porcius Cato(1) ostentatiously addressed a Greek audience in Latin, using a translator, but could easily have spoken in Greek (Plut.

Article

triumphal arches, reception of  

Kimberly Cassibry

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
19 July 2023
Subjects:
  1. Reception
  2. Roman History and Historiography
  3. Roman Material Culture

Triumphal arches originated in the Roman Empire and have been constructed for over two thousand years. These free-standing portals are more accurately known as arch monuments, commemorative arches, or honorific arches due to their diverse functions. Arcuated shapes allow these monuments to span significant roads; multiple façades create space for dedicatory inscriptions, relief sculptures, and statues. Varied reception of this fundamental design concept—a free-standing portal with words and images—is evident in each commemorative arch. Reception of individual arch monuments can be traced through descriptions, representations, and interventions.

The Roman arches dedicated to the emperors Titus (c. 81 ce), Septimius Severus and his sons (c. 203 ce), and Constantine I (315 ce) have strongly influenced the monument’s modern reception, even though they do not represent the monument’s full range of ancient designs and functions. In major European revivals since antiquity, ephemeral arches have adorned political processions, and permanent monuments have commemorated imperial military victories. In the 20th century, arch monuments arose in cities around the globe, often amid debates about national identity.

Article

West, Western Greeks  

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Reception
Modern expressions for the Greeks of Italy and Sicily, cf. magna graecia. (But ‘western Greece’ can mean the western part of Greece proper.).