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Article

Accius, Lucius, dramatic poet and literary scholar, 170–c. 86 BCE  

H. D. Jocelyn and Gesine Manuwald

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
Of freedman birth. In Rome he had friendly relations with D. *Iunius Brutus Callaicus (consul 138). Anecdotes suggest that Accius believed that literary talent demanded in its context more respect than nobility of birth (see the story about C. *Iulius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus at Val. Max. 3. 7. 11) and that he did not tolerate insults to himself (Rhet. Her. 1. 24). Contemporaries were amused by the outsize statue of himself he had placed in the temple of the Muses (Plin. HN 34. 19).Accius had plays produced from at least 140 bce onwards until the turn of the century. Over 40 titles of tragedies of Attic (see tragedy, greek) type are transmitted (Achilles, Aegisthus, Agamemnonidae, Alcestis, Alcimeo, Alphesiboea, Amphitruo, Andromeda, Antenoridae, Antigona, Armorum iudicium, Astyanax, Athamas, Atreus, Bacchae, Chrysippus, Clutemestra, Deiphobus, Diomedes, Epigoni, Epinausimache, Erigona, Eriphyla, Eurysaces, Hecuba, Hellenes, Medea, Melanippus, Meleager, Minos sive Minotaurus, Myrmidones, Neoptolemus, Nyctegresia, Oenomaus, Pelopidae, Persidae, Philocteta, Phinidae, Phoenissae, Prometheus, Stasiastae vel Tropaeum Liberi, Telephus, Tereus, Thebais, Troades), and they seem to cover the whole range of mythic cycles.

Article

Acestes  

Stephen J. Harrison

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
Acestes (ΑἰγέστηςΑἴγεστος), character in mythology, founder and king of *Segesta (Egesta) in Sicily and of Trojan descent (cf. Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1. 52.1–4; Schol. Dan. Aen. 1. 550; schol. on Lycophron Alex.952). In Virgil's Aeneid he is the son of a Trojan mother and the Sicilian river-god Crimisus, and entertains *Aeneas and his men in Sicily; Virgil in fact makes Segesta a foundation of Aeneas and not of Acestes (Aen.

Article

Achates  

Stephen J. Harrison

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature

Achates, character in mythology, faithful lieutenant of *Aeneas in the Aeneid; a late source ascribes to him the killing of *Protesilaus (Eust. Il. 2. 701).

Article

acrostic  

Don P. Fowler and Peta G. Fowler

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
Acrostic (Gk. ἀκροστιχίς, ἀκροστίχιον), a word or phrase formed from the initial letters of a number of consecutive lines of verse. Acrostics may occur by chance (Eust. Il. 24. 1; Gell.NA 14. 6. 4; Hilberg, Wien. Stud. (1899) 264–305, (1900) 317–18): whether they are accepted as significant will depend on their consonance with other aspects of the texts in which they occur. There are two broad types: proper names (especially the author's name as a kind of signature or *sphragis) and other words and phrases. Examples of the first type include *Nicander, Ther. 345–53 and Alex. 266–74 (inept or corrupt: cf. Lobel CQ1928, 114), Q. Ennius fecit in a work of *Ennius (Cic. Div. 2. 111: Epicharmus? cf. Diog. Laert. 8. 78), and Italicus…scripsit at the beginning and end of the *Ilias Latina. The second type is rarer: perhaps the most famous example is the Hellenistic watchword λεπτή, ‘fine’, at *Aratus (1)Phaen.

Article

Acts of the Pagan (or Heathen) Martyrs  

Edith Mary Smallwood and M. T. Griffin

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
Is the name given by modern scholars to about a dozen fragments of Alexandrian nationalist literature, preserved on papyri mostly written in the 2nd or early 3rd cent. ce. The majority of the fragments give, in dramatic form, reports of the hearing of Alexandrian embassies and of the trials of Alexandrian nationalist leaders before various Roman emperors. The episodes related, of which the dramatic dates range from the time of *Augustus to that of *Commodus, are probably basically historical and the accounts appear to be derived to some extent from official records. But they have been coloured up, more in some cases than in others, for propaganda purposes, to caricature the emperors, to stress the fearless outspokenness of the Alexandrians, who are sometimes surprisingly rude to the emperors, and to represent their punishment, usually execution, as martyrdom in the nationalist cause. This literature is in general bitterly hostile to Rome, reflecting the tensions between *Alexandria (1) and her overlord during the first two centuries of Roman rule.

Article

Aegritudo Perdicae  

Alun Hudson-Williams and Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature

Aegritudo Perdicae, an anonymous Latin *epyllion narrating the calamitous love of Perdicas for his mother, Castalia. Its ascription to *Dracontius is unwarrantable, though it almost certainly belongs to his period (i.e. 5th cent. ce), and probably to Africa, although Spain is suggested too.

Article

Aelius Melissus  

R. A. Kaster

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature

Aelius Melissus, grammarian contemporary with A. *Gellius (NA 18. 6. 1–3), who derides his work on semantics (De loquendi proprietate).

Article

Aemilius Asper, 2nd cent. CE  

R. A. Kaster

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
Wrote (lost) commentaries on *Terence, *Sallust, and *Virgil, perhaps with a separate discussion of Virgilian grammar. The fragments (ed. Wessner, 1905) suggest a learned and sensible critic; Aelius *Donatus (1) borrowed freely from him. *Priscian cited him as an authority de verbo, but the extant artes (see ars) attributed to an ‘Asper’ (Keil, Gramm.

Article

Aemilius Macer  

Edward Courtney

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
Aemilius Macer, a poet from Verona who died in 16 bce. Some fragments remain of his Ornithogonia and Theriaca; these drew on (but did not translate) works by *Boio and *Nicander (whose Alexipharmaca is also imitated in some fragments quoted without title). Ovid in his youth heard him reciting at an advanced age (Tr.

Article

Aeneas  

Stephen J. Harrison

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
  2. Roman Myth and Religion
Aeneas, character in literature and mythology, son of *Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. In the Iliad he is a prominent Trojan leader, belonging to the younger branch of the royal house, (13. 460–1, 20. 179–83, 230–41), and has important duels with *Diomedes (2) (5. 239 ff) and *Achilles (20. 153 ff.), from both of which he is rescued by divine intervention. His piety towards the gods is stressed (20. 298–9, 347–8), and *Poseidon prophesies that he and his children will rule over the Trojans (20. 307–8).This future beyond the Iliad is reflected in the version in the lost cyclic Iliu Persis (see epic cycle) that Aeneas and his family left Troy before its fall to retreat to Mt. Ida, which led later to accusations of his treachery (e.g. Origo gentis Romanae 9. 2–3). The departure of Aeneas from Troy is widely recorded, and the image of Aeneas' pious carrying of his father *Anchises on his shoulders in the retreat is common in Greek vases of the 6th cent.

Article

Aesopus, tragic actor, 1st cent. BCE  

George Chatterton Richards and M. T. Griffin

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature

Tragic actor, “dignified” (Hor. Epist. 2.1.82), contemporary of Q. *Roscius (Quint. Inst. 11.3.111 “Roscius is livelier, Aesopus more dignified”). He gave *Cicero lessons in elocution (Auct. ad Her. (3.21.34) suggests that he was greatly his senior) and supported Cicero's recall from exile (Sest. 120–123); he returned to the stage for *Pompey's *ludi, 55 bce, without much success (Fam. 7.1.2). See Div. 1.80; Tusc. 4.55; QFr. 1.2.14. His son, M. Clodius Aesopus, was rich enough to be a wastrel (Hor. Sat. 2.3.239; Plin. HN 9.122).

Article

Aethicus Ister  

Paola Marone

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
25 January 2019
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Latin Literature
Aethicus Ister is the unknown author of the Cosmographia, a fictional world travelogue that probably belongs to the 7th to 8th centuries. This work, written in an abstruse Latin, makes use of a whole range of antique (the Bible, the Isidore’s Etymologies, the Pseudo-Augustine’s De mirabilibus sacrae scripturae, etc.) and medieval texts (the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, the Liber historiae Francorum, some Latin translations of the Alexander Romance, etc.). It is one of the most difficult and puzzling early medieval texts, and it has been the object of intense study since its earliest editions. According to a recent theory espoused by Herren, it could have been written c. 675–725 by a Frank with connexions to Ireland and, possibly, England.Aethicus Ister (c. 7th–8th century ce), otherwise known as Aethicus of Istria or the philosopher of Istria, is the supposed author of the Cosmographia, a description of the world that claims to have been written originally in Greek and subsequently translated into Latin by an ecclesiastical called Jerome (not Saint .

Article

Aetna, Latin didactic poem by unknown poet, 1st half of 1st cent. CE  

Liba Taub

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
Aetna, of unknown authorship, is an example of Latin didactic poetry. It aims to explain the volcanic activity of Mt. Etna (see Aetna (1)). The poem, included in the so-called Appendix Vergiliana, is ascribed to Virgil in our earliest manuscripts and included amongst his juvenilia by the Vita Donati, where, however, doubt is expressed about its authenticity. Few, if any, would now maintain this ascription or any of the other attributions that have been suggested. The poem predates the eruption of Vesuvius in 79ce, for it describes the volcanic activity of the Naples region as extinct. It is generally agreed to postdate Lucretius, and it likely alludes to Virgil and M. Manilius. Because of its resemblances to Seneca’s Natural Questions, and because Seneca himself shows no knowledge of the poem, a late-Neronian or Vespasianic date is perhaps probable, but an earlier date cannot be ruled out.Ancient authors tended to focus on particular examples of volcanic activity instead of generalizing about a broader category. Nevertheless, the devotion of an entire work to Aetna seems to have been unprecedented. The Aetna poet offers an explanation of the volcano as a purely natural phenomenon.

Article

Afranius, Lucius (1), Roman poet, 2nd half of 2nd cent. BCE  

Peter G. M. Brown

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
Afranius, Lucius, author of fabulae togatae in the second half of the 2nd cent. bce, the most famous and best represented author of this genre, with over 40 titles and 400 lines surviving; perhaps also an orator, but the implications of Cicero, Brut. 167 are disputed. He praised *Terence and admitted borrowing material from *Menander (1) (but also from other authors, both Greek and Latin), and his plays included pederastic themes; see togata.

Article

Agennius Urbicus  

Brian Campbell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature

Agennius Urbicus, writer on surveying (see gromatici) produced commentary on *Frontinus' treatise On Land Disputes.

Article

agricultural writers  

Marco Formisano

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
  2. Science, Technology, and Medicine
In comparison with other technical and scientific disciplines, agriculture enjoyed a higher social and cultural status because of both its inherent utility for society and economy and its moral exemplarity, associated in Rome with the traditional respected “ways of the ancestors” (mos maiorum). The extant works of Cato, Varro, Columella, Gargilius Martialis, and Palladius testify to the long life of agricultural discourse throughout the history of Latin literature and beyond. While it is helpful to read these texts as belonging to a tradition, each of them has its own individual form, aims, and creative ambition.Recent studies on ancient technical and scientific texts have demonstrated that this particular strand of Greek and Roman textuality—taking as its subject matter not only arable cultivation but also livestock, arboriculture, market gardens, luxuryfoods, slave management, and villa construction—deserves much more attention than it was given in the past, when works on various fields of practical knowledge were generally dismissed both as literary texts and as historical sources: on the one hand, they seemed to show no connection with the literary prose of other genres; on the other, quite paradoxically, historians of science and technology lamented that these texts were too literary and thus of limited utility for historical reconstructions. Today, however, there is a general scholarly agreement that these texts are not to be considered as mere “manuals,” since they do indeed have a strong relationship with other literary genres, both prose and poetry, and since they create a specific textual language, one which is much more “literary” than one might at first glance expect if one focuses only on the technical knowledge contained in those books. It is as if we were to read and interpret .

Article

Albinovanus Pedo  

Edward Courtney

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature

Albinovanus Pedo, a well-known wit and raconteur (Sen. Ep. 122. 15; Quint. Inst. 6.3.61) who exercised his wit in writing epigrams; *Martial often mentions him as one of his models. He also wrote epic, a Theseid (Ov. Pont. 4. 10. 71) and a poem from which the elder Seneca (Suas. 1. 15, to illustrate the theme ‘Alexander debates whether to sail the Ocean’) quotes 23 lines about *Germanicus' North Sea expedition in ce 16. Pedo himself probably served as praefectus under Germanicus (Tac. Ann. 1. 60. 2); the piece is loaded with melodramatic rhetoric and topics applied by declaimers (see declamation) to *Alexander (3) the Great. Pedo was a friend of Ovid and known personally to the younger Seneca (Ep. 122. 15; Sen. Controv. 2. 2. 12).

Article

Albinus (2), writer on music, geometry, and dialectic  

Edward Courtney and R. A. Kaster

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
  2. Science, Technology, and Medicine

Albinus (2) writer on music, geometry, and dialectic, probably identical with Ceionius Rufius Albinus (PLRE 1 ‘Albinus’ 14), the consul of ce 335, and perhaps with the poet of works entitled De metris and Res romanae; one fragment of each survives.

Article

Albucius Silus, Gaius  

M. Winterbottom

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature

Albucius Silus, Gaius, Augustan orator and teacher of rhetoric, from Novaria (Novara) in *Cisalpine Gaul. His life is summarized by Suetonius (Gram. et Rhet.30). The elder Seneca, who regarded him as one of the four outstanding declaimers of his day (see declamation), gives a vivid picture of a vulnerable personality (Controv. 7 pref.).

Article

Albunea  

Stephen J. Harrison

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Latin Literature
  3. Roman Myth and Religion

Albunea, sulphurous spring and stream near *Tibur with a famous waterfall, and its homonymous nymph (cf. Hor. Carm. 1. 7. 12), classed as a *Sibyl by *Varro (Lactant. Div. Inst. 1. 6. 12) and fancifully identified by etymology with the sea-goddess *Ino-Leucothea (Servius on Verg. Aen.