Studi ausoniani 2009-2013 (parte I)

Exemplaria Classica, 2021

There has been a long interval between the publication of the first and the second volume of the commentary by Peter Habermehl (hereafter PH) on the latter half of Petronius’ novel (i.e. the chapters subsequent to the Cena Trimalchionis). The first volume appeared in 2006 and the author’s original intention was to finalise his project in two instalments only, and to skip chapters 119-24.1 (the Bellum Civile). By now, however, the commentary has grown considerably: the current volume covers no more than eight chapters (instead of twenty-six, if we do not count Eumolpus’ poem), PH has changed his mind about the omission of the Bellum Civile, and it is likely that the commentary as a whole will consist of four volumes totalling at least some 1700 pages. Thus we are dealing here with a huge enterprise which, nowadays, is usually tackled by a team of scholars; PH himself (p. IX) refers to the Groningen Apuleius project (1977-2015, nine volumes). If, on the other hand, we are looking for an individual scholar’s work of comparable size and character, we may recall the commentary on Tacitus’ Annals by Erich Koestermann (1963-1968, four volumes), that on Thucydides by Simon Hornblower (1991-2008, three volumes) or that on Livy’s Books 6-10 by S.P. Oakley (1997-2005, four volumes).

1992

Olga V. Budaragina. Ausonius on the Cento Technique (Cento, Praef. 26–27). Philologia Classica 2017, 12(1), 48–53., 2017

The article discusses a passage from the “Cento nuptialis” by Ausonius where he comments upon cento technique and specifies the maximum length of a continuous quotation from the original text of Vergil. The meaning of the MSS reading et sequens cum medio is not very sound, and the author considers three proposed additions and alterations: Th. Mommsen’s et sequens <medius> cum medio (1883); L. Villani’s et sequens. Сum medio (1898); and R. Green’s unus <et unus> sequenti cum medio (1991). For better examination of these corrections, it seemed important to look at Ausonius’ own poetical practice in the “Cento nuptialis” and to compare it with two longest preserved Latin Vergilian centos: the tragedy “Medea” by Hosidius Geta (end of the 2nd century) and the “Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi” by Faltonia Proba (mid-4th century). In spite of some differences, all three centones show a similar tendency in the employment of the most frequent arrangements: two independent half-lines,1 independent hexametrical lines or one half-line accompanied by the following half-line in the next verse. The author believes that this can clarify the meaning of unus in Ausonius’ passage in question. Refs 18.

2020

The Classical Review, 2014