Greek epistolography

The Seventh Letter is our main document on Plato’s political activities and offer new
perspectives to the interpretation of the philosopher’s political views. Two recent contributions on the Seventh Letter address again the problem of the letter’s authenticity.
In this article, we consider the main arguments adduced by these new studies and ask
how to read today Plato’s political theory through this old discussion. Can our political
interpretation of the Seventh Letter go beyond the problem of its attribution?

Ancient letters had formatting and stylistic conventions that were carefully respected by their writers. This book provides the first comprehensive study of these conventions based on a wide corpus of letters surviving on their original material substrates primarily from Graeco-Roman Egypt. It elucidates and contextualises the impact of sociocultural phenomena on stylistic variations over a long period in the history of epistolary practice.

This dissertation aims at providing a new critical edition of the fictitious Letters of the Courtesans attributed to Alciphron (late 2nd or early 3rd century AD).

The first part of the introduction begins with a brief survey of the problematic dating and identification of Alciphron, followed by a general overview of the epistolary genre and the letters of Alciphron. The main part of the introduction deals with the manuscript tradition. Eighteen manuscripts, which contain some or all of the Letters of the Courtesans, are described and the relationship between them is analyzed based on complete collations of all the manuscripts. The conclusion, which is illustrated by a stemma codicum, is that there are four primary manuscripts from which the other fourteen manuscripts derive: Vaticanus gr. 1461, Laurentianus gr. 59.5, Parisinus gr. 3021 and Parisinus gr. 3050. The introduction concludes with a brief chapter on the previous editions, a table illustrating the selection and order of the letters in the manuscripts and editions, and an outline of the editorial principles. The guiding principle for the constitution of the text has been to use conjectural emendation sparingly and to try to preserve the text of the primary manuscripts wherever possible. The critical apparatus has been divided into a main apparatus below the text, which reports variant readings from the primary manuscripts and a small selection of conjectures, and two appendices which report scribal conjectures from the secondary manuscripts and conjectures by modern scholars with bibliographical references. A third appendix has also been added which lists all conjectures adopted into the  text. The parallel translation, which is accompanied by brief explanatory notes on names and places, is literal and serves as a complement to the commentary, which primarily deals with matters of textual criticism. In the commentary problematic passages are discussed, especially where an emendation has been adopted or where the present edition differs from previous editions. After the three appendices the dissertation ends with a bibliography.

This thesis provides an overview of the Roman correspondence on papyrus, ostrakon and tablet.
Communication was very important in Roman army, as in the armies of every time. The Roman military letters show a world where Latin and Greek are both official languages of the soldiers and where barbarians and provisioning are the most pressing matters.
This overview will mainly deal the four largest corpora (the Vindolanda tablets, the ostraka from the Eastern Desert of Egypt, the Dura Europos papyri and the ostraka from Bu Njem) and many texts from these corpora will be analyzed. A specific section will also focus on the mail management and transportation.

In the field of Byzantine studies, epistolography was the first phenomenon ever to be analysed within the framework of (social) network analysis in the pioneer study of Margaret Mullett on the letter collection of Metropolitan Theophylact of Ohrid in 1997. In these and other following studies, concepts reflecting on the qualitative character of social connections were more frequently used than quantitative tools of structural analysis.  Thus, the main aim of this chapter is the presentation of basic concepts of this aspect of network research and the demonstration of the application of some of these tools on a case study for Byzantine epistolography. At the same time, the potential for a future combination of structural and qualitative concepts of relational analysis for research in the field is outlined.

Στον ακόλουθο σύνδεσμο μπορείτε να διαβάσετε ένα μέρος του βιβλίου:
https://issuu.com/gutenbergbooks/docs/g-aristainetos-erwtikaiepistolai?fbclid=IwAR2mZRWCXPRkDDUd9oUoKx792PecaM2Jq1sKvOahutDjWjVWvY7hrZqFyeY

Μπορεί να φαίνεται σήμερα παράδοξο αλλά ο ερωτικός επιστολογράφος της  Ύστερης Αρχαιότητας που είναι γνωστός με το όνομα Αρισταίνετος γνώρισε στην μετα-αναγεννησιακή Δυτική Ευρώπη μεγάλη αναγνωστική επιτυχία. Μετά την editio princeps του 1566, στους επόμενους δυόμισι περίπου αιώνες, έγιναν αλλεπάλληλες εκδόσεις του ελληνικού κειμένου και μεταφράσεις, αρχικά στα Λατινικά και κατόπιν στις μεγάλες εθνικές γλώσσες: Γαλλικά, Αγγλικά, Γερμανικά και Ιταλικά. Οι λαχταριστές ερωτικές ιστορίες του γοήτευαν, φαίνεται, όχι μόνο τους φιλολόγους αλλά και τους λογοτέχνες και το ευρύτερο λόγιο κοινό –ακόμη και τους ιερωμένους! Η αισθητική του νεο-κλασικισμού, με τα κριτήρια υψηλής λογοτεχνίας και πρωτοτυπίας που θέσπισε, κατελόγισε στον Αρισταίνετο –όπως και σε άλλους όψιμους συγγραφείς της αρχαιότητας– τη μομφή του επιγονισμού και τον απώθησε στο φιλολογικό αρχείο.
Είναι βέβαιο πάντως ότι η περίπτωση του Αρισταίνετου δεν στερείται ενδιαφέροντος: Ένας άγνωστός μας ελληνόφωνος λόγιος της ύστερης ρωμαϊκής αυτοκρατορίας, κοντά στο λυκόφως του αρχαίου κόσμου, όταν ο χριστιανισμός έχει επιβληθεί ως επικρατούσα θρησκεία, γράφει επιστολική λογοτεχνία, ακολουθώντας παλαιά μανιέρα και γλώσσα, με θεματικό άξονα τον έρωτα• και μάλιστα σε μια ποικιλία εκδοχών που ευρίσκονται επί το πλείστον στο εκτός γάμου και μονογαμίας πεδίο. Πραγματεύεται δηλαδή έναν από τους σκληρούς πυρήνες που διαφοροποιούν ιδεολογικά τον ελληνικό κόσμο από εκείνον του χριστιανισμού. Σε μια εποχή κατά την οποία η θρησκεία ανάγεται σε καθοριστικό παράγοντα συγκρότησης της ταυτότητας, ο συγγραφέας μας, τολμηρός και ελευθεριάζων, επιστρέφει στο ελληνικό παρελθόν• προβάλλει τον έρωτα ως τον μεγάλο εξουσιαστή του ανθρώπινου βίου. Αποκλείει, ωστόσο, από τη μυθοπλασία του τον ‘παιδικό’ και τον ομοφυλόφιλο εν γένει έρωτα –σε ένα δεύτερο επίπεδο ανάγνωσης όμως, τον υπαινίσσεται συνεχώς. Οι επιστολές του Αρισταίνετου αποτελούν μια μαρτυρία για την λογοτεχνική αισθητική και την ερωτική ηθική της ύστερης αρχαιότητας• εποχής που υπήρξε καθοριστική για τη διαμόρφωση της δυτικής σεξουαλικότητας.
Στη νεότερη Ελλάδα ο Αρισταίνετος δεν αξιώθηκε μέχρι σήμερα καμία συνολική μελέτη και καμία μεταφραστική δοκιμή. Αν ήθελε ο βιβλιογράφος να σημειώσει οπωσδήποτε κάτι σχετικό, θα σταματούσε στις εξής δύο περιπτώσεις: Το 1803 ο ηπειρώτης ιεροδιδάσκαλος Πολυζώης Κοντός εξέδωσε στη Βιέννη τις σωζόμενες επιστολές του (χωρίς μετάφραση και χωρίς σημειώσεις), ενώ το 1950 ο κλασικός φιλόλογος και εκπαιδευτικός Δημήτριος Τσιρίμπας δημοσίευσε στο περιοδικό Πλάτων ένα εκτεταμένο άρθρο για τις παροιμίες που εμφανίζονται στο έργο του. Το ανά χείρας βιβλίο συνεπώς περιλαμβάνει την πρώτη μετάφραση και τον πρώτο σχολιασμό των επιστολών του Αρισταίνετου στην ελληνική βιβλιογραφία.

""Recent scholarship in Classics and related fields has shown great interest in letters and epistolary literature of all forms (e.g. Morello and Morrison 2007; Trapp 2003; Rosenmeyer 2001).  The use of embedded letters to advance the narrative in genres such as historiography and the novel, and the potential for real or pseudonymous letters to function as biography (real or fictionalized), autobiography, or historical fiction, mean that letters in antiquity play a crucial role in the development of narrative literature of many kinds.  The apparent popularity of letters as reading matter rather than merely tools for communication, especially in the Imperial period, makes it essential that we pay attention to this genre, as we assess the reading practices and literary preferences of antiquity. The literary qualities of Greek letters are often overlooked, despite the fact that they display the same kind of awareness of generic conventions and self-consciousness of their literary nature as other narrative genres. 
Letters are always about narrative, among other things, whether directly – narrating events to absent correspondents - or indirectly – presenting fragments of an underlying narrative that the reader attempts to reconstruct.  This collection of essays explores the inherent narrative quality of letters and its use by Greek authors in a variety of genres and time periods, as well as the limited and sometimes even willfully obscure nature of epistolary narratives that omit vital information in the name of verisimilitude.  A series of case studies, with topics ranging from Classical poetry and historiography through to Philostratus and Christian martyrs, asks why particular authors choose the letter form; how an embedded letter relates to its narrative environment, and, conversely, the effect of the epistolary form on the narrative it contains; and how each author manipulates the epistolary tradition.  It explores various types of epistolary forms:  individual letters (embedded or free-standing); collections of continuous epistolary narrative; and letters presenting fragmented or discontinuous narrative.  It pays close attention to the self-consciously literary or fictional qualities in Greek letters, including intertextuality with other literary texts and particularly allusions to earlier letters as literature.  A chronological organization of the volume encourages the reader to consider epistolary narrative as a kind of literature that develops over time, growing in popularity and in the variety of forms it takes.  ""

RESUMO: As cartas são um dos instrumentos literários de comunicação muito utilizados pelo cristianismo primitivo, como meio de transmissão de conteúdo e orientação para comunidades e indivíduos. Esse instrumento é dotado de convenções estruturais e expressivas muito bem desenvolvidas no mundo antigo greco-judaico. Paulo de Tarso, situado nesse ambiente, apropria-se dessas convenções, adaptando-as às necessidades de cunho teológico e pastoral de suas comunidades. Esse artigo ocupa-se de apresentar os elementos estruturais da epistolografia clássica e suas aplicações nas cartas paulinas. Para, então, descrever e destacar os aspectos específicos da epistolografia paulina, por meio dos quais pode-se compreender melhor a evolução do pensamento e da teologia do Apóstolo.

ABSTRACT: The letters are one of the literary communication tools widely used by early Christians to delivery content and guidance for communities and individuals. This instrument is equipped with structural and expressive conventions very well developed in the Greco-Jewish ancient world. Paul of Tarsus, situated in that environment, appropriates those conventions, adapting them to the theological and pastoral nature needs of his communities. This article is concerned to present the structural elements of classical epistolography and its applications in the Pauline letters. To then describe and highlighting the specific aspects of Pauline epistolography, through which one can been understand the evolution of thought and theology of the Apostle.

Six letters of Libanius concern a man called Lemmatius or (C)lematius, whom scholars have taken to have been a pagan high priest in either Palestine or Athens under and after Julian. Revisiting the evidence, this article shows that Lemmatius was based in Palestine, that he was a priest but not necessarily a high priest, that the chronology of his vicissitudes as described by Libanius is different from what is usually suggested, and that his name was probably Lemmatius. This reassessment is important as it contributes to changing our understanding of high priests and their careers under and after Julian.

The present diploma thesis deals with the subject of Greek epistolography by means of the particular case of the letters by the scholar of the Modern Greek enlightenment Konstantinos M. Koumas (1777-1836). The first chapter gives an outline of the history of Greek epistolography from antiquity to the 19th century with its focus on the Middle Ages and the early modern period. There are treated writings about the theory of letter-writing, the lessons of epistolography in schools and the actual practice of letter-writing.
In the second chapter a short biography of Koumas with its emphasis on the issues that appear in the letters and the treatment of the question why Koumas’ correspondence is preserved only fragmentary is to be found. Subsequently an overview of the correspondents of all his preserved correspondence in order of three chronological phases in Koumas’ biography is given. Moreover, the letters are divided into the two categories “private letters” and “letters directed to a wider public” and subsequently into some further sub-categories, by means of which I try to draw some primary conclusions regarding the relation between style level and the belonging of a letter to a certain category.
In the third chapter the letters are distinguished in more detail according to the criteria of the person of the receiver and the time when the letters were written. Then they are analyzed stylistically on the basis of text samples. A division into two phases with the caesura in the year 1808 when Koumas started to apply Adamantios Korais’ language theory of the so called “middle way” can be undertaken. Before 1808 significant differences between letters among friends and letters directed to ecclesiastic dignitaries can be detected, while after 1808 a move away from the style paradigms of the traditional post byzantine epistolography is discernable. Furthermore the exceptional position of the letters directed to the philhellene Friedrich Thiersch that are written in archaizing language is to be observed as well as the continuous appliance of Korais’ language theory in letters that are intended for publication. The fourth chapter deals with the various influences that shaped Koumas’ style of letter writing. Until 1808 mainly the influence of the traditional byzantine and post byzantine epistolography, as it was taught in school lessons, was important. After 1808 the writings of Korais as well as the contemporary epistolography in German language affected Koumas’ style of letter writing. Koumas’ multifaceted style of letter writing contains the traditional rhetoric style of writing linked to the reception of the letters of the fathers of the church as well as Korais’ language theory of the “middle way” and an archaizing style of writing inspired by the philhellenic enthusiasm for antiquity. As it unifies these different approaches it can be characterized as representative of the Greek epistolography of its time. Since a complete edition of Koumas’ letters doesn’t exist so far the appendix gives information concerning the preservation of Koumas’ letters, the preserved correspondence is evaluated statistically according to various criteria. Finally, there is a register containing summaries of the 174 preserved letters to or from Koumas, which formed the empirical basis of my research, in chronological order including the respective references.

Recorrido crítico por la figura y la obra del llamado "Pseudo-Heráclito", autor (o autores) de época incierta de siete cartas falsamente atribuidas a Heráclito y de otras dos atribuidas al rey Darío, inspiradas esencialmente en la que se ha llamado "filosofía popular cínico-estoica". Esquema del estudio: Ediciones y traducciones. Estudios generales. Análisis e interpretación del corpus epistolar. La cuestión del autor y la fecha de composición.

The discussion on the authenticity of Plato's Seventh Letter should consider its distinct parts, some incongruences between them and the editorial process of Plato's later works. The number of times Plato has given advice and the number of travels to Sicily are differently indicated in the letter. These incongruences could be a sign of different Platonic texts being assembled by an 'editor,' becoming a relevant matter for the analysis of the text and its authorship.

Op 24 maart 2011 vond Thiasos’ vijfde studentensymposium plaats met als thema “Op Dionysos’ drinkgelag. Symposium en receptie in/van de Grieks-Romeinse oudheid”. Een uitstekende gelegenheid om de apocriefe brieven van Socrates (in dit artikel Epistulae Socratis genoemd) onder de loep te nemen. De voorliggende bijdrage biedt een geactualiseerde herwerking van een voordracht over deze vaak stiefmoederlijk behandelde Griekse briefcollectie uit de Romeinse keizertijd (in Paulys Realencyclopädie wordt het bv. pas in de vijfde supplementband behandeld en dan nog in drie schamele kolommetjes; Sykutris 1931).
Ter inleiding wordt eerst de figuur van Socrates bondig geschetst (1.). Daarna belichten we de Epistulae Socratis zelf (2.). Meer specifiek gaat de aandacht uit naar de manier waarop Socrates in deze briefverzameling ten tonele wordt gebracht. De eerste brief zal de kern van de bespreking vormen (2.2.1.), aangezien deze een aantal interessante eigenheden bevat. Een afsluitende noot gaat in op de waardering en plaats van deze brieven binnen de Griekse literatuurgeschiedenis (3.).

Abstract: When the Romans were involved in the affairs of the Greek East, they adopted more or less the language and the form of the Hellenistic epistolary system for their communication with the Hellenistic Poleis. But why did this seem necessary to them and how did they exactly manage to do this? Form, content and catch-phrases of the earliest Roman letters clearly show that the Romans felt the need to convince their Greek counterparts of their cultural, institutional and discursive equality. To this end they intentionally adapted the royal language of diplomacy, euergetism and power in order to meet the expectations of the Greek recipients. In addition to political and military factors this talent for applying and refining alien discursive means was one reason why the Romans were accepted as major player in the Hellenistic world.

This paper argues that Saturnalia is a miniature simulacrum of the Lucianic corpus. It is paradigmatic of Lucian’s generic variety and especially of his generic mixis. Disguised as light satire, this text is rather, read in conjunction with other Lucianic programmatic texts, a light form of ars poetica in which the author, invoking the reversal of hierarchies and the license of the festival, claims the right to reverse and thus rewrite the literary nomoi.

This is a draft of published paper on how the sophists in Philostratus' Vitae Sophistarum actually earned their livings. It appeared in a festschrift for Martin Camargo that may be ordered from Brepols: http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503547770-1

Roman elite society was changing rapidly in the late fourth century. Increasingly, military men of foreign origin acquired positions of power. Despite differences in education and background, members of the civilian and “barbarian” military elite managed to bridge this often stark cultural divide by exchanging letters, a key practice of traditional aristocratic, status–based culture. This study focuses on the friendship of Libanius and Ellebichus, magister militum of the East, as found in the letters and orations of Libanius composed between 385 and 390. As one of the few well–documented relationships between an educated civilian and a “barbarian” general, their friendship offers insight into the broader pattern of letter exchanges between these seemingly disparate groups. Libanius clearly valued this relationship, as did Ellebichus, who requested orations from the famous rhetor. Libanius’s letters conformed to generic conventions and maintained the semblance of a shared cultural background. When the relationship broke down, Libanius could criticize his friend’s foreign origin only in an oration, not a letter. Whatever the true feelings of the correspondents, the very act of exchanging letters helped unite the Roman Empire and, in effect, carefully mitigated the differences in culture, education, and power between the civilian and “barbarian” military elite.

Aula Gambi, Piazza San Giovanni in Monte 2 - Link per seguire il convegno:

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Nell'ambito de "Le Conferenze | Percorsi di storia militare antica" organizzate da Casus Belli - Arma Mater Studiorum, presento una disamina generale sulla corrispondenza militare romana a partire dalle lettere rivenute su papiri, ostraka e tavolette.

https://www.facebook.com/CasusbelliArmamater/videos/609755059643731

This article is an edition of a 5th century Greek private letter on papyrus, from a Christian context, sent from Alexandria. Written by a son to his mother through another person, the letter is typical of Christian Greek epistolography (Christian turns of phrase, judicial proceedings, food purchase, condolences, formulae valetudinis). It also mentions the St.-John's martyrium of Alexandria.

The collection of fictional letters that has come down to us under the name of Aristaenetus (late 5th/early 6th c.) survived in only one manuscript (Vindob. phil. gr. 310, probably 13th c.) and in incomplete form. Whereas most previous studies on these letters focused on their contents, on questions of intertextuality and imitatio, this presentation places special emphasis on the form of the letters, the structure of the corpus, and the function of the letters, and takes a closer look at the transmission and reception of this text.
In this workshop, I will argue that the overall formative principle of the letter collection is variatio, and look forward to discussing what this principle could mean for the formation of the corpus. Second, I will suggest that these letters might have been performed in theatra and am curious about reactions from the workshop participants on this hypothesis. Last, I will try to offer possible explanations for the scarce manuscript evidence of this work.

ENGLISH: It is traditionally stated that the Hippocratic Corpus is written in the literary Ionic dialect, a claim that also extends to the letters in this collection, all of them from a late period and pseudepigraphic. With a strictly linguistic approach, it is found that in letters 1-9, a cross correspondence between the Persian king Artaxerxes, Hippocrates and a series of intermediaries, the type of language they use is not uniform or homogeneous, and that instead each of the correspondents is subtly characterized by the dialect used. For example, Artaxerxes writes in a Greek closer to Koiné Greek, while Hippocrates uses a Greek that is closer to the
literary Ionic dialect.

ESPAÑOL:  La opinión tradicional sostiene que el Corpus Hippocraticum está redactado en jónico literario, afirmación que se extiende también a las cartas de esta colección, todas ellas tardías y pseudoepígrafas. A partir de su análisis lingüístico, se constata que en las cartas 1-9, que contienen una correspondencia cruzada entre el rey persa Artajerjes, Hipócrates y una serie de intermediarios, el tipo de lengua empleado no es uniforme ni homogéneo, sino que cada uno de los remitentes aparece sutilmente caracterizado por el dialecto empleado. Por ejemplo, Artajerjes se expresa en un griego más próximo al griego koiné, e Hipócrates en un griego más próximo al dialecto jónico literario.