Latin Prose

This article investigates the presence of Cicero in the texts of the compendium tradition according to three main lines. It intends to consider, on the one hand, the persistence of Ciceronian rhetorical teaching (and so Cicero as the theoretical ideal of the author, and, obviously, of writing in a certain manner); it tries to identify potential specific references to Cicero’s writings in search of the reception of the author as a canonical representative of Latin literary writing; and, finally, it confirms the presence of the politician and orator in the reconstruction of events from that dense historical moment (and so the presence or absence of judgements about the political activity of a protagonist). The theoretical, stylistic, and, finally, prosopographic spheres are in fact the three canonical threads – not exclusive of each other – in which the image of Cicero is manifested in the following centuries. An observation of their existence and variability in this proposed field of investigation – historiographical texts characterised by their brevity – also undoubtedly represents an interesting inquiry from the perspective of cultural history, which touches upon the process of reception of a universal model of author and politician.

Il resoconto liviano della scomparsa di Romolo e dell'apparizione di Quirino costituisce una lettura orientata di un episodio problematico che aveva ricevuto interpretazioni tese a sottolineare l'evoluzione tirannica del potere del primo re e la conseguente reazione senatoria. L'analisi dell'opinione di Cicerone e di Agostino consente di individuare le peculiarità della lettura di Livio, sorretta da uno stile retoricamente impostato.

In this, his final book, Erich Auerbach writes, "My purpose is always to write history." Tracing the transformations of classical Latin rhetoric from late antiquity to the modern era, he explores major concerns raised in his Mimesis: the historical and social contexts in which writings were received, and issues of aesthetics, semantics, stylistics, and sociology that anticipate the concerns of the new historicism.

A selection of an upcycled Latin prose composition book by Moses Daniell, republished for Kindles and other hardware. The answer key's solutions have been interleaved with the prose composition tasks so that immediate correction is available for those without a teacher. See the blurb and another preview at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C8GJQCV/ .

Le Fabulae di Igino costituiscono un testo composito e di tradizione in gran parte incerta. Tuttavia, tenuto conto della forma testuale e dello stile, che in massima parte si lasciano ricondurre a paradigmi di semplicità e compilazione propri di prodotti antiquari e informativi di varie età che intendono conservare e trasmettere, si ravvisa una fondamentale coesione e coerenza nell'insieme. Quest'ultima è data in particolare dall'adesione a un teorico modello mitografico, rappresentato nel mondo greco da Apollodoro, di cui si mette in luce l'analogia a certe istanze proprie della tradizione enciclopedica.

Analisi del libro II del trattato agostiniano e delle complesse tematiche ivi contenute, con attenzione alle nozioni di semiologia, esegesi, filologia, allo scopo di valorizzare lo spessore culturale dell'operazione "enciclopedica" di Agostino, fra cultura antica e interpretazione scritturistica.

Il libro VIII delle Confessioni rievoca il momento cruciale della vicenda esistenziale di sant’Agostino, culminante nella definitiva conversione, descritta nella famosa “scena del giardino” della sua casa milanese. Il complesso intrecciarsi di sentimenti, pensieri, rivolgimenti interiori dell’intellettuale, che progressivamente ma con estrema fatica si distacca dalle attrattive del mondo per dedicarsi completamente a Dio, è preparato dall’efficace racconto dell’esperienza di conversione vissuta da altri personaggi in vario contatto con lui. Lo scrittore sceglie di alternare momenti narrativi ad altri di riflessione e scandaglio interiore, con il risultato di conferire all’intero libro un andamento personale e partecipato dall’indubbio valore letterario.

The legend of the disappearance and apotheosis of the first king of Rome is a problematic case for the ancient historians, some of which do not hesitate to present doubts about the contents of tradition and attempt a rationalistic interpretation of the fact. In civ. 3,15 Augustine treats the episode with a discussion similar to a scholastic quaestio: he refers the opinion of Cicero on re p. 2,17-20, the first to separate historical reality and celebratory superstructures, praises objectivity but with new arguments affirms his own point of view to define also in this way the distance between pagan orientation and the Christian vision of history. Moreover, the comparison between the Augustinian text and Livy 1,16, also known in ancient times in scholastic practice, shows that Augustine, in relation to Romulus, does not want to reconstruct events as a historiographer, but to evaluate them from a cultural point of view; the corresponding synthetic version of Florus (1,1), from which some isolated elements of style seem to pass to Augustinian prose, offers other elements for evaluating the readings of the Bishop of Hippo and his method of selecting sources.

"Roman and Roman-friendly Women Writers Bibliography (Prose)" in D. Mantzilas, Roman and Roman-friendly Women Writers: Poetesses and Prose Writers from the Beginnings of Latin Literature to Late Antiquity [Ρωμαίες και Φιλορωμαίες συγγραφείς: ποιήτριες και πεζογράφοι από τις απαρχές έως την ύστερη Αρχαιότητα], Ioannina: Carpe Diem Publications, 2018, passim

Agitur hac commentatione de scribendi ratione in Isidori Hispalensis Etymologiarum libris et praecipue de compilandi more eius ex auctorum libris variorum generum. Exempla proponuntur ex Etymologiarum libro XI (1, 37-38; 1, 105-106; 1, 136) in quibus singula excerpta, studiose ab Isidoro elaborata, inventa explicantur.

Nowadays we can judge books by their covers. In antiquity, when a 'book' was a papyrus roll, its first few words advertised the nature of the text to follow. The Prologue of Apuleius' innovative novel, the Metamorphoses (or Golden Ass), is an extraordinary example of a programmatic opening, which has captivated readers and scholars from the Renaissance to the present day. This short text raises a variety of important questions about literacy, and about historical and linguistic interpretation.
Along with a new text and translation of the Prologue, the twenty-four discussions in this volume, commissioned from internationally known specialists, cover issues ranging from philosophy and cultural history to intertextuality and Latinity. This collection of essays combines the broader perspectives of an interdisciplinary anthology with the closer focus of a traditional commentary. As a model for collaborative work, it displays the strength and diversity of existing approaches to ancient texts and is designed to stimulate new developments in the study of classics and later literatures.

This study aims to examine some more significant texts of the Latin historiographical tradition of the imperial age to identify the features and possibilities of the short form of writing in prose. In fact, the short form is not imposed by the limits and difficulties of the writer or by the incompetence and haste of the public, but corresponds to a precise determination of the author in accordance with a rhetorical approach and in response to the literary taste of the time, which can be documented in several areas and particularly in the encyclopaedic genre. Considered in these respects, the work of Eutropius and the whole tradition of breviarii appears, both from a literary and rhetoric point of view, a very interesting laboratory of writing and style, and not just a repertoire of texts for school use only.

La vicenda del martirio di Perpetua, narrata nella relativa Passio, è molto presente nell’immaginario e nella pratica liturgica delle prime comunità cristiane, soprattutto in Africa, e viene trattata da Agostino in serm. 280-282 e serm. 1 Erfurt. Il presente saggio intende illustrare come lo scrittore interpreti la vicenda con una particolare attenzione a presentare il personaggio principale e i compagni non soltanto badando a esigenze pastorali ma con cura stilistica ed efficacia compositiva, e indaga costanti e peculiarità rinvenibili nei diversi testi, cercando di evidenziare la personalità di Agostino scrittore.

Extract of an ebook available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BQGFPQT/ . An exercise book for Latin composition with answers interleaved for maximum speedy coverage on ereaders. Useful for all beyond the very first level of language-learning.

Este trabalho é um pequeno recorte de uma pesquisa maior, ainda no início, que visa encontrar elementos no conjunto da obra retórica de Cícero que sustentem a hipótese de um projeto voltado ao papel do orador e da oratória na república romana. Vamos nos concentrar nas propostas ciceronianas para a formação do seu orador ideal, a que se dedica com especial atenção no seu Orator (46. A.C.), que cumpriria a missão de liderar a República e encaminhá-la para seu próprio bem-estar.

Imitation was central to Roman culture, and a staple of Roman poetry. But it was also fundamental to Roman prose. This book brings together two monuments of the ‘High Empire’, Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria (‘Training of the orator’) and Pliny’s Epistles, to reveal a spectacular project of textual and ethical imitation. As a young man Pliny had studied with Quintilian. In the Epistles he meticulously transforms and subsumes his teacher’s masterpiece. Tacitus’ Dialogus is drawn deep into the project, along with a wide range of poets and prose writers, making ‘Quintilian in Brief’ a case study with far-reaching implications for how we read Latin literature.

In teasing apart Pliny’s rich intertextual weave, this book reinterprets Quintilian through the eyes of one of his sharpest readers, radically reassesses the Epistles as a work of minute textual artistry, and makes a major intervention in scholarly debates on intertextuality and imitation in Roman prose and culture.

The paper considers the problem of the importance of the lost Disciplinae of Varro for Augustine’s intellectual formation and above all for his own project of composing an encyclopaedia with the same title, by first setting it within the broader debate about the adoption and controlled reuse of materials from pagan learning in a Christian sphere and so observing the peculiarities of Augustine’s approach in that respect. The analysis and discussion of the testimony of Claudianus Mamertus (anim. 2.8), re-read in light of some passages of Augustine (retr. 1.6; ord. 1.1.2–3; epist. 26), helps illustrate Augustine’s encyclopaedic project in its specific historical and cultural force; that is, he adopts an approach to research and the systematization of knowledge, without detaching it from the originating, fundamentally ethical motivation, that evaluates it from – and hence integrates it into – the Christian pointof view.

In occasione del XV centenario della morte di Magno Felice Ennodio (521 - 2021), decimo vescovo di Pavia, santo e figura complessa di religioso e letterato in lingua latina, il successore di quest’ultimo sulla cattedra pavese, monsignor Corrado Sanguineti, ha assunto l’iniziativa di indire un “Anno Ennodiano”, invitando alcuni esponenti della società civile, culturale e religiosa a costituire un comitato allo scopo di proporre e coordinare iniziative di vario ambito e diversa destinazione.
Il presente volume nasce appunto da questo motivato contesto cittadino come intervento di buona e affidabile divulgazione, per rendere familiare la figura di Ennodio ai pavesi che non la conoscono nelle sue varie pieghe e, in generale, rivolgendosi ai cultori dell’antichità interessati ad approfondire un momento storico-culturale che fra l’altro sa mostrare sensazionali consonanze con taluni aspetti della nostra epoca.
Così si è cercato di proporre, più che una vera e propria biografia, una narrazione basata sui dati noti riguardanti la vita del personaggio. Tali notizie provengono in massima parte proprio dagli scritti ennodiani, e per questo la scelta è stata quella di far parlare lo stesso autore, a commento di alcuni momenti salienti della sua vita, attraverso la traduzione di alcuni passi a vario titolo significativi. Inoltre è stata prestata attenzione ad alcuni esponenti della storiografia locale pavese, che interpretano la tradizione al proposito aggiungendo una ulteriore dimensione critica in grado di documentare la rilevanza di Ennodio a livello di vero e proprio culto della personalità.
Il racconto biografico è arricchito da tavole originali del maestro Marco Giusfredi. Con la sua consueta attenzione alla ricostruzione storica delle immagini egli ha saputo illustrare i diversi momenti cogliendo sensazioni e aspetti peculiari, donando altresì un volto al personaggio nelle diverse stagioni della sua esistenza.
Il progetto dell’opera è stato inoltre concordato con Luisa Erba, che con la sua competenza storico-artistica e con la sua passione per la storia patria ha garantito un apporto critico e documentario davvero prezioso.

L'articolo intende presentare dei raffronti fra il testo del libro III del De civitate Dei e l'opera storiografica di Floro per offrire ulteriore dimostrazione dell'interesse mostrato da Agostino per il cosiddetto breviario floriano. I raffronti riguardano tre momenti particolari della storia di Roma (i primi scontri in età arcaica, la prima guerra punica, la dittatura di Mario) che Floro tratta con particolare attenzione stilistica e rappresentativa, attirando per questo l'attenzione di Agostino, al punto da emergere nel trattato agostiniano in modo chiaro e spesso reinterpretato stilisticamente.

This paper reconsiders Vitruvius' attitude toward literary auctoritas in the context of two, related types of historiographical writing, so-called universal or "world-history" and chronography.  Vitruvius' own subject matter, architectura as a whole, is neither clearly universal nor traditionally historical; but De architectura shares many of the alleged aims, benefits, and programmatic features of these particular kinds of historiography.

Questo articolo si propone di dimostrare che le citazioni di Lattanzio dall’Euhemerus di Ennio sono una delle prove più eloquenti che possono confutare la tesi vulgata secondo la quale la letteratura latina arcaica andò completamente perduta già alla fine II secolo d.C.

The aim of this paper is to argue that Lactantius’ quotations from Ennius’ Euhemerus are among the strongest evidences that can refute the common view that archaic Latin literature was completely lost toward the end of the 2nd c. CE.

The Augustine’s interpretation of an episode of the First Book of Samuel (2,1-10) in civ. XVII and the exegetical ways subsequently proposed by Isidorus, Beda and
Rhaban Maurus allows to analyze the phenomenon of the circulation, compilation and variation of exegetical items between Late Antiquity and the Middle Age. The
comparison of the quoted passages both offers a clear documentation of the early Augustine’s magisterium and of the reception of his literary and theological production, and also testifies to the compilatory attitude, characteristic of the compositional aspects of the prose of the subsequent esegetes; the analysis also illustrates the tendency to derive selected material from Augustine depending on the writing context and on the destination of the work.

Once upon a time, a beautiful woman, so beautiful that Aphrodite herself felt envious, found herself in the most unexpected situation. Her parents had exposed her on the slopes of a mountain, so that a monster would abduct her. Apollo had uttered this ominous oracle, in Delphi. The woman was lying there, in terror, but, all of a sudden, a cool breeze transported her into an enchanting palace. Not a living soul was in view, but gentle voices were floating in the air, music played, while exquisite food was served. Welcomed, pampered and tired, the young woman enjoyed a delightful supper and went to bed. In the dark, a most agreeable lover came and joined her. They made love, she lost her virginity and they fell asleep. Before dawn, he slid away. These mysterious visitations continued, night after night. Two bodies became accustomed to lie together, embrace, caress, kiss and have sex – all in the dark. The charming lover remained utterly invisible. And he must remain so: “Do not try to see me!” he said most emphat- ically. His beloved should never, ever make the mistake of trying to discover his face.
We know the story: it is the literary and philosophical myth of Cupid and Psyche, Desire (Latin Cupido) and Soul (Greek, Psuche), in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, and we know how it ends. Psyche falls prey to the envy of her unattractive sisters, listens to their slanderous intimations and grows increasingly anxious to catch a glimpse of her husband. While he is peacefully sleeping, she kindles a lamp and finally contemplates Desire in person, in his male and youthful splendour. ...We know the plot, and we cannot fail to be surprised that it should revolve around one, striking inability: that of identifying a human forma, through any sense other than vision. More to the point, Apuleius’ text lingers upon the sensuous, sensual and synaesthetic intimacy of Cupid and Psyche, in bed. ...Will the Soul contemplate true Desire, in awe? Not really, because, as soon as she sets eyes on the sleeping beauty, she cannot keep her hands off him. She starts playing with the arrows, which results in a fatal wound. She does not know yet who this winged creature is, but she falls in love. She desires Desire. She loves Love. This is literally love at first sight, we might be tempted to say. But it is her impulsive, clumsy, feverish manipulation of Cupid’s weapons that causes the accident. “She investigates and explores with her hands and she admires the weapons of her husband” (rimatur atque pertrectat et mariti sui miratur arma). Her curiosity guides her eyes, and her hands, in a tentative yet thorough inspection, which is not a pure enjoyment of beauty. Psyche wants to know.
Will to know is wish to touch...

The first book of Cicero's epistles to his friends displays a cunning arrangement, and there is much to gain in reading its eleven letters as a collection. I this article I argue that the conventional affirmation of the  bond that joins writer and addressee grows into a story of loyalty and obligation, and that the arrangement designed by the editor enhances this story to Cicero's advantage. I also propose a new reading of letter 10 (the last in the collection) arguing that it has been often dismissed and misunderstood.

Use phrasebooks such as this one to make reading the classical texts easier and to gain insights into the usages of some important Latin vocabulary. This work is intended for use with Caesar's Gallic Wars, but it can also serve as an inexpensive auxiliary text for Latin prose composition / translation courses.