Abstract: The name and the verses of Phaedrus were unknown in the Middle Ages but his fables were widespread in several prosified versions. One of these is the collection of Romulus, which is of great importance because it has preserved some lost Phaedrian fables and various other collections have derived from it. This paper examines the textual tradition of these and of Phaedrus’ fables. I attempt to present some problems about the tradition and offer a solution to these questions.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 173-189
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.52.2012.2.6
Authors
Hanna Vámos, University of Szeged Dept. of Classical and Neo-Latin Studies H-6722 Szeged Egyetem u. 2. Hungary
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: The question of the relationship between Juvenal and Quintilian is still unanswered: the reconstruction of their possible biographical and literary connections is very uncertain. The Life of Juvenal does not mention Quintilian; its author only states that Juvenal spent a significant part of his life declaiming. Their personal acquaintance is not confirmed by any ancient source, and the views of modern research are not univocal either. In his Institutes Quintilian declares concerning the satire that in his age there are satirists who will be famous in the future. However, research is very careful about the question whether Quintilian referred to Juvenal with these words. On the basis of the biographical data, it cannot even be proven with certainty that Juvenal had known Quintilian, thus we have to find evidence in the texts of the two authors. In this paper, I examine the possible influence of Quintilian on Juvenal’s Satire 1, by highlighting textual and thematic parallels, as well as common motifs, in order to unfold the relation between Satire 1, the Institutes, and the Minor Declamations attributed to Quintilian.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 165-171
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.52.2012.2.5
Authors
Gergő Gellérfi, University of Szeged Szeged Hungary
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: The unique source of the 334 verses which came down to us from Archestratus is the Deipnosophistae, prolix dialogue of Athenaeus, author of the 2nd century A.D. The characters of this dialogue are introducing and commenting, therefore enchasing Archestratus’ fragments in the organic unity of the dialogue according to their own vision of world. Thus, the introducing comments which Athenaeus’ characters make on Archestratus’ fragments form the natural milieu of the fragments, insofar as they become inseparable of Archestratus’ text. Does these introducing comments help today’s reader to get closer to an adequate lecture of Archestratus? This is the question which the first part of the present study proposes to answer, trying to outline the antique vision on Archestratus by means of the unique source of the fragments: Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae.The second part of the study examines — in the spirit of the results of the first part — each fragment of Archestratus, strictly from one point of view: the concept of good made out of the fragments. This part proposes to shed light upon what invests a food with the vertue of goodness, and how the good alimentation and good life are connected in Archestratus’ thought.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 113-133
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.52.2012.2.2
Authors
Mária Adorjáni, Trosly-Breuil France
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: Pliny the Elder’s encyclopaedia contains lots of information on Etruria and the Etruscans in different contexts. Besides geographical descriptions, there are text parts related to the Etruscans in the volumes on botany, zoology, pharmacology and mineralogy. In the following, I am going to provide an analysis of all the passages related to the Etruscans in the encyclopaedia along different themes.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 137-163
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.52.2012.2.4
Authors
Cecilia Gábli, Pécs Hungary
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: Every Pindaric ode poses the question of literary unity, which is the main issue of Pindaric scholarship. But every ode presents a specific form of unity, and so does the Sixth Olympian, one of Pindar’s most accomplished poems, whose ways of achieving unity are the chief concern of this paper. I argue that unity in O. 6 comes about by dint of a metaphoric parallel between the poet (Pindar) and the prophet (Hagesias, the victor, and Iamos, the mythic protagonist). This parallel is based on two significant moments, which are typical of both the prophet and the poet: the moment of inspiration and that of the utterance (of the oracle viz. poem). The same moments are brought to the fore in vv. 58–70 concerning the prophet Iamos, then in vv. 82–91 (the main stumbling block in the interpretation of the poem) concerning the poet Pindar. From this core metaphors of prophetic-poetic activity permeate the whole epinician ode.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 91-111
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.52.2012.2.1
Authors
Zsolt Adorjáni, Katholischen Péter-Pázmány-Universität Piliscsaba Institut für Altertumskunde der H-2087 Piliscsaba-Klotildliget Egyetem u. 1. Ungarn
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: The paper reports on the legacy of Gyula Moravcsik, the internationally renowned professor of Byzantine Studies, who died in 1972. The legacy kept by the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has been fully catalogued and is now available to researchers.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 187-198
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.2.6
Authors
Edit Krähling, Bibliothek der Ungarischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Abteilung für Handschriften und Alte Bücher Széchenyi István tér 9. H-1051 Budapest Ungarn
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: Chapter 12 of the 8th-century Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai claims that two brazen hands on spears and a bushel (modion) were set up on an arched doorway near a granary in Constantinople under the emperor Valentinian (364–375) after the hands of a treacherous grain merchant had been cut, in remembrance of this event. However, hands on spears are a well-known type of Roman military signs, while the bushel should be explained as an altar for burnt offerings. Both objects may well have been depicted together on a votive relief which decorated the arch in Constantinople, but this has nothing to do with the grain trade in the city. The relief can have been fixed on the arch only long after Valentinian’s time, for the building to which it belonged must be identified with a 5th-century palace complex known in later times as ta Amastrianou, the “house of the man from Amastris”, of which remains do still survive.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 87-97
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.2.2
Authors
Albrecht Berger, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Institut für Byzantinistik Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1 80539 München Deutschland
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: Eustathios, the illustrious scholar and clergyman of the 12th century AD, wrote a commentary to Pindar’s epinician odes, from which only the proem survives. Eustathios treatment of the lyric poet, his ideas and criteria of literary criticism have not been re-assessed since Kambylis’ interpretation and text edition (1991). The aim of this paper is to supply this re-evaluation. Besides, a new Homeric allusion and some evidence for Eustathios’ productive imitation of Pindar’s style are dealt with.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 77-85
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.2.1
Authors
Zsolt Adorjáni, Forschungsgruppe für Altertumswissenschaft der Ungarischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Budapest Hungary
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: This paper examines the possibility of a correlation between orthodoxy and brick burials, also investigating burials with brick and stone. Among the peoples inhabiting the Carpathian Basin the custom of brick burials had no direct antecedent. Based on our research brick burials seem to have been taken over from the Balkan, while concerning burials with stone the former Upper Hungary played an important role as well. The tradition can be traced back to an antique custom, persistent in orthodoxy, with the purpose of preserving the ephemeral and perishable body for eternity and assuring the deceased’s peace.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 115-161
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.2.4
Authors
Éva Révész, University of Szeged Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences H-6722 Szeged Egyetem u. 2 Hungary
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: In the past decades researchers examining burial customs have recognised local phenomena pointing to the cultural diversity of the Avar population inhabiting the Carpathian Basin. Thus it has been proposed that several groups of different traditions and cultures may have coexisted in the territory of the Avars. In the recently excavated 7th–8th-century Avar cemeteries near Szekszárd (Szekszárd-Tószegidűlő, Tolna-Mözs-Fehérvize-dűlő) another — already known (Szekszárd-Bogyiszlói út és Gyönk-Vásártér út cemetery) — characteristic phenomenon was observed that can now be regarded as a regional feature. The paper discusses this burial type - which has recently also been found in great numbers in the cemetery of Tolna-Mözs —, namely the empty graves containing no human remains. Empty burials have been known in cemeteries of the Avar Age, however, their number is usually insignificant compared to the total number of graves. The aim of this paper is to analyse the possible reasons for empty graves and to show that they were the result of a conscious custom, most probably intended as symbolic burials.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 99-113
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.2.3
Authors
Ádám Novotnik, Eötvös-Loránd-Universität (ELTE) Budapest Eötvös József Collegium, Budapest und Institut für Archäologie H-1088 Budapest Múzeum krt. 4/b Hungary
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: The paper deals with a letter of emperor Isaakios II Comnenos to the archbishop Iob of Esztergom (ca. 1190), a document which became known through the edition of the letters of the court officer Demetrios Tornikes in 1970. It concerns theological questions (eating of sacrifice meat, filioque) which the emperor (or rather his ghost writer Tornikes) uses to disprove the western practice. In a political explosive time of permanent menace and invasions at all corners of the empire the emperor on the one hand has to underline the orthodox position as the real acceptable in these questions (by sophistically refuting the archbishop’s objections) and to simulate an unshakeable imperial power, on the other hand he wants to give the impression that the archbishop has a special status for the emperor and his patience (which might have consequences for the relation between Byzantium and Hungary, always a needful ally). The paper concentrates especially on the illocution and perlocution aspects of the letter.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 163-186
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.2.5
Authors
Christian Gastgeber, Institut für Byzanzforschung Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Wohllebengasse 12-14 A-1040 Wien Österreich
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: The fifteenth-century manuscript Suppl. Gr. 45 (Austrian National Library, ÖNB, Vienna) contains an extensive Greek-Latin dictionary, where one can find a great number of marginal notes written by different hands and in different languages (Greek, Latin and Italian). Approximately sixty of these glossary notes are quotations from the well-known Byzantine code of law, the Basilika (9th century), which was initiated by Emperor Basil I and completed under the reign of his successor, Leo VI the Wise. In my paper, I intend to examine these marginal notes and argue that their direct source text is not the monumental code of law, the Basilika itself, but rather its abridged version from the 10th cent., the SynopsisMaior Basilicorum.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 329-344
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.3-4.8
Authors
Zsuzsanna Ötvös, ELTE Eötvös Collegium H-1118 Budapest Ménesi út 11-13. Hungary
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: In Byzantium, the 9th–11th c. was a crucial period concerning the preservation of many manuscripts we posses to this day. One of them is the Codex Vindobonensis Medicus graecus 4 from the Austrian National Library in Vienna, one of the oldest manuscripts of the Hippocratic tradition. The initial analysis of this manuscript shows the background of its use, its possible Byzantine readers and sheds light on its origin.A detailed description of the manuscript will require a deeper analysis of the script used, the textual composition, the notes and all corrections, emendations, scribal errors and the like. Such an analysis would lead to a better understanding of the Byzantine scribal culture in the 9th-11th c., including why, for whom and how they carried out their work.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 345-352
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.3-4.9
Authors
Eva Serafinová, Komensky-Universität Bratislava Institut für klassische und semitische Philologie Gondova 2 814 99 Bratislava Slowakei
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: About 620 the Emperor Heraclius succeeded in concluding a temporary peace with the Avars and concentrating his forces exclusively on the struggle with Persia. In 622, during the first great offensive, the tactical and military maturity of the Eastern Roman army was demonstrated for the first time. However, Heraclius still could not use the strategic initiative enough in this period. The complicated relations with the Khagantae forced the Emperor to return to Constantinople and begin negotiations for a new peace treaty. The planned meeting with the Khagan of the Avars almost ended in a personal catastrophe for the Emperor. Regardless of this incident, both sides had an interest in concluding peace. While the Romans needed to continue the war with Persia, the Avars had to devote attention to stabilizing the situation in the Khaganate after the outbreak of Samo’s revolt. The agreement reached at the turn of the years 623/624 lasted until the Avar siege of Constantinople in 626.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 315-328
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.3-4.7
Authors
Martin Hurbanič, Comenius University, Bratislava Department of History Gondova 2 814 99 Bratislava Slovakia
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: The papyrus letters from an early Christian environment have always attracted the papyrologists’ attention. This paper presents a new, so far inedited piece from the Laurenziana Collection of Florence. Although the papyrus is badly mutilated and incomplete, besides the transcription, a partial and very hypothetical restoration of the content and the context can be attempted. According to my interpretation the writer gives an account of a speech held by the deacon Stephan, which may echo verses from the Letter of James (James 2.2–6). If its date based on paleographical considerations (3rd–4th c.) is correct, the papyrus might even refer to the city of Arkadia on Crete, although a dating into the 5th c. and an interpretation of the name as the eparchy of Arkadia in Egypt cannot be excluded. Despite all difficulties the papyrus represents a new, surely Christian letter with a possible Biblical echo. This paper, however, is not the critical edition of the text, which is to be prepared in a forthcoming article; its only intention is to present the papyrus with its problems and propose a possible reading of the text.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 307-314
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.3-4.6
Authors
Ágnes Mihálykó, ELTE Eötvös Collegium H-1118 Budapest Ménesi út 11-13 Ungarn
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: Through a careful examination of the accounts of Daqin (大秦) — presumably the Roman Empire — and Fulin (拂菻) — Byzantinum —, we can depict a picture of how the Chinese imagined another ancient empire far away in the West. The Chinese annals not only give information on and the interpretation of the name of that mysterious country but also add details about its geography, administration, economy — including agriculture, domesticated animals and products -, trade and the envoys sent by Daqin (大秦) people. Such a description could be remarkable on its own but the accounts also emphasise the similarities between the two great empires that might have originated in their same cultural level.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 263-306
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.3-4.5
Authors
Krisztina Hoppál, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) Budapest H-1088 Budapest Múzeum krt. 6-8. Hungary
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: Following the ancient and the Arabic traditions of amor hereos, medieval physicians perpetuated the definition of love as a form of melancholy, a kind of insanity of atrabiliar origin, accompanied by intense fear and sorrow. This study investigates, on the one hand, the ambiguous medieval notions of melancholy and lovesickness, often included in a similar etiologic and nosologic framework, and the original contribution offered to this medical tradition by Arnold of Villanova, a Catalan physician of the 13th century. On the other hand, the paper attempts an analysis of the relationship between medical doctrine and literary theory, exploring the psychological-physical definition of amorous passion elaborated in what could be considered a sort of encyclopaedia of medieval love, in De amore by Andreas Capellanus.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 247-261
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.3-4.4
Authors
Francesca Battista, University G. d’Annunzio Chieti-Pescara Italy
Journal Acta Antiqua
Abstract: The fragments of Ephippos’ Geryones include a long description of a huge fish cooked by Geryones in a correspondingly oversized casserole (fr. 5). This kind of description is amply paralleled in folktales from around the world concerning gigantic objects. Stories of this type were widely diffused already in antiquity, both in Greece and in the Near East. It is likely that Ephippos’ passage was inspired by the popular narrative tradition of his time. Comparison with the folktale material helps understand the context of fr. 5 and its function in the play. Various traditional elements of Geryones’ myth (his gigantic size, herds of oxen, far-off island, and the cup of Helios used to reach it) are comically reflected in Ephippos’ text, intermingled with folktale motifs. As usually in folk tradition, the description of the giant fish may have been a false tale. It would doubtless stimulate the appetite of Heracles, the central hero of the play, and incite him to travel to Geryones’ land; but the hero would be finally disappointed of the huge meal he expected (a common motif in Attic comedy). Fr. 3 from the same play indicates that “Heracles losing his meal” was a recurrent Leitmotiv in the plot.
Content Type Journal Article Pages 223-246
DOI 10.1556/AAnt.51.2011.3-4.3
Authors
Ioannis M. Konstantakos, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Faculty of Philology, Department of Classics Panepistimioupoli Zografou 157 84 Athens Greece
Journal Acta Antiqua
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