theCAMPVS

Verbal Artistry in Vergil: Soundplay in Aeneid 2.19

Eric — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:38:46 +0000

This may be a bit of a stretch, but given Vergil’s Alexandrianism I’m going to go with it.

In Aeneid 2.19, in the first description of the Trojan Horse, Vergil says that the Greeks enclose chose men caeco lateri, “in the hidden side.” I propose that we are supposed to think here also of the etymologically unrelated latere, “to hide, lurk, be concealed.” The sound of the word calls forth another word that is appropriate to the context. This is perhaps confirmed, or at least given plausibility, when Capys and some others shortly thereafter (9 lines) urge the Greeks to “test the hiding-places” of the horse (temptare latebras, 38) and when Laocoon warns (10 lines after that) that “some error lurks [in the horse]” (aliquis latet error, 48). He then throws a spear into its side (in latus, 51). But the fates of the gods were against them befouling the hiding places (ferro Argolicas foedare latebras, 55).

Engraved Gourds?

Eric — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:30:31 +0000

In his Commentary on Jonah, Jerome refers (4:6) to “gourds of small cups/vessels” on which images of the Apostles are sketched:

Et revera in ipsis cucurbitis vasculorum, quas vulgo saucomarias vocant, solent apostolorum imagines adumbrari…

I’d never heard of such an object. Has anyone else, and can you point me to where I might go to find out more?

Bedtime Reading

Eric — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 03:08:24 +0000

According to Plutarch’s Life of Alexander 8, Alexander the Great slept with a copy of the Iliad (along with his dagger) beneath his pillow. In reading Charles Norris Cochrane’s Christianity and Classical Culture a few minutes ago, I came across the following: “[I]t is recorded that Charlemagne habitually slept with a copy of [Augustine's City of God] beneath his pillow” (377). This seems to be in imitation of the practice of Alexander, transposed into a Christian key. Does anyone know the source(s) of this claim about Charlemagne?

Caesar in Vergil and Servius

Eric — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:13:57 +0000

Servius identifies the “Julius Caesar” named in Aeneid 1.286-8 as the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar rather than as Augustus (a debate still ongoing at present). He then offers two possibilities for the cognomen Caesar:

Caesar vel quod caeso matris ventre natus est, vel quod avus eius in Africa manu propria occidit elephantem, qui caesa dicitur lingua Poenorum.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that birth by Caesarian section was not used in antiquity unless the mother had already died before the procedure was undertaken, and so (if that is correct) that would not have been the case for Julius Caesar himself. The second possibility is interesting: that caesa is the Punic word for “elephant,” and his forebear had killed one in Africa.

Gauls in Galatia

Eric — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:48:42 +0000

Count Claudian as a witness to Galatia in Asia Minor having been settled by Celtic Gauls (I don’t have time at the moment to gather other ancient sources on this):

Pars Phrygiae, Scythicis quaecumque Trionibus alget

proxima, Bithynos, solem quae condit, Ionas,

quae levat, attingit Galatas. utrimque propinqui

finibus obliquis Lydi Pisidaeque feroces

continuant australe latus. gens una fuere

tot quondam populi, priscum cognosmen et unum

appellata Phryges; sed (quid non longa valebit

permutaure dies?) dicti post Maeona regem

Maeones. Aegaeos insedit Graecia portus;

Thyni Thraces arant quae nunc Bithynia fertur;

nuper ab Oceano Gallorum exercitus ingens

illis ante vagus tandem regionibus haesit

gaesaque deposuit, Graio iam mitis amictu,

pro Rheno poturus Halyn. dat cuncta vetustas

principium Phrygibus; nec rex Aegyptius ultra

restitit, humani postquam puer uberis expers

in Phrygiam primum laxavit murumura vocem. (In Eutropium 2.238-54)