Auctores, ‘scuole’, multilinguismo: forme della circolazione e delle pratiche del latino nell’Egitto predioclezianeo

In such a multilingual and multicultural environment as Egypt, Latin language and literature are known to have circulated between I BC and VII AD. Different aims shaped the circulation of the language, as Latin moved from being the language of the army to that of law: Diocletian’s reforms gave new inputs towards an intensification of teaching and learning Latin, causing a restyling of already attested practices and the same themes (and auctores) known in Egypt since the I BC kept circulating in new forms. Vergil is an example: as far as we know, Vergil’s hexameters were one of the mainly favorite subject of the exercitationes scribendi till the III AD (e.g.: P.Tebt. II 686) and no Vergilian bilingual Latin-Greek glossaries are known before the IV AD. Through an analysis of Latin literary texts on papyrus (I BC-III AD) and focussing on learning Latin as secondlanguage (L2), this paper aims to highlight the knowledge we have of the forms of circulation and practices of Latin in Egypt

Significans vox (Anon. gramm. ~ P.Lond. Lit. II 184 ll. 6-7)

Showing an awareness of the distinction between vox articulata and vox inarticulata, the anonymous grammarian of the fragmentary Latin Ars contained in P.Lond. Lit. II 184 + P.Mich. VII 429 (second/third century AD) employs the concept of significans vox in his definition of dictio. The passage is analysed here in its relation to other grammatical contexts and to their possible sources: the contacts between the anonymous Ars of Karanis and the orthographical treatise by Velius Longus as well as those with the later grammar by Marius Victorinus open up several possible links between these respective texts, and may contribute to a hypothetical reconstruction of the author of this fragmentary Latin grammatical treatise contained in P.Lond. Lit. II 184 + P.Mich. VII 429

Seneca the Elder and his rediscovered ›Historiae ab initio bellorum civilium‹ New perspectives on early imperial-Roman Historiography

This is the first volume dedicated exclusively to the historiographical work by Seneca the Elder, after the recent discovery of a fragmentary roll from Herculaneum bearing traces of his Historiae. Contributions not only focus on the discovery of the papyrus roll, but also offer a broader view on early-imperial Roman historiography, to which the new perspectives opened by the rediscovery of Seneca the Elder’s Historiae greatly contribute

Papyri and LAtin Texts: INsights and Updates Methodologies. Towards a philological, literary, historical approach to Latin papyri (PLATINUM Project - ERC-StG 2014 no.636983)

An in-depth examination of the contribution of Latin texts on papyrus may lead to whole chapters of Roman linguistic, literary, educational, cultural and social history being rewritten. This is because as a result of the well-established boundaries that have arisen between these disciplines, the documents in question represent a domain scholars have not previously tapped to its full potential –despite the fact that such texts provide us with both a broad diachronic perspective (running from the first BCE to the eighth century CE) and an extensive diatopic view (covering Rome and its provinces) to explore the actual circulation and development of Latin language and literature and to offer new insights into the differing attitudes of the Greeks and the Romans towards learning and getting to grips with a second language. They represent commentaries on society and culture in the wider Mediterranean sphere, for writing transmits culture, allows the transmission of knowledge between generations, and engineers the operations of complex bureaucracies

Testi latini su papiro e lessicografia. In margine ad un contributo possibile al Thesaurus Linguae Latinae

Il contributo offre una riflessione metodologica sul contributo che alla lessicografia può venire dai testi latini trasmessi su papiro e, in particolare, dai testi letterari non altrimenti noti dalla tradizione manoscritta. Come per i testi integralmente schedati al fine della compilazione degli articoli del Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, il limite cronologico è fissato all’età degli Antonini, e dei testi viene attraversata una serie di problemi che enfatizzano la necessità di un rinnovato approccio. Dei testi vengono, inoltre, proposte delle nuove sigle che, seguendo in linea di principio i criteri del ThLL, tentano di uniformare l’oscillazione onomastica registrata nel ThLL stesso e, soprattutto, di richiamare l’attenzione su questi testimoni in quanto testi da sottoporre in modo ulteriormente critico all’attenzione della comunità scientifica

Lelio, Ercole, Anfione e Zeto ‘in scena’: il P.Tebt. II 686 (inv. 3010) ed un nuovo tassello della letteratura latina

Che il testo prosastico latino del P.Tebt. II 686 (inv. 3010), proveniente da Tebtynis (in Arsinoite) e datato tra II e III secolo, contenesse i nomi di Hercules ed Eurystheus è cosa nota fin dalla trascrizione che Robert Marichal ne diede nelle Chartae Latinae Antiquiores. Erano gli anni ’70 del Novecento e da allora, benché oggetto delle indagini di paleografi e papirologi, il testo non è stato mai pubblicato e si è consolidata la consuetudine di riferirvisi come ad un de laboribus Herculis. L’articolo propone una rilettura del papiro dalla quale il campionario onomastico esce indubbiamente ampliato: a quelli di Ercole ed Euristeo si affiancano i nomi di Amphion et Zethus — i due fratelli del mito, figli di Antiope, che animano trame di tragedie e nutrono, con la loro esemplarità, il dibattito filosofico-politico — e quello di C. Laelius, personaggio troppo ciceroniano perché questo testo non stimoli ulteriori interrogativi sull’essenza letteraria stessa del testo. Coming from Tebtynis in Arsinoites and written between II and III AD, the P.Tebt. II 686 (inv. 3010) is known to contain a Latin prose with the names of Hercules and Eurystheus. Robert Marichal gave a transcription of this papyrus in the Chartae Latinae Antiquiores, in the 1970s; although it has been studied by papyrologists and palaeographers, since then the text was never published and it has always been known as a de laboribus Herculis. This paper offers new readings of the P.Tebt. II 686’s Latin prose. For instance, the number of proper names is undoubtedly increased: the names of Hercules and Eurystheus are flanked by those of Amphion and Zethus — the mythological twin-brothers, sons of Antiope, known also from tragedies and among the examples of the philosophical and political debate — and that of C. Laelius, the latter a too much ciceronian character not to stimulate further questions about the literary essence of this papyrological Latin text

Fragmenta poetarum Latinorum in papyris reperta: Occidente ed Oriente, testi e contesti

This article offers a few shots on Latin poetry on papyrus aiming to show how necessary and challenging it would be to go deeper in trying to make these texts dialogue with the well-established panorama of Latin literature, setting texts in their contexts and highlighting the forms in which center and periphery (and so, languages and cultures) used to interact