Nonius Marcellus

Abstract: Cicero’s Hortensius, undoubtedly the most famous exhortation to philosophy from the whole of Latin literature, has survived only in fragmentary form, as quotations or paraphrases in the works of different writers of Antiquity, including Seneca, Tacitus, Nonius Marcellus, Lactantius and Augustine. Despite the cautious attempts of different scholars to reconstruct this dialogue, we still do not have a definitive edition of it. Since only a small number of the known fragments can be certainly assigned to one particular place, the attempts to re-establish the plan of the dialogue and the proper order in which the fragments should be arranged still remain a source of quarrel between scholars. In this paper I propose a new arrangement of the frag. 43 from Grilli’s edition of the Hortensius, in an attempt to establish more adequately its place and meaning in the structure of the dialogue.

Some events of the cultural and spiritual life of the 9th century may be at first sight interpreted as not related: for example the origins of a unified liturgical repertoire and the interest in Latin lexicography. However, within the cultural environment of Alcuin and of the Carolingian Court it is easy to point to a common reason in the project of a new unified, European Latin.

Nonius is one of the main sources for Varro’s lost works, in particular the Menippeae and the
Antiquitates. Nevertheless, his direct knowledge of Varro’s texts is only proven for the first book of
the De re rustica and perhaps part of the Antiquitates rerum humanarum. Nonius’ interest in
Varro has also most likely influenced his reading of Gellius, although in his opinion he was not to be
counted among the most authoritative representatives of the language of the ancients. The analysis of
Varronian citations and the comparison with the direct tradition of the De re rustica, confirm the
solidity of Lindsay’s reconstruction of the compositional methods in the De compendiosa doctrina.
Widespread traces of the adopted systematic reading and rewriting can be identified, as shown particularly
by the preference for the exemplification taken from the initial sections of the work under consideration.

There are about 2,500 mentions of legio XXII Primigenia, mostly in inscriptions. Less than ten of them use an alternative legionary ordinal, six of these have the retrograde form IIXX and the other three have XIIX or XVIII; the latter form is sometimes confusedly taken as referring to one of Varus’ infamous legions. This paper examines and catalogues these oddities, which have been found all over the Roman world, and can be dated from the Severan age to the early fourth century. It suggests that duovicesimus was still used in soldier’s lingo even after it was regarded as outdated in ‘proper’ Latin, see Gel 5, 4,1-5; Non. p. 100M.


De los más de 2500 testimonios conocidos sobre la legio XXII Primigenia (inscripciones en su mayor parte), hay nueve que usaron un ordinal legionario alternativo, en seis casos con la forma retrógrada IIXX y en los tres restantes como XIIX o XVIII; estos últimos han causado cierta perplejidad porque a veces se han entendido que referieren a una de las legiones de Varo. Este trabajo descri- be y catáloga esa decena de casos anómalos, que proceden de uno a otro extremo del Orbe y que se datan desde la época severa hasta inicios del s. IV. Y se sugiere como posible explicación de su uso la supervivencia en el sermo militaris del anacrónico duovicesimus, vid. Gel 5, 4,1-5; Non. p. 100M.

How did Nonius Marcellus and St. Augustine gain access to an outstanding range of Varro’s works in late-antique North Africa? A comparison of the two authors’ knowledge of classical literature shows a remarkable misalignment, prompting an investigation of the curriculum of Augustine’s early schooling and a new interpretation of the early evidence for his knowledge of Varro. The acquaintance of Augustine and Nonius Marcellus with such rich veins of Republican Latin literature requires an explanation, and I tentatively propose, following consideration of the circumstances in which the De ciuitate Dei was written, that a solution to the problem might be found in the refugee crisis precipitated by Alaric’s invasion of Italy in ad 408 and his sack of Rome in 410. The cultural consequences of the barbarian invasions, and the dislocation of books in the accompanying chaos, may form a fruitful avenue for future research.

Se si vuole indicare una traduzione del titolo del quarto libro del De compendiosa doctrina, il De varia significatione sermonum, a me pare che una proposta adeguata ed al tempo stesso stimolante sia costituita dalla resa in italiano Sulla polisemia: da un lato, infatti, tale scelta illustra come tra l'aggettivo greco 1toÀ.Vcr'llµo<; (<< dai molti significati ») ed il nostro sostantivo «polisemia» (derivato da quello mediante suffissazione astrattiva in -ìa) si collochi, in un rapporto che potremmo definire estensivamente di calco formale, il sintagma noniano varia significatio; dall'altro lato, invece, si renderebbe appieno, tramite l'assunzione di un vocabolo attinto alla più aggiornata scienza linguistica, la modernità del trattato grammaticale che ci proponiamo di studiare.

Peer-review. Articoli e note inviati per la pubblicazione alla rivista sono sottoposti -nella forma del doppio anonimato -a peer-review di due esperti, di cui uno almeno esterno al Comitato Scientifico o alla Direzione. Nel secondo fascicolo delle annate pari è pubblicato l'elenco dei revisori.

Some events of the cultural and spiritual life of the 9th century may be at first sight interpreted as not related: for example the origins of a unified liturgical repertoire and the interest in Latin lexicography. However, within the cultural environment of Alcuin and of the Carolingian Court it is easy to point to a common reason in the project of a new unified, European Latin.

The paper deals with the metrical and stylistic features of an early Latin trans-lation of Odyssey, written in hexameter. It is generally agreed that it was a new ar-rangement of the oldest translation made by Livius Andronicus rewritten from Sat-urnians into hexameter about 150 BCE. This view must be challenged on the ground of the reference-formulas used by the Roman grammarians who quoted “Livius An-dronicus”. It appears that the saturnian and the hexameter fragments are introduced with discernible different reference-formulas by Nonius Marcellus and Priscian. It is far more convincing to consider the dactylic version to be produced directly from the Greek original without intermediary Saturnian source.

Статья посвящена римскому грамматику IV в. Нонию Марцеллу и предваряет публикацию книг его труда «Сжатая наука», посвященных одежде, посуде, яствам, родству. В ней рассматриваются основные проблемы, связанные с автором, временем его жизни, структурой и характером сочинения.