Triple Tipple: Ausonius' Griphus Ternarii Numeri (original) (raw)
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Eumolpus' Poetics (Petr. Sat. 118): Problems of Interpretation and Train of Thought
Philologia classica, 2021
The article aims to restore the train of thought in Petr. Sat. 118. 3-5. In 118. 3, the manuscript reading sanitatem (instead of the emendation vanitatem) is to be retained and taken not as hinting at the lack of poetic ecstasy, but as 'stylistic simplicity' after Pavlova 2017. The adversative ceterum does not imply that poetry is the polar opposite of rhetoric, but stresses that contrary to the expectations of poeticizing orators, true poetry is hard toil. The first neque-clause does not imply contrast with rhetoric, but calls for a copious style (in particular, copious sententiae). The second neque-clause implies that poetry must absorb an immense literary tradition in order to attain a copious language. Thus, the two coordinate neque-clauses in 118. 3 are paired as requiring copiousness (a) in style and (b) in language. In the next two sentences, (a) and (b) are specified in chiastic order: (b) the borrowed diction must be elevated (118. 4); (a) the sententiae (as the primary stylistic ornament) must be integrated into the texture of the poem (118. 5). The idea that absorbing literary tradition must enrich poetic language may be paralleled in Hor. Epist. 2. 2. 115-118. Sententiae are regarded as an essential constituent of poetic style, despite the ironic remark on sententiolae vibrantes in 118. 2.
2020
The author’s doctoral research resulted in a literary and critical commentary on Ovid, Tristia 3.1, with an introduction, Latin text, an English translation, and indexes. The commentary is in line with the most recent commentaries on other books of the Tristia and aims at clarifying some passages of ambiguous interpretation, poetically and topographically. First, the misplacement of some of the monuments on the Palatine mentioned in the poem, such as the porta Mugonia and the temple of Jupiter Stator, fully complies with the overlapping figures of the princeps and Jupiter, appearing for the first time in Latin literature precisely in the Tristia. Secondly, the booklet’s arrival in Rome and request for help can be traced back to the typical gestures and formulae of the request for hospitium by a stranger: the handshake, the production of a letter of introduction, the presence of a seal or an object of identification. The correspondence of the booklet with a hospes exerting the ius hospitii may indicate the conventional request for hospitium as an unusual model for the composition of Tristia 3.1. Thirdly, the linguistic analysis of the poem has led to an in-depth investigation of the specific vocabulary of the exile poetry, identifying new terms and nuances, discussed in the commentary and listed in a dedicated index. This commentary addresses literary and topographical issues through a multidisciplinary approach, which combines both the evaluatation of the literary sources, with particular focus on recent scholarly contributions, the diction, the metrics, the intratextual relationship with other works, and the discussion of the latest archaeological findings and their relevant topographical evaluation.
The poetic afterlives of the Panegyricus Messallae
This paper was presented as part of a reading class on Tibullus 3, organized by Laurel Fulkerson and Stephen Heyworth at Oxford in Trinity Term 2015. I enjoyed writing it and have thought about revising it for publication, but I am not sure that I will do so now.