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The Quotations of Republican Drama in Priscian’s Treatise De Metris Fabularum Terentii
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2015
Extract
The purpose of this article is to draw attention to an unnoticed feature of the arrangement of Priscian’s treatise De metris fabularum Terentii and to speculate upon the origin of the quotations of republican drama contained in this treatise.
Priscianus of Caesarea in Mauretania taught Latin at Constantinople during the reign of Anastasius (491-518), a period when literary culture was in steep decline throughout the Latin-speaking Western Mediterranean. The mass of the population of Constantinople was probably Greek, at least in language, from the time of the city’s foundation but Constantine intended its public institutions to be Roman, and the emperors of the fifth and sixth centuries, most of whom either came from Latin-speaking communities or had received their principal education in Latin, jealously preserved the formal links with old Roman tradition. The Latin language remained in regular use in the army and the civil service until the time of Justinian. The latter even published his codification of the law in this language, although he issued most of his nouellae in Greek. Latin maintained itself longest on the coinage. Theodosius II made careful provision for the teaching of Latin grammar and rhetoric when he organized a state university in 425. The royal library, which lost 120,000 volumes in the fire of 475, possessed Latin as well as Greek works. At least three noted Latin grammarians, Euanthius, Charisius and Cledonius, taught at Constantinople before Priscian’s time.
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References
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43 Most significant are coincidences with blocks of quotations in the works of Festus and Aulus Gellius.
44 ii 351.25. At ii 379.14 Priscian is probably referring to the books of grammarians.
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47 Editors are perhaps wrong to attribute to Ennius the verse quoted at iii 205.20, 0 genitor noster Saturnie maxime diuum (Ann. 456 V2); it is a literal translation of Homer Il. , a verse used by Apollonius in the section which Priscian is adapting (De constr. 3.9). The verse quoted at iii 234.20, aio te Aeacida Romanos uincere posse (Ann. 179 V2), occurs frequently in the grammarians (Donatus iv 369.2, Diomedes i 450.3 et al.). Not all the manuscripts attach Ennius’ name to the verse quoted at iii 192.15, optima caelicolum Satumia magna dearum (Ann. 491 V2), but Ennian provenance should not be denied. Priscian may have picked the verse up from his reading of Caper.
48 iii 122.16 in Poenulo … in Menaechmis. Cf. ii 595.14.
49 Terence, Virgil, Cicero and Sallust formed the ‘quadriga’ of Arusianus Messius (see Cassiodorus, , De inst. 2 25).Google Scholar St Jerome, when discussing the character of commentarii (Apologia adu. lib. Rufini i 471̵2) lists certain works on these authors as among the principal commentarii of his day. Ancient commentaries on Lucan, Horace, Persius and Statius survive to the present day. The grammars of Sacerdos, Donatus, Diomedes and Charisius do not quote Juvenal or Statius and quote Lucan only rarely. Servius (in his commentary on Virgil) however quotes the three copiously (see Wessner, P.PhW 49 [1929], 296 ff, 328).Google ScholarWischnewski, O.De Prisciani inst. gramm. comp., p. 97,Google Scholar is quite wrong to make Caper the general source of the quotations in Priscian xvii and xviii.
50 E.g. Vahlen, J.Ennianae poesis reliquiae2 (Leipzig, 1903), p. 126;Google ScholarSchultze, G.De Prisciani locis Plautinis (Diss. Jena, 1910), pp. 4 ff.;Google ScholarTimpanaro, S.SIFC 21 (1946) , 51.Google Scholar
51 Besides the testimonia quoted by the editors cf. Catullus 64.1–7, 171–2, 177–81, 250, Lucretius iv 1048, Horace, Epod. 16.57–8, Virgil, Ecl. 4.34–5, 8.47–8, Phaedrus, iv 7.6–16.
52 Cf. Poeta incertus ap. Gell. xix 11.4, Apuleius, Met. iv 32. Orosius i 12.10 need not be taken as a first-hand allusion.
53 See above, n.27.
54 See Priscian, Gramm. ii 512.4.
55 See Ribbeck, O., Die römische Tragödie im zeitalter der Republik (Leipzig, 1875), p. 557.Google Scholar
56 See Festus, pp. 208.31, 334.12, 462.11.
57 Priscian seems to have believed Cicero to be the author of the rhetorical treatise addressed to Herennius; see Gramm. ii 95.15 et al.
58 Cf. G. Keil, in app., Gramm. iii 424.9; L. Mueller, De Acciifabulis disputatio (Berlin, 1890), p. 40; Marx, F., Progr. Greifswald 1891, 10 ff.;Google Scholar id., in app., Incerti auctoris de ratione dicendi ad C. Herennium libri (Leipzig, 1894), ii 34; L. Jeep, Philologus lxviii (1909), 16, n. 27; Wessner, P. in Teuffel, W.S. — Kroll, W. — Skutsch, F., Geschichte der rümischen Literatur6 iii (Leipzig, 1913), p. 491;Google ScholarNorden, E., Ennius und Vergilius, p. 82;Google ScholarPease, A.S., in app., M. Tullii Ciceronis de natura deorum libri secundus et tertius (Cambridge, Mass., 1958), ii 89, p. 770.Google Scholar
59 Gramm. iii 418,10.
60 See Terentianus 2240, Firmianus (L. Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius) ad Probum ap. Rufin. Gramm. vi 564.7, Victorinus, Marius, Gramm. vi 78.19 ff.,Google Scholar 81.1 ff. Cf. Horace, Ars 258 ff.
61 Gramm. vi 558.7 ff.
62 On Juba see Hense, O., ‘De Iuba artigrapho,’ Acta Societatis Philologae Lipsiensis iv (1875), 3 ff.; Schultz, G., Quibus auctoribus Aphthonius usus sit (Diss. Breslau, 1885)Google Scholar
63 The Vidularia could have been missing or set earlier in the edition (Bidularia ?).
64 The Miles has no prologue standing apart from the action.
65 On reverse sequences of quotations see Jocelyn, H.D., CQ xiv (1964), 291;Google Scholar I was unaware at the time of writing of Strzelecki, W., ‘Ein Beitrag zur Quellenbenutzung des Nonius’, in Irmscher, J.et al., Aus der altertumsivissenschaftlichen Arbeit Volkspolens (Berlin, 1959), pp. 81.Google Scholar
66 See Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, U.von, Einteitung in die griechische Tragödie (Berlin, 1889), pp. 173f.Google Scholar Athenaeus quotes five comedies of Eubulus in alphabetical order at x 417 c-d.
67 Cf. Varro, Ling, vii 107 (eleven plays of Naevius); Festus, pp. 164.7 (Plautus in Artemone … Curculione … et in Casino), 166.17 (Plautus in Parasito pigro … item in Mostellaria [ = Phasmate] … et in Truculento); Nonius Marcellus, passim (the comedies of Plautus and Turpilius [see Lindsay, Nonius Marcellus’ Dictionary, p. 117], the Atellane farces of Pomponius, four Menippean satires of Varro [see Delia Corte, F., Varrone il terzo gran lume Romano (Genoa, 1954), p. 373]).Google Scholar
68 The arranger failed to notice that Andria 178 is a trochaic verse. Rufinus, Comm. in metra Terentiana, Gramm. vi 558.12–24, seems to be an abbreviation of Priscian, Gramm. iii 422.22-423.34. Cybulla, K., De Rufini Antiochensis Commentariis (Diss. Königsberg, 1907), pp. 60–4,Google Scholar effectively refutes Keil’s view that Priscian copied Rufinus, but does not prove his own view that a common source lies behind Priscian and Rufinus. There seems to be no way of establishing Rufinu’s date, although scholars generally put him in the fifth century.
69 Euripides’ opened with very different words (Pap. Mediol. 1) but this play is not necessarily Accius’ model.
70 Menander’s seems to have begun with a monologue of similar content (Theon, Progymn. p. 92.16 = fr. 152 Körte).
71 The words transmitted do not make a bacchiac pattern but neither do they make sense.
72 Cf. Athenaeus x 417 d Priscian, Gramm. ii 321.25 Accius de Hercule dicens.
73 Asmonius addressed his work to a ‘Constantius imperator’ (perhaps Constantius III; see Jeep, L., Philologus lxvii [1908], 19).Google Scholar
74 Cybulla (see n.68) argued that the Neronian poet-scholar Caesius Bassus provided the ultimate source of Priscian and Rufinus of Antioch.
75 Aulus Gellius almost certainly consulted the Plocium of Caecilius (ii 23.5 ff., iii 16.4) and at least one tragedy of Pacuvius (xiv 1.34).
76 Our text of Priscian’s quotations is not very good. Priscian’s copyists are doubtless to blame in some cases. They seem to have lost a quotation of the opening verses of the first scene of Heauton timoroumenus at p. 423.9. Priscian’s manuscripts of Ennius, Accius and Turpilius on the other hand could well have been themselves faulty or hard to read. The quotation of the Medea is clearly astray in at least four places. The second Lindia quotation (p. 426.2–4) is hopelessly corrupt. The opening verses of the Argonautae are not quoted and those which are are dislocated; nevertheless in three places a text superior to that of Cicero, Nat.deor. ii 89 is provided (spiritu ~ strepitu; reflat <–> prqfluit; undanti infracto [sic] ~ undantes ueniant freto).
77 Cf. Leo, Plaut. Forsch.2, p. 212, n. 6; F. Stoessl, RE XXIII ii (1959), s.v. Prologos (Nachträge),2369, 2414.
78 Ap. Charis. p. 273.13 (Barwick).
79 Vv. 41–4. For attempts to identify these tragedies see Ladewig, T., NJbb 99 (1869), 473 ff.;Google ScholarSkutsch, O., HSCP 71 (1966), 125 ff.Google Scholar
80 This is not to say that one of the human characters of the action could not, as in Plautus’ Mercator and Miles, have made an expository speech to the audience.
81 So Mercerus: sit codd.
82 So Mercerus: elimina/eliminat codd.
83 Hermes lxvii (1932), 355–6. Cf. Maas, P., ibid., 243–5.Google Scholar
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85 Fragmenta poetarum ueterum Latinorum … a Rob. Stephano … congesta … ab Henrico Stephano eiusfilio digesta (Geneva, 1564); see Addenda, p. 428.
86 Lindsay has shown (see work cited above, n.27) that Nonius drew all his quotations of the Medea except that at p. 467.21 from a volume of Accius’ plays. Cf. also Schmidt, P., De Nonii Marcelli auctoribus grammaticis (Leipzig, 1868).Google Scholar
87 Syntagma tragoediae Latinae(Antwerp, 1593).
88 Collectanea ueterum tragicorum (Leiden, 1620).
89 Poetae scenici Latinorum, Vol. v (Leipzig, 1834).
90 Gf.Manutius, P. on Cicero, Fam. 6 6Google Scholar (Vol. vi of A. Manutius’ edition of Cicero, Venice, 1578); Vossius, G.I., Castigationes et notae, in Scriverius’ Collectanea, p. 160.Google Scholar
91 RhM v (1837), 259.
92 Die griechische Tragödien tnit Rücksicht auf den epischen Cyclus, Vol. i (Bonn, 1839), p. 51.
93 Tragicorum Romanorum fragmenta (Leipzig, 18521, 18712, 18973).
94 In app., Gramm. iii 424.9.
95 Remains of Old Latin, Vol. ii (London, 1936).
96 Scaenicorum Romanorum fragmenta, Vol. i (Munich, 1953).
97 Cf. Aeschylus’ Plautus’ Caecus uel Praedones, Accius’ Stasiastae uel Tropaeum, Aeneadae uel Decius. Priscian is more likely than a scribe to be responsible for the omission.
98 Snell’s, Cf. B.theory concerning the tradition of the ‘alphabetical’ plays of Euripides (Hermes 70 [1935], 119).Google Scholar
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