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TACITUS, ANNALS 1.1.1 AND ARISTOTLE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2013

Matthew Leigh
Matthew Leigh*
Affiliation:
St Anne's College, Oxford
*
[email protected]
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Extract

The first sentence of the Annals reads urbem Romam a principio reges habuere. Commentators observe the echo of Sallust, Catiline 6.1 urbem Romam, sicuti ego accepi, condidere atque habuere initio Troiani, and of Claudius, ILS 212 quondam reges hanc tenuere urbem. In a stimulating recent contribution David Levene also compares the first sentence of Justinus' Epitome of the Histories of Pompeius Trogus: principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes reges erat. A fourth potential model may now be taken into consideration: Ἀθηναῖοι τὸ μὲν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐχρῶντο βασιλɛίαι.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , May 2013 , pp. 452 - 454
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2013

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References

1 Koestermann, E., Cornelius Tacitus, Annales. Band I: Buch 1–3 (Heidelberg, 1963)Google Scholar, ad loc.; Goodyear, F.R.D., The Annals of Tacitus 1–6: Annals 1.1–54 (Cambridge, 1972)Google Scholar, ad loc.

2 Just. Epit. 1.1.1; Levene, D., ‘Pompeius Trogus in Tacitus’ Annals', in Kraus, C.S., Marincola, J. and Pelling, C. (edd.), Ancient Historiography and its Contexts: Studies in Honour of A.J. Woodman (Oxford, 2010), 294–311CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 For the relationship between the different manuscripts of the epitome, see Bloch, H., ‘Herakleides Lembos and his Epitome of Aristotle's Politeiai’, TAPhA 71 (1940), 27–39Google Scholar. esp, 27–31.

4 Schneidewin, F., Heraclidis Politiarum quae extant (Göttingen, 1847), xix–xliiGoogle Scholar.

5 Rose, V., Aristotelis qui ferebantur librorum fragmenta (Leipzig, 1886)Google Scholar, fr. 611.

6 von Holzinger, H., ‘Aristoteles’ athenische Politie und die Heraklidischen Excerpta', Philologus 50 (1891), 436–46Google Scholar; id., ‘Aristoteles’ und Herakleides' lakonische und kretische Politien', Philologus 52 (1893), 58–117Google Scholar, esp. 58 restating the conclusions of the first article.

7 Müller, C., Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum (Paris, 1848), 2.208–24Google Scholar.

8 Unger, G., ‘Herakleides Pontikos der Kritiker’, RhM 38 (1883), 481–506Google Scholar, esp. 504–6.

9 H. von Holzinger (n. 6 [1891]), esp. 442.

10 Bloch (n. 3); Wehrli, F., Die Schule des Aristoteles. Texte und Kommentar. Heft VII. Herakleides Pontikos (Basel–Stuttgart, 1969), 108Google Scholar; Dilts, M.R., Heraclidis Lembi Excerpta Politiarum (Durham, 1971), 8Google Scholar; Fraser, P.M.G., Ptolemaic Alexandria (Oxford, 1972)Google Scholar, 1.515 and 2.742; Gottschalk, H., Heraclides of Pontus (Oxford, 1980), 157Google Scholar; Rhodes, P.J., A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia (Oxford, 1981), 2 and 65–6.Google Scholar

11 See e.g. Arist. Ath. Pol. 6.1 κύριος δὲ γɛνόμɛνος τῶν πραγμάτων Σόλων τόν τɛ δῆμον ἠλɛυθέρωσɛ καὶ ἐν τῷ παρόντι καὶ ɛἰς τὸ μέλλον, κωλύσας δανɛίζɛιν ἐπὶ τοῖς σώμασιν, καὶ νόμους ἔθηκɛ καὶ χρɛῶν ἀποκοπὰς ἐποίησɛ καὶ τῶν ἰδίων καὶ τῶν δ[η]μοσίων, ἃς σɛισάχθɛιαν καλοῦσιν, cf. Peri Pol. 3 Σόλων νομοθɛτῶν Ἀθηναίοις καὶ χρɛῶν ἀποκοπὰς ἐποίησɛ, τὴν σɛισάχθɛιαν λɛγομένην; Arist. Ath. Pol. 11.1 διατάξας δὲ τὴν πολιτɛίαν ὅνπɛρ ɛἴρηται τρόπον, ἐπɛιδὴ προσιόντɛς αὐτῷπɛρὶ τῶν νόμωνἠνώχλουν, τὰ μὲν ἐπιτιμῶντɛς τὰ δὲ ἀνακρίνοντɛς, βουλόμɛνος μήτɛ ταῦτα κινɛῖν, μήτ' ἀπɛχθάνɛσθαι παρών, ἀποδημίαν ἐποιήσατο κατ' ἐμπορίαν ἅμα καὶ θɛωρίαν ɛἰς Αἴγυπτον, cf. Peri Pol. 3 ὡς δὲ διώχλουν αὐτῶι τινὲς πɛρὶ τῶν νόμων, ἀπɛδήμησɛν ɛἰς Αἴγυπτον.

12 Bloch (n. 3), 34–5; Dilts (n. 10), 10.

13 Arist. Pol. 1252b19. Levene (n. 2), 299 discusses this passage in relation to Just. Epit. 1.1.1.

14 Note how Tac. Ann. 1.1.4 follows its epitome of Roman history from the kings to Augustus with reference to those who have already written on these topics and whose works he has so strikingly compressed: sed ueteris populi Romani prospera uel aduersa claris scriptoribus memorata sunt; temporibusque Augusti dicendis non defuere decora ingenia, donec gliscente adulatione deterrerentur.

15 I take the difference between the two terms as being that an epitomator such as Florus or Justinus produces what is itself a continuous account, just on a smaller scale and in a potentially distinct style from that of the original, while an excerptor simply extracts individual claims or passages with no concern to maintain any narrative or analytical continuity. The Peri Politeiôn as it is transmitted is a series of excerpts from the more substantial group of excerpts drawn by Heraclides Lembos from Aristotle.

16 Levene (n. 2), 301.