AEVUM

This paper focuses on the ‘Treaty of the Indus’, i.e., the peace pact between Candragupta Maurya and Seleucus I Nicator at the end of the fourth century BCE. Scholars are divided into those who consider such a treaty a peace pact  sanctioned through dynastic marriage and those who consider it a pact allowing the celebration of intermarriages between Greeks and Indians. This paper defends the first hypothesis according to the Indian sources on dharma and  artha. Dharmaśāstric texts never describe Greeks as foreigners but consider them part of a mixed class (and consequently part of the Brahmanical society). Therefore, no formal treaty allowing Indo-Greek intermarriages was  needed. Furthermore, Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra supports peace pacts sanctioned through marriages with foreign kings, as sometimes happened in Ancient Indian history.

The main hero of the Alexander Romance combines the models of Achilles and Odysseus in a unified whole. The first part of the work is dedicated to war, the theme of the Iliad. Alexander presents many similarities with Achilles,  notably a destiny of premature death accompanied by great glory. The second part describes Alexander’s travels to the edges of the earth and echoes the storyline of the Odyssey. The Odyssean travel legends are multiplied, mingled  with each other, and adapted to the historical and literary conditions of the Hellenistic age. The two major “letters of wonders” in the romance (II 23-41, III 17) culminate with a Nekyia, an existential experience of the hero in an  area with prominent funeral symbolisms.

Arrian, in his narrative on the revolt and destruction of Thebes in 335 BC, could have derived from Aristobulus the charges against the polis on behalf of the Greek allies of Alexander. Aristobulus, using exempla derived by  Thucydides, Xenophon, and, above all, Isocrates’ Plataicus, embellished his narrative and gave a plausible and erudite justification to Thebes’ destruction, freeing his king from blame.

P.Oxy. 5535, recently published, contains, more or less partially, biographical sketches about Perdiccas, Antipater, Polyperchon and presumably Craterus. This paper provides an Italian translation and a historical commentary.  Relevant outcomes concern: the chronology of Perdiccas’ death; Antipater’s legacy, praise and prostasia. A Peripatetic tradition, via Duris of Samos, can be detected behind the text.

The aim of this article is to analyse the use of rare Plautine terms in the surviving titles and fragments of the togata (‘theatrical genre in toga’) attributed to the playwrights Titinius, Afranius, and Atta. The analysis I conduct here  suggests that the Plautine influence on the togata, from a lexical point of view, cannot be discarded. However, it would be more appropriate to clarify, on the basis of the extant fragments and titles, the extent of this influence. The terms which may be considered ‘Plautine’ are less significant than one might expect at first, given that the togata presents points of contact with the palliata of Plautus (e.g. themes – for example, ‘multiculturalism’, and characters –  for instance, the uxor dotata, i.e. the dowered wife).

The first Catilinarian oration, Sallust and Plutarch describe Catiline as completely isolated within the Senate: it is the image depicted in the famous fresco by Cesare Maccari, Cicero Denounces Catiline. This paper calls into question  such an idea. The tradition on the trials against Catiline of 65/64 and on some Senate sessions of September/November 63 suggests a much more complex picture: Catiline could still enjoy the support of important friends and most of the senators remained highly sceptical of Cicero’s accusations.

This paper proposes a new synopsis of the three collations of the codex Hummelianus, a lost manuscript of Tacitus’ Germania, probably written during the seventh or eighth decades of the fifteenth century. After a brief introduction  dealing with textual, palaeographical, and codicological aspects, the lectiones of the Hummelianus are arranged in columns together with the readings of the three editions used by Hummel, Longolius, and Selling to collate the  manuscript in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A last column follows with the restitutio (in reconstructing the original readings particular attention has been paid to the orthographic peculiarities pointed out in Hummel’s  description of the codex and Longolius’ collation, and to the text of the other extant manuscripts of the same family).

The main issues of a recent book on Galen are discussed. It deals with biographical and historical themes relating to the famous physician: his relationship with slaves; the significance and value of his travels; his relations with  emperors and the imperial court; his network of friendships; the importance he attached to dreams; his focus on nutrition and diet; the value of the experiments and medicines he practised and administered; his philological and  literary activity and his philosophical stance.

In a crucial point of his theology (why did God create the world?) Dionysius writes that the First Cause was compelled by Eros to act, and the word used is πρακτικεύεσθαι, never heard before. In ancient Greek 43 verbs ending in  -κεύομαι are recorded, scattered among many writers. The only one, who shows a predilection for them is Damascius, who makes use of λογικεύομαι, μαθηματικεύομαι, μαθητικεύομαι (the last one very likely his own creation),  always with a somewhat disparaging meaning. Therefore πρακτικεύεσθαι would be “act ostentatiously”, not without an ironic nuance. Crediting to Eros the supreme force would be expected in a man exceedingly capable of it, just as  Damascius says of himself.