Gnaeus Gellius
Gnaeus Gellius (fl. 2nd half of 2nd century BC) was a
Life
Gnaeus Gellius belonged to the
Gellius' only known magistracy was that of triumvir monetalis in 138, during which he minted denarii and bronze fractions (semis, triens, and quadrans). This denarius features on the reverse a quadriga led by Mars with a character beside him, which was initially thought to be Nerio—a goddess of Sabine origin that was the partner of Mars—but this view has been rejected by Michael Crawford and later historians, who argue the second character is only a captive.[7][1][8] The confusion arose from the fact that most of the knowledge on Nerio comes precisely from a rare fragment of Gellius' Annales.
Several modern historians have postulated that Gellius belonged to the
Work
Date
Gellius followed the standard established by Fabius Pictor—the first Roman historian—of writing a chronological history of Rome from mythological times to the present.[9] Although Pictor wrote his book in Greek, Roman historians switched to Latin after Cato published his Origines in that language at the end of his life (in the 150s).[10][11]
The date of composition is uncertain. Modern historians have ordered the Roman annalists after two enumerations by Cicero, who put Gellius' Annales after those of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus and Gaius Fannius C. f., but before Lucius Coelius Antipater's shorter history of the Second Punic War.[12] The latter possibly wrote his book circa 110.[13] He or Piso were probably the first to give their work the title of Annales.[14]
Size
The most striking feature of Gellius' work is its huge size.
It was first thought, especially by
Briscoe suggests instead that Gellius filled his books with invented speeches; significantly, the only long verbatim quote of Gellius' work is a speech of the Sabine
Later use
Gellius was later used as a source by Gaius Licinius Macer, a Popularis historian writing in the 70s BC. As with Gellius, Macer's work is lost, but he is cited three times alongside Gellius by Dionysios, a strong indication that Macer reproduced Gellius' work in his own Annales.[24] Dionysios is the only surviving historian with citations of Gellius (six), but he does not quote him verbatim. Dionysios cites Gellius four times to show that he disagreed with other writers (fragments 1, 21–23), and two times to criticise him for his carelessness (fragments 24 and 25). As Gellius especially developed the founding myths of the world, he was used five times by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, principally about the inventions of writing, mining, weights and measures, etc. (fragments 12–16).
Nevertheless, the majority of the fragments of Gellius' work come from Latin grammarians of the
He was apparently both an accurate chronologer and a diligent investigator of ancient usages, respectfully cited by many later authorities.[26] Regarding historical events themselves, his work was cited by Dionysius of Halicarnassus but largely ignored by Livy and Plutarch.
List of fragments
Cornell n° | Peter n° | Chassignet n° | Gellius' book n° | author | ref. | subject |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 11 | 11 | 2 | Dionysios | ii.31 | Rape of the Sabine women |
2 | 12 | 12 | 2 | Charisius | 67 | Rape of the Sabine women |
3 | 13 | 13 | 2 | Charisius | 67 | Rape of the Sabine women |
4 | 14 | 14 | 3 | Charisius | 67, 68 | Rape of the Sabine women |
5 | 15 | 15 | 3 | Aulus Gellius | xiii.23 § 13 | Rape of the Sabine women |
6 | 22 | 22 | 6 | Charisius | 68 | |
7 | 23 | 23 | 7 | Charisius | 68 | Trial of Vestal Virgins? |
8 | 25 | 24 | 15 | Macrobius | i.16 § 21–24 | 389 BC, aftermath of the Sack of Rome |
9 | 26 | 27 | 33 | Charisius | 69
GL ii.318[i] |
216 BC, death of L. Postumius Albinus |
10 | 29 | 30 | 97 | Charisius | 68 | |
11 | 29 | 31 | 97 | Charisius | 68 | |
12 | 2–3 | 2 | 1 (probably) | a. Pliny | vii.192
vi.23[i] |
Invention of writing and the alphabet |
13 | 4 | 3 | 1 (probably) | Pliny | vii.194 | Invention of clay building by Toxius |
14 | 5 | 4 | 1 (probably) | Pliny | vii.197 | Invention of mining and medicine |
15 | 6 | 5 | 1 (probably) | Pliny | vii.198 | Invention of weights and measures |
16 | 8 | 7 | 1 (probably) | Pliny | iii.108 | Destruction of Archippe, a Marsic town |
17 | 7 | 6 | 1 (probably) | Solinus | i.7–9 | Story of Cacus |
18 | 9 | 8 | 1 (probably) | Solinus | ii.28 | Daughters of Aeetes |
19 | 9 | 1 (probably) | OGR
|
xvi.3–4 | Story of Ascanius | |
20 | 10 | 10 | 2 (probably) | Servius
|
Aen. viii.637–8 | Origins of the Sabines |
21 | 16 | 16 | Dionysios | ii.72 § 2 | Origin of the Fetiales | |
22 | 17 | 17 | Dionysios | ii.76 § 5 | Children of Numa | |
23 | 18 | 18 | Dionysios | iv.6 § 4 | Tarquinius Priscus' arrival to Rome | |
24 | 19 | 19 | Dionysios | vi.11 §12 | King Tarquinius in 496 BC | |
25 | 20 | 20 | Dionysios | vii.1 § 3–4 | Dionysios corrects Gellius on Hippocrates, 492 BC | |
26 | 21 | 21 | Cicero | Div. i.55[ii] | Votive games of 490 BC | |
27 | 24 | 25 | Macrobius | i.8 § 1 | Rebuilding of the Temple of Saturn, 381 or 370 BC | |
28 | 30 | 26 | Aulus Gellius | xviii.12 § 6 | Episode of the First Punic War, c.250 BC | |
29 | 27 | 28 | Macrobius | iii.17 § 3 | Sumptuary law of Gaius Fannius Strabo, 161 BC | |
30 | 28 | 29 | Censorinus | xvii.11 | Dating of the third Secular Games, 146 BC | |
31 | 1 | 1 | Historia Augusta
|
Probus i.1 | ||
32 | 31 | 32 | Charisius | 68 | ||
33 | 31 | 33 | Charisius | 68 | ||
34 | 32 | 34 | Charisius | 90 | ||
35 | 33 | 35 | Servius | Aen. iv.390–1 | Vocabulary of solar eclipses | |
36 | 33 | 35 | Servius | Aen. iv.390–1 | idem |
See also
References
Citations
- ^ a b c Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, p. 265.
- ^ John Briscoe, in Cornell (ed.), Fragments of the Roman Historians, vol. I, pp. 252, 253.
- ^ Aulus Gellius, xiv.2 § 21–26.
- ^ Münzer, RE, vol. 7, p. 998.
- ^ Badian, "Early historians", p. 31 (note 50).
- ^ Frier, Libri Annales, p. 189, who also thinks that the moneyer and historian were the same man.
- ^ Examples of earlier views: Babelon, Description historique, vol. I, pp. 534, 535; Sydenham, Coinage of the Roman Republic, pp. 49, 50.
- ^ Rawson, "First Latin Annalists", p. 713 (note 110).
- ^ Rich, "Fabius Pictor", p. 18.
- ^ Badian, "Early Historians", p. 10.
- ^ Cornell (ed.), Fragments of the Roman Historians, vol. I, p. 196.
- ^ Rawson, "First Latin Annalists", p. 713.
- ^ John Briscoe, in Cornell (ed.), Fragments of the Roman Historians, vol. I, p. 257.
- ^ Rich, "Fabius Pictor", pp. 51, 54.
- ^ Frier, Libri Annales, p. 210.
- ^ Rich, "Fabius Pictor", p. 50.
- ^ Rawson, "First Latin Annalists", p. 714.
- ^ John Briscoe, in Cornell (ed.), Fragments of the Roman Historians, vol. I, p. 253.
- ^ a b Rich, "Fabius Pictor", p. 53.
- ^ John W. Rich, "Annales Maximi", in Cornell (ed.), Fragments of the Roman Historians, pp. 152, 155, 156.
- ^ Aulus Gellius, xiii.23 § 13
- ^ Cornell (ed.), Fragments of the Roman Historians, vol. II, p. 367.
- ^ John Briscoe, in Cornell (ed.), Fragments of the Roman Historians, vol. I, p. 254; vol. III, p. 235.
- ^ Badian, "Early Historians", pp. 22, 36 (note 115).
- ^ Aulus Gellius, xiii.23 § 13.
- Servius, ad Virg. Aen. iv. 390, viii. 638; Victorinus, p. 2468.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Ancient sources
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione, De Legibus'.
- Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights.
- Plutarch, Parallel lives.
Modern sources
- Ernest Babelon, Description Historique et Chronologique des Monnaies de la République Romaine, Vulgairement Appelées Monnaies Consulaires, Paris, 1885.
- Ernst Badian, "The Early Historians", in Thomas Allen Dorey, Latin Historians, New York, Basic Books, 1966, pp. 1–38.
- T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association, 1951–1952.
- Martine Chassignet, L'Annalistique romaine. T. II : L'Annalistique Moyenne (Fragments), Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1999.
- ——, "L'annaliste Cn. Gellius ou l'"heurématologie" au service de l'histoire", Ktèma, 24, 1999, pp. 85–91.
- Tim Cornell (editor), The Fragments of the Roman Historians, Oxford University Press, 2013.
- Bruce W. Frier, Libri Annales Pontificum Maximorum: The Origins of the Annalistic Tradition, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1999 (first published in 1979).
- Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft(abbreviated RE), vol. VII, 1, J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 1910, col. 998-1000.
- Hermann Peter, Historicorum Romanorum reliquiae, Leipzig, 1914.
- Elizabeth Rawson, "The First Latin Annalists", Latomus, T. 35, Fasc. 4 (oct.-déc. 1976), pp. 689–717.
- John Rich, "Fabius Pictor, Ennius and the Origins of Roman Annalistic Historiography", in Christopher Smith, Kaj Sandberg (editors), Omnium Annalium Monumenta: Historical Writing and Historical Evidence in Republican Rome, Leiden & Boston, Brill, 2017, pp. 17–65.
- Edward Allen Sydenham, The Coinage of the Roman Republic, London, Spink, 1952.
- G. J. Szemler, The Priests of the Roman Republic, A Study of Interactions, between Priesthoods and Magistracies, Bruxelles, Latomus, 1972.