Aulus Gellius (c. 125 – after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his Attic Nights, a commonplace book, or compilation of notes on grammar, philosophy, history, antiquarianism, and other subjects, preserving fragments of the works of many authors who might otherwise be unknown today.
Medieval manuscripts of the Noctes Atticae commonly gave the author's name in the form of "Agellius", which is used by Priscian; Lactantius, Servius and Saint Augustine had "A. Gellius" instead. Scholars from the Renaissance onwards hotly debated which one of the two transmitted names is correct (the other one being presumably a corruption) before settling on the latter of the two in modern times.[1]
LifeEdit
The only source for the life of Aulus Gellius is the details recorded in his writings.[2] Internal evidence points to Gellius having been born between AD 125 and 128.[3] He was of good family and connections,[4] and he was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He attended the Pythian Games in the year 147,[3] and resided for a considerable period in Athens.[2] Gellius studied rhetoric under Titus Castricius and Sulpicius Apollinaris; philosophy under Calvisius Taurus and Peregrinus Proteus; and enjoyed also the friendship and instruction of Favorinus, Herodes Atticus, and Fronto.[2]
He returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office.[5] He was appointed by the praetor to act as an umpire in civil causes, and much of the time which he would gladly have devoted to literary pursuits was consequently occupied by judicial duties.[2]
Attic NightsEdit
Gellius' only known work is the Attic Nights (Latin: Noctes Atticae), which takes its name from having been begun during the long nights of a winter which he spent in Attica. He afterwards continued it in Rome. It is compiled out of an Adversaria, or commonplace book, in which he had jotted down everything of unusual interest that he heard in conversation or read in books, and it comprises notes on grammar, geometry, philosophy, history and many other subjects.[5] One story is the fable of Androcles, which is often included in compilations of Aesop's fables, but was not originally from that source. Internal evidence led Leofranc Holford-Strevens to date its publication in or after AD 177.[3]
The work, deliberately devoid of sequence or arrangement, is divided into twenty books. All have survived except the eighth, of which only the index survives. The Attic Nights are valuable for the insight they afford into the nature of the society and pursuits of those times, and for its many excerpts from works of lost ancient authors.[5]
The Attic Nights found many readers in antiquity. Writers who used this compilation include Apuleius, Lactantius, Nonius Marcellus, Ammianus Marcellinus, the anonymous author of the Historia Augusta, Servius, and Augustine; but most notable is how Gellius' work was mined by Macrobius, "who, without mentioning his name, quotes Gellius verbatim throughout the Saturnalia, and is thus of the highest value for the text".[6]
EditionsEdit
The editio princeps was published at Rome in 1469 by Giovanni Andrea Bussi, bishop-designate of Aleria.[7] The earliest critical edition was by Ludovicus Carrio in 1585, published by Henricus Stephanus; however, the projected commentary fell victim to personal quarrels. Better known is the critical edition of Johann Friedrich Gronovius; although he devoted his entire life to work on Gellius, he died in 1671 before his work could be completed. His son Jakob published most of his comments on Gellius in 1687, and brought out a revised text with all of his father's comments and other materials at Leyden in 1706; this later work became known as the "Gronoviana". According to Leofranc Holford-Strevens, the "Gronoviana" remained the standard text of Gellius for over a hundred years, until the edition of Martin Hertz (Berlin, 1883–85; there is also a smaller edition by the same author, Berlin, 1886), revised by C. Hosius, 1903, with bibliography. A volume of selections, with notes and vocabulary, was published by Nall (London, 1888). There is an English translation by W. Beloe (London, 1795), and a French translation (1896).[5][8] A more recent English translation is by John Carew Rolfe (1927) for the Loeb Classical Library. More recently, Peter K. Marshall's edition (Oxford U. Press, 1968, 1990 (reissued with corrections) seems widespread both in print and digital (open access) formats.[9]
TranslationsEdit
George Herbert Nall, ed. (1921). Stories from Aulus Gellius. Elementary classics. London: Macmillan.
^ abcLeofranc Holford-Strevens, "Towards a Chronology of Aulus Gellius", Latomus, 36 (1977), pp. 93–109
^Leofranc Holford-Strevens (2003), Aulus Gellius: an Antonine scholar and his achievement, pp. 13–15
^ abcdOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gellius, Aulus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 558.
^P. K. Marshall, "Aulus Gellius" in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 176
^Unless otherwise indicated, this section is based on Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Aulus Gellius (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1988), pp. 241–244
Anderson, Graham. (1994). "Aulus Gellius: a Miscellanist and His World," in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, vol. II.34.2. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Beall, S. (1997). "Translation in Aulus Gellius." The Classical Quarterly, 47(1), 215–226.
Ceaicovschi, K. (2009). "Cato the Elder in Aulus Gellius." Illinois Classical Studies, (33–34), 25–39.
Lakmann, Marie-Luise. (1995). Der Platoniker Tauros in der Darstellung des Aulus Gellius. Leiden, The Netherlands, and New York: Brill.
Garcea, Alessandro. (2003). "Paradoxes in Aulus Gellius." Argumentation 17:87–98.
Gunderson, Eric. (2009). Nox Philologiae: Aulus Gellius and the Fantasy of the Roman Library. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
Holford-Strevens, Leofranc. (2003). Aulus Gellius: An Antonine Scholar and his Achievement. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Holford-Strevens, Leofranc. (1982). "Fact and fiction in Aulus Gellius." Liverpool Classical Monthly 7:65–68.
Holford-Strevens, Leofranc, and Amiel Vardi, eds. (2004). The Worlds of Aulus Gellius. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Howley, Joseph A. (2013). "Why Read the Jurists ?: Aulus Gellius on Reading Across Disciplines." In New Frontiers: Law and Society in the Roman World. Edited by Paul J. du Plessis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Howley, Joseph A. (2018). Aulus Gellius and Roman Reading Culture. Text, Presence, and Imperial Knowledge in the Noctes Atticae. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, William A. (2012). "Aulus Gellius: The Life of the Litteratus" In Readers and Reading Culture in the High Roman Empire: A Study of Elite Communities. Classical Culture and Society. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
Ker, James (2004). "Nocturnal Writers in Imperial Rome: The Culture of Lucubratio." Classical Philology, 99(3), 209–242.
Keulen, Wytse. (2009). "Gellius the Satirist: Roman Cultural Authority in Attic Nights." Mnemosyne Supplements 297. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.
McGinn, Thomas A.J. (2010). "Communication and the Capability Problem in Roman Law: Aulus Gellius as Iudex and the Jurists on Child-Custody." RIDA 57, 265–298.
Russell, Brigette. (2003). "Wine, Women, and the Polis: Gender and the Formation of the City-State in Archaic Rome." Greece & Rome, 50(1), 77–84
External linksEdit
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The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, 1795 translation, Vol. I, Vol. II, Vol. III.
Works by Aulus Gellius at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Attic Nights (Latin text: complete; English translation: Preface thru Book 13)
Attic Nights (Latin text: Books 1–11, 13, 20)
Noctes atticae at Somni
September 21, 2023
aulus, gellius, after, roman, author, grammarian, probably, born, certainly, brought, rome, educated, athens, after, which, returned, rome, famous, attic, nights, commonplace, book, compilation, notes, grammar, philosophy, history, antiquarianism, other, subje. Aulus Gellius c 125 after 180 AD was a Roman author and grammarian who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome He was educated in Athens after which he returned to Rome He is famous for his Attic Nights a commonplace book or compilation of notes on grammar philosophy history antiquarianism and other subjects preserving fragments of the works of many authors who might otherwise be unknown today Aulus GelliusFrontispiece to a 1706 Latin edition of the Attic Nights fr by Jakob GronoviusBornc 125 ADDiedc 180 AD Contents 1 Name 2 Life 3 Attic Nights 3 1 Editions 3 2 Translations 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksName EditMedieval manuscripts of the Noctes Atticae commonly gave the author s name in the form of Agellius which is used by Priscian Lactantius Servius and Saint Augustine had A Gellius instead Scholars from the Renaissance onwards hotly debated which one of the two transmitted names is correct the other one being presumably a corruption before settling on the latter of the two in modern times 1 Life EditThe only source for the life of Aulus Gellius is the details recorded in his writings 2 Internal evidence points to Gellius having been born between AD 125 and 128 3 He was of good family and connections 4 and he was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome He attended the Pythian Games in the year 147 3 and resided for a considerable period in Athens 2 Gellius studied rhetoric under Titus Castricius and Sulpicius Apollinaris philosophy under Calvisius Taurus and Peregrinus Proteus and enjoyed also the friendship and instruction of Favorinus Herodes Atticus and Fronto 2 He returned to Rome where he held a judicial office 5 He was appointed by the praetor to act as an umpire in civil causes and much of the time which he would gladly have devoted to literary pursuits was consequently occupied by judicial duties 2 Attic Nights EditGellius only known work is the Attic Nights Latin Noctes Atticae which takes its name from having been begun during the long nights of a winter which he spent in Attica He afterwards continued it in Rome It is compiled out of an Adversaria or commonplace book in which he had jotted down everything of unusual interest that he heard in conversation or read in books and it comprises notes on grammar geometry philosophy history and many other subjects 5 One story is the fable of Androcles which is often included in compilations of Aesop s fables but was not originally from that source Internal evidence led Leofranc Holford Strevens to date its publication in or after AD 177 3 The work deliberately devoid of sequence or arrangement is divided into twenty books All have survived except the eighth of which only the index survives The Attic Nights are valuable for the insight they afford into the nature of the society and pursuits of those times and for its many excerpts from works of lost ancient authors 5 The Attic Nights found many readers in antiquity Writers who used this compilation include Apuleius Lactantius Nonius Marcellus Ammianus Marcellinus the anonymous author of the Historia Augusta Servius and Augustine but most notable is how Gellius work was mined by Macrobius who without mentioning his name quotes Gellius verbatim throughout the Saturnalia and is thus of the highest value for the text 6 Editions Edit The editio princeps was published at Rome in 1469 by Giovanni Andrea Bussi bishop designate of Aleria 7 The earliest critical edition was by Ludovicus Carrio in 1585 published by Henricus Stephanus however the projected commentary fell victim to personal quarrels Better known is the critical edition of Johann Friedrich Gronovius although he devoted his entire life to work on Gellius he died in 1671 before his work could be completed His son Jakob published most of his comments on Gellius in 1687 and brought out a revised text with all of his father s comments and other materials at Leyden in 1706 this later work became known as the Gronoviana According to Leofranc Holford Strevens the Gronoviana remained the standard text of Gellius for over a hundred years until the edition of Martin Hertz Berlin 1883 85 there is also a smaller edition by the same author Berlin 1886 revised by C Hosius 1903 with bibliography A volume of selections with notes and vocabulary was published by Nall London 1888 There is an English translation by W Beloe London 1795 and a French translation 1896 5 8 A more recent English translation is by John Carew Rolfe 1927 for the Loeb Classical Library More recently Peter K Marshall s edition Oxford U Press 1968 1990 reissued with corrections seems widespread both in print and digital open access formats 9 Translations Edit George Herbert Nall ed 1921 Stories from Aulus Gellius Elementary classics London Macmillan John Carew Rolfe 1927 The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius Loeb Classical Library 3 Volumes ISBN 0674992156 0674992202 0674992342See also EditEx pede Herculem Gellia gensNotes Edit Rene Marache 1967 Introduction Aulu Gelle Les nuits attiques Livres I IV Paris Les Belles Lettres p VII a b c d Ramsay William 1867 A Gellius in Smith William ed Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology vol 2 Boston p 235 archived from the original on 2010 01 18 retrieved 2010 12 21 a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint location missing publisher link a b c Leofranc Holford Strevens Towards a Chronology of Aulus Gellius Latomus 36 1977 pp 93 109 Leofranc Holford Strevens 2003 Aulus Gellius an Antonine scholar and his achievement pp 13 15 a b c d nbsp One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Gellius Aulus Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 11 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 558 P K Marshall Aulus Gellius in Texts and Transmission A Survey of the Latin Classics Oxford Clarendon Press 1983 p 176 Unless otherwise indicated this section is based on Leofranc Holford Strevens Aulus Gellius Chapel Hill University of North Carolina 1988 pp 241 244 Gilman D C Peck H T Colby F M eds 1905 Gellius Aulus New International Encyclopedia 1st ed New York Dodd Mead Marshall Peter K 1990 A Gellii Noctes Atticae Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 814651 5 References Edit nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Wm Ramsay 1870 A Gellius In Smith William ed Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Vol 2 p 235 Further reading EditAnderson Graham 1994 Aulus Gellius a Miscellanist and His World in Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt vol II 34 2 Berlin and New York Walter de Gruyter Beall S 1997 Translation in Aulus Gellius The Classical Quarterly 47 1 215 226 Ceaicovschi K 2009 Cato the Elder in Aulus Gellius Illinois Classical Studies 33 34 25 39 Lakmann Marie Luise 1995 Der Platoniker Tauros in der Darstellung des Aulus Gellius Leiden The Netherlands and New York Brill Garcea Alessandro 2003 Paradoxes in Aulus Gellius Argumentation 17 87 98 Gunderson Eric 2009 Nox Philologiae Aulus Gellius and the Fantasy of the Roman Library Madison Univ of Wisconsin Press Holford Strevens Leofranc 2003 Aulus Gellius An Antonine Scholar and his Achievement Oxford Oxford Univ Press Holford Strevens Leofranc 1982 Fact and fiction in Aulus Gellius Liverpool Classical Monthly 7 65 68 Holford Strevens Leofranc and Amiel Vardi eds 2004 The Worlds of Aulus Gellius Oxford Oxford Univ Press Howley Joseph A 2013 Why Read the Jurists Aulus Gellius on Reading Across Disciplines In New Frontiers Law and Society in the Roman World Edited by Paul J du Plessis Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press Howley Joseph A 2018 Aulus Gellius and Roman Reading Culture Text Presence and Imperial Knowledge in the Noctes Atticae Cambridge Cambridge University Press Johnson William A 2012 Aulus Gellius The Life of the Litteratus In Readers and Reading Culture in the High Roman Empire A Study of Elite Communities Classical Culture and Society Oxford New York Oxford University Press Ker James 2004 Nocturnal Writers in Imperial Rome The Culture of Lucubratio Classical Philology 99 3 209 242 Keulen Wytse 2009 Gellius the Satirist Roman Cultural Authority in Attic Nights Mnemosyne Supplements 297 Leiden The Netherlands and Boston Brill McGinn Thomas A J 2010 Communication and the Capability Problem in Roman Law Aulus Gellius as Iudex and the Jurists on Child Custody RIDA 57 265 298 Russell Brigette 2003 Wine Women and the Polis Gender and the Formation of the City State in Archaic Rome Greece amp Rome 50 1 77 84External links Edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Aulus Gellius nbsp Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article Works by Aulus Gellius nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aulus Gellius Works by Aulus Gellius at Perseus Digital Library Works by Aulus Gellius at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Aulus Gellius at Internet Archive The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius 1795 translation Vol I Vol II Vol III Works by Aulus Gellius at LibriVox public domain audiobooks nbsp Attic Nights Latin text complete English translation Preface thru Book 13 Attic Nights Latin text Books 1 11 13 20 Noctes atticae at Somni Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Aulus Gellius amp oldid 1176431125, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
