Gnaeus Gellius

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Gnaeus Gellius was a Roman historian . He lived in the late 2nd century BC. His work, which has only been preserved in extremely fragments, is counted among the "Older Annalistics ".

Life

Gnaeus Gellius is a rather shadowy figure due to the sparse tradition about his person. Cicero provides a clue for Gellius' lifetime in his work De divinatione , in which he puts the Gellians (plural form) after the Fabians and before Coelius in a short list of Roman historians, i.e. Gnaeus Gellius as after Quintus Fabius Pictor and before Lucius Coelius Looking at Antipater while writing. According to Censorinus , Gellius lived as well as the historians Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi and Lucius Cassius Hemina at the time of mostly 146 BC. Dated fourth secular games about which he reported in his annals. The historian's prenomen Gnaeus is attested by several testimonies. Perhaps he is identical with that mint master of the Roman Republic who worked around 138 BC. Different types of coins (one denarius and three bronze coins), which are marked with the letters CN GEL or CN GELI. There is no evidence of the historian's identification with the eponymous Gnaeus Gellius, against whom Cato the Elder gave a speech for Lucius Turius in a graduation process.

plant

Gnaeus Gellius wrote one from the early period to at least 146 BC. Chr. Extensive representation of Roman history, dubbed Annales by several ancient authors . This work, of which only a little more than thirty mostly short fragments have survived, was unusually large and above all described the beginnings of Rome in lengthy fashion. The third book was the story of the robbery of the Sabine women , as reported by the Latin writer Aulus Gellius , who literally quotes a prayer from Hersilia , the wife of Romulus , to Neria , the wife of Mars . In the 15th book the conquest of Rome by the Gauls was dealt with, i.e. around 389 BC. BC, in the 30th or 33rd book the year 216 BC. Reached. Accordingly, Gnaeus Gellius is likely to have treated Roman history up to the pillage of Rome by the Gauls about three times as extensively as Titus Livius and as extensively as Dionysius of Halicarnassus , the following epoch, however, as well as Livy. The grammarian Charisius even quotes a chronological statement from the 97th book of Gellius, but this book number is often doubted and set lower in modern research. But some ancient historians consider them reliable; for it is certain, for example, that the work of the younger annalist Valerius Antias comprised at least 75 books.

The majority of the quoted fragments from the work of Gnaeus Gellius date from the time of early Roman history up to the beginnings of the republic; they are not very productive for the later time. In research, various speculative explanations for the great breadth of Gellius' annals have been put forward, for example that he used the Annales maximi or made imaginative additions to the sparse tradition through speeches, motivations and elements of action that were based on the rules of plausibility ( Greek εικός, eikós) were invented. Friedrich Münzer assumed that Gellius, following the example of Timaeus and Cato, often interwoven Greek sagas in early Italian history and based extensive hypotheses on the names given, which explains the detail of the first part of his annals. The comprehensive design of the early Roman period was probably trend-setting for late Annalistics.

Like other older annalists, Gnaeus Gellius was interested in cultural history and archaic religion. He also reported on the inventors of various cultural techniques, such as the alphabet , medicine and weights and measures. Except for a few extravagances (preference for forms ending in -abus , genitive lapiderum ), his language is relatively inconspicuous.

reception

The 66 BC The Roman historian Gaius Licinius Macer , who died in BC, used Gnaeus Gellius as a source, as did Dionysius of Halicarnassus later, who cites Gellius six times for the history of the royal period and the republic up to the Decemvirate and criticizes some of his gross chronological errors. It is uncertain whether Gellius was used by Cicero as an informant; In any case, Titus Livius never mentions him. Quotations of Gellius in later antiquarians and grammarians (e.g. in Aulus Gellius and Servius ) are perhaps mediated by Marcus Terentius Varro . Although this is often assumed, it has not been proven in the strict sense.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cicero, De divinations 55.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Werner Suerbaum, The archaic literature. From the beginning to Sulla's death , p. 429.
  3. ^ Censorinus, De die natali 17, 11.
  4. ^ Dionysios of Halicarnassus , Antiquitates Romanae 2, 31, 1; Aulus Gellius , Noctes Atticae 13, 23, 13; Censorinus , De die natali 17, 11; Solinus , De mirabilibus mundi 2, 28.
  5. ^ Rainer Albert: The coins of the Roman Republic , Battenberg-Gietl Verlag, No. 892–895; Werner Suerbaum, The archaic literature. From the beginning to Sulla's death , p. 429.
  6. ↑ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 14, 2, 21 and 26.
  7. ↑ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 17, 23, 13 and 18, 12, 6; Servius , Commentary on Virgil , Aeneid 4, 390; Macrobius , Saturnalia 1, 16, 21.
  8. ^ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 13, 23, 13.
  9. ↑ Macrobius, Saturnalia 1, 16, 21.
  10. ↑ a b Friedrich Münzer: Gellius 4th In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE). Volume VII, 1, Stuttgart 1910, Sp. 998-1000; here 999.
  11. ↑ Charisius, GLK 1, 54, 18.
  12. ↑ Michael von Albrecht, History of Roman Literature , Saur, 1994, Vol. 1, p. 308.
  13. ↑ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae 2, 31; 2.72; 2.76; 4, 6; 6, 11; 7, 1.
  14. ↑ Werner Suerbaum, The archaic literature. From the beginning to Sulla's death , p. 430.
personal data
SURNAME Gellius, Gnaeus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman historian
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century BC BC or 1st century BC Chr.