Licinius Imbrex

Licinius Imbrex was a Roman republican comedy poet . Only a title and a two-verse fragment of his works have survived.

The dates of his life are unknown, but Gellius describes him as an old, that is, early poet of comedies (vetus comoediarum scriptor) . It was probably a contemporary of Plautus and consequently had its heyday around 200 BC. Chr. Gellius also mentions the only known title of one of his pieces today - Neaera - and transmits the corresponding verses:

" Nolo ego Neaeram te vocent, sed Nerienem,
Cum quidem Mavorti es in conubium data "

"I don't want them to call you Neaera, but Nerienes,
since you were given to Mars for marriage."

Alludes to Nerio , cult companion and wife of Mars , who is also called Nerienes in Plautus .

Volcacius Sedigitus lists Licinius Imbrex in his canon of palliative poets in fourth place, behind Caecilius Statius , Plautus and Naevius . Licinius Imbrex is probably not to be equated with Publius Licinius Tegula , according to Livius the author of an atonement song ordered by the Decemvirn on the occasion of a 200 BC. Prodigium occurred . It is true that Tegula and Imbrex two antique tiles forms in their function but they are too different to be able to be used to interchangeably. The task of such epithets was to differentiate between contemporaries of the same name. Imbrex and tegula have another meaning in the field of theater and characterize the type of applause given: tegula with flat hands, imbrex with cupped hands. The related and yet different epithets could allude to this in people who created for the stage and public appearances.

literature

• Jürgen Blänsdorf : Licinius Imbrex. In: Werner Suerbaum (Ed.): The archaic literature. From the beginnings to Sulla's death (= Handbook of the Latin Literature of Antiquity. Volume 1). CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48134-5 , p. 257.
• Jürgen Blänsdorf: Licinius I 22. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 7, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01477-0 , column 165.
• Ernst Diehl : Licinius 92. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIII, 1, Stuttgart 1926, Sp. 371.
• Annie Dubourdieu, Philippe Moreau: Imbrex et Tegula : la technique des applaudissements à Rome. In: Latomus . Volume 45, No. 4, 1986, pp. 717-730.
• Gesine Manuwald : Roman theater. From the beginnings to the early imperial era. Francke, Tübingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-8252-4581-8 , pp. 210-211.

Remarks

1. ↑ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 13,23,16.
2. ↑ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 13, 23, 16-17; Translation after Gesine Manuwald : Roman theater. From the beginnings to the early imperial era. Francke, Tübingen 2016, p. 210.
3. ↑ Plautus, Truculentus 515: Mars peregre adveniens salutat Nerienem uxorem suam.
4. ↑ Volcacius Frg. 1.8.
5. ↑ Livy 31:12, 10.
6. ↑ In favor of the equation, for example: Giusto Monaco: P. Licinivs Tegvla-Imbrex. In: Studi di poesia latina in onore di Antonio Traglia. Volume 1 (= Storia e letteratura. Volume 146). Edizioni di storia e letteratura, Rome 1979, pp. 93-97, here: p. 96 f.
7. ↑ This objection raises: Jürgen Blänsdorf : Licinius Imbrex. In: Werner Suerbaum (Ed.): The archaic literature. From the beginnings to Sulla's death (= Handbook of the Latin Literature of Antiquity. Volume 1). CH Beck, Munich 2002, p. 257.
8. ^ Annie Dubourdieu, Philippe Moreau: Imbrex et Tegula : la technique des applaudissements à Rome. In: Latomus . Volume 45, No. 4, 1986, pp. 717-730.