Publius Nigidius Figulus

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Publius Nigidius Figulus (* around 100 BC; † 45 BC ) was a scholar and politician of the late Roman Republic . He wrote a number of essays on natural history, mantic ( divination ), religion, and grammar.

Life

The origin of Nigidius is unknown. He belonged to a plebeian family. Possibly he was a descendant of Gaius Nigidius, who lived in 145 BC. Chr. Praetor the province Hispania Citerior was. Etruscan descent is assumed. His nickname ( cognomen ) Figulus ("potter") seems to have hardly been used during his lifetime; it is attested only once in contemporary sources (in a letter from Cicero from the year 46). The nickname was not common until the 1st century AD.

Nigidius was first born in 63 BC. Sources attested to. At that time he was already a member of the Senate . He was one of the closest friends (amicissimi) of Cicero, who was consul that year , and supported him in fighting the Catiline conspiracy . According to Plutarch , Nigidius strongly influenced Cicero as a consultant and spoke out in favor of harsh punishment for the conspirators. During the interrogation of witnesses who testified against the Catilinarians before the Senate, Nigidius was one of the clerks. In the year 60 BC He publicly threatened judges with an indictment if they should evade their task of exercising their office in the legal proceedings initiated against Gaius Antonius . It is unclear whether Nigidius acted in the exercise of a public office; this assumption is not absolutely necessary to explain its occurrence. Possibly he was aedile then ; but it can also be that he had already held this office earlier and was now active as a judge (iudex quaestionis) . 58 BC He was praetor. Nothing is known of any further offices held in the following period; he did not reach the consulate .

In 51 Nigidius was returning from an embassy in Ephesus , where he met Cicero. Like Cicero, he supported Pompey in the civil war against Caesar . In February 49 he was in Corfinium in the vicinity of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus , an officer of Pompey. Domitius tried in vain to organize the resistance against Caesar there and was eventually captured. Nigidius went to Capua and from there to the forces of Pompey in Epirus . After the decisive defeat of Pompey in the battle of Pharsalus (August 48), Nigidius went into exile. In August 46, Cicero wrote him a letter of comfort in response to a request for help. In it he informed him that although he could not campaign for his return to Rome at the moment, he would do so in the future; there is definitely a prospect of pardon. At the same time he expressed his gratitude for earlier help in difficult times. The following year Nigidius died in exile. Apparently Cicero had prepared a speech with which he wanted to ask Caesar for a pardon for Nigidius, but this plan never came to fruition.

It is disputed whether or to what extent Nigidius can be called a New Pythagorean . Cicero claims that he renewed the dead teaching tradition of the ancient Pythagoreans. According to later sources, he founded a community of like-minded people (sodalicium), which enjoyed considerable popularity and which followed the old ideal of a friendship association of Pythagorean philosophers, but also caused offense. However, the name of Pythagoras is nowhere mentioned in the surviving fragments of his works , and there is no particular interest in specifically Pythagorean concerns. In research, this has given rise to skeptical considerations regarding his Pythagoreanism. Presumably the sodalicium was just a loose circle of friends without a formal framework.

Works

Almost all of Nigidius' works are lost; Apart from fragments of partly doubtful authenticity, only a Greek translation of a calendar used for divination has survived. Twelve writings are known from quotations and mentions:

  • Commentarii grammatici ("Grammatical Comments"), a representation of Latin grammar consisting of at least 29 books. The topics included orthography , phonetics , morphology (with word formation), syntax and synonymy . The author was particularly interested in etymology , from which he expected to shed some light on the true meaning of words, since he assumed a natural origin of language and an inner connection between the words and the essence of the things they signify. In research, stoic influence on his understanding of grammar and philosophical thinking is assumed. The question of what Nigidius meant by the term casus interrogandi ("questionable case") is controversial.
  • De gestu ("About gesture "), a treatise on wearing the toga and the posture and gestures of the speaker, known only from a mention by Quintilian . Possibly it was not a stand-alone book on the subject, but just part of a larger work on rhetoric .
  • De dis ("On the Gods"), a treatise made up of at least 19 books, was the oldest study of the Roman deities. Nigidius also dealt with the religious ideas of the Etruscans and the Orphics, as well as with oriental traditions and the mythical tradition of the world ages .
  • De augurio privato ("About the private bird's eye view "). This font is only known from a mention by Gellius . Her subject was fortune-telling from the bird's flight, insofar as this was not carried out by the state but out of private interest.
  • De extis ("About the viscera"), a treatise on sacrificial animals and the viscera (divination based on the nature of the organs of slaughtered sacrificial animals). This writing is also only known from a mention by Gellius.
  • De somniis ("About dreams"), a book about the interpretation of dreams. The late antique writer Johannes Lydos reports that Nigidius expressed himself in it about the interpretation of the thunder in the dream: in general it was a bad omen, but if the dreaming endured the thunderstorm, it was a very favorable one.
  • a brontoscopic calendar. Brontoscopy was divination from the clap of thunder (from the Greek brontḗ "thunder"). Johannes Lydos provides a Greek translation of the calendar, which is discussed intensively in modern research. The calendar starts with June 1st and assumes lunar months of thirty days each. For each day it indicates the significance of the clap of thunder for agriculture as well as for political and social life. Since this work provides indications of social tensions, it is also evaluated as a source of social history. The brontoscopic interpretations given are of Babylonian origin, but the calendar presents them with reference to an Etruscan authority, the mythical day that is said to have conveyed the art of divination to the Etruscans. According to Lydos, the calendar was only a translation from the Etruscan language into Latin, but apparently Nigidius edited the material available to him and adapted it to the needs of Roman readers and current political conditions. The validity claim of the Latin version was limited to Rome.
  • De sphaera ("Above the heavens"), a description of the starry sky and the movements of the stars, in which both the firmament over Greece and that of the "barbarians" (which meant the Egyptians, among others) were treated. In it, Nigidius also processed legendary material and considered the astrological evaluation of astronomical knowledge.
  • De terris ("About the regions of the world"), a treatise on geography. Servius quotes from it a passage about the national character of the Ligurians ; thus ethnography was also treated. A detailed description of the climates in the Naturalis Historia of Pliny comes obviously from this work.
  • De ventis , a text about the winds consisting of at least four books.
  • De hominum natura (“On the essence of human beings”), a treatise on anthropology that consisted of at least four books. Among other things, issues of human anatomy, reproduction and nutrition were discussed, with medical considerations playing a role.
  • De animalibus ("About the animals"). In this work of at least four books that Pliny used, Nigidius imparted zoological knowledge to the Latin-speaking world, which came from Aristotle and Theophrastus . Among the topics discussed was the question of friendships among animals. Occasionally, Nigidius contradicted Aristotle's statements.

reception

Nigidius was one of the most prominent scholars of his time. He was particularly known for his studies in the field of natural history and occultism . In Cicero's judgment, he was "an ardent and circumspect explorer of those things that appear to be veiled by nature" and the "most learned of all," a researcher who owed his knowledge not only to study of tradition but also to his own ingenuity . After the death of Nigidius, Cicero had him appear as a conversation partner in a dialogue known under the title Timaeus and which has not been fully transmitted. There Nigidius gives a speech that reproduces a slightly modified text from Plato's Timaeus in Cicero's Latin translation; he takes on the role of keynote speaker that Timaeus of Lokroi plays in Plato's Dialogue.

In his epic about the Roman civil war , Lukan describes how, after Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon , Nigidius predicted a catastrophic civil war due to the astrological constellation. The peace that comes afterwards must be bought with the loss of freedom and the introduction of sole power. Suetonius reports in his biography of the emperor Augustus that when he was born Nigidius predicted the future role of the newborn as world ruler. Apuleius tells an anecdote with reference to Varro , in which Nigidius uses magic to find a lost sum of money. The church father Hieronymus describes Nigidius as a magician.

According to a hypothesis by Adriana Della Casa Suetonius wrote a biography of Nigidius, from which a large part of the biographical material contained in later sources comes.

Gellius considers Nigidius and Varro to be the most learned Romans, and Servius also compares these two authors and regards them as the most excellent scholars. However, Gellius also criticizes claims of Nigidius that do not convince him or that he considers to be erroneous, and points out that the works of Nigidius did not gain wide circulation; as they lacked general understanding, they were considered of little use. At least the relatively extensive use by Pliny the Elder and Gellius testifies to a continuing interest in learned circles of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The authors who have found material from the writings of Nigidius also include Quintilian, Arnobius , Macrobius , Ampelius , Nonius , Johannes Lydos and the authors of Scholien zu Virgil and Aratos . A Nigidius reception with Virgil has been suspected, but cannot be proven.

The late antique author of anonymous Lukan scholias and the church father Augustine attributed the nickname Figulus ("potter") to the fact that Nigidius had taken the view that the world was turning as fast as a potter's wheel; According to Augustine, he justified the different fates of twins from an astrological point of view despite their almost simultaneous birth, with which he turned against a common argument from critics of astrology. This explanation of the nickname is legendary and unbelievable.

Johannes Kepler dealt with the prophecy of Nigidius described by Lukan. He examined the question of whether it is based on a historical reality and came to the conclusion that it was a free literary invention.

In modern research, Jérôme Carcopino has emerged with an interpretation of Nigidius as a representative of both religious and political Pythagoreanism. Today Carcopino's hypotheses are considered too far-reaching.

Editions and translations

  • Anton Swoboda (Ed.): P. Nigidii Figuli operum reliquiae. Tempsky, Vienna / Prague 1889; Reprint: Hakkert, Amsterdam 1964 (fundamentally, partly out of date).
  • Gino Funaioli (Ed.): Grammaticae Romanae fragmenta. Teubner, Leipzig 1907, pp. 158-179; Reprint: Teubner, Stuttgart 1969.
  • Dora Liuzzi (Ed.): Nigidio Figulo "astrologo e mago". Testimonianze e frammenti. Milella, Lecce 1983, ISBN 88-7048-063-1 (Edition of the mantic works after Swoboda with Italian translation and commentary).

literature

  • Walter Belardi, Palmira Cipriano: Casus interrogandi. Nigidio Figulo e la teoria stoica della lingua. Istituto di Studi Romani, Viterbo 1990, ISBN 88-85134-29-7 .
  • Nuccio D'Anna: Publio Nigidio Figulo. Un pitagorico a Roma nel 1 ° secolo a. C. Archè, Milano 2008, ISBN 978-88-7252-282-0
  • Adriana Della Casa: Nigidio Figulo . Edizioni dell'Ateneo, Roma 1962.
  • Michèle Ducos: Nigidius Figulus . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Vol. 4, CNRS, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-271-06386-8 , pp. 703-712.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Adriana Della Casa: Nigidio Figulo , Roma 1962, p. 9 and notes 1 and 2.
  2. ↑ Plutarch , Cicero 20 and An seni sit gerenda respublica 27; see. Cicero, Epistulae ad familiares IV, 13.2.
  3. ^ Cicero, Pro P. Sulla XIV, 41.
  4. ↑ Cicero, Ad Atticum 22 (II, 2,3).
  5. ↑ See Marcos Mayer: Puntualizaciones sobre el "Cursus honorum" de Publio Nigidio Figulo . In: Pyrenae 10, 1974, pp. 181-194 (with a detailed description of the research history).
  6. ↑ Cicero mentions this encounter only in a literary context; therefore it cannot be ruled out that it is a literary fiction. See Danuta Musiał: Sodalicium [sacrilegii] Nigidiani. Les pythagoriciens à Rome à la fin de la République . In: Revue de l'histoire des religions 218, 2001, pp. 339–367, here: p. 359, note 51.
  7. ^ Cicero, Ad familiares IV, 13.
  8. ↑ Adriana Della Casa: Nigidio Figulo , Roma 1962, pp 37-53; Holger Thesleff : Review by Adriana Della Casa, Nigidio Figulo . In: Gnomon 37, 1965, pp. 44-48, here: 45.
  9. ↑ On negative reactions in public and their aftermath see Michèle Ducos: Nigidius Figulus . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 703-712, here: 706f .; Matthew W. Dickie: The learned magician and the collection and transmission of magical lore . In: David R. Jordan et al. a. (Ed.): The world of ancient magic , Bergen 1999, pp. 170f .; Danuta Musiał: Sodalicium [sacrilegii] Nigidiani. Les pythagoriciens à Rome à la fin de la République . In: Revue de l'histoire des religions 218, 2001, pp. 339–367, here: 350–354, 357.
  10. ↑ Holger Thesleff: Review by Adriana Della Casa, Nigidio Figulo . In: Gnomon 37, 1965, pp. 44-48, here: 45-47; see. Michèle Ducos: Nigidius Figulus . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 703–712, here: 706, Danuta Musiał: Sodalicium [sacrilegii] Nigidiani. Les pythagoriciens à Rome à la fin de la République . In: Revue de l'histoire des religions 218, 2001, pp. 339–367, here: 358–362.
  11. ^ Danuta Musiał: Sodalicium [sacrilegii] Nigidiani. Les pythagoriciens à Rome à la fin de la République . In: Revue de l'histoire des religions 218, 2001, pp. 339–367, here: 352–358.
  12. ↑ See the study by Walter Belardi and Palmira Cipriano: Casus interrogandi. Nigidio Figulo e la teoria stoica della lingua , Viterbo 1990 and Marcello de Martino: Noctes Atticae, XIII, 26 e il presunto 'equivoco' di Gellio: riaperto il caso del "casus interrogandi" . In: Indogermanische Forschungen 111, 2006, pp. 192–226.
  13. ↑ Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 11,3,143.
  14. ↑ See on this work Elizabeth Rawson: Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic , London 1985, pp. 311f.
  15. ↑ Charles Guittard: Les Calendriers brontoscopiques dans le monde Etrusco-Roman . In: Christophe Cusset (ed.): La météorologie dans l'antiquité: entre science et croyance , Saint-Étienne 2003, pp. 455–466, here: 459–464; Carmine Ampolo: Lotte sociali in Italia centrale. Un documento controverso: il calendario brontoscopico attribuito a Nigidio Figulo . In: Opus 9/10, 1990/1991, pp. 185-195.
  16. ↑ See on this work Elizabeth Rawson: Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic , London 1985, p. 311.
  17. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 6,39,211-218.
  18. ↑ Jehan Desanges (Ed.): Pline l'Ancien, Histoire naturelle, Livre VI, 4 e partie , Paris 2008, pp. 266f .; Michèle Ducos: Nigidius Figulus . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 703-712, here: 711.
  19. ↑ Elizabeth Rawson: Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic , London 1985, p. 288.
  20. ↑ Elizabeth Rawson: Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic , London 1985, pp. 181-183.
  21. ↑ Cicero, Timaeus 1.
  22. ^ Cicero, Ad familiares IV, 13.3: uni omnium doctissimo .
  23. ^ Cicero, Ad familiares IV, 13.7.
  24. ↑ On this literary, also politically motivated appreciation of Nigidius by his friend Cicero, see Lothar Spahlinger: Tulliana simplicitas , Göttingen 2005, pp. 203-205.
  25. ↑ Lukan, Bellum civile 1,639-672. See Michèle Ducos: Nigidius Figulus . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 703-712, here: 707 and the studies mentioned there.
  26. ↑ Apuleius, De magia 42.7f.
  27. ↑ Adriana Della Casa: Nigidio Figulo , Roma 1962, pp 17-36; Holger Thesleff: Review by Adriana Della Casa, Nigidio Figulo . In: Gnomon 37, 1965, pp. 44–48, here: 45 and Danuta Musiał: Sodalicium [sacrilegii] Nigidiani. Les pythagoriciens à Rome à la fin de la République . In: Revue de l'histoire des religions 218, 2001, pp. 339–367, here: 344 agree.
  28. ↑ Gellius, Noctes Atticae 4,9,1; 4.16.1; 19,14,1; Servius, In Vergilii Aeneidos libros commentarii 10.175.
  29. ↑ Gellius, Noctes Atticae 4,9,12-14; 10,5,3; 15.3.5.
  30. ↑ Gellius, Noctes Atticae 17.7.5; 19.14.3.
  31. ↑ Marcos Mayer: Quis fuit alter. En torno a Verg. Ecl. 3.40 . In: Durius 2, 1974, pp. 397-411.
  32. ↑ The passages are compiled by Gino Funaioli (Ed.): Grammaticae Romanae fragmenta , Stuttgart 1969, p. 158.
  33. ↑ Adriana Della Casa: Nigidio Figulo , Roma 1962, p 14f .; Michèle Ducos: Nigidius Figulus . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 703-712, here: 704f.
  34. ^ Anne-Marie Lewis: What dreadful purpose do you have? In: Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History 9, 1998, pp. 379–400, here: 381.
  35. ^ Danuta Musiał: Sodalicium [sacrilegii] Nigidiani. Les pythagoriciens à Rome à la fin de la République . In: Revue de l'histoire des religions 218, 2001, pp. 339–367, here: 340–343.
personal data
SURNAME Nigidius Figulus, Publius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Figulus, Publius Nigidius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman writer, politician and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH around 100 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 45 BC Chr.