Saturday, July 1, 2023

Open Access Journal: Acta Classica Universitatis Debreceniensis (ACD)

 [First posted in AWOL 26 October 2020, updated 1 Ju;y 2023]

Acta Classica Universitatis Debreceniensis (ACD)

ACD is a peer-reviewed academic journal, which welcomes contributions on any topic directly related to the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Articles should make a new and interesting contribution to our understanding of classical antiquity. ACD is keen on publishing papers carefully thought through and clearly argued. Papers should be of interest to both a broad range of classicists and a general academic readership. Manuscripts submitted to the ACD are reviewed by editorial board members and also by outside experts. Most submissions are read by two scholars. ACD does not reprint material already published, except for those published elsewhere in Hungarian. ACD publishes articles circa 20,000 words in length (but there is no absolute maximum or minimum length), including footnotes and bibliography. ACD is open to contributions from any country. The language of publication is English, but submissions in French, German, Italian and Latin are also welcome.

Articles

The Invisibles Achaemenid Heavy Cavalry During the Greco-Persian Wars
3-18

Today, the Persian empires of Antiquity are still remembered as being famous for their expert use of cavalry forces. However, the textual, pictorial and archaeological evidence shows a slightly different picture, especially when the early Achaemenid period is considered. During the Greco-Persian wars, Persian riders had little chance to shine and were not able to show their full military potential against the Greeks. This paper examines the available sources and, through the evaluation of data, tries to answer some questions about the origins of (Persian) heavy cavalry and their presumed “invisibility” during this time. Their actual capabilities and close combat effectiveness are investigated, emphasising the parameters we associate with heavy cavalry and the use of body protection in combat. The primary question is, though, whether we can talk about “heavy cavalry” as a separate category during this period or not.

136
The Destruction of the City: Loss in the Greek and Roman Memory
19-36

The appearance of the ethnically “Other” naturally has an impact on a society’s own identity. It provokes the confirmation or rephrasing of identity. The loss and destruction caused by an ethnically “Other” group creates an especially deep conflict in the society’s self-definition. This paper focuses on such events and the collective memory concerning these, through the case study of the Persian sack in 490 BC and one hundred years later the Gallic siege of Rome.

105
The Hero, the Realpolitiker and the Careerist: A Historiographical Approach to the Early Foreign Policies of Demosthenes
37-52

The study explores the difficulties research has experienced in distancing itself from the 19th-century view of Demosthenes, rooted in the romantic cult of genius. The approach offers a retrospective view of the young Demosthenes and his early political activities. Assessment of his work – and in some cases, the excuses created for its shortcomings – is influenced by the image of the later leader of anti-Macedonian politics and the speeches On the False Embassy and On the Crown. Based on Demosthenes’s speeches For the Megalopolitans and On the Liberty of the Rhodians, the study will argue – building on statements made by Badian and Wooten – in favour of redefining the typical image of the young politician and, by extension, not looking for consistent political aspirations where none were to be found.

73
Homer's First Battle Supplication and the End of Virgil's Aeneid
53-66

One of the less appreciated literary influences on the Virgilian depiction of Aeneas' decision to slay Turnus at the end of the Aeneid is the first battle supplication scene in Homer's Iliad, the encounter of Adrestus with Menelaus and Agamemnon. Close consideration of Virgil's response to the Homeric scene sheds light on the poet's concerns in his presentation of the choice his Trojan hero Aeneas confronts in light of Turnus' appeal. Acrostics at the end of the Aeneid invite further reflection.

76
Acrostic Conversation: Horace, Ode I 18
67-100

This article argues that gamma-acrostical disce in Horace’s Ode I 18 (ll. 11–15) alludes to the land-confiscatory acrostics recently identified in Virgil’s Eclogues (I 5–8; VI 14–24; IX 34–38). Horace has carefully signposted his acrostical intent. Virgil himself interfaces with this Horatian cryptography by means of other acrostics of his own. The result is an ‘acrostic conversation’.

85
The Gems in the Ustinow Collection, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo
101-141

Scientifically, the collection’s primary importance is its Middle-Eastern origin; collections of gemstones from the Middle East have rarely been published unlike those from European archaeological sites. Thus the possibility opens up to compare finds from the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire with a focus on similarities and differences. While in the western provinces the gemstones typically spread during the era of the Roman Empire, in the eastern provinces the use of seals and gemstones goes back several thousand years. It follows that in the western regions, representations of the official themes of the age of the emperors, including the characteristic figures of gods of the state religion (Jupiter, Minerva, Mars, Venus Victrix), are the most common. In contrast, the eastern provinces saw the spread of representations of local gods (Zeus Ammon, Zeus Heliopolitanos, Sarapis) or the Hellenistic types of the Greek gods (Apollo Musagetes, Aphrodite Anadyomene, Hermes Psychopompos). However, there were figures of gods that were equally popular in both regions, such as Tyche–Fortuna, Nike–Victoria, Eros–Amor, Dionysos–Bacchus, Heracles–Hercules. Each of these became rather popular in the Hellenistic World, spreading basically spontaneously throughout the entire Roman Empire. There was a similar unity in the popularity of represenations of animals, too.
The eastern region was, however, characterised by the relatively large number of magic gemstones. There is a piece among these which has no exact analogy (Cat. 69) and its analysis sheds new light on the previous interpretation of similar pieces. The popularity of magic gemstones is highlighted by the fact that some of their motifs became distorted beyond recognition in the popularisation process. Understandably, Sasanian gemstones and seals, which revived the Romans’ dying custom of sealing for some time, were also typical of the eastern regions. What is conspicuous is that the stone cameos (agate, sardonyx) so common in the western regions are completely missing from the collection, while there is a fair number of glass cameo pendants made in the eastern regions.
From an educational and community cultural aspect, the significance of the Ustinow collection lies in the fact that it represents several historical and cultural eras between the fourth century B.C. and the fifth century A.D. for the benefit of the interested public, private collectors, and students of archaeology and the antiquities. The gemstones may be small, but the representations on them can be extraordinarily rich in meaning. With adequate enlargement and due professional expertise, which this catalogue aims to promote, all this information can come to life in front of us, allowing us a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of the citizens of a Mediterranean world two thousand years back.

126
King of Kings Ardashir I as Xerxes in the Late Antique Latin Sources
143-153

The last ruler of the Severan dynasty, Emperor Severus Alexander had to face an entirely new threat in Mesopotamia, because in 224 AD the Parthian royal house of the Arsacids, which had ruled in the East for nearly half a millennium, was dethroned by the Neo-Persian Sasanian dynasty and the new rulers of Persia were extremely hostile to the Roman Empire. The vast majority of the late antique Latin sources (Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Festus, Jerome, Orosius, Cassiodorus, Iordanes) call the first Sasanian monarch, Ardashir I (reigned 224–241 AD), who was at war with Rome between 231 and 233 AD, Xerxes, although the Greek equivalent of the Middle Persian name Ardashir is Artaxerxes, as used by the Greek sources. In the Latin textual tradition we can find the correct Greek name of Ardashir only in the Historia Augusta. The paper seeks answers to the question of why Ardashir was usually called Xerxes by late antique Latin sources.

147
A Crux in the Proem of Henry of Avranches’ Bordo-Siler (R 129–144,17–18)
155-159

The 13th-century poet Henry of Avranches has given us in the form of his Bordo-Siler what is a chef-d’oeuvre of poetic vituperation. The proem of this important poem is marred by textual corruption in the view of its editor and commentator, A. G. Rigg. The present article endeavours to show that the text is sound. Here we in fact have a reference to the parable of the Prodigal Son. We also have a clever jeu grammatical in the matter of metrical quantity.

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Vol 562020
September 1, 2020

Articles

The Transformation of the Vowel System in African Latin With a Focus on Vowel Mergers as Evidenced in Inscriptions and the Problem of the Dialectal Positioning of Roman Africa
9-25

Present paper intends to explore the process of the transformation of the vowel system as evidenced in the pre-Christian and Christian inscriptions of the Roman provinces Africa Pro-consularis including Numidia and Mauretania Caesariensis. With the help of the LLDB-Database, the phonological profiles of the selected African provinces will be dr...

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63
5
Parallel Phrases and Interaction in Greek and Latin Magical Texts.: The Pannonian Set of Curse Tablets
27-36

Magical texts represent an inexhaustible source for the phenomena of an ancient language for special purposes. The scope of this paper is limited to the different kinds of word-borrowings in the Pannonian set of curse tablets. One-language, well written and easily readable magical texts can be difficult to understand while explicit and unambigu...

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40
4
Linguistic Peculiarities in the Latin Inscriptions of Potaissa (Dacia)
37-60

Around 200 inscriptions have been found at Potaissa so far. Some of them disappeared and their texts are known to us exclusively from publications, others are kept in museum collections. The subject of this study is their linguistic examination, by following the peculiarities and the deviations from the classical norms of the language. When pos...

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39
2
Orthography as Described in Latin Grammars and Spelling in Latin Epigraphic Texts
61-72

This paper examines writing and orthography in the work of Latin grammarians and spelling variants in epigraphic texts. It focuses on the uses of the letter H and the spelling of the word sepulchrum. The word’s spelling seems to be connected to the spelling of other words through the adjective pulcher, pulchra, .... The analysis indicates that the teaching and learning of orthography had a limited influence on epigraphic texts, but there is evidence of the consistently high frequency of the spelling sepulcrum. The paper also shows how data on Latin orthography can help in understanding the chronology of the evolution of spelling in epigraphic texts.

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40
2
Frameworks of Reference in the Identification of Latin Dialects
73-97

Various studies proved that the methodology of J. Herman produces plausible and verifiable results in the field of Latin dialectology, but certain methodological questions remained still unanswered regarding our points of reference in the decision which proportions of the data of the inscriptional faults are classified significant; how to decid...

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40
1
CIL III 9527 as Evidence of Spoken Latin in the Sixth-century Dalmatia
99-106

The epitaph of Priest Iohannes (CIL III 9527, Salona, August 13, 599 or AD 603) is one of the few inscriptions from the sixth-century Salona, which can be dated with precision. It is also one of the rare inscriptions from Dalmatia of this period, which mention a person (proconsul Marcellinus) known from other sources (Registrum epistularum of P...

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51
1
A Preliminary Investigation on the <ae>/<e> Graphemic Oscillation in Latin Inscriptions From Rome: The Relationship Between Vowel Alternations, Lexical Stress and Syllabic Structure
107-123

This paper is aimed at supplementing the results obtained in Papini 2019. In particular, I will consider the position of the investigated <ae>/<ĕ> and <ae>/<ē> graphemic oscillations with respect to both 1) lexical stress (distinguishing between misspellings occurring in stressed and unstressed position) and 2) syllabi...

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33
3
A Study on the Weakening of the Word Final –s Compared to –m in the Epigraphic Corpus
125-143

The position of the word final –s, after a weakening in archaic Latin, seems to be fixed in the spoken language in the classical period. Then, it partially disappeared in the Romance languages: in modern languages, it is conserved only north and west of the Massa–Senigallia line, while we cannot find it neither in the eastern regions nor in...

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33
1
Remarks on Vowel Deletion in Latin Inscriptions From Sardinia
145-163

Abstract: This paper focuses on the frequency of vowel deletion in a corpus containing the available Latin inscriptions from Sardinia. The frequency of the phenomenon has been examined with reference to the amount of other deviant spellings displayed in the epigraphic texts, the dating and the type of the inscriptions involved. The results of t...

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76
5
Consonantal Degemination in Latin Inscriptions of the Roman Empire:: A Dialectological and Sociolinguistic Perspective
165-178

In this paper, a survey is conducted on the phenomenon of consonantal degemination through the corpus of epigraphic materials. The aim of this research is to understand the nature of this phenomenon and its possible implications in the field of dialectological studies.

31
1
Minitrae Et Numini Eius. A Celtic Deity and the Vulgar Latin in Aquincum
179-193

The subject of this paper is a curious and somewhat problematic inscription on an altar from Aquincum. Among the many features of this inscription that are interesting for our study, the most striking one is the beginning of the text: the name of the god or goddess is controversial. Who exactly was Minitra? A Celtic goddess, or someone much bet...

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46
1
Honesty, Shame, Courage: Reconsidering the Socratic Elenchus
197-206

The elenchus (gr. ἔλεγχος, literally “argument of disproof”, “refutation”, “cross-examining”) is the core of the Socratic method represented by Plato in his early dialogues. This enquiring technique, employed by Socrates to question his interlocutors about the nature or definition of ethical concepts, is the object ...

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44
2
Contextualising Fregellae: Local Interests in a “Globalised” Mediterranean
207-225

The article employs the Latin colony of Fregellae as a case study to overcome the communis opinio that colonial settlements were parva simulacra Urbis (Gell. XVI.13.9). In particular, the colony, initially founded by Rome in the context of the Second Samnite War, could move away from the Urbs and develop localised int...

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30
2
The Comoedia Togata, a ‘Roman’ Literary Genre?
227-245

This paper aims to shed fresh light on the Togata. By analysing the extant fragments, I will investigate if and in what sense it may be defined as a ‘Roman’ literary genre. I will focus on its ‘Roman-ness’, and I will highlight that it is a complex concept, without the ‘nationalistic’ connotations that one normally gives to...

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52
8
Fathers and Sons Catullan Echoes of Remembering and Forgetting in Vergil’s Aeneid
247-258

In Vergil’s Aeneid the problematics of remembering and forgetting emerge as an issue of essential importance: the Trojans – somewhat paradoxically – have to bring about both of them in order to be able to found a new native land in Italy. The matter in question emphatically occurs in two speeches of fathers given to their sons in...

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47
3
Velleius Paterculus and the Roman Senate at the Beginning of the Principate
259-269

The “Roman history” by Velleius Paterculus is the sole historiographical work written by a contemporary of Augustus and Tiberius. The paper deals with representation of the Roman Senate of Velleius’ time in his work. I argue that in his compendium the historian reflected the ambivalent position of the Senate under the first two Roman Empe...

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41
2
Fleeing Sisters: the Golden Age in Juvenal 6
271-280

The opening of Juvenal’s longest and maybe the most well-known poem, Satire 6, is based on the ancient concept of the “Ages of Man”, starting from the reign of Saturn and ending with the flight of the two sisters, Pudicitia and Astraea. The first part of this 24-line-long passage depicts the Golden Age by making use of two different sourc...

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33
1
From Grief to Superbia: the Myth of Niobe in Greek and Roman Funerary Art
281-296

The Greek myth of Niobe was known in the ancient world both by literary sources and visual representations. Both in Ancient Greece and in Ancient Rome, the myth was represented, alongside a variety forms of art, in funerary art, but in a different manner during each period of time. In Ancient Greece, the myth was represented on Apulian and Sout...

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52
6
Life and Work of Prague Master Simon of Tišnov
297-308

The Bohemian Reformation is a widely researched topic. However, not enough attention is given to all participants during the course events. The aim of this article is to introduce the life and literary work of the little-known University of Prague Master, Simon of Tišnov (ca. 1370–1432), a medieval scholar with roots in the Moravian town cal...

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32
1
On the Manuscript(s) of Lazius’ Description of Transylvania
309-323

The upsurge of cosmographical and geographical literature can be seen in humanist circles from the 14th century onwards. Beside chorography, the encomium of towns and cities was also a popular genre; some elements of ethnography, natural, economic and political geography were also built into the histography. A century later, this tendency reach...

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33
1
Religious Vocabulary in Demosthenes’ Speech Against Timocrates
327-340

In this study I argue that the words “ἱερόσυλος” (temple-robber) and “κατάρατος” (accursed) are key elements in Demosthenes’ speech against Timocrates. In both cases, I argue that in this speech elements of religious vocabulary are clearly used: Demosthenes legitimately and convincingly uses such strong expressions ...

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38
0
Callidus and Comedy: a New Argument for an Old Etymology
341-349

In the corpora of republican authors and the glosses of late antique grammarians, the lexemes callidus and calliditas are used to describe a certain variety of intelligence, which is often translated into English as “cleverness” or “cunning.” This paper looks more closely at these lexemes in order to explain how the ro...

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41
1
Virgil’s Dido and the Death of Marcus Antonius
351-356

Virgil’s account of the death of Dido at the end of Aeneid IV has been the subject of an appreciably extensive critical bibliography. What has not been recognized to date has been the influence of the tradition of the suicide of the former triumvir Marcus Antonius on Virgil’s depiction of Dido’s demise.

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