Epitomadores Del S. IV

This article investigates the presence of Cicero in the texts of the compendium tradition according to three main lines. It intends to consider, on the one hand, the persistence of Ciceronian rhetorical teaching (and so Cicero as the theoretical ideal of the author, and, obviously, of writing in a certain manner); it tries to identify potential specific references to Cicero’s writings in search of the reception of the author as a canonical representative of Latin literary writing; and, finally, it confirms the presence of the politician and orator in the reconstruction of events from that dense historical moment (and so the presence or absence of judgements about the political activity of a protagonist). The theoretical, stylistic, and, finally, prosopographic spheres are in fact the three canonical threads – not exclusive of each other – in which the image of Cicero is manifested in the following centuries. An observation of their existence and variability in this proposed field of investigation – historiographical texts characterised by their brevity – also undoubtedly represents an interesting inquiry from the perspective of cultural history, which touches upon the process of reception of a universal model of author and politician.

This article proposes some remarks on two passages of the historiographical work of Florus, in particular with regard to the topic image of the 'brevis tabella' (praef. 3) and of the report of the apotheosis of Romulus (1,1,16-18); the purpose is to get new re!ections on some literary characters of the work and to illustrate by new stylistic arguments the rhetorical appeal of Florus’ literary setting. The writer does not repeat the classical and Livian way of writing history as opus oratorium, but he does not even choose a poor and essential style, characteristic of the tradition of the breviarii: the stylistic analysis and the survey on any literary models show that Florus aims to give his own prose a 'color' that we can call generally poetic. So, for the historian this is a way to increase the effectiveness of his writing and to communicate adequately with a selective audience, contemporaries and future readers, more careful to enhancing this original feature.

article (written in English):
The 'Collatio Alexandri et Dindimi', an apocryphal letter exchange in Latin (early fifth century) between Alexander the Great and Dindimus, king of the Indian brahmins, is transmitted in about 100 manuscripts. The author of the present article has recently given a substantial amount of corrections and additions [see Scriptorium 68, 2014] to the data initially provided by D.J.A. Ross (in 1956) for the 'Collatio' manuscripts. Here, another twelve newly detected manuscripts are added together with their relevant data for the 'Collatio'.
Many of them contain an epitomized 'Collatio' that is preceded by an introductory 'Epistula Bragmanorum ad Alexandrum' [for which see the article in 'Classica et Mediaevalia'].
Downloadable also at "Persée": <https://www.persee.fr/doc/scrip_0036-9772_2017_num_71_1_4432>