The Disputatio Chori Et Praetextati: The Roman Calendar for Beginners (Studia Traditionis Theologiae) (English and Latin Edition) (Studia Traditionis ... in Early and Medieval Theology, 32) [Bilingual ed.] 9782503584232, 2503584233

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STUDIA TRADITIONIS THEOLOGIAE Explorations in Early and Medieval Theology

Theology continually engages with its past: the people, experience, Scriptures, liturgy, learning and customs of Christians. The past is preserved, rejected, modified; but the legacy steadily evolves as Christians are never indifferent to history. Even when engaging the future, theology looks backwards: the next generation’s training includes inheriting a canon of Scripture, doctrine, and controversy; while adapting the past is central in every confrontation with a modernity. This is the dynamic realm of tradition, and this series’ focus. Whether examining people, texts, or periods, its volumes are concerned with how the past evolved in the past, and the interplay of theology, culture, and tradition.

STUDIA TRADITIONIS THEOLOGIAE Explorations in Early and Medieval Theology 32 Series Editor: Thomas O’Loughlin, Professor of Historical Theology in the University of Nottingham

EDITORIAL BOARD

Director Prof. Thomas O’Loughlin Board Members Dr Andreas Andreopoulos, Dr Nicholas Baker-Brian, Dr Augustine Casiday, Dr Mary B. Cunningham, Dr Juliette Day, Dr Johannes Hoff, Dr Paul Middleton, Dr Simon Oliver, Prof. Andrew Prescott, Dr Patricia Rumsey, Dr Jonathan Wooding, Dr Holger Zellentin

THE DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI The Roman Calendar for Beginners

Leofranc Holford-Strevens

H

F

© 2019, Brepols Publishers n. v., Turnhout, Belgium All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. D/2019/0095/62 ISBN 978-2-503-58423-2 e-ISBN 978-2-503-58424-9 DOI 10.1484/M.STT-EB.5.117089 ISSN 2294-3617 e-ISSN 2566-0160 Printed on acid-free paper

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface and Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I. Source, Title, Origin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II. Textual Transmission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . III. Relation to Manuscripts of Macrobius. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IV. The Additions in P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V. Principles of this Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 1 8 34 35 37

Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 I. Ancient and Medieval Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 II. Modern Authors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Sigla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Edition and Translation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Commentary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Index of Calendars and Computistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Index of Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Index of Passages Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 General Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

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PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This edition originated in a paper given at the Third International Conference on the Science of Computus convened at the National University of Ireland, Galway, by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín in July 2010 and scheduled to be published in the proceedings; in view of its length, however, another home was sought for it, which I am grateful to Professor Thomas O’Loughlin for providing. It makes use of materials that Professor Ó Cróinín, who had embarked on an edition of the text many years earlier, finding progress impeded by other commitments, most generously turned over to me at the very time when Robert A. Kaster of Princeton University was undertaking a badly needed new edition of the sourcetext, Macrobius’ Saturnalia, which would in 2011 appear both in the Loeb Classical Library and as an Oxford Classical Text; the ensuing correspondence between Professor Kaster and myself proved beneficial to us both. My debts to Professor Immo Warntjes, over and above those arising from his edition of the Munich Computus, will be acknowledged at the appropriate places in my introduction. L. A. H.–S. Oxford

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ABBREVIATIONS

BnF Cc Ce Ch CIL Cm Comm. Ddt Disp Drc Dt Dtr Epist. Exc FRHist GRF Sat. SEG Sylloge

Bibliothèque nationale de France Computus Coloniensis Computus Einsidlensis Computus Hibernicus Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum Computus Monacensis Macrobius, [Commentarium] In Somnium Scipionis De diuisione temporum Disputatio Chori et Praetextati De ratione conputandi De temporibus De temporum ratione Epistulae Excerpta O-Croniniana maiora The Fragments of the Roman Historians (Gen. Ed. T. J. Cornell, 3 vols, 2013), Oxford Grammatica Romanae fragmenta (H. Funaioli, 1907), Leipzig Macrobius, Saturnalia Supplementum epigraphicum Graecum Sylloge inscriptionum Graecarum, ed. W. Dittenberger and Friedrich Frhr. Hiller von Gaertringen, 3rd edn, 3 vols, 1915–24), Leipzig

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INTRODUCTION

I. Source, Title, Origin The text here presented consists of extracts from a work of learning by Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, uir clarissimus et illustris, commonly though wrongly called by his first name instead of his last,1 who rose to be praetorian prefect of Italy in ad 430, and probably soon afterwards compiled for his son Eustathius, who would be praefectus urbis at some time between 461 and 465. Entitled Saturnalia, it is cast in the form of a dialogue set at the celebration of that festival in the early 380s; the most plausible year is 382, just before the prohibition of pagan cults, for the speakers are the leading pagan intellectuals of late-fourth-century Rome in the last great flowering of their culture.2 The Saturnalia used to be regarded as anti-Christian propaganda, above all because of the uninvited and uncivil guest named Euangelus;3 but a Christian he cannot be,4 for he not only takes his origin from a tactlessly outspoken character in Symmachus’ letters (6. 7. 2) and 1 Last name was the rule in the late Empire, after the old Roman naming system of praenomen, nomen, and cognomen had broken down; similarly Ammianus, Martia­ nus, and Cassiodorus were in their own days Marcellinus, Felix Capella, and Senator. Palladius the agriculturist ought to be styled Aemilianus. See Cameron (1985), 173–4. 2 On Macrobius and the characters in his dialogue see Cameron (1966), (2011), 231–72; Schmidt (2008); Kaster (2011a), i, pp. xi–xxxvi. 3 For the stock figure of the uninvited guest see Martin (1931), 64–79 (on Ma­ crobius 69–73); but Macrobius, as often, is particularly indebted to Athenaeus (ibid. 280–6; cf. Hirzel 1895, ii. 356–8), who includes in his Deipnosophists a boorish Cynic called Cynulcus. In the Saturnalia his role is divided between the Cynic Horus and the boor Euangelus; see Kaibel (1887–90), i, pp. xxxiv, cf. Cameron (2011), 243. 4 See Cameron (1966), 35–6; id. (2011), 596–8; Kaster (2011a), i, pp. xxi–xxiv.

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Introduction

shares his name with the architect of a pagan temple,5 but represents himself as an expert in Roman religious law, the ius pontificium (Sat. 3. 10. 2–12. 10), and acknowledges the pagan gods (Sat. 1. 24. 2). Nor is it significant that the sole Christian reference is a translated joke about the Massacre of the Innocents,6 a story told only by St Matthew, since (as Boethius’ De consolatione philosophiae reminds us) even Christians preferred not to bring their unclassical religion into high literature without necessity. Indeed, a man named after Bishop Ambrose of Milan and the zealously Christian emperor Theodosius was surely a cradle Christian; in any case, whatever his private opinions, to rise in the world he must have outwardly conformed.7 Nevertheless, by imitating the conception—and in all likelihood the six-book structure—of Cicero’s De re publica,8 set in a past age considered to be golden, he harks back to a time when a civilized aristocracy could still adhere in deed as well as word to its traditional culture. Much of the first book is devoted to Roman festivals and time-reckoning; the host, Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, delivers a history of the calendar, explaining the names and lengths of the months supposedly established by Romulus and modified by Numa, the placement of the Nones, the intercalary month, Julius Caesar’s reform, and the location of his additional days. At this point the aptly named Egyptian Horus, a boxer turned Cynic philosopher, who like all the other participants is 5 Fl. Claudius Euangelus, comes operum publicorum (Sylloge 5222). For a much earlier Euangelus who wrongly fancied himself a musician see Lucian, Aduersus indoctum 8–9. 6 Sat. 2. 4. 11 ‘Cum audisset inter pueros quos in Syria Herodes rex Iudaeorum intra bimatum iussit interfici filium quoque eius occisum, ait, “melius est Herodis porcum esse quam filium”’. The joke depends on the similarity in Greek between ὗς (‘pig’) and υἱός (‘son’); it also conflates the Massacre of the Innocents with Herod’s execution of his disloyal son Antipater five days before his own death (Josephus, De bello Judaico 1. 663–4). 7 For his Christian upbringing and conformity see Schmidt (2008), 50; Kaster (2011a), i, pp. xxii f. Counter-arguments are advanced by Christopher P. Jones (2014), 151–7; his prize exhibit is the younger Melania’s convert Volusianus, but see Cameron (2011), 196–7. The Neoplatonism Macrobius displays in his philosophical commentary on the Somnium Scipionis but eschews in the literary Saturnalia (Liebeschuetz (1999); Kaster (2011a), i, pp. xix–xxi) is a proof, not of pagan allegiance (see Cameron (2011), 269–70), but rather of an intellectualism that in the fifth century was as sure to find a Neoplatonic expression as in the thirteenth an Aristotelian; that was why he called his son after the Neoplatonists Plotinus and Eustathius, of whom the latter gave his name, but not his doctrine, to the Eustathius of the dialogue (Schmidt (2008), 76–8). 8 See Dorfbauer (2010); Kaster (2011b), p. vii n. 3; the current division into seven books is a fifteenth-century invention based on nothing in the text.

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Introduction

a historical figure, intervenes with a request for clarification about Kalends, Nones, and Ides, which Praetextatus has discussed on the assumption that his audience, Greek- as well as Latin-speaking, knew what he meant; Praetextatus duly explains. This exposition still remains the default account on which modern theories must either build or improve,9 and have led even serious scholars to speak about the calendars of Romulus and Numa just as if those worthies had once dwelt on earth rather than in the company of Hengist, Horsa, and Míl Espáine.10 The historical exposition, Horus’ enquiry, and Praetextatus’ explanation were separately excerpted in a text styled by Bede the Disputatio Chori et Praetextati.11 Since Bede envisages its consultation by his students, it must have been available under that title at Jarrow; since no other title is anywhere attested, I shall like others before me use that name, abbreviated to Disp. This text was transmitted and excerpted (not always at first hand) in numerous computistic collections of proximate or ultimate Irish origin; despite its total lack of specifically Christian content and therefore of instructions for finding the date of Easter, it was yet, in presenting the history of the calendar, propaedeutic to that service of the Lord for which the Israelites had despoiled the Egyptians. It must have helped many a master in the monastic schools to answer the questions of inquisitive boys about the anomalies in the calendar that Christendom had inherited from ancient Rome: irregular monthlengths, numbering from March instead of January, a complex system for giving the date, and a strangely placed leap-day. For shorter but similar accounts see Censorinus, De die natali 18–22, Solinus, Collectanea 1. 34–47; cf. Plutarch, Numa 18–19, and various places in John Lydus’ De mensibus, esp. 3. 10, pp. 43. 17–49. 24 Wuensch. For the best (though not unchallenged) modern account of the pre-Julian calendar see Michels (1967). 10 See the survey of calendrical theories in Michels (1967), 207–20. Even if the Roman polity was indeed founded in the mid-eighth century bc and had a monarchical constitution until near the end of the sixth, the tradition that Romulus the founder, having reigned for nearly 40 years, was followed by six elective kings, of whom the last was expelled in or about the 244th year of the city, is simply incredible: there is no comparable case in the elective monarchies of Poland, Hungary, and the Holy Roman Empire, whose rulers (unlike popes and Venetian doges) were chosen in the prime of life. But even if we suppose there were more kings, or that the monarchy began a century or so later, Romulus is obviously a figment who owes his name to the city; a Sabine called Numa Pompilius is not per se incredible, but his peaceable piety is clearly a construct providing religious institutions with a founder. 11 Dtr 12, ed. Charles W. Jones (1943), 206. 3, 208. 84–5; see below, commentary on 21. The spelling Chori is guaranteed by the text of Disp (307, 324), but knowledge of Macrobius caused both the corrector of MS Melk, Stiftsbibliothek 412 (olim 370, antea G 32) and Bede’s editors from Sichardus to Migne to write Hori. 9



Introduction

For a long time the text received inadequate attention, either as an earlier witness to Macrobius’ Saturnalia than the direct manuscript tradition, which begins in the early ninth century,12 or as a cultural product in its own right. Indeed, only two published studies bear on it, one of them unwittingly, for when in 1966 Sister Mary Josepha Carton discussed one copy of the excerpt, she took it for a defective text of Macro­ bius himself; the other, namely Arweiler (2000), which examines the readings of that copy, four others, and the extracts in Bede, would be a very valuable, though by no means definitive, piece of work if those were the only sources. The text of Disp reproduces, with corruptions, that of the Saturnalia except for abridgements in the exposition of the month-names. In Macrobius’ account of April we lose an elaboration of the contrast between Mars the manslayer, so designated by Homer, and Venus the beneficent, a contrast even more familiar to Macrobius’ readers from astrology than from myth and expressed by their inhabiting adjacent houses in the zodiac.13 Although the excerptor did not omit Greek on principle, the whole hexameter that Macrobius cites from Homer was perhaps too much; and although pagan mythology seemed inoffensive (Bede prunes far more), astrology may have been more ticklish, since as in later times Christians might have been more easily persuaded that it was sinful than that it was false. May too finds its extended treatment in the Saturnalia subjected in Disp to numerous petty shortenings even before a long disquisition on the identity of the Bona Dea is cut out; however interesting it may be to students of ancient religion, it has nothing to do with the calendar. Likewise, we learn that on 1 June L. Brutus, having expelled King Tarquin the Proud, offered sacrifice to the goddess Carna, and that that day is called the Kalendae Fabiae (corrupt for Fabariae) because ripe beans are used in June’s rituals, but the connection between the two items is suppressed (namely that bean-porridge and bacon, which were sacrificed to her, built up the body). For Macrobius the powers of the gods, and their essential unity, are matters of lively concern; for the excerptor they

12 With the MS remnants BVA, Pal. lat. 886, from Lorsch, and Salzburg, Universitätsbibliothek M 1489, from Saint-Amand; see in general Kaster (2010), 3–27. 13 Respectively Aries and Scorpio (Mars), Taurus and Libra (Venus); in fact for Macrobius, as usual in antiquity, the Balance was properly part of the Scorpion (namely its claws, Chelae). A planet in its house was supposed to enjoy heightened power.

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Introduction

are of no interest.14 However, from then on we have the text more or less straight. The explanation of Quintilis’ renaming as July, that it saw the birth of Julius Caesar, is retained, and the senatus consultum that turned Sextilis into August is quoted in full. Whatever love the old religion may have aroused in Macrobius, it can have aroused none in the monk who made the extract; nevertheless, although he omitted the longer digressions he did not censor pagan content as such, nor even insert any comment on its falsity. His audience hardly needed telling, but there have been times and places when writers have thought it necessary to reassure their readers that they do not subscribe to the errors they record. Only at one point did he substitute the imperfect for Macrobius’ present in a report of pagan practices:15 whereas in Sat. 1. 12. 19 we read that merchants sacrifice, sacrificant, in May to Maia and Mercury, at Disp 83 we are told that they used to sacrifice, sacrificabant.16 It remains to determine the time and place of the excerpting. As we shall see, Disp is quoted, as Macrobius, in various Irish computistica from the later seventh century onwards; in addition Bede, having made use of it in De temporibus (703), incorporated much of its text in De temporum ratione (725), but does not repeat another word of the Saturnalia either there or anywhere else in his writings.17 He evidently knew Disp from an Irish compilation,18 hereafter called the Computus Hiber Contrast the excerpts ‘De anni ordinatione mensiumque digesta à cæsare Ex primo saturnalium libro Macrobij Theodosij viri illustris’ at Paris, BnF MS Arsenal 890, fols 85r–88r, dated 1553. which transcribe Sat. 1. 12. 2–22, 30–7, omitting only the speculations about the Bona Dea. 15 On which see Cameron (2011), 256–8; the tense does not prove them still current at the dramatic date. 16 Similar changes are occasionally found in some copies (99, 379, 387–8, 390 = Sat. 1. 12. 33; 1. 15. 16, § 18, § 19), but it is the reverse change that in one manuscript group we find at 37 ~ 1. 12. 6; clearly the distinction between past and present practice was not a matter of lively and constant concern to the compiler or the copyists. Cf. Ce, p. 94 ‘Aliter februarius a februo deo qui potens lustrationum creditur’; for blithe indifference to verbal tense (and nominal number) see ibid. 93 ‘[Janus was worshipped] uel eo quod causas hominum fert ad deos· mediator enim dei et hominum erat’. Contrast Bede, who not only, at 207. 57, changes creditur (141 ~ Sat. 1. 13. 3) to credebatur, but appends a lengthy comment on the change from pagan lustratio to Christian Candlemas; likewise Ddt writes ‘Secundum uero dedicauit Februo deo, qui lustrationum potens esse apud eos credebatur’, a distancing in place as well as in time. In the same spirit Ddt glosses diis Manibus ‘id est diis infernorum’, Bede Februo ‘id est Plutoni’. 17 Charles W. Jones (1943), 108. 18 Discussed by Charles W. Jones (1937); Ó Cróinín (2003a). 14

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Introduction

nicus (Ch),19 that as Ó Cróinín has pointed out contains a notice dated to ap 631 = ad 658 pertaining to the death of Suibine mac Commáin, a mighty man of the Uí Fothaid, the father of one king in Munster and the father-in-law of two in Leinster;20 it was put together in south-eastern Ireland, which accounts for its silence concerning the Latercus, the 84year cycle by which the date of Easter was still regulated in other parts of Ireland and many parts of Britain. However, Bede’s copy appears to have lost its incipit, since, unlike other writers who draw on Disp, he nowhere ascribes his information to Macrobius.21 Since most extant manuscripts containing Ch have the name, at least one stage of transcription intervened between the formation of a corpus in 658 and the making of Bede’s copy, taken to Jarrow by 684;22 since errors in his quotations are shared with various witnesses to the direct tradition, the recension incorporated in the computus was not the original text of the excerpt, which must therefore have been made no later than the first half of the seventh century. As to the place, the obvious candidate for a text that regularly keeps Irish company must be Ireland; Ó Cróinín, having in his draft introduction contemplated Spain or North Africa, observed the want of any evidence in script, abbreviations, contractions, or early quotations, to support such a provenance. The direct tradition of the Saturnalia cannot help us, showing no sign of having passed though Africa, Spain, or Ireland before emerging in Carolingian Francia; indeed, Disp apart, our only evidence of the work before the ninth century is in Cassiodorus Senator’s Expositio psalmorum,23 for shared matter in Isidore is nowadays attributed to common sources. However, additional support for Irish origin may be obtained both from the general topic of the excerpt and from the excerptor’s insouciance towards the pagan matter in Ma­ 19 The term seems more appropriate for the chief collection of Irish computistics than for either of the other computi to which, in Latin or English, it has been applied, namely the Munich Computus (Computus Monacensis), and the Computus Oxoniensis (or rather Computus deperditus) of MSS Bodley 309, fol. 62rv and Bern, Burgerbibliothek 417, fols 52v–53v (Charles W. Jones (1943), 393–5). 20 Ó Cróinín (1983), 234–8 = (2003b), 177–81. 21 As Faith Wallis stated, in answer to a question at the Galway conference, although Bede is capable of suppressing mention of his sources, it is unlike him to cite a title without an author. 22 Ó Cróinín (1989), 19 = (2003b), 196–7. I say ‘a corpus’, not ‘the corpus’, since the collection was never an invariable entity. 23 On Ps. 10: 7 Vulg. (CCSL 97, 116, ll. 125–8): ‘Macrobius quoque Theodosius in quodam opere suo’, citing Sat. 5. 21. 18.

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Introduction

crobius; for whereas in Spain and North Africa Christianity had come to provinces that already took the Roman calendar for granted and whose religious practices counted as local variants of classical paganism, in Ireland it came to a country with its own calendar (little as we know of it) and a religion that had never received an interpretatio Romana. For a text that explains the origin and development of the Roman calendar, and is noticeably relaxed about the concomitant belief and worship, but from which all reference to the powers of the planets has been excised, no better milieu can be envisaged than a country where the Roman calendar was still of recent importation, and where nobody even daydreamt of worshipping Jupiter or Juno,24 but where astrology, no part of the native tradition, might seem the more dangerous for belonging to the Latinate culture introduced by the very Church that condemned it.25 So far as the place of that culture in early Christian Ireland is concerned, the excerptor’s choices imply (in terms he might not have recognized) that Roman res gestae, those of Romulus and Numa no less than Caesar and Augustus, are part of what the educated and civilized man, the homo uere humanus, ought to know, but that Roman religion is no more than the historia needed to explain literary allusions; the homo uere humanus concentrates on the res humanae of pagan antiquity, but looks elsewhere for res diuinae—until the end, where speculations about Jupiter and Juno are suffered to round off the text, either because the excerptor’s austerity has worn off or because the supposed Greek etymologies constitute a parade of linguistic learning not uncongenial to the Irish monastic culture of his day. And that, for the frequency of copying, may be said of the text as a whole.

To be sure, vernacular authors are open enough to native myths. It follows that the Saturnalia must be added to the books known in Ireland considered by Sharpe (2010). 24 25

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Introduction

II. Textual Transmission A. Manuscripts The text of Disp is preserved in eight manuscripts, which for content may be divided into three categories: (i) Afforced P

Patavinus = MS Padua, Pontificia Biblioteca Antoniana 27, written in northern Italy (Verona?) but with much Irish content,26 s. xin, fols 66r–71v, collated under the arbitrary sig­ lum Q by Carton (not with total accuracy) as if it were a direct witness to Macrobius;27 to the usual extracts from Sat. 1. 12. 2–15. 20 it prefixes 1. 11. 50–1. 12. 1, and at ll. 56–62, 90–2 restores the full text for the compiler’s abridgements at 1. 12. 12–13, 30, evidently derived from a second source X; in the latter passage, however, the main text resumes without the necessary syntactical adjustment.

(ii) Complete S

Sirmondianus = MS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 309, s. xi, written at Vendôme, fols 101r–105v. This manuscript (Arweiler’s O),28 owned by Louis XIII’s confessor, the great Auvergnat scholar Jacques Sirmond SJ, made available by him to Petavius and Bucherius, and purchased for the Bod­ leian Library in 1698, is the primary witness to the Sirmond Collection of computistic works, whose nucleus is Ch and which has been fundamental in reconstructing its contents. It shows signs of emendation by its scribe’s own wits.

See Abate–Luisetto (1975), i. 28–33; Ó Cróinín (2010), 341–4. Carton (1966), 8–9 assigned it the arbitrary siglum Q and a date of c. 80, which is disproved by late-ninth-century dates in computistic calculations: for instance, the annus praesens of Hrabanus Maurus’ De computo, namely 820, is regularly updated to 879; see the edition by Wesley M. Stevens (CCSM 44. 193) and the text of e.g. chs. 75, 77, 79. 28 S in Charles W. Jones, art. cit., but Σ in his edition, where S is Sankt Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek 251. 26 27

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Introduction

T

R

Turonensis = MS Tours, Bibliothèque municipale 334, s. ix1, fols 41v–44v, the remnant of MS Saint-Martin de Tours 42 (M = Martinianus) after other quires and leaves, now MSS Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, nouv. acq. lat. 1612–4, had been abstracted by Count Libri.29 The hand accords with that of the Tours scriptorium as reformed by Abbot Alcuin; the text is highly corrupt. Possible Insular relics are 236 gaiur for gaius, which may reflect r/s confusion or interference from the final r of the next word caesar, and 365 n̄ , which the scribe must have interpreted as non, but which is conceivably inherited from the Irish abbreviation for nomen (Lindsay (1915), 138–9). Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reginensis Latinus 586, fols 117v–125r, this part s. ix,30 occasionally lacunose, exhibiting the Insular features of f/u confusion in foti (98), farro (220, 224, 384), uuluio (345, cf. uluius 73), ss for s in Cessar throughout and at 112–3 impossitus, 117–8 inuasserat, 126 ussu, 232 occassio, 237, 238 confussionem, nis, 370 occassu, and frequently p’ for per and hc for autem (but spelt out at 259 and wrongly expanded to hoc 197) but mixing Carolingian and pre-Caroline a and t.31 The MS is a recueil factice, of various dates and miscellaneous contents; many items (some musical) come from Fleury, but that does not seem be true of our section.32 The computistic elements are:

29 See Collon (1900–5), i. 250–5; Delisle (1884), 62–7. Note that BnF lat. 16361 is not an exact copy of M, and does not contain Disp, only extracts in its text of Ddt, absent from M. 30 The Disp text in this manuscript was noticed by Wallis (1999: 46 n. 130), but her suggestion of kinship with S is not borne out by examination of the readings. 31 At 342 the pre-Caroline final a of statuta is so badly written as to resemble ic; at 261 P’s micio must derive from misreading (perhaps assisted by untimely recollection of Terence’s Adelphoe) of just such an a in maio. The form of crossed q that in V denotes quia in R stands for quod (79, 213, 264, 388, 391, 394), and therefore has been so understood at 132, 242, 249. 32 Available online at http://digi.vatlib.it/view/bav_reg_lat_586. For a description see Bannister (1913), i. 59, cf. Mostert (1989), 271, BF1426/31 (not including our section). I subjoin a few additional details. The life of St Nicholas by Deacon John of Naples (c. 85–c. 90), last edited by Cioffaro (2009), 63–94 was copied by two scribes: the first wrote the preface (fol. 50rv = § 1, pp. 66–8 Cioffaro) and the main text fols 51r– 57 v = §§2–8 uirtute, pp. 68–80), divided into eleven lectiones, the second completed



Introduction

fols 1r–3r ‘Epistola Theophili episcopi’, inc. ‘Post resurrectionem et ascensionem domini Saluatoris’, expl. ‘sanctum pascha uobis iustum est celebrare’. This is Recension B of the Acta Synodi Caesariensis (Krusch (1880), 303–10).33 3rv ‘Epistola Hilarii [sic] ad Victorium de postulatione cycli’ (Krusch (1938), 16). 3v–4r ‘Responsio Victorii ad Hilarium papam [sic]’ (= Prologus § 1, Krusch (1938), 17–18, l. 2). 4r ‘Prologus Victorii’ (§ 2, Krusch (1938), 18. 3–7). 4r–8v ‘De diuersis cyclis’ (= Prologus §§3–12, Krusch (1938), 18–26. 19). 9v–10v Victorian tables ap 141–212 (= ad 700–71).34 108r–111v ‘Dionisii Exigui ad Petronium epistola de ratione Paschae’ (Krusch (1938), 63–7). 111v ‘Post biduum pascha fiet [Matt. 26: 2] id est congruum fuit pascha iudeorum’ = incipit of Disputatio Morini. 112r–114r ‘Disputatio Dionisii Exigui’ (Letter to Boniface et Bonus; Krusch (1938), 82–6). the work (fols 58r–65v, §§8 corroboraretur/13, pp. 80–92) without indicating any subdivision; both scribes furnished the text with sporadic accents mainly for unexpected stresses (e.g. Mirráe 51r, annón 51v, Stratilátes 62r; but dólopes stratilates 60r) and neumes for reading (§§2–13). After the homilies on 88r–96r come (96v) verses on Egyptian days; (97 v–102r) ‘Sanatio lepre secundum Matthe’, inc. ‘Venit iesus in partes cesareæ philippi’ [Matt. 16: 13; but the leper is cured at 8: 3], expl. ‘Sed nemo poterit fugere mortem nisi uitam sequatur’; (102v–103v) ‘Dominus cuius regnum est totus mundus’ [cf. Aug. Soliloquy 1. 1. 3], expl. ‘qui cum patre et filio uiuit et regnat in secula seculorum’; (104r–105) Ps.-Augustine, Sermones inediti 17. 1 (‘Allocutio sancti Augustini episcopi de Epipha[nia]’, inc. ‘Post miraculum uirginei partus’, expl. ‘post sepulchra uictores’; (106rv) Augustine, In euangelium Joannis 27. 11–12, inc. ‘Certi sumus fratres’, expl. ‘peruenit ad triumphum’; (106v) Ambrose, De obitu Theodosii 13, inc. ‘Benefitium se putabat accepisse auguste memorie theodosius cum rogaretur ignoscere’, expl. ‘qui nunquam ueniam confitenti negaret’. The following folio (inc. ‘gesserat suis apostolicis litteris’, expl. ‘et ipsas claues tam ra[uennatium]’) comes not (pace Bannister) from Paul the Deacon’s Historia Langobardorum, but from a life of Pope Stephen II not unlike that life in the Liber Pontificalis. 33 Krusch’s edition was always unsatisfactory and is now obsolete; I intend to replace it. 34 As Immo Warntjes notes (pers. comm.), divided into ogdoas and hendecas, but arranged Latercus-fashion with initium of Lent, double dates for AP 181 (= ad 740), 184 (= 743), 201 (= 760), 204 (= 763), 211 (= 770), the second date always attributed to the Greci.



Introduction

114v–115v. Disputatio Morini, inc. ‘Post biduum pascha fiet’ (Graff (2010), 141–2). 115r–117r. Letter of Paschasinus (Krusch (1880), 247–50). 117rv. Argumentum Paschale XIV (Krusch (1938), 78–9). 117v–125v Disputatio Chori et Praetextati. 125rv ‘Augustinus de bissexto’ (= Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram 2. 14. 29). Inc. ‘Sic [l. si] hoc modo intellegamus’. Expl. ‘Vt eundem’, followed in a later hand by ‘Carmina qui quondam studio florente peregi, &c.’ (Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae 1. 1, metr. 1). Bremensis = Bremen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, msc 0046, c. 90, written at Sankt Gallen, fols 44r–54r.35 This manuscript contains various texts associated with Ch, but in addition at fol. 38rv an introduction to Victorius from 699 published and discussed by Warntjes (2010c), and at fols 41r– 44r the letter of the Spanish monk Leo printed at Krusch (1880), 298–302.

B

(iii) Incomplete C

Coloniensis = Cologne, Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek 83ii (Arweiler’s K), a computistic compilation put together at Cologne in 805, fols 204r–205v, ending at 158 sætenuit (= Sat. 1. 13. 7 retinuit) &c. &c., evidencing r/s confusion in an earlier stage of transmission, but preCaroline a in the second a of 114 appellaretur.36 Further extracts, beginning at 157 sed solus (hence just four words before retinuit, which this time is spelt retenuit), appear on fol. 45rv within the text on fols 45r–58v published by Borst (2006), ii. 885–951 under the title Computus Coloniensis;37 they are considered in subsection (v) below.

Warntjes (2010c), 257–9, correcting Stahl (2004), 257–8. I thank Professor Warntjes for drawing this MS to my attention in advance of publication. 36 For the contents of this MS, already described by Krusch (1880), 195–205, see the Langkatalogisat at http://www.ceec.uni-koeln.de/, accessed on 12 February 2019. On the intellectual context see Warntjes (2012). 37 The extracts from Disp in this latter begin at a point in the text just before the end of the direct copy. See also Warntjes (2010a), pp. clxxix–clxxxiii. 35



Introduction

G

V

Genauensis = Geneva, Bibliothèque de Genève lat. 50, from the abbey of Saint-Martin de Massay (dép. Cher), main portion s. ix1, fols 163r–164v, which ends at 126 (Sat. 1. 12. 29) conueniret, and in the upper halves of its pages has lost the ends of recto lines and the beginnings of verso lines to damage.38 Vindobonensis = Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Ser. n. 37, s. viiiex (Arweiler’s W), written at Salzburg, fols 3r–8v, in two columns, probably copied from an Irish manuscript in the possession of Abbot-Bishop Fergal (‘Virgil of Salzburg’, r. 745–84), exhibiting Insular f for consonant u (70 ferrius) and ss for s (294 possito), besides the Irish q with sinuous oblique cross-stroke for quod (70, 88, 105, 198, 358, 363); a distinctly less pronounced curl denotes quia (72, 73, 79, 82, 99, 205, 344). It preserves: (fol. 3rv) 65 (1. 12. 14) clausum to 113 (1. 12. 35) causas, with consistent loss in the outer columns; (fols 4–5, remains of two folios made into one) 156 (1. 13. 7) sim]iliterque to 197 (1. 13. 16) cader[ent], with losses in middle and outer edges; (fols 6r–7v) 283 (1. 14. 11) ab idibus to 367 (1. 15.14) carminibus, complete; (fol. 8rv), continuation of fol. 5, 197 (1. 13. 16) utrumque to 236 (1. 14. 2) perseueraret, outer columns almost entirely lost.39

B. Interrelation In classifying manuscripts by agreement in error, I define ‘error’ as a reading other than that which the excerptor found in his text of Macrobius that does not appear to result from his own intervention. Furthermore, manuscripts are said to agree in an error even if some of them in fact present a further corruption of it.

38 For the contents of this MS see Senebier (1779), 126–41; Gómez i Pallarès (1986), 368–77; see too Gagnebin (1976), 25–6; Bischoff (1998), 284 n. 1351. 39 On this MS see Mazal–Unterkircher (1965), 13–14, whose numeration I follow; in the MS itself fol. 4ra bears the number 5, fols 6–9 are numbered 5–8.



Introduction

(i) The Sirmond group That G and S belonged to a single family was observed by Charles W. Jones (1937), 209, who, however, was concerned with content rather than text; to this family (the ‘Sirmond group’, Σ) M, of which T is a part, belonged too. However, the overall relation is complex: whereas in all three manuscripts Disp is preceded by the Prologus Cyrilli, it is followed in S and T by the Excerpta O-Croniniana maiora (Exc),40 but in G by a disquisition on the scriptural meanings of aetas; on the whole M seems closer in content to S than to G, but textual relations vary: G is closer to S than to T in the Disputatio Morini,41 but closer to T than to S in our text, close enough indeed to constitute a subfamily Γ. Before we can write the transmission history of Ch, let alone of the entire Irish computistic corpus, we shall have to study that of the components work by work.42 The most we can say is that the Sirmond group is linked, not only by its text and contents, but also by St Martin, to whom were dedicated the institutions in which G and T were written and the main parish church at Vendôme.43 In the following places Σ agrees in error against CRBP and from 51 against V (be these correct or differently corrupt):44 40 ad annum et per annum omitted, 48 ordinationem fuisse adserunt, 56 consensit, 63 a uenere omitted, 65 contexuntur, 66 enim, 67 accipiunt, 70–1 huic deae, 80 rem diuinam huic deae, 99 adhibebantur, 112 est for sit. Γ agrees in error against S at 26 annos, 36 quod ab ipso omitted, 71 huius, 72 loca, 73 infantis, 77 iupiter,45 94 iunonia, 105 quarto, 110 triumphus (cf. triunfus C), 115 sictum. All three have their individual errors, but nowhere do either GS or TS agree in error against a true reading in the third, nor does either G or T preserve the truth against the other 40 So, for want of a Latin suffix corresponding to the Sanskrit -­ādi, ‘pertaining to X etc.’, despite the eponym’s modesty I style the excerpts from Isidore and other authors printed by Ó Cróinín (2003a), 204–7 (on which see Holford-Strevens 2003–4, 539–41), those at pp. 208–10 from Eusebius (or rather Rufinus) and others being the Excerpta O-Croniniana minora. 41 Graff (2010), 127. 42 Apart from SGM, two other MSS of the Sirmond Collection will need to be considered: BnF lat. 16361 and Vat. Rossianus 247. See Graff (2010), 126, and literature cited at Warntjes (2010c), 256 n. 3. 43 It was not till after an episcopal mass there, in 1034, that the abbey, later cathedral, of the Trinity was founded (Martonne (1860), 11). 44 I ignore mere orthographic variants within Σ. 45 Since C has the correct iuppiter, and P ioppiter with the wrong vowel but the correct gemination, it is dangerous to take S’s reading as an orthographical correction.



Introduction

two except at 68 aprilem T (also VCB), aprelem S (also PR), apræelem G, where T may have unilaterally restored the spelling it had already used at 46. The absence of G will be signalled in the apparatus by designating the agreement of S and T with lower-case σ; that will not be necessary in this Introduction, where Σ denotes the parent manuscript, since the consensus suffices to indicate its reading. (ii) The Patavinus Enough conjunctive errors are found of Σ with P and P alone to warrant postulating a hyparchetype Π:46 (VC both present) 67 et cetera, 97 id est omitted (C has primis for id), 101 nihilhominus, 104 referentis, 110 contulerit, 120 cauitio;47 (C present, V absent) 26 ordinatum mensibus, 29 〈id est〉,48 expedirentur (but expedirentur Bpc), 30 septimas2 (but also Cac), 48 Venus orta, ordinationem (despite the difference in word-order), 50 ut,49 53 a uenere antiquos non (where non is a deliberate interpolation), 63 mensem non potuisse, 99 fabie for fabae, 116 appellatione 〈uocauerunt〉.50 In the absence of G, the consensus of Σ and P will in the apparatus be called π. Its conjunctive errors are: (V present, C absent) 190 〈et〉 illi (also Computus Coloniensis), 291 quemque (que alone T), 319 festos, 327 denique, 346 parentibus, 356 ea. (VC absent) 209 〈dicuntur〉, 268 . 387 .51 At first sight, a few readings seem to upset the reconstruction, notably 123, where S reads correctly decem and G decim but TP have deci46 So Arweiler (2000), 52–3, who called it γ. By contrast, in Anatolius Latinus Mc Carthy and Breen (2003), 25–39 divide the transmission into a Sirmond group, in which T and G (as in Disp) share a common hyparchetype against S, and a Padua group, of which P (their A) and C have undergone contamination from the former. 47 Arweiler (2000), 50 also lists 120 hominis for ominis; however, as the prevalent reading in Macrobius’ MSS it cannot be regarded as an error in Disp, unlike C’s further corruption nominis. 48 G has the descending i preceded by a raised point, but followed by uni, as if the scribe had imagined that June was about to be mentioned. 49 Arweiler wrongly reports ‘et hi Macr: et hui K : ut hi δP’, where δ means our Σ; in fact C reads simply Hii, omitting the conjunction. 50 To be sure R had the same idea but a different tense, uocabant. At 94 est for sit is shared by Bede, at 113 placuit for placere by Ce. 51 At 164 conficit , although V is defective here, measurement of the missing material precludes the interpolation; but the noun is added, before or after the verb, in Ddt.



Introduction

mum; however, the ordinal, immediately following annum, was such a slip as two scribes might make independently. Likewise at 293, where T has the correct limam against lunam PS, we may suppose that Π read limam, which the Sirmond compiler read correctly but P and S independently mistook by minim error for lunam, a word easily suggested by the context;52 at 366, where T has the correct casus against cassus in VPS, we may invoke a flash of orthographic virtue that had already flickered out when at 350 he wrote cassȩ for casae. At 264, 309 nichil PS, 366 fidutiam may be independent adoptions of a more recent spelling. (iii) The Reginensis and the Bremensis These two manuscripts present a remarkable number of agreements in error, which may be ascribed to a common ancestor Δ: (VC both present) 80 maias; (C present, V absent) 21–3 incipit—Theodosius omitted, 26 Martio 〈mense〉, 47 aphrelem, 95 dedicatae sunt, 123 ccc et iiii; (V present, C absent) 302–3 excreuerunt, 317 uelim, 319 factos, 342 in omitted, 344 qui, 348 uisum, 356 superesset, 361 nonae, 363 quia; (VC both absent) 223 marcum, 243 circuli omitted, 275 Septembrias—Octobrias omitted, 377 eo die, 378 quia, 388 propter, 378 quia. In addition, these manuscripts each have errors of their own. Both are prone to omit words and phrases; R also has lacunae of two or more lines for which space is left, which indicates a damaged or illegible exemplar. Furthermore, B is given to substitution of synonyms: alii for ceteri, dico for uoco, et for ac or atque, initium for principium, quia for quod, uel for aut; it also more than once corrupts qui to quam53 and scilicet to etiam. It has a marked preference for representing numbers (even distributives) by numerals, for spelling intercalare rather than k, and for assimilating prefixes. These tendencies apart, errors where all other manuscripts are present include: in R 52 uocamus for uocemus, 65 tegant for contegantur, 67 gramen for germen, 72 conuenerat for conuenit; in B 65 pruinalibus for pruina aut,54 67 germine for germen, 68 est omitted, 73 dicit in factis for in fastis dicit, 81 alii contendunt for contendunt alii, 84–5 hanc—Labeo omitted.

Ddt reads limitem, obviously from limam not understood. For the confusions caused to Continental scribes by Insular, particularly Irish abbreviations, see Lindsay (1915), 216. 54 Also aperiant for aperiantur, but that was easy. 52 53



Introduction

(iv) The defective manuscripts C is so monstrously corrupt as to suggest that its scribe could barely decipher his exemplar, did not understand what he was copying, and knew only the debased late-Merovingian Latinity—the ever-shabbier Latin dress that no longer concealed the spoken lingua romana—that his emperor was striving to supplant. Mispellings: 22 Magrouius,55 30 habant for habent, 31 ai· diebus for ab Idibus, 78 nominatur tumputat for nominatum putat, 108 senacio for senatus, 115 sinatum for scitum; confusions of cases: in the second declension, i for us (26) anni, o for um (63–4 ęquinoctio) and us (73 fluuio,56 103 septimo, 117 domiciano), um for i (81–2 mercurium, 101, 127 annum,57 and o 145 nume­rum, cf. 132 inperium for ingenio), us for um (26 ordinatus, 55 institutus, 71 constitutus) and os (77 tusculanus, 135 retractus),58 in the third e for i (34 genitore, 94 iunone, 118 omne, 137 pare, 150 pare, inpare),59 i for e (49 marti, cf. 137 condicioni for ratione). is for es (23–4 Carnensis, 66 arboris, 69 adtenensis, 110 legionis, 137, 144 mensis)60 and ibus (55 maioris, 126 racionis); confusions of genders: 65 ipsi for ipsae,61 67 ceteri for cetera, 119 tirannici for tyrannicae, 137 duabus for duobus, 149 singula for singuli; wrong words, not always Latin: 51 et matrem for patrem, 76 iunius for aliter, 84 putabant for adfirmant, 93 decretis for detritis, 98 uolareeos62 for uoti reus, 105 etiamque for quod, 128 tunc for tantum, 132 inperium for ingenio, 142 iuxta dies municionibus solueantur, nobilissime for iusta diis Manibus soluerentur, Numae; 153–4 proidisidibus for ac post Idus in omnibus, 157 disputabant for conputabantur. By comparison the omission of quidem at 27 and the insertion of 〈iuniarum〉 at 102 seem almost venial. These peculiar errors apart, C also 55 Cf.  sagrament in the oath taken at Strasburg on 14 February 842 by the followers of Charles the Bald Romana lingua (BnF latin 9768, fol. 13r, col. ii, l. 6 up; Nithard 3. 5). Note too C’s use of ci for pre-vocalic ti except at 22 aegiptios, 34 ordinatio, 63–4 ęquinoctio (for um) and in &iam. 56 Correctly Fuluius. 57 Also 34, 50, but these may be persistence errors; so perhaps 116 suum. 58 I pass over 100 triunfus, since Γ too has the wrong ending. 59 And in verbs 63 nominare, 141 lustrari. 60 At 93 maioris is shared with R. 61 In a better-educated scribe this would have been a false correction on the assumption that terrae was dative singular; no such notion is to be entertained here. 62 Whether the scribe understood this as uolare eos or as nothing at all is beyond determination.



Introduction

shares with B not merely commonplace corruptions (97 quia, 141 lustrare, 156 nonne) or even the omission of est at 96, but a lacuna at 35–45 quem—exsoluerent omitted. One will naturally suppose that CB are derived from Δ through a lost hyparchetype Θ; at 125 his, shared with Π, may be an independent error emended by R as it is by S.63 Only at 98–9 fabe do all three representatives of Δ agree in error against the rest, which might be more disturbing were not C so corrupt. In consequence, when RC agree against B, as they do at 83 mercorioque, 93 maioris, 116 quæm, theirs is the reading of Δ, and that in B results from either correction or contamination. That the latter is the case is proved by the agreement in error between RC and V at 85, where dictam is omitted;64 restoration ope ingenii is improbable in a manuscript so full of casual omissions (e.g. 24ac diebus, 26 annus, 49 suo, even 367 Iouem).65 However, it also follows that when C’s reading cannot derive from that in RB (in the apparatus δ) even by emendation or lucky error, it too must result from contamination; of the errors in δ not shared by C, this most clearly applies to 23, where indeed C is the only manuscript to spell Theodosius correctly, and 123, where C’s quattuor tricentorum cannot come from δ’s iiii et ccc; but it also applies to 70 florescant, 108 consulto, where, all manuscripts being present, only C has the correct reading (which may however be the corruption of a corruption),66 and to 28 trigenorum,67 80 piso, 151 potacionem,68 where C alone presents or most nearly approaches the truth, but V is absent. In contrast to C, the slightly older V in general offers a good text, but with strange aberrations, most notably ultimum for limam at 293, but also other wrong words: 86 dictam for dicatam, 108 consul tuum for con63 At 53 Θ preserves Macrobius’ antiquos a Venere dixisse, even though in the rewritten context it inverts his meaning; since R too has the same words but with dixisse in second place, it is clear that Θ preserves the text of Δ and indeed of Λ, whereas Π (with a third word-order) inserts a negative to restore the intended sense. 64 There is no room in V for both dictam and auctor; since dictam is more dispensable and is omitted elsewhere, I assume that to have been the word not written. 65 Contrast B’s august- for VCR’s vulgar spelling agust- (107, 107–8), which it never exhibits. 66 Likewise at 98, where C’s carne may be a simplification of carnee. C also has the correct spelling against RB at 77 iuppiter, 131 numa; at 47 its aprilem would normally be correct, but in this context the true reading is aphrilem. It is possible that C descended from Θ through a manuscript with better orthography. 67 The correct gender, though Macrobius in fact wrote tricenum; see Commentary. 68 Absurd, but closer to Macrobius’ putationem than the readings of the other MSS.



Introduction

sulto, 229 propter for per, 287 addidi for additi, 289 mutauit for notauit, 315–6 audeo for audio, 350 cause for casae. Otherwise its most notable feature is the insertion of glosses: 69 id flores, 70 id cognomen. This manuscript agrees in error with each of the two families established above: with Δ: 85 dictam omitted (restored in B by contamination), (C absent) 322 quem; with Π: 65 conteguntur,69 104 〈a〉 marco, 107–8 augusti daretur ho­ nori, (C absent), 177 superfluendos,70 183 inter kalendas, 227 sunt.71 It can therefore be stemmatically associated with neither against the other; nor can it be a contamination of the two, since it alone preserves the truth at 73 fuluius (P has an omission), 304–5 incipiente anno, 319 fastos, 327 deque, 348 uisamque, 365 Itis.72 Of these readings, incipiente anno at 304–5 stands against anno incipiente in both other families; since this is a trivialization, it is arguable that both made the change independently, but at 327, where V alone has the correct deque, R’s denice and B’s de look like respectively a corruption, and an attempt at making sense of, the denique read by Π. It follows that since each pair in turn within ΔΠV shares errors not present in the third, their descent from their hyparchetype Λ not only is trifid and not bifid, but is also contaminated.73 (iv) Unique true readings As we have seen, at 304–5 (cf. 327) V preserves the truth against the agreed reading of both other families, each of which in turn preserves or approaches it against the agreed readings of V and the other: Δ 65 contegantur (B alone, but both congregantur C and tegant R are corruptions of it), 104 marco, 107–8 honori augusti daretur, 177 superfundendos, 183 interkalendos (for interkalandos), 227 sint; Π 85 dictam, 322 quemquam. When V is absent, the two families are sole witnesses to Λ, either of which may tell the truth against the other; but even then, and a fortiori Further corrupted in Σ to contexuntur. V is cut off after superfl; S conjectures superfluos. 71 At 163 ΣV read apparet for appareret Δ, but P omits; at 294 error ΣV (erro P) is inferior to ordo Δ, but is the reading of Macrobius’ MSS. 72 At 352, but not 353, V alone agrees with Macrobius’ manuscripts in reading Greek καλω for Latin kalo; this may, however, be mere ostentation. 73 See Maas (1957), 8, § 10 = (1958), 7–8. 69 70



Introduction

when V is present, true or nearly true readings in less than a whole family are of interest. If so poor a manuscript as C can uniquely present true readings, or readings nearest the truth, at 23, 28, 70, 80, 108, it is no surprise that others do the same. Since the scribe of B is a fairly good speller, the Vu of Vulcan- in 79–81 and retinuit at 102–3 and 158 where the other manuscripts have ulcan- (but uulcan- Spc) and retenuit may be due to his own virtue;74 that is less easily asserted for 81 Maiestam, where the rest omit the e (but V has only the initial m), and not at all for 65 niuibus, where all other copies read nubibus, or 380, where only B correctly places uero after nominis instead of nobis. At 67 and 133, where only B has incipiant and forsan, but C’s insipiant and fons an demonstrate that the true readings stood in Θ, since in both places R shares in the corruptions of the other witnesses, incipiunt (but accipiunt Σ) and forsitan, if it inherited them from Δ either the latter carried variants that R overlooked, or Θ imported its reading from outside; at 67 an intelligent scribe (though scribes of Disp are not noticeable for intelligence) might have restored the subjunctive, but no-one either then or now would have taken exception to forsitan. Nowhere else when C is present does it support B against the other manuscripts; at 165, where, in the absence of C, only B has the correct commenti, the Computus Coloniensis, which as we shall see is close to C, shares in R’s corruption commentati. Of B’s other unique true readings or approximations 172 appellitabant,75 (V absent) 220 Tutitanus, 231 et contrast with errors common to R and other manuscripts; 226 Pinario is most nearly approached by Pinnario in Σ (which of the two V read cannot be determined), but 390 immolata by R’s immolant a, both being derived from immolat a against immolabat a in Π. The remaining member of the family, R, is never alone right or nearest the truth when V and C are both present; but in the absence of V it is so at 139 dei, 150 conputarentur (B omits), of C at 177 superfundendos, 185 grecorum, 202 lepidiano, 290 actionibus, 324 Chore,76 344 fasti;77 of

At 80–1 uulcanale he shares the wrong gender with the rest. Cc omits the relevant phrase. 76 Correct is Hore, but chore is an older reading than core. 77 At 172 R has υπερβενοντας, phonetically identical even in Macrobius’ day with the correct ὑπερβαίνοντας, but T reads the same in transliteration. At 311 R alone has the correct spelling septembrem, but VB abbreviate. 74

75



Introduction

both at 268 statuto, the wrong word,78 but in the right gender against statuta ΠB.79 Unique good readings in R, Θ, B, and C may all derive from external manuscripts, or from variants in Δ, some of which were passed on to Θ, or some from external manuscripts and others from variants. There seems to be a trace of a variant in B at 368, where before a corruption of Δία τὴν ἡμέραν there stands idduał, most naturally interpreted as iddu aliter or iddua uel even though its pertinence is unclear.80 If any variants in Δ did not come from outside but had already stood in Λ, they were overlooked in Π and V, which in turn adopted variants ignored by Δ. If some variants in Δ could be adopted by R and others by Θ, it was no less possible for some variants in Π to be adopted by P and others by Σ. There are indeed places where P stands in virtuous isolation: against ΣΔV at 98 nam, against ΔΣV at 194 uetere, 356 classi (B omits), 363 nono quoque, 367 Salii, against ΔΣ (V absent) at 245 denuo, 272 et Ianuario, 273 dicimus, 374 eo, 391 Ianum (B omits the erroneous Iunium before Iunonium).81 Of these, Salii was rightly judged by Arweiler ((2000), 53) to have been imported into P from X (‘der zweite Macrobiuszeuge’);82 one will hardly suppose that even with the help of 43 Saliorum this not over-bright copyist could recognize a reference to the ancient Roman priests. One may suspect (and I have supposed) that other unique readings (not only good ones)83 come from X, but cannot prove that any one reading did. Macrobius’ favoured status, ‘fixed’, is regularly corrupted in Disp to statutus. The correct readings 212 Terminaliorum, 249 Ateius, corrupted in B to terminali ortus and adeius, plainly came from Δ. Nothing can be inferred from 35 primum, 36 quod, 45 hii, where R, in the absence of VΘ, is right against Π. 80 Iddu cannot be a bad transliteration of the Greek (R has diapemeron) and even as a garble of Iduum or Itis/Item in 280 is not supported by any extant corruption of those words; nor does idua 382 seem more promising. 81 It is also closest to the truth at 377, where it reproduces Macrobius’ οιοναποτουειδουc with only ξ for the first υ and ρο for ου. At 142 Nume, where V is absent and C goes off the rails with nobilissime, P has the correct single consonant as against the double in ΔΣ (so has the corrector of S), but this may be no more than a failure to write the tittle over m. 82 Arweiler’s other three imports must be disallowed. Two rest on Carton’s misreadings: 231 ‘proveniebat PMacr. : perveniebat WO [= VS]’, but it is V that presents the compendium for pro- and P that for prae-; 347 prouincia, of which in fact P shares the other manuscripts’ corruption prouidentia. At 360 Carton, and therefore Arweiler, rightly state that P reads the correct sciturosque, but so does R. 83 At 249 P’s hetheris is nothing like even the misspellings of Ateius in all other witnesses; note too the badness of the text in ll. 1–20. 78 79



Introduction

Σ is never right against ΔVP when C is present, though 98–9 fabie for fabariae (G’s subiae results from misreading) is nearer the truth than any other reading (P has fauie); but is so in its absence at 167 conpo­ suerunt, 332 uideri quia non, which in view of P’s uiderique anno will go back to Π (and is also found in J). It also has the correct spellings 201 casibus, 307 (B omitting) inquit, but since cassibus and inquid are easy to believe of the original Irish excerptor, these may be emendations. In the absence of V, Σ is right against ΔP at 266 coeperint, and at 396 corrupts the Greek word less than the other manuscripts; at 216 it has the correct refertur against referunt B, referant P, but R has reffertur. There are no uniquely correct readings in Γ, nor in G or T individually, but there are in S (* = after correction): against all other manuscripts: 80 maiis; in the absence of VCB: 44 promptum*; in the absence of G: 86 maiis; in the absence of GV: 150 parem. in the absence of GC: 317 uellem,84 347 delegabatur*. With the possible exception of 150 parem (pari rem P, paremque T), these are plainly emendations ope ingenii; the same applies to the incorrect conjectures 84, 85 libio*, 177 superfluos*, 293 adhibitis*, 304 pro ordinatione, 345 fabio*, 364 consulebantur*, and is the default hypothe­ sis for non-unique restorations of the truth (69 athenienses*, 81 dicit*, 61–82 mercurii, 86 dicatam*, 125, 187, 365 is, 155 possidebant*, 174, 183 octennium/o, 222 eosdem, 243 dirigere*, 306 incisione).85 Nevertheless, every one of these restorations matches either at least the reading of at least one Δ manuscript: RB at 306, 365, Θ at 155, B at 69, 81 dicit, 81–2 the spelling (not the position) of mercurii, 86, 243, and R at 125, 174, 183, 187, 222, whereas only at 69, 81, 155 do they match P and at 143 the correction departs from it; all allowance made for individual coincidences, it seems improbable that there was no contamination from a Δ-related manuscript, which moreover is the easiest explanation of 165 commentati, shared with R, where TP read commendati. It is possible to envisage a Λ studded with variants, good and bad, variously adopted, transmitted, or rejected by its apographs; but in that 84 Vellem is counter-intuitively proved correct by the manuscripts of the Saturnalia; since both T and V read uellim against uelim ΘP, it appears that Π read uellim, for which P (with or without X, and perhaps not even consciously) substituted the uelim so natural after uelint, but S the uellem required by uell-. 85 At 120, principium > principum, 165 commentata > commentati, S corrects mere slips of the pen; at 263 septimanas > septimas the first reading was right.



Introduction

case we might expect still to find more variants recorded in our extant manuscripts than B’s idduał at 368 and S’s in above the ac of accipiunt at 67. The alternative, which may seem more plausible, is to suppose that Θ, Π, and V, though copied from Λ, drew on other exemplars. Either way, since variants in Λ must have come from somewhere, it is evident that there were more copies of Disp than we know of. However contaminated a tradition, if all manuscripts in it were known a stemma could be devised; it is only because they are not that (as Housman said in the case of Lucan) ‘[t]he manuscripts group themselves not in families but in factions; their dissidences and agreements are temporary and transient, like the splits and coalitions of political party; and the most that can be done to classify them is to note the comparative frequency of their shifting alliances’.86 (v) Extra-familial agreements in error The agreements in error of manuscripts within either family with V and with the other family, or part of it, are sufficiently numerous, even when the possibility of polygenesis is taken into account, that existence of contamination between the families seems undeniable; its extent, however, is uncertain. Σ and P each agree in corruptions with non-Π manuscripts against the other. In the case of agreements against P, there is always the possibility that the latter was corrected from X, especially when it alone has the truth; see (iv) above. Those places apart, Σ agrees in error against P with: V: 312 adnectantes (but S corrects) ~ P adnectentes; VCR: 102 numma (S corrects) ~ P numa; Δ: 357 superesset (S)/superesse (T) ~ P (also V) superessent; R: (V present) 180–1 numerus ~ P numerum, 231 perueniebat ~ P praeueniebat (for proueniebat), 350 cassę (S corrects) ~ P casę, 361 existimant (also Bede) ~ P (also V) aestimant, 362 putarentur (also Bede) ~ P putentur, (V absent) 30 septimas ~ P septimanas1, 80 phiso ~ P pisso (for Piso), 217 lucinius ~ P linius (for Licinius), 222 scripsit ~ P scribit, 250 Cato 〈dicit〉 (also Bede), 255 mense scilicet ~ P scilicet mense, 391 iunium ~ Ianum, omnis ~ P omnes; 86 Housman (1926), p. vii. The comment was topical: in 1916 the Liberal government had given way to a coalition between one faction of that party and the Unionists; in 1922 this had been brought down by a backbench rebellion amongst the latter (called once more by their earlier name of Conservatives); in 1923 the Liberals had put a minority Labour government into office; in 1924 they had put it out.



Introduction

B: (V present) 84 labio (libio Spc), 86 eandem omitted, 295 sibi omitted, (V defective) 185 creuerunt87 ~ P creuerant, (V absent) 151 supputationem ~ P conputationem (for putationem), 208 quod ~ P quid.88 No store can be set by such an orthographical triviality as numma, but the errors shared with R, some of which reappear in Bede, are striking, as to a lesser extent are those with B. For its part, P agrees in error against Σ with: V: 158 inferis 〈diebus〉, 335 cum omitted;89 VC: 111 aspicia ~ Σ auspicia; Δ: (V absent) 120 principium;90 C: 70 Var(r)ius ~ Σ Verrius, 71 hodie ~ Σ huic deae (but P corrects to hoc die), 104 in omitted; VR: 67 incipiunt ~ Σ accipiunt (in- Spc, for incipiant), 84, 85 corni­lius ~ Σ cornelius, 307 inquid ~ Σ inquit; ΔV: 201 cassibus ~ Σ casibus; VB: 292 magistratum; R: 44 per principia ~ Σ principio, 104 antonino ~ Σ Antonio, 268 qui ~ Σ quia,91 326 quessitu(m) ~ S quęsitu, T quesitu, 383 omnes idus ~ Σ idus omnes. B: 140 lustrationem (but P corrects), 163 quomodo, 190 a omitted, 201 additus, 207 celebrari, frequentabant (P after correction), 237 confusione, 291 nec omitted. Many of these errors are orthographical; some, in particular cassibus and inquid, may be inherited and therefore, in the stemmatist’s sense, not errors at all, the Sirmond collector having innovated, but even so other mistakes remain. In addition, there are agreements in error of less than the whole of Σ with manuscripts outside the Π family. Many are orthographical, and V has only the final nt. At 213, where ΣB read auerterent for P’s correct auerteret, the corruption, following locarent, could well have been made independently (R has euerteret, right number but wrong prefix), as could that at 358 nonam (so too V) ~ RP nouam. 89 At 665, where VP have conteguntur for Macrobius’ contegantur (preserved in B), I take contexuntur in Σ for a further stage in the corruption. 90 Also by a momentary error Sac, but correctly principum ΓSpc; see n. 85. 91 However, whereas R spells out qui, P has q, which here and at 394 may be a North Italian survival (recognized or not) of the Insular abbreviation for quia (Lindsay 1915, 245); R makes the same mistake at 72, 82, 361, B at 205 (qui ergo P), 242, and both at 344. In fact, similarity of abbreviation leads to constant confusion of quam, que, quae, qui, quia, just as similarity of sense causes interchange of quia and quod. 87

88



Introduction

may be inherited readings corrected by S (TBP 131 numma, ΔTP 210 habundare, ΔVTP 324 inquid), B (TRP 187–8 emitatione, 261 relegio, 280 acciperunt, 385 relegionibus), or both (VTRP 293 demensionibus); at 336, as we have seen, it is T that corrects the cassus of VPS. Independent correction by P, S, and B may have left TR to perpetuate the readings of ΔΠ at 264 motauit, 269 relegionem, 294 puplicauit. P’s remaining extra-familial errors are shared with: GRS 51 origo 〈est〉; TB 222 eodem, 261 mensi omitted (also De ratione conputandi). V: 335 cum omitted. At 51 Π must have had the verb (which might well seem wanting), but T could have overlooked ē after o; V being absent, it is all the harder to tell whether, having already been present in Λ, the word was transmitted through Δ to R but independently omitted by Θ, or independently inserted by R as in P. At 335, the alternative to eyeskip by two scribes from the initial c of cum to that of the following celerius is a link between the two manuscripts perhaps also accounting for their use of lxl instead of xc at 170.92 At 222, however, there is no obvious reason for writing eodem instead of eosdem; and although the possibility of an inherited error is raised by 261, the author of De ratione conputandi may very well have omitted mensi on his own account, as being completely otiose. Extra-familial agreements in error involving part of Σ but not P are more numerous, and cannot all be put down to independent corruption: RS: 63 cum ferre (cum fere correctly ΘP, conferre G, confere T); ΓC: 81 dicitur, 102 praepositus; ΓCB 32 uero for uerum (T before correction), VCT 111 sunt (coincidence not unlikely); ΔVT: 293 habetis; GC: 79 dicitur; 80 maias, 104 honore; ΓV 93 mensi (mense C), where S would have had no reason to restore mensis; ΓR 38 seruanti, 39 igitur; VT 289 erunt, 309 consensit, 317 uellint (for uelint), uellim (for uellem); TC 128 perueniret; TB: 215 interkalarent (-ca- B), 261 mensi omitted. Of the Δ manuscripts, R agrees or nearly agrees in error with: At 166, where V also has this numeral, P spells out nonaginta.

92



Introduction

Π 35 dedicauit, 123 iam supra, 1133 forsitan, 316 rursum, 327 denique (Π)/denice (R); VSpc: 165 commentati; Σ: 375 dercoe (R)/δερκεω uel δερλεω Σ; V: 69 athinenses omnes, 189 athinensium (athine[V), 190 deferebant,93 319 aliis omitted, 332 quod, 334 praecidenti, 347 diligebatur (delegebatur B, deligebatur Π, delegabatur Spc); 364 consulabant.94 Θ agrees in error against R with Γ at 32 uero (but uerum Tac), with Π 125 his (but is S), and with Pac at 140 lustrationem; but confusion of is and his is well attested elsewhere even in Disp, and -em for -um is an easy inadvertence. At 73, where V preserves the correct fuluius and R writes uluius, ΣB have fluuius, of which C’s fluuio appears to be a further corruption; P suffers an omission. B’s extra-familial shared errors, apart from those with TP at 222 and 261 already noted, and the tendency to spell the second king of Rome with double m, are: Π: 127 eueniebat,95 175 octoennium, 269 statuta, 319 aliis, 256 ea, 398 aeris arbritrata est (BP, arbitrata est aeris Σ); T: 26, 264 quia; ΠV: 183 octoennio (P octo iennio), 290 auctionibus, 336 cassus (B cassius); V: 108 senatu, 234 flabo, 311 et, 338 nona, 345 fausti; At 202, where R reads correctly lepidiano, BP read the lipidiano that seems to be the origin of V’s limpidiano and Σ’s lipiano.96 However, at 72, where both G and B read causa for causam, G’s reading seems to be a casual slip, whereas B’s belongs to a deliberate adjustment of the archaic construction causam … praetereundum est to the normal causa … praetereunda est. C and V share only errors also found in at least one Π manuscript, and these are either orthographic (111 aspicia VCP) or inconclusive (111 sunt VT), but CΠ alone share (V present) 101 nihilhominus (Π, nihilhominum C), (V absent) 47 aprilem/aprelem for aphrilem, 139 diei (dici P); at 30 C’s immediately corrected septimas for septimanas2 may be a slip of the pen rather than an interpolation from Π. At 128 TC both Shared with Cc. At 234 VR also share the misspelling difinitionis. 95 The u of this word is written in B with v over the preceding letter as noted by Lindsay (1915), 350; however, instead of e the scribe has put a c, giving the appearance of the Czech letter č. 96 In fact B further corrupts lipidiano tumultu into lipidia notum multum. 93

94



Introduction

have perueniret for proueniret, but confusion of per-, prae-, and pro- is always frequent. (vi) Corrections Since scribes, like stonecutters, perforce correct their mistakes in public, it is no surprise that we find corrections of momentary slips in our manuscripts of Disp; when at 24 B, having at first omitted diebus before cccliiii, adds it above ccc, at most its position is noteworthy.97 Most corrections in our manuscripts of Disp are of this nature, apart from S’s textual emendations ope ingenii. However, when a few lines below, at 29, diebus is again inserted in B, this time over the last two characters of xxxi, we observe that it is not in Macrobius, who left it to be understood from the preceding dierum, and not in the other Δ manuscripts, but is added in Π after, not before, expedirentur. Evidently it came from another source than Θ, which lacked it, or Π, which had it in a different position. Likewise, whereas C’s correction at 95 of decata to dedicata by adding di above the line requires no comment, and that at 30 of septimas to septimanas restores the reading of Δ as represented by RB, the case stands otherwise at 27, where the number of days in Romulus’ year, at first sight is ·ccciiii, turns out on closer inspection to have its final unit written over the closing raised point. That is to say, C originally wrote ·ccciii·, which is the number given in B and therefore must have stood in Θ; it is improbable, to say the least, that the scribe corrected the number either from calculation or from 123, but rather we should invoke the source from which C derived the correct readings noted above. At 70, where RB have the correct uerrius, C changes uarius to uarrius; it is likely that this is a corrected mistranscription from the same source, which would thus share P’s uarrius, a spelling perhaps due to the preceding Varro. One might expect to find corrections in P due to use of X; yet although this scribe adjusts his handiwork in several places, the only sure case is 371, where in medio mense, proved by Σ to have stood in Π, is corrected by deletion of in, which a tenth-century scribe will not have felt as otiose. At 127–8 giemmalibus > hiemmalibus (Σ correctly hiemalibus) the g is a known medievalism (cf. gemalibus C), but the scribe may have caught himself out, and likewise at 140 lustrationem > lustrationum; at 244 pagitum > pagidum for peragit dum, two efforts have been made to The stroke dividing ccc from liiii is not a caret, being also found just below in 27 ccc/iii (an error for ccciiii). 97



Introduction

decipher the same exemplar. Other self-corrections are notable only for their number: 56 celebratur > celebraretur, 71 postea restored, 187 ipsorum > ipsum, 207 frequentabat > frequentabant (which is wrong), 229 sacerdodotum (split between lines at do|do) > sacerdotum, 235 ergo > et ordo, 250 horiginibus > originibus, 274 sexto > sextum, 284 seruatum > seruata, 309 in restored, 326 quessitum to quessitu for quaesitu, 367 apiamus > accipiamus. The only other correction of interest (S’s conjectures apart) is in T at 32, where uero, as in GΘ, is changed to Macrobius’ uerum, read by PRS; evidently the true word had been corrupted in both Γ and Θ, but remained in the former as a variant.

C. The Indirect Tradition From the seventh century onwards, matter from Disp was being quoted, paraphrased, expanded, and summarized (the words Inde/Vnde Macrobius do not guarantee a verbatim text) at second, third, or fourth hand in subsequent writings from Ireland, England, and Francia: in the Einsiedeln Computus (Ce),98 the Munich Computus (Cm),99 De ratione conputandi (Drc), and De diuisionibus temporum (Ddt),100 all of Irish origin; in Bede’s De temporibus101 and De temporum ratione;102 in the 98 On pp. 82–123; see Warntjes (2005). I owe my knowledge of these readings to Professor Warntjes. 99 See chs. 12–22 (pp, 48–62), 25–8 (pp. 72–8). Note that the readings quoted are those of Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14456, rather than the editor’s emendations. 100 Of which Eric Graff is preparing an edition, pending which I have relied on the texts in G, fols 138v–149r; C, fols 37r–44r; S, fols 62v–73v; Vat. Rossianus 247, fols 158v–169v; Vat. Urbinas lat. 290, fols 34v–41r; and readings reported by Dr Graff from Dijon, Bibliothèque, 448, fols 29–37; Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek 442, fols 72r–84r. Since I am concerned with Ddt only as a witness to Drc, I do not normally record corruptions in individual MSS, merely noting their existence with fere: thus at 23–4 I write ‘Karnenses fere Ddt’, though Ross has Karnensę corrected from Karsn-, Sac Karnienses, and U Kartaginenses. The text was subjected to successive revisions (Graff 2010, 117–25 with diagram p. 126), which led to the incorporation of more matter from Disp, notably in that printed by Hervagius 1563, i. 117–32 (repr. PL 90. 653–4); these expanded versions were used by various Frankish computists, including Hrabanus Maurus. The matter relating to the months was collected, so Professor Warntjes kindly informs me, in Paris, BnF, nouv. acq. lat. 1615, fols 187 v–189v, which on fols 154r–155r contains the Computus Parisinus of 819–20 discussed in Warntjes (2010b), 68–9 and illustrated ibid. 107–9. 101 In ch. 6 (p. 297). 102 In chs. 12–13 (pp. 206–11), and briefly in chs. 16 (p. 214, ll. 53–4), 36 (pp. 248– 9, ll. 2–5).



Introduction

Carolingian imperial calendar;103 in Pseudo-Alcuin De bissexto104 and the Computus Coloniensis (Cc) of 805, both Frankish reworkings of Irish material; in the early-ninth-century Tractatus super Donatum by Master Erchanbertus, also a Frankish work in the Insular tradition;105 and in the Glossae Brideferti, to be discussed below. The list is not exhaustive, nor have relations between these works been fully clarified; many quotations have clearly been mediated through Ddt or Bede. Amidst much dross (as the editor of Disp must see it, though not the historian of reception) the indirect tradition occasionally contributes a true reading lost in the direct; that is more than once the case in Bede, but the most striking instance is at 74, where the entire direct tradition reads minores for Macrobius’ iuniores at Sat. 1. 12. 16, but paraphrases in Ce, in Bede, and in derivative texts, testify to the right word (see Commentary). The most important of the secondary witnesses is Bede, who copies far more than any of the others, but reorders and sometimes rewrites the material. Arweiler declared that Bede was free of Σ’s peculiar readings;106 by this he meant that no errors were common to SG and Bede alone. That is true, though he might have wondered how S and Bede came to share in 250 cato 〈dicit〉, 361 existimant, both which we now know to be present in T, but also in R; however, at 253, where Σ omits sol and Bede offers ipse in its stead, it is clear that he is attempting to make good the want of a subject for lustrat (see Commentary). At 125 Bede’s hic is evidently his attempt at correcting the false his (for is) found in ΓCBP. These interventions may suggest that at 160 Pompilii,107 the correct spelling of the name, was his own emendation. There is no consistent pattern to his agreements with our extant copies either in truth, which in any case would prove nothing, or in error; 108 consultu and 1940 ueteri apart, found in all manuscripts save C and P respectively, these are: Borst (2001), i. 403, 423–4, 534–5, 634–5, ii. 743–4, 842–2, 944, 1043, 1151, 1252, ii. 1351, 1451, 1548. Matter from Isidore, Disp, Bede, and Ddt is variously blended in the different recensions. 104 PL 101. 993 c–1001 a at 997 d–999 b (introduced by ‘inde in Macrobio legitur’), 998 ab (citing ‘Chorus’). On this treatise see Springsfeld (2002), 203–14. 105 Ed. Clausen (1948); see pp. iv–vii against the identification with Bishop Erchanbert of Freising (r. 835/6–54). Characterization from Law (1982) 105. 106 Arweiler 51: ‘Bedas Zitate in De temporum ratione zeigen, daß sein Text in den identifizierbaren Fällen nicht die Sonderlesarten von δ [= Σ] hatte’. 107 Several MSS have Pampilii, but it is easier to believe that Bede spelt the name correctly and scribes corrupted it than that he too had the false form for which several scribes independently substituted the true. 103



Introduction

with ΠVR (C absent) 165 commentati;108 with Π (V absent) 94 est; with ΣR 250 cato 〈dicit〉, 361 existimant, 362 putarentur; with Σ 25 sol omitted (see above); with R 126 rationibus lunae, 167 conputauerunt, 188 et omitted; with Θ 82 quia. There are none with B alone nor, unsurprisingly, with C. At 348 uisumque Bede, like ΔΠ, has made the participle agree with aspectum rather than lunam understood from lunae, but unlike them has left the conjunction unmolested. Other divergences, such as 116–21 September mensis, October, Nouember, December principalem sui retinent appellationem, may be taken as deliberate. The omission of et at 1885 is also found in Drc.109 Unlike Bede, the unknown author of this work has no unique true readings, though at 345 (where C and G are absent) he shares Flauio with VB and patribus with ΔV; he is also nearer the truth than most manuscripts of the direct tradition at 249 Ataius (Ateius Macrobius, R). Spelling apart, he shares corruptions with other manuscripts: with the entire direct tradition 74 minores; with ΔΣ 374 ea; with T 261 motaretur (cf. inmotaretur R), perhaps coincidental as a known Irish spelling; with PR 374 uidetur. At 158 in diebus feriis is clearly an emendation of the inferis diebus found in VP where Macrobius had written simply inferis. Amongst the other texts, the extracts in the Computus Coloniensis (Cc) much resemble C both in corruption and in membership of Δ; to be sure at 157–8 Cc is more accurate, reading solus, xxviii retenuit for C’s sol·, xxvii· sætenuit, but at 238 it exhibits the already-encountered r/s confusion in se for re. Besides other unique errors (such as 165 annum suum xi diebus, 166 hi for tres, i.e. iii as in B, 169 uoluerunt), it shares: with R 164 zozaicum, 165 commentati, 190 deferebant (also V), 193– 4 subiugebant (corrected), 234 difinitionis (also V); with B 163 annum 〈suum〉, 239 cccc xl. Further corrupted to commendati in TP. And indeed in Ddt, which reads nam greci; R also omits, but inserts the particle less aptly at 147. At 145 it is used in the sense of etiam or quoque where in Greek one would expect καί as a matter of course and even particle-chary English would say ‘they too’. 108

109



Introduction

However, it also shares with Π 187 his (TP, though S has the correct is), with Sac 240 imitatos, with P ordine (hor- P), and with T 233 incerta; given the badness of the scribe, these may be independent errors, but in any case the extracts have been incorporated in a new text by a new author. The remaining sources are generally too paraphrastic to be of service. Longest are the extracts in Ddt, which incorporates matter from Disp, but handles it as freely as Bede, though less intelligently, in particular representing the Greek 354-day and Numa’s 355-day year as containing respectively eleven and then ten intercalary days. However, an intriguing reference appears in ch. 9 of Helperic of Auxerre’s Liber de computo:110 Causas uocabulorum singulis mensibus inditorum eo quod sit et in dialogo cuiusdam Praetextati sufficientissime tractata, et a domino Beda exinde deflorata in libro de temporibus secundo [= Dtr] nihilominus sit abundantissime digesta. In quo prolixa quidem non sterili disputatione planissime est expositum qualiter annus primum a Romulo in x, a Numa in xii mensibus est distributus, sed nec sic ad limam redactus longo post tempore a Iulio Caesare sagacis ingenii et praedicandae memoriae uiro, ad unguem modernae expositionis fuerit expolitus. Is dialogus in libris Macrobii legitur Saturnalium nomine titulatis.111

This passage cannot come from Bede, who knows nothing of Macrobius and does not incorporate ad limam from 293; but not even Disp would have informed Helperic that the source was Saturnalia, unless he had access to a manuscript that like P named the work and unlike P read limam. Attention, finally, must be paid to the annotations on De natura rerum and De temporum ratione known only from the second volume of Hervagius 1563, where they are falsely attributed to Byrhtferð of Ramsey (‘authore Brideferto Ramesiensi’),112 and reprinted in vol. 90 of Migne’s Patrologia Latina, where the name has lost its inorganic medial e. Hervagius certainly imposed sixteenth-century norms of spelling, just as Migne imposed those of the nineteenth; but against the suspicion PL 137. 28 d–29 a; a critical edition is wanting. So Oxford, Bodleian Library Auct. F. 3. 14, fol. 105v; Migne, like several MSS, absurdly reads titulatus. 112 Pronounced spurious by Classen (1896), 9–18 and Charles W. Jones (1938, cf. 1939, 21–38); against the defence by Lapidge (2007) see Contreni (2011–2), whose account of their ninth-century composition will be published in Contreni (forthcoming). 110 111



Introduction

that his manipulations (for which see Charles W. Jones 1939, 22–4) extended to making the text more like Macrobius than it really was we may cite Opera, ii. 78 (PL 90. 349 c), where the Glossae Brideferti agree with P in transposing 147 adiecit diem (Macrobius, ΔΣC, Ddt, and even Bede) into diem adiecit.113 Of greatest interest here, however, is their attestation of an incipit matching neither our own text nor Bede’s, but close to that of Ddt. At Sat. 1. 12. 3 Macrobius wrote ‘non igitur mirum in hac uarietate Romanos quoque olim auctore Romulo annum suum decem habu­ isse mensibus ordinatum, qui annus incipiebat a Martio et conficiebatur diebus trecentis quattuor’, which was shortened in Disp (ll. 25–7) to ‘Romani auctore Romulo decem habuisse mensibus ordinatum, qui annus incipiebat a Martio et conficiebatur diebus .ccciiii.’, leaving the sentence without a main verb and requiring the direct object to be supplied from the preceding clause. At Drc 137. 28. 19 the latter defect is remedied by the substitution of annum for ordinatum, and the asyndeton removed by the addition of the connective uero; these were not the author’s own adjustments, for both reappear in Ddt, which also inserts a finite verb and, having expanded the preceding sentences but without mention of Macrobius, works him into its exposition and also adds mense before Martio, so that the whole sentence reads ‘Romani uero auctore Romulo decem habuisse mensibus annum comprobantur, qui annus sicut Macrobius ostendit incipiebat a mense Martio et conficiebatur diebus .ccciiii.’ But the loss of ordinatum left decem … mensibus in the wrong case for a numerical qualification, this fault in turn is corrected, by putting genitive for ablative, in the Glossae Brideferti (ii. 78; cf. PL 90. 350 bc): ‘Haec igitur disputatio, iam superius est scripta, cuius initium est: Romani uerò, auctore Romulo, decem mensium habuisse annum comprobantur. Qui annus, sicut Macrobius ostendit, incipiebat à mense Martio, & conficiebatur diebus 304’.114 Clearly this was not the incipit when the adversative uero was interpolated; rather, a copy of Disp has been back-contaminated from Ddt. It was certainly not Bede’s.115 Similarly, at Opera i. 132. 19–20 (PL 90. 664 b), in his much-interpolated recension of Ddt, Macrobius’ hi menses, retained at Disputatio 277, becomes menses hi. 114 So Hervagius (ccciv in Migne), no doubt for .ccciiii. In the preceding gloss (ii. 78, PL 90. 347–8), a verbatim transcript of De temporibus 6, Hervagius prints ccciiii., Migne ccciv. 115 From De temporibus 6 (297. 2 Jones) ‘Romani auctore Romulo decem mensibus annum, diebus uero ccciiii, agebant’, it appears that Bede’s text read mensibus not mensium. Arweiler 2000, 55, stating (falsely, cf. 30–1) that this was the only place where the adaptation was syntactically flawed, suggested that comprobantur, which he knew only 113

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Introduction

There is no sign that the Jarrow manuscript was ever copied; Bede’s work was deemed to have rendered its sources superfluous.116 Nevertheless, one passage of Disp appears in an English manuscript of the early twelfth century, Oxford, St John’s College, MS 17,117 which was evidently copied from one used by Byrhtferð as raw material for his Enchiridion, but also incorporates more recent matter: at the foot of fol. 20r, underneath calendrical matter relating to September, are copied ll. 330–42, Romulus—facit, on the irregular length of Roman months. The extract is not attributed to any source, but cannot come from either Bede or Hrabanus Maurus (De computo ch. 32), since both authors (the latter following the former) break off at 258 dies; nor can it come from Ddt, since it does not show the revised text of 258, ut alii menses .xxx alii .xxxi dies sortirentur. However, since it appears in Exc, it evidently circulated independently of its context, and without reference to either Macrobius or Disp. In any case, appearing as it does beneath the 19-year list of epacts in a bottom margin that under the other eleven months is left blank, and being written moreover in a different ink, it must be imported from another source than Byrhtferð’s Nachlass (let alone Abbo’s, where Byrhtferð would otherwise have found it); for had he known even Disp, let alone the Saturnalia—neither of which any pre-Conquest English writer save in the former case Bede either mentions or uses—it is inconceivable that he should not have made room in the Enchiridion for their information as he does for Macrobius’ commentary on Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis.118

from the Glossae Brideferti, stood in the original text of Disp; the nature of Ddt’s text does not encourage such a notion. 116 And note the observation of Warntjes 2011, 21 ‘dass das heute bekannte komputistische Material aus Südirland über die Loire auf den Kontinent kam, nicht aber durch das angelsächsiche England über den Ärmelkanal’. 117 For which see The Calendar and the Cloister , (accessed on 19 February 2019) with ample expositions by Faith Wallis, to whom I am also indebted for discussion of this passage. 118 It follows that, in a gloss on nundinas at Drt 2 (182. 9 Jones), the unacknowledged quotation at ii. 52 (PL 90. 299 cd) of Sat. 1. 16. 36 ‘Est etiam … feminis’—verbatim, save that Macrobius’ etiam and est autem dies lustricus become autem and est lustricus dies respectively—points to an author resident in France (cf. Kaster (2010), 5 at n. 12).



Introduction

D. Transmission History It is evident that we can no longer imitate the exploits of Arweiler, who, knowing only the five manuscripts VGCPS (and P only though Carton), bestowed on them not only a stemma, but a complete Überlieferungsgeschichte, according to which from an Irish archetype α were copied on the one hand Bede’s exemplar, on the other a manuscript β in Fergal’s possession from which Π (which Arweiler called γ)119 was transcribed at Pépin le Bref ’s palace of Cariciacum in Neustria (now Quierzy, dép. Aisne) and both V and another manuscript at Salzburg, the latter being sent by Fergal’s successor Arn (r. 785–821)120 to Hildibald of Cologne (r. 787–818),121 under whom it became the (perhaps mediated) source of C. Even on its own terms Arweiler’s romance fails to account for errors linking two of his β’s descendants against the third (30 septimas Π: septinas C, corrected by a latter hand; 111 sunt VC), let alone for the travels of his γ from Quierzy to central France and northern Italy;122 but it also leaves out the manuscripts Arweiler did not know, and the Irish computistic tradition as a whole. Pending a comprehensive survey of that tradition, still premature while new discoveries are being made, I can tell only the following story: at some time not much later than 600, and possibly before, an Irish monk, perhaps his house’s schoolmaster, excerpted from a copy of Macrobius’ Saturnalia the historical account of the Roman calendar, omitting matter that he deemed superfluous. This excerpt became an independent text, read and transcribed in its own right; it was exploited by the author of De diuisionibus temporum even before, around the year 658, copies of both texts were included in Ch. From this came the transcript (Ξ) on which both Ce and Cm drew,123 another (Φ) that, having lost the leaf with the title and beginning of Disp, was copied into the manuscript taken to Jarrow in 684 and known to Bede; and a third (Ψ), in which iuniores at 74 had been corrupted to minores, that gave rise, From this he derived P and Σ (which he called δ), supposing S and G to have been copied directly from the latter: ‘Da es keine signifikanten Trennfehler zwischen G und O [= S] gibt, ist es wahrscheinlich, daß die Vorlage δ, die G 804 n. Chr. in Massai bei Bourges benutzte, und nicht eine weitere Abschrift derselben bei der Erstellung von O im 11. Jahrhundert in Vendôme verwendet wurde’ ((2000), 49). Neither the factual statements nor the reasoning hold water. 120 From 798 archbishop. 121 Imperial chancellor from 791; from 795 archbishop. 122 On the pitfalls of such reconstructions see Reeve (2011), 211–9. 123 See Warntjes (2010a), 88, second apparatus. 119



Introduction

directly or through a descendant or descendants in either case, to the extracts in Drc and to a Continental tradition comprising not only our extant manuscripts but numerous others besides. These relationships are illustrated in Fig. 1, which, however, fails to account for either contamination within the descendants of Λ or the corruptions shared with one or more of them by Bede and Drc.

Macrobius, Saturnalia Disputatio Ddt

X

Ch Ξ

Φ

Helperic?

Exc Ψ

Ce Cm Bede Drc Λ

Gb

Δ V Π R

Θ

Σ

B C

S Γ

P

G T fig. 1. Tentative stemma of the Disputatio tradition

III. Relation to Manuscripts of Macrobius Since Disp was excerpted some two centuries before the earliest extant witness of the Saturnalia,124 we shall not be surprised that it alone should preserve the truth at 267 ~ 1. 14. 8 ad .xviii., where the direct tradition has only the numeral,125 and that at 283–4 ~ 1. 14. 11 Π (though not RV) should preserve the decimum omitted after septimum in most manuscripts of Macrobius; nor is it a surprise that the excerpted text For information on tradition and readings I rely on Kaster (2010) and (2011b). A corrected MS, and editors before Kaster, supplied the less plausible in.

124 125



Introduction

should belong to neither of the two branches, known as α and β, into which Macrobian copies are divided, lacking the separative errors: of α at 178 ~ 1. 13. 12 (ternos) et uicenos for uicenosque, 284 ~ 1. 14. 11 reseruata for seruata, 309 ~ 1. 15. 1 operum for operosum, 341 ~ 1. 15. 7 habebant for habebat, 368 ~ 1. 15. 16 uocant omitted; of β at 86 ~ 1. 12. 21 id est terrae omitted,126 165 ~ 1. 13. 12 intercalatores for intercalares, 253 ~ 1. 14. 6 lustrat zodiacum for zodiacum lustrat, 370 ~ 1. 15. 15 noctem for nocte. To be sure it sometimes agrees in trivial error with one family against the other, but it does so with each, and the errors are such as could have arisen independently: α: 183 ~ 1. 13. 13 octoennio,127 395~ 1. 15. 20 eat for meat (haplography after aerem); β: at 157 ~ 1. 13. 6 conputabantur for conputabatur (following censebantur and habebant). Of the two subfamilies into which β is in its turn divided, namely β1, containing only books 1–3, and β2, containing all seven, the majority reading of Disp agrees in error with β1 at 108 ~ 1. 12. 35 consultu (but consulto C), and ΠV do so at 227 ~ 1. 13. 21 sunt (but sint Δ). There are no such agreements with β2, though the statutus into which Macrobius’ status, ‘fixed’, has been changed on all four occasions of its use is found sporadically in some (not all) β2 copies from the twelfth century onwards.128 The natural inference from these facts is that Disp was copied from a manuscript written before the division into families, but that some of the errors now defining those families existed before their formation.

IV. The Additions in P As noted above, P has incorporated from the Saturnalia, by way of X, introductory matter to provide a context, namely the incipit of the entire Saturnalia, followed by the words Deinde idem post plura infert and On this passage see Kaster (2010), 37–8. But correctly octennio in R (and Spc); cf. octoennium 175 ~ 1. 13. 11 without support from the direct tradition, where again R has the correct spelling and Cc a different error. 128 I thank Professor Kaster for precise information on this point. This is a favourite word with Macrobius; for the corruption see 165 ~ 1. 13. 9, 180 ~ 1. 14. 2, 269 ~ 1. 14. 8, 342 ~ 1. 15. 8. 126 127



Introduction

a highly corrupt text of Sat. 1. 11. 50–1. 12. 2 down to explicabat, after which Disp proper begins with Arcades … explicabant over again. Arweiler (2000), 51 styles Deinde … infert ‘eine Überleitungsfloskel’; a fine transition to be sure where no transition is wanted. One who did not know the Saturnalia would wonder what had happened before deinde, who idem was, and more than what, or in addition to what, the plura were. The quotation introduced by infert begins with ideo, which might in principle look ahead to a reason or purpose not yet stated, but in fact refers back to something left out. In due course the words thus introduced turn out to have been spoken by one Epitacus, whose wish to finish speaking provokes Symmachus’ request that Praetextatus continue expounding; we who know our Macrobius recognize him as the Epicadus of Sat. 1. 11. 47 cited as an authority for the origin of the Sigillaria festival but mistaken by P for a speaker: Epicadus refert Herculem occiso Geryone, cum uictor per Italiam armenta duxisset, ponte qui nunc Sublicius dicitur ad tempus instructo, hominum simulacra pro numero sociorum quos casu peregrinationis amiserat in fluuium demisisse, ut aqua secunda in mare aduecta pro corporibus defunctorum ueluti patriis sedibus redderentur, et inde usum talia simulacra fingendi inter sacra mansisse.

It is impossible to conceive how any scribe, however stupid,129 could have reduced the full text of Macrobius to what stands in P. The second witness, X, must have been an intermediate abridgement or anthology, which included at least the first half of Epicadus’ narrative, Epicadus (however spelt) refert Herculem occiso Geryone … demisisse, probably not continuing to mansisse but at any rate skipping over the alternative aetiology for the Sigillaria in Sat. 1. 11. 48–9 with the transitional stopgap deinde idem post plura infert before resuming with § 50 Ideo Saturnalibus, which resumes the earlier account in 1. 10 of how the Saturnalia grew from a single day to seven, the Sigillaria being the last. The scribe of P (or an intermediate source) will have omitted everything between the incipit and deinde; inserted Epitacus if X had not already done so, and spliced the new beginning with the old so inexpertly that the sen Arweiler 53 concludes from the poor quality of P’s text that the additions had already been made in a parent manuscript: ‘Es ist wahrscheinlich, daß bereits die Vorlage von P die Ergänzungen des Textes vorgenommen hatte, da die zahlreichen Abschreibefehler und falsch aufgelösten Abkürzungen von P nicht auf einen “mitdenkenden” Schreiber schließen lassen, der den zweiten Macrobiustext zur Vervollständigung seiner Kurzfassung herangezogen hätte’. 129



Introduction

tence Arcades annum suum tribus mensibus explicabant appeared twice. Although he inserted two more short extracts in the discussions of April and June, and occasionally looked at his second source, particularly when he was puzzled (hence the interpolation of Salii), he did not consistently collate his main exemplar with his second it any more than the average Renaissance humanist would have done, but produced a Π manuscript contaminated from X. The additions are remarkable for their corruptions, of which only the haplography 9 ~ 1. 11. 50 Caesare (so β) for C. Caesare matches any in the direct tradition. Nevertheless, X alone preserves the truth at 1, giving Macrobii Ambrosii Theodosii in the title where the direct tradition omits Ambrosii (save that one α manuscript puts it before Macrobii), and at 5, where its tantum had already been restored by Macrobius’ first editor for the tamen transmitted at 1,. 1. 50. At 16 ~ 1. 12. 1 it correctly reads contexuit, against contexit in αβ2; it lacks the errors of α at 7 ~ 1. 11. 50 festum for fastum, 12 ~ 1. 12. 1 annoque for anno quoque, and β2’s nec for ne at 60 ~ 1. 12. 13.130 Hence this source too lay outside the Macrobian stemma.

V. Principles of this Edition At 1–20, 90–2, deep indentation indicates matter found only in P; at 56–62, double column is used for matter markedly different in that manuscript and the rest, P’s text being set on the right. In the critical apparatus, the reading of the text, when found in most manuscripts, is given without manuscript sigla, followed by a closing square bracket, only the divergent readings being cited, separated by colons as need be; when there is no preponderance of authority, the reading adopted is treated on a par with the rest, with siglum or sigla followed by a colon. This being an editio princeps, I have thought it right to give full reports of all manuscripts, even G and T, which contribute nothing to the constitution of the text and serve only to identify which readings of S not in P were or were not inherited from Σ. However, I have preferred classical spellings, without attempting to determine whether (for instance) the copyist of the archetype wrote ae, æ, ę, or e for classical ae, Nor is any of P’s unique good readings, should we wish to envisage incorporation from X, peculiar to one family or subfamily of Macrobius’ MSS. 130



Introduction

since scribes no more felt bound to follow their exemplar in this than in the use or non-use of abbreviations and compendia; I have thus written Aeneae at 49, so spelt only in P, rather than the eneae (eneę B) variously corrupted to enneae, enece, eneoe, and enę, and not recorded that at 144 coeperunt is thus correctly spelt only in R, whereas C reads cæperunt, B cęperunt, S ce̥ perunt, and T ceperunt, but only that P has the pluperfect caeperant.131 I have spelt interkalare and its derivatives uniformly with k without recording the inconsistencies of the manuscripts; on the other hand, their preference for unassimilated prefixes (adfirmant, conputabant, inparis) is sufficiently marked for exceptions to be worth noting. I record all instances of inquid, in case the excerptor himself (like many Irishmen and others) wrote that rather than the inquit I print. For the names of the last four months, often corrupted in both stem (imb-) and termination (ias accusative plural), I have retained the classical forms, which are found here and there amidst the rest, but reported the medieval spellings in my apparatus; I have done the same for February and August, to signal the proto-Romance vernacular forms Febrarius and Agustus, and for March, to note the use of ci for prevocalic ti. Numbers I have spelt out or represented by numerals according to the evidence of the manuscripts, but with a bias towards spelling out. The translation will indicate what sense (if any) I suppose my text to bear; when it makes no sense, neither does the text. I have made stylistic adjustments, rendering e.g. 186 omni … interkalationi ‘To all intercalations’ rather than ‘To every intercalation’, which in context is less natural English, or changing actives to passives for word-order’s sake.

At 200 exactly the same distribution of spellings (saving C’s absence) is found in coepit, but at 266 T reads coeperint, S cῶe̥ perint, R coeperunt, BP ceperunt. 131



BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Ancient and Medieval Authors Accius, Œuvres: Fragments, ed. Jacqueline Dangel (1995), Paris. Ambrose, De obitu Theodosii, ed. Otto Faler, CSEL 73 (1955), 371–401, Vienna. Ammianus Marcellinus, Res gestae, ed. Wolfgang Seyfarth, 2 vols (1999), Stuttgart and Leipzig. Anon., Computus Einsidlensis, in Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek, cod. 321 (647), pp. 82–125. Anon., Computus Monacensis, ed. Warntjes (2010a). Anon., De ratione conputandi, ed. Ó Cróinín in Walsh and Ó Cróinín (1988), 99–213. Asconius: Q. Asconii Pediani orationum Ciceronis quinque enarratio, ed. A. C. Clark (1907), Oxford. Ateius Capito: C. Atei Capitonis fragmenta, ed. Władysław Strzelecki (1967). Leipzig. Athanasius. Festal Letters, index: Histoire ‘acéphale’ et index syriaque des lettres festales d’Athanase d’Alexandrie, ed. Annik Martin and Micheline Albert (1985), Paris. Augustine, Soliloquiorum libri duo, ed. Wolfgang Hörmann, CSEL 89 (1986), Vienna. —— De ciuitate Dei, 2 vols (CCCL 48). —— De Genesi ad litteram libri duodecim, ed. Joseph Zycha, CSEL 28/1 (1894), 1*–435). —— Epistulae, ed. Alois Goldbacher, 5 vols, CSEL 34/1, 34/2, 44, 57, 58 (1895–1923), Vienna. —— In Joannis euangelium tractatus CXXIV, PL 35. 1379–1976.

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Bede, De temporibus, ed. Charles W. Jones (1943), 293–303. —— De temporum ratione, ed. Charles W. Jones (1943), 173–291. —— Epistola ad Pleguinam, ed. Charles W. Jones (1943), 305–15. Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae, ed. Claudio Moreschini (2000), Munich and Leipzig. Byrhtferð of Ramsey: Byrhtferth’s Enchiridion, ed. Peter S. Baker and Michael Lapidge, Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series 15 (1995), Oxford. Cassiodorus Senator, Expositio psalmorum, ed. M. Adriaen, CCSL 97 (1958), Turnhout. Cassius Dio, Historiarum Romanarum quae supersunt, ed. U. P. Boissevain, 5 vols (1895–1931), Berlin. Censorinus, De die natali, ed. N. Sallmann (1983), Leipzig. Chronicon Paschale, ed. L. A. Dindorf, 2 vols (1832), Bonn. Cicero, De re publica, ed. J. G. F. Powell (2006), Oxford. Consularia Constantinopolitana, ed. R. W. Burgess (1993), Oxford. Gellius, Noctes Atticae, ed. P. K. Marshall, 2 vols (1968), Oxford. Helperic of Auxerre, Liber de computo, PL 137. 17 b–48 d. Hrabanus Maurus De computo, ed. Wesley M. Stevens, CCCM 44 (1979), 190–321. John Camaterus, Introductio ad astronomiam, ed. Ludwig Weigl (1908), Leipzig. John Lydus, De mensibus, ed. Richard Wuensch (1967), Stuttgart. Josephus, Flavii Josephi opera, vi: De bello Judaico libri VII, ed. Bene­ dikt Niese (1895, Berlin). Libanius, Epistulae, in Libanii opera, vols x–xi, ed. Richard Foerster (1921–2), Leipzig. Livy, Ab Vrbe condita: books 6–10 ed. C. F. Walters and R. S. Conway (1919), books 21–5 ed. J. Briscoe (2016), Oxford. Lucian, Aduersus indoctum, in Luciani opera, ii, ed. M. D. MacLeod (1974), 121–34, Oxford. —— Gallus, in Luciani opera, i, ed. M. D. MacLeod (1972), 249–77, Oxford. Macrobius, In Somnium Scipionis [Macrobe, Commentaire au Songe de Scipion], ed. Mireille Armisen-Marchetti, 2 vols (2003), Paris. —— Saturnalia, see Kaster (2011a), 2001(b). Nithard, Historiarum libri IIII, ed. Georg Heinrich Pertz, rev. Ernst Müller, 3rd edn (1907), Hannover. Ovid, Fasti, ed. R. H. Alton, D. E. W. Wormell, Edward Courtney (1977), Leipzig.

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—— (forthcoming), ‘A First Look at Ninth-Century Glosses on Bede’s De temporum ratione’, in Immo Warntjes (ed.), Computus in the Carolingian Age, Turnhout. Delehaye, Hippolyte (1902), Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Propylaeum ad Acta Sanctorum mensis Novembris), Brussels. Delisle, Léopold (1884) Bibliothèque nationale: Catalogue des manus­ crits des fonds Libri et Barrois, Paris. Dinsmoor, W. B. (1931) The Archons of Athens in the Hellenistic Age, Cambridge, MA. Dorfbauer, L. J. (2010) ‘Die Bucheinteilung der Saturnalia des Macrobius’, Museum Helveticum, 67, 43–63. Downey, Glenville (1937) ‘The History of Antioch under Severus and Caracalla’, Transactions of the American Philological Society, 68, 141– 56. Fraenkel, Eduard (1916) ‘Zur Geschichte des Wortes fides’, Rheinisches Museum, neue Folge, 21, 187–99 = (1964), i. 15–26. —— (1917) ‘Das Geschlecht von dies’, Glotta, 8, 24–68 = (1964), i. 27– 74. —— (1964) Kleine Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie, 2 vols, Rome. Gagnebin, Bernard (1976) L’Enluminure de Charlemagne à François Ier, Geneva. Giles, John Allen (1843–4) The Complete Works of Venerable Bede, 12 vols, London. Gómez i Pallarès, Joan (1986) ‘Estudis sobre el Computus Cottonianus’. Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Graff, Eric (2010) ‘The Recension of Two Sirmond Texs: Disputatio Morini and De diuisionibus temporum’, in Warntjes and Ó Cróinín (2010), 112–42. Hervagius, Joannes (Johann Heerwagen the younger) (1563), Opera Bedae, 8 vols, Basel. Hirzel, Rudolf (1895) Der Dialog: Ein literarhistorischer Versuch, 2 vols, Leipzig. Holford-Strevens, Leofranc (2003–4) review of Ó Cróinín (2003b) and Wallis (1999), Peritia, 17–18, 539–50. Housman, A. E. (1926) M. Annaei Lucani Belli Ciuilis libri decem, Oxford. Jones, A. H. M. (1964) The Later Roman Empire, 284–602, 2 vols, Oxford.



Bibliography

Jones, Charles W. (1937) ‘The “Lost” Sirmond Manuscript of Bede’s Computus’, English Historical Review, 52, 204–19; pp. 204–13 repr. (1994), no. X. —— (1938) ‘The Byrhtferth Glosses’, Medium Ævum, 7, 81–97 = (1994), no. I. —— (1939) Bedae Pseudepigrapha: Scientific Writings Falsely Attributed to Bede. Ithaca, NY; repr. with (1994). —— (1943), ed. Bedae opera de temporibus, Cambridge, MA. —— (1994) Bede, the Schools and the Computus, ed. Wesley M. Stevens (Variorum Collected Studies, 346), Aldershot. Jones, Christopher P. (2014) Between Pagan and Christian, Cambridge, MA, and London. Jordan, Robert H. (2000) The Synaxarion of the Monastery of the Theotokos Evergetis, September–February (Belfast Byzantine Texts and Translations, 6. 5), Belfast. Kaibel, Georg (1887–90) Athenaei Naucratitae Dipnosophistarum libri XV, 3 vols, Leipzig. Kaster, Robert A. (2010) Studies on the Text of Macrobius’ Saturnalia (American Classical Studies, 55), New York. —— (2011a) ed., tr. Macrobius, Saturnalia, Cambridge, MA, and London. —— (2011b) ed. Macrobii Ambrosii Theodosii Saturnalia, Oxford. Krusch, Bruno (1880) Studien zur christlich-mittelalterlichen Chronologie: Der 84jährige Ostercyclus und seine Quellen, Leipzig. —— (1938) Studien zur christlich-mittelalterlichen Chronologie: Die Entstehung unserer heutigen Zeitrechnung (Abhandlungen der Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1937, Nr. 8), Berlin. Lapidge, Michael (2007) ‘Byrhtferth of Ramsey and the Glossae Bridferti in Bedam’, Journal of Medieval Latin, 17, 384–401. Law, Vivien (1982) The Insular Latin Grammarians, Woodbridge. Liebeschuetz, Wolf (1999), ‘The Significance of the Speech of Praetextatus’, in Polymnia Athanassiadi and Michael Frede, Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity, Oxford, 185–205. Lindsay, Wallace Martin (1915) Notae Latinae: An Account of Abbreviation in Latin MSS. of the Early Minuscule Period (c. 700–850), Cambridge. Maas, Paul (1957) Textkritik, 3rd edn, Leipzig. —— (1958) Textual Criticism, tr. Barbara Flower, Oxford.

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Mc Carthy, Daniel P. and Breen, Aidan (2003) The Ante-Nicene Christian Pasch: De ratione paschali. The Paschal Tract of Anatolius of Laodicea, Dublin. Martin, Josef (1931) Symposion: Die Geschichte einer literarischen Form, Paderborn. Martonne, A[lfred] de (1860) Notice historique sur l’ église de Saint-Martin de Vendôme, Paris. Mastandrea, Paolo (1979) Un neoplatonico latino: Cornelio Labeone (te­ stimonianze e frammenti), Leiden. Mazal, Otto and Unterkircher, Franz (1965) Katalog der abendländi­ schen Handschriften der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, „Series Nova" (Neuerwerbungen), i/1, Vienna. Meritt, B. D. and Traill, J. (1974) Inscriptions: The Athenian Councillors (The Athenian Agora, 15), Princeton. Michels, Agnes Kirsopp (1967) The Calendar of the Roman Republic, Princeton. Mommsen, Theodor (1859) Die römische Chronologie bis auf Caesar, 2nd edn, Berlin. Mostert, Marco (1989) The Library of Fleury: A Provisional List of Manuscripts (Middeleeuwse Studies en Bronnen, 3), Hilversum. Noviomagus, Johannes (1537) Bedae … Opuscula cumplura [sic] de temporum ratione, Cologne. Oakley, S. P. (1997–2005) A Commentary on Livy, Books VI–X, Oxford. Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí (1983) ‘The Irish Provenance of Bede’s Computus’, Peritia, 2 (1983), 229–47 = (2003b) 173–90. —— (1989) ‘The Date, Provenance and Earliest Use of the Works of Virgilius Maro Grammaticus’, in Günter Bernt, Fidel Rädle and Gabriel Silagi (eds), Tradition und Wertung: Festschrift für Franz Brunhölzl zum 65. Geburtstag, Sigmaringen, 13–22 = (2003b) 191–200. —— (2003a) ‘Bede’s Irish Computus’, in Ó Cróinín (2003b), 201–12. —— (2003b) Early Irish History and Chronology, Dublin. —— (2010) ‘The Continuity of Irish Computistical Tradition’, in Warnt­jes and Ó Cróinín (2010), 324–47. Radke, Gerhard (1979) Die Götter Altitaliens2 (Fontes et Commentationes, 5), Münster. —— (1981) Archaisches Latein (Erträge der Forschung, 150), Darmstadt. Reeve, Michael D. (2011) Manuscripts and Methods: Essays on Editing and Transmission, Rome.

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

SIGLA

G T S

P

X R B C

Bibliotheca Genauensis 50 Caesarodunensis 334 Γ horum consensus Oxoniensis Bodley 309 Σ huius cum Γ consensus σ consensus ST, deficiente G g σ consensus SG, discrepante T t σ consensus ST, discrepante G Patauinus Antoninianus 27 Π consensus ΣP π consensus σP g π consensus σgP πt consensus σ tP lectiones quas P e florilegio quodam Macrobiano hausit Reginensis latinus 586 Bremensis c 46 Cathedralis ecclesiae Coloniensis 83ii Θ consensus BC Δ consensus RBC δ consensus RB, deficiente C b δ consensus RB, discrepante C c δ consensus RC, discrepante B



Sigla

V D K Ross U J ac Cc Ce Cm def. Ddt DdtHeru. Drc Drt Dt Erch. Gb mg pc s.l. uv

Vindobonensis Ser. n. 37 Diuionensis bibl. publ. 448 Carolsruhensis bibl. prou. Bad. 442, 72r–84r Vaticanus Rossianus 247 Vaticanus Vrbinas latinus 290 Oxoniensis coll. Diui Ioannis Baptistae 17 ante correctionem Computus Coloniensis Computus Einsidlensis Computus Monacensis deficit De diuisionibus temporum secundum codices CDGKRossSU De diuisionibus temporum secundum Heruagium De ratione conputandi Beda, De temporum ratione Beda, De temporibus Erchanbertus, Tractatus in Donatum Glossae ‘authore Brideferto Rameseiensi’ ab Heruagio editae in margine post correctionem supra lineam ut uidetur



EDITION AND TRANSLATION

DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

Macrobii Ambrosii Theodosii qvinqvies consvlis et inlvstris ad Evstativm filivm svvm Satvrnaliorvm liber incipit 5

10

15

20

P1 Deinde idem post plura infert: ‘Ideo Saturnalibus talium commerciorum coepta celebritas per vii dies occupatos tantum feriatos facit esse, non festos omnes: nam medio, id est xiiii Kalendarum, fastum probauimus et aliis hoc adsertionibus ab his probatum est qui rationem anni mensum dierumque et ordinationem a Caesare degestam plenius retulerunt.’ P2 Cumque hic Epitacus facere uellet loquendi finem, subiecit Aurelius Symmachus: ‘Pergin, Praetextate, eloquio tam dulci de anno quoque reddissertare, antequam experiaris molestiam consulentis, si quis forte de praesentibus ignorat quo ordine uel apud priscos fuerit uel certioris postea regulis innouatus sit? Ipse uidearis audiendum animos incitasse de diebus mensi additis disse­ rendo.’ Tum ille eodem dictu orandi reliqua contexuit. P3 ‘Anni certus modus apud solos Aegyptios semper fuit. Dispari numero, pari errore notabat: et hinc contentus sim referendo paucarum de more regionum. Arcades annum suum tribus mensibus explicabant.

Incipit 〈Dispvtatio Chori et Praetextati〉 1. ‘Anni ordo apud Aegyptios primus inuentus, ut refert Macrobius Theodosius. Arcades annum suum tribus mensibus explicabant, Car­ nenses sex, Graeci reliqui trecentis quinquaginta quattuor diebus an1–20 haec solus P, nimirum ex X 1 quinquies (quincics P, correxi) consulis] V.C. [= uiri clarissimi] codd. Macrob. 5 per … occupatos] septem occupat dies, quos Macr. 8 mensum] mensium Macr. 9 Caesare] C. Caesare Macr. (sed codices stirpis β Caesare tantum exhibent) degestam] digestam Macr. 10 hic Epitacus] hic Macr. : cf. § 47 Epicadus refert, sc. a Praetextato citatus loquendi finem] finem loquendi Macr. 12 reddissertare] edissertare Macr. 14 certioris] certioribus Macr. 14–15 ipse uidearis] ad quod discendum ipse mihi uideris Macr. 15 audiendum] audientum Macr. 16 dictu] ductu Macr. 17 Aegyptios semper] semper Aegyptios Macr. 18 dispari] aliarum gentium dispari Macr. 18 notabat] nutabat Macr. hinc scripsi : huic P : ut Macr. 19 de more] morem Macr. 21 Incipit—23 Theodosius pro titulo σ tC (usque ad 24 v [sic] G) : om. δ : Incipit anni ordo om. P 21 Disputatio—Praetextati add. Ó Cróinín ex Beda 22 anni om. G inuentus] inunguent G : inunguentus T Magrouius C 23 Theodosius C : Thedosius P : Theothisius T : Thtothisius G : Teothisius S Archades G, Ddt tribus δcP, Cm cap. xii : ·iii· BS : tres Γ explicabat S : explicabunt R : conputabant Drc 23–4 Carnenses δΠ (Carnensis C) : Karnenses fere Ddt : Acarnanes Macr. 24 sex C : ·vi· σtB : v G : et P tricentis [sic]—quattuor P : ·cccliiii· ΔΣ diebus s.l. supra ccc(liiii) B



P1–1 (1–24))

Here begins the book of Saturnalia by Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, five times consul and distinguished man, to his son Eustathius P1 Then he continued: ‘That is why the celebration of such exchanges begun on the Saturnalia [17 December] takes up seven days [17–23 December] but makes them only days of relaxation, not all holy days, since I have established that the middle day—that is, the thirteenth before the Kalends [20 December]—is a day of legal business, and this has been established in other statements by those who have described in more detail the system of the year, months, and days and the regulation of the calendar arranged by Caesar.’ P2 And as Epitacus wished to stop speaking at this point, Aurelius Symmachus interposed: ‘Won’t you go on, Praetextatus, with such charming eloquence to discuss the year too, before you are subjected to the nuisance of a questioner, in case someone present does not know either how the year was disposed amongst the ancients or how it was subsequently reformed on more reliable principles? You yourself seem to me to have whetted your listeners’ appetite to learn about this by speaking of the days added to the month.’ Then the other resumed the flow of his remarks and wove the remaining topics together: P3 ‘The Egyptians alone have always had a fixed length of year; [it] marked with different number and equal error, so let me be content to cite the customs of a few regions. The Arcadians used to spread out their year in three months.

Here begins 〈the Dialogue of Chorus and Praetextatus〉 1 ‘The ordering of the year was first discovered amongst the Egyptians, as Macrobius Theodosius relates. The Arcadians used to spread out their year in three months, the Acarnanians in six; the rest of the Greeks

23 Arcades—27 .cccciiii. multis inculcatis Ddt 23–5 Arcades annum suum tribus mensibus conputabant Drc cap. xxviii (137. 17 Ó Cróinín) 23 Arcades—explicabant Cm cap. xii, qui alia quoque e Disputatione sumpta exhibet, ita tamen corrupit ut perraro respiciendus sit



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

25

30

35

40

num proprium conputabant. Romani auctore Romulo decem habuisse mensibus ordinatum, qui annus incipiebat a Martio et conficiebatur diebus .ccciiii., ut sex quidem menses, id est Aprilis Iunius Sextilis September Nouember December, trigenorum essent dierum, quattuor uero, Martius Maius Quintilis October, trigenis et singulis expedirentur; qui hodie septimanas habent Nonas, ceteri quintanas. Septimanas autem habentibus ab Idibus reuertebantur Kalendae ad diem septimum decimum, uerum habentibus quintanas ad octauum decimum remeabat initium Kalendarum. 2. ‘Haec fuit Romuli ordinatio, qui primum anni mensem genitori suo Marti dicauit: quem mensem anni primum fuisse uel ex hoc maxime probatur, quod ex ipso Quintilis quintus est. Huius etiam prima die ignem nouum Vestae aris accendebant, ut incipiente anno cura denouo seruandi nouati ignis inciperet: ac eodem ingrediente mense tam regia curis atque flaminum laureis mutabantur: eodemque mense et publice et priuatim ad annum et per annum sacrificatum itur, ut annare per25 Romam G : Romani Drc, Gb ii. 78 (350 c), Ddt Romula T decem P : ·x· G (qui ita hic periit ut Romulo ·x· habuisse tantum cepisse uideatur), δcBS, DdtRossSG : decim T, Drc, DdtC : om. DdtU 25–6 habuisse mensibus ordinatum Δ (ordinatus C) : habuisse ordinatum mensibus Σ : habuisset ordinatum mensibus P : mensibus habuisse annum Drc : habuisse mensibus annum comprobantur Ddt : mensium habuisse annum comprobantur Gb 26 qui] quia B annus] annos Γ : anni C : annus Ddt, Gb : om. B marcio C : Martio δb : Martio Ddt, Gb 27 ·ccciii· Cac B sex RP : ·vi· σΘ quidem om. C id est om. R apr̄ ΣB : apl C : aprelis RP sestilis C 28 septēƀ nouēƀ decēƀ P : septem̄ nouem̄ decem̄ G : septiṁ nouem̄ decem̄ T : septemus (septimus pc) nouēƀ decēƀ S : sepƀ nouēƀ decēƀ C : septƀr nouƀr decƀr B ; Septimber Nouimber Decimber R trigenorum C : trigenarum ΣR : trienarum P : xxͣ x B : tricenum Macr. quattuor] IIII B 29 uero Π (post quod G) martius R : mar̄ ΓP : marcius CS : mr̄ B octoƀ S : octimƀ P : octim̄ T : octim̄ con G : octuƀ C : Octƀr B : december R trigenis et singulis] xxͣ xi B trienis P : trigenīs& (insequente &) T ante 29–30 expedirent P : expederentur C 30 qui] quia TB expedirentur add. Bpc, post Π hodie] eo die G : hodieque Macr. habent septimas ceteri quintanas nonas R septimanas1] septimas ΣR habant C ceteri] alii B septimanas2 Δ (sed Cpc), Beda : septimas Π: septinas Cac 31 a idib. T : ai· diebus C reuer tuntur [sic] C ad] a C 31–2 ·xviimum· P : xvii B : septimum decimum R 32 uerum PTpc RS : uero ΘGTac quitanas S ac : v B octauum decimum σg : viii x mum P : viii uadecimum T : xviii B : octauam decimam C remeabant C : remiabat R : reuertebatur B 33 inicium C : intium G 34 romoli P annum C genitore C 35 dicauit Macr., Θ, Beda (etiam De tempore cap. vi, 297. 3) : dedicauit ΠR, fere Ddt quem—45 exsoluerent om. Θ primum R, Beda : principium Π uel P 35–6 maxime probatur Macr. : probatur maxime R : maxime conprobatur Π (]ur G) 36 quod ex ipso om. Γ quod R, Beda : quia PS ex etiam Beda : ab Macr. ipso—45 exsoluerent om. Beda, aliis suppositis est R : est Macr. 37 igne T accendebant R : accendunt Π curia T 38 seruanti ΓR inciperit R ac (hac P) eodem] eodem quoque Macr. 38–9 tam . . . mense om. R 39 fluminum S lauris P eodemque] eodem quoque Macr. mutabantur ΓS pc : motabantur PS ac puplice R 40 puatim P ad annum et per annum om. Σ : adannauum perannauum R itur] igitur ΓR



1–2 (25–40)

reckoned their year as 354 days. The Romans, following Romulus, [are said] to have had it arranged in ten months; that year began with March and was concluded in 304 days, in such a way that six months—April, June, Sextilis, September, November, December—had thirty days each, four—March, May, Quintilis, October—were dispatched in thirty-one: these latter today have their Nones on the seventh, the rest on the fifth. In those with the Nones on the seventh, after the Ides the Kalends returned on the seventeenth day, while for those with the Nones on the fifth, the beginning of the Kalends came back on the eighteenth day. 2 ‘This was the arrangement of Romulus, who dedicated the first month of the year to his father Mars. That it was the first month of the year is proved above all even by the fact that Quintilis is the fifth [quintus] month after it. On its first day, moreover, they lit new fire on Vesta’s altars, so that the task of guarding the renewed fire should begin again at the beginning of the year; and at the entry of the same month both … were changed by/for the laurels of the flamines. And in the same month of the year and throughout the year both public and personal sacrifice is offered, so that we may pass the current year [annare] and all years [per-

25 Romani—27 .ccciiii. Drc 137. 19–20, item Gb 350 c tamquam initium ope­ ris 30 septimanas—33 Kalendarum Beda (207. 41–3) 34–142 soluerentur saltuatim et multis inmutatis descripsit Beda (206. 10–207. 58) 34 Haec—35 dicauit Ddt 34 qui—36 quintus est cf. DdtHeru. i. 127. 7–13 (PL 90. 660 c)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

45

50

55

60

annareque commode liceat. Hoc mense mercedes exsoluebant magistris quas conpletus annus deberi fecit, cum ita auspicabantur, uectigalia locabant, et seruis cenas matronae apponebant, ut domini Saturnalibus: illae, ut principio anni ad promptum obsequium honore seruos inuita­ rent, hi quod gratiam perfecti operis exsoluerent. 3. ‘Secundum mensem nominauit Aprilem, ut quidam putant cum aspiratione quasi Aphrilem, a spuma quam Graeci aphron uocant, unde orta Venus creditur. Et hanc Romuli asserunt fuisse rationem, ut primum quidem mensem a patre suo Marte, secundum ab Aeneae matre Venere nominaret, et hi potissimum anni principium seruarent, a quibus Romani nominis origo, cum hodie in sacris Martem patrem, Venerem genetricem uocemus. 4. ‘Sed alii dicunt Aprilem mensem antiquos a Venere dixisse, cum nullus dies festus nullum sacrificium insigne Veneri per hunc mensem a maioribus institutum sit, et Varro consentit adfirmans sed ne in carminibus quidem Salioob hanc causam rum Veneris ulla iam ceterorum caelestium laus ­celebraretur. ­Cinnio etiam Varro consentit ­adfirmans no­ men Veneris ne sub regibus quidem apud Romanos uel Latinum uel Graecum fuisse, et ideo 41 licet [sic] commode R mense om. R 42 conpletus] com- G : cō- PS cum ita] comitia Macr. auspicabantur Macr. : auspicabuntur R : auspiciebantur σ : aspiciebantur P 42–3 locabunt R : collocabant DdtHeru. 43 caenas Γ adponebant matronae Macr. matrone T aponebant Γ dominis R 44 illae om. G anni] omnia T per principia RP promptum S pc : proruptum R : prumptum Π 45 hii R : hoc Π quod] quia codd. Macrob., quasi Salmasius (1629), i. 18aa gratia G perfectio S ac exsoluerant P 46 nouit Rac aprilem CS : aprelem R : aprƚem B : ap̄lē P : aprɫ T : apr̄ G : aperilem DrcBrux. 5413–22 47 adspiratione R : adspiracione TC : aspiratione σgB : aspirationem P Aphrilem Macr., DrcReg. lat. 1260 (Aphrilis Ce 94): aphrelem δb : aprilem CS : ap̄lē P : apr̄ Γ : Affrelem Cm cap. xvi a] cum B spumma Γ afron C : affron R, Cm uocunt Tuv 48 orta Venus Macr., Δ (uennos C) : Venus orta Π, Ce, Cc cap. xvi. DdtHeru. credit P Romuli adserunt fuisse rationem Macr. : fuisse racionem romuli adserunt R : romuli fuisse asserunt rationem B : romoli racione Cac : romoli fuisent racione Cpcmg : romuli asserunt fuisse ordinationem P : romuli ordinationem fuisse adserunt Σ (asserunt S) 49 suo om. B marthe G : marti C æneae P : eneę B : enneae C : enece Σ (eneoe T) : enę R 50 nominarit C et δb : ut Π : om. C Hii C potentissimum T principia Macr. nois P annum C 50–1 quibus Macr. 51 origo ΘT : origo GRPS odie C : hodieque Macr. marte C patrem] et matrem C 52 genitricem BS uocamus R Sat. 1. 12. 9–11 omittuntur 53 aprilem (apͥlē S) σt : apr̄ ƚ C : aprelem GR : ap̄lē P : aprƚem B antiquos a uenere dixisse Θ : antiquos dixisse a uenere R : a uenere antiquos non dixisse Π festus dies R 54 insignem ueri G uenire C mensem P 55 maioris C institutus C : institum P 56–62 sinis­ trorsum ΔΣ, dextrorsum P edidi 56 uerro Γ consensit Σ afirmans Γ 57 iam P : ut Macr. 58 celebratur Pac Cinnio P : Cingio Macr. 59 etiam Macr. : et in (et ī) P



2–4 (41–62)

annare] at ease. It was in this month that they used to pay schoolmasters their fees, which fell due at the end of the year, when thus they took the auspices, they farmed out taxes, and matrons served dinner to their slaves, like masters on the Saturnalia, the former so that, by honouring them at the beginning of the year, they might encourage the slaves to ready obedience, the latter as giving thanks for work completed. 3 ‘The second month he named April, as some think with aspiration as if it were “Aphril”, from the foam, which the Greeks call aphros, from which Venus is thought to have arisen. And they maintain that Romulus’ design was to name the first month after his father Mars, the second after Aeneas’ mother Venus, and these gods above all should protect the beginning of the year from whom the Roman race springs—for today in sacrifices we call Mars “father” and Venus “mother”. 4 ‘But others say that the ancients named April after Venus, although no holy day, no important sacrifice to Venus was instituted by our ances­ tors during this month, and Varro agrees, asserting that but not even in the hymns of the Salii for this reason was there any praise of Venus now [as there was] of the other gods. With Cinnius Varro too agrees, asserting that even under the kings Venus had no name among the Romans, whether Greek or Latin, and therefore

42–3 uectigalia collocabant [sic] DdtHeru. i. 127. 14 (660 d) 46 Secundum—48 creditur Drc cap. xxix (141. 12–14) 46 Aprilem—114 appellaretur multis omissis uel inmutatis habet Ce 94 46 ut—69 Aperilem] perpauca eaque alio ordine seruat Beda 47 a spuma—48 creditur cf. DdtHeru. i. 127. 27–8 (660 d)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

65

70

75

non potuisse mensem a Venere nominari. Sed cum fere ante a­ equinoctium uernum triste sit caelum et nubibus obductum, sed et mare nauigantibus clausum, terrae etiam ipsae aut aqua aut pruina aut niuibus contegantur, eaque omnia uerno, id est hoc mense aperiantur, arbores quoque nec minus cetera quae continet terra aperire se in germen incipiant: ab his omnibus mensem Aprilem dici merito credendum est quasi Aperilem, sicut apud Athenienses Ἀνθεστηριών idem mensis uocatur ab eo quod hoc tempore cuncta florescant. Non tamen negat Verrius Flaccus hoc die postea constitutum ut matronae Veneris sacrum facerent: cuius rei causam, quia huic loco non conuenit, praetereundum est. 5. ‘Maium tertium Romulus posuit, quia Fuluius Nobilior in fastis dicit Romulum, postquam populum in maiores iunioresque diuisit, ut altera pars consilio, altera armis rem publicam tueretur, in honorem utriusque partis hunc Maium, sequentem Iunium mensem uocasse. Aliter,

63 mensem non potuisse Π a uenere om. Σ : ad uenere P nominare C cum fere ΘP : cum ferre RS : conferre G : confere T 63–4 ęquinoctio C 64 tristę S sed om. P et2] a G : ad T 65 clausum] hinc incipit V : cursum C terra G ipsi C aut1] aud B aquam C aut2] am C : uel B pruna aut P : proma aut C : pruinalibus B niuibus B : nubibus ΠVδc contegantur B : conteguntur VP : contexuntur Σ : congregantur C : tegant R : teguntur DdtHeru. 66  eaque R omē P hoc] ut C aperiant B arboris C quoque ΔP, Beda : enim Σ 67  cetera Π : ceteri C : alia B quae] que C : quaeque R contenit C terra om. R se om. P in in S ac germine B : gramen R 67 incipiant B, Beda : insipiant C : incipiunt VRP : accipiunt Σ (in supra ac scripto S) 68 mense C dici ante mensem V aprilem VTB : apriɫ C : ap̄lē P : aprelem RS : apræelem (ex aprirelem male lecto?) G dici . . . quasi aperilem in ordine omissa contra addit S decemerito credendus C est om. B aperilem] apperelem V : aperirem G 69 aput R athenienses BPS pc : athenen­ ses ΓS ac : adtenensis C : athinenses omnes VR ανεοετηριοων P : ανεοστηριων id flores V : ανεστε ρυαν S : ανεστfιατ T : anecfiat G : ανε εσυντρισαν C : λυσεεστηριον B : antisterion R idem̄sis G uocatur] dicitur B 70 hoc1 s.l. S cuncta] omnia B florescant C, Macr. : florescunt δbΠV, DdtHeru. tantum C : tunc P negat] noncupati C Varrius Cpc P : Varius Cac : ferrius id cogno(men) V flacus P 70–1 hoc die δBV : hocdie P : hodie C : huic deae Σ 71 postea om. Pac constitutus C : constitum P ueneri B faciant C 71 cuius] huius Γ 72 causa GB quia] qui R : quo T loca Γ conuenerat R praetereundum est ΣVR : pręter eundem esse C : pretereundam esse censeo P : praetereunda est B 73 aium R post spatium Romulus tertium Macr. tercium C : iii m B quia—in om. P quia] quem R : de cuius nomine inter aucrores lata dissensio est nam Macr. fuluius V : fluuius ΣB : fluuio C : uluius R infantis dicit Γ : infar tis dum C : dicit in factis B fastis Macr. 74 post quod P in] ad C iuniores Macr., nec aliter legisse uidentur Ce iunioribus, Beda 206. 20 iuniorum (uide Commentarium) : minores ΔπV, Drc : minores DdtHeru. i. 128. 3, iuniores i. 128. 7, 27 que] quae T : deest G diuidit C 75 altera armis altera consilio (om. pars) R rempuplicam intueretur R tueren[tur V, in quo fines uersuum usque ad 86 su[b, inde usque ad 101 uocaretur initia perierunt 75–6  (s.l.) utriusque V 76 sequentemque B : sequentem uero Drc aliter—77 uocatur] sunt qui hunc mensem ad nostros fastos a Tusculanis transisse commemorent, apud quod nunc quoque uocatur deus Maius Macr. aliter B : alii V : ali G : iunius C



4–5 (63–76)

the month could not have been named after Venus. But since before the vernal equinox the sky is usually overcast and covered in clouds, the sea closed to shipping, and even the very land is overlaid with water or frost or snow, and all these are opened up in spring—that is to say, this month—and trees too and all the other things the earth contains start to release themselves into bud: for all these reasons it is to be believed that the month deserves to be called “April” as if “Aperil”, just as the Athenians call the same month Anthesterion, because at this time all things are in bloom. However, Verrius Flaccus does not deny that it was later established that matrons should offer sacrifice to Venus on this day; since the reason is not appropriate to this discussion, it shall be passed over. 5 ‘May Romulus placed third, because Fulvius Nobilior says in his calendar that after dividing the people into “elders” [maiores] and “juniors” [iuniores], so that one section should protect the state with counsel, the other with arms, Romulus in honour of each section named this month May, the next month June. Another view is that there is among

64 triste—69 Aperilem cf. DdtHeru i. 127. 32–41 (661 d) 70 Hoc enim mense cuncta florescunt [sic] DdtHeru. i. 127. 41 (661 a) 73 Romulus—76 uocasse nonnulla seruat Beda 74 Romulum—76 uocasse] Romulus postquam (B)/posteaquam (V) . . . uocauit Drc 141. 16–18, DdtHeru. i. 128. 3–10 (661 b–c)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

80

85

90

apud Tusculanos deus Maius uocatur, qui est Iuppiter, a magnitudine scilicet ac maiestate dictus. Cingius mensem nominatum putat a Maia, quam Vulcani dicit uxorem, argumentoque utitur quod flamen Vulca­ na­le Kalendis Maiis huic deae rem diuinam facit: sed Piso uxorem Vulcani Maiestam, non Maiam, dicit uocari. Contendunt alii Maiam Mercurii matrem Maio nomen dedisse, hinc maxime probantes, quod hoc mense mercatores omnes Maiae pariter Mercurioque sacrificabant. Alii adfirmant, quibus Cornelius Labeo consentit, terram esse hanc Maiam deam a magnitudine dictam. Auctor est Cornelius Labeo huic Maiae, id est terrae, eandem Kalendis Maiis dicatam sub nomine Bonae Deae. 6. ‘Iunius Maium sequitur, aut ex parte populi ut supra diximus nominatus, aut ut Cingius arbitratur quod Iunonius apud Latinos antea uocatus diuque Arcinos Praenestinosque hac appellatione in fastos relatus sit, adeo ut, sicut Nisus in Commentariis fastorum dicit, et haec appellatio mensis apud maiores diu permansit, sed post detritis

77 tusculanus C ]ius est uocatur G : uocatur Maius T uocatur] dicitur B iuppiter CS : iupiter Γδb : ioppiter P : iopiter V a B : in R : om. rell. 78 scilicet] etiam B hac PG : et V magestate C : magnitudine B dictum B mensem R nominatum putat] nominatur tumputat C putat a] putata B a Maia om. C mai V : mala Bac 79 qua R uulcani BS pc : u[ V : ulcani rell. dicit TδbP : dicitur GC : dicunt S : deest V argumento B : augmentoque T quia VΘ 79–80 uulcanale B : ulcanale Σ : ulcanare P: ulcạ[ V : utcanale C : (flammae) ulculane Cm cap. xvii : Vulcanalis Macr. 80 maiis S : maī T : mais VRP : mai B : (kalendis) maias G, (kl) C rem diuinam huic deae Σ (daeę Gac) deae rem] derem C piso C : pisso 81 maiestam P : phiso ΣR : ipse B : deest V uxore R 80–1 uulcani BS pc : ulcani rell. B : maistam C (ulcanima istam), RPS, Cm : m[ V : anagistam T : deest G dicit BPS pc : dicit[ V : dictam S ac : dicitur ΓC contendunt alii] alii contendunt B 81–2 maiam mercurii (merco- R) δb, Macr. : maiam mercurium C : mercorii maiam Π (mercurii S) : ṃ[ | maiam V 82 malo Bac : maio C : mensi Macr. nomen] non T putantes C quod] quia VΘ, Beda : qui R 83 omnes T Mercurioque pariter B Mercurioque etiam Beda : mercorioque δc : mercurio σ sacrificant Mac. 84 adfirmant] affirmant B : putabant C cornelibus Gac : cornilius RP : ]nilius V labio ΣB (libio S pc) terram—85 dictam] plura Macr. esse om. P hanc—85 Labeo om. B maia T : m[ G 85 dictam om. Vδc cornilius VRP labio Σ (libio S pc) 85–6 huic maiae id est terrae V (h[uic maiae]), C (uhic), R (terre) : hanc maiam id est terram BΠ 86 eandem δcP : eande[ V : om. ΣB : aedem Macr. maiis S : mais VP : mais̄ T : maī C : maias δb : deest G dicatam ΣB (dicatum S ac) : dedicatam R : dictam V : tam P bonae] magne R post Deae permulta omittuntur 87 maius G : maīs C : maī P sequitur] st̄ qt̄ P aut ex] lex B supra diximus] sua perdụximus B 88 nominatus om. B aut ut] velud B : aut P cingias R : cignius P arbritatur P : ]tur V : 89 uocatus Π, nam in G lacuna est arbitratus C quia C iu nonius P : iunoneus C capere uidetur : in V non capere manifestum est : uocitatus Macr. 90–2 haec solus P praebet 90 arcinos X : apud Aricinos Macr. 93 apellatio S : appellacio C mensi ΓV : mense C maioris δc : deest V post detritis] postritis B ditritis P : decretis C



5–6 (77–93)

the people of Tusculum a god called Maius, who is Jupiter, so named of course from “magnitude” and “majesty”. Cingius thinks the month was named after Maia, whom he calls the wife of Vulcan, and uses as proof the fact that on the Kalends of May the flamen of Vulcan sacrifices to this goddess; but Piso says that Vulcan’s wife is called Maiesta, not Maia. Others contend it was Maia, Mercury’s mother, who gave her name to May, their chief argument being that in this month all merchants sacrifice to Maia and to Mercury alike. Some assert—Cornelius Labeo agrees with them—that this goddess Maia is the earth, so called from her magnitude. Cornelius Labeo is authority for the statement that on the Kalends of May [the same] was dedicated to this Maia, that is the earth, under the name of Bona Dea (‘the Good Goddess’). 6 ‘June follows May, named either from a section of the people, as I said above, or, as Cingius judges, because it was previously called Junonius amongst the Latins and for a long time bore that name in the calendar amongst the people of Arcia and Praeneste, so that, as Nisus says in his commentary on the calendar, and this name for the month persisted a long time amongst our ancestors, but afterwards, some letters having been worn away, it was called

77 Apud Tusculanos—83 sacrificabant DdtHeru. i. 127. 51–9 (661 b) 81 Conten­ dunt—83 sacrificabant seruat Beda 87–95 dedicata est] pleraque seruat Beda 87 Iunius—88 nominatus cf. DdtHeru. i. 128. 29–30 (661 d) 88 Iunonius—96 factus est cf. DdtHeru. i. 128. 20–6 (661 c)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

95

100

105

quibusdam litteris ex Iunonio Iunius dictus sit. Nam et aedes Iunoni Monetae Kalendis Iuniis dedicata est. Nonnulli putauerunt Iunium mensem a Iunio Bruto qui primus Romae consul factus est nominatum, quod hoc mense, id est Kalendis Iuniis, pulso Tarquinio sacrum deae Carnae in Caelio monte uoti reus fecerit. Kalendae Iuniae a uulgo Fabiae uocantur, quia hoc mense adultae fabae diuinis rebus adhibentur. 7. ‘Sequitur Iulius, qui, cum secundum Romuli ordinationem Martio anni tenente principium Quintilis a numero uocaretur, nihilominus tamen etiam post praepositos a Numa Ianuarium ac Februarium retinuit nomen, cum non uideretur iam quintus esse sed septimus: sed postea in honorem Iulii Caesaris dictatoris legem ferente Marco Antonio Marci filio consule Iulius appellatus est, quod hoc mense ad quartum Idus Quintilis Iulius procreatus sit. 8. ‘Augustus deinde est, qui Sextilis antea uocabatur, donec honori Augusti daretur ex senatus consulto, cuius uerba subieciam: “Cum Imperator Caesar Augustus mense Sextili et primum consulatum inierit et

94 iunoneo C : iunonia Γ (]nia G) sit Macr., Δ : est Π, Beda : deest V aedis V iunone C 95 monita P : moti C : monstę B : ]ẹ V iunis VR : iun̄ BC dedicata est C : dedicatae sunt δb : de[ V 96 a etiam Macr. : ab Π qui] quam B primo C est om. Θ nomi natur C 97 quia Θ hoc] eo R id est VB : id R : primis est C : om. Π iunis R : iun̄ C pulsu C tarcinio P : ter quinio C sacrificium C deae] de P : deest V 98 carne C: ]ṛnae V : carneac potius quam carneae R : carneę ΠB (-neae Γ) cæli R uoti reus ΠB (uotu reus G) : ]uụs V : fotireus reus R : uolareeos C post fecerit plura Macr. Kalendae P (X) : Macr. iun̄i C a uulgo] uulgo Macr. 98–9 fabie σt : subiae G : fauie P : fabeae V : fabe Δ : fabariae Macr. 99 quod Σ adultae fabae] fabae adultae B fabie Π diuinis] diu in his P adhiben[ V : adhibebantur Σ 100 sequitur Iulius] Iulius sequitur iunium R Iulius] diuinis rebus G cum om. C secundum G, 101 annum C S romoli C ordinacionem C : om. P 100–1 romalrtio Gac : marcio C principium] ini­tium B uocentur C : ]ụr V nihilominus δbV : nihilhominus Π (nichil- S) : nihil homi­num C 102 tunc P p̄positus ΓC Numa BPS pc : numma ΓVδcS ac ianuarium C febro arium C : febrarium VR : feƀr B 102–3 retinuit B : retenuit rell. 103 nomen] Nō G : N̄ T uidetur C : uide R quintilis R : quinque C vii B : septimo C sed 2 om. B post|ea V 104 honore CG, Ce, Cm cap. xviiii cessaris R : Caesaris om. P ferente] ferentem B : referentis Π marco ΠV, item Ce, Cm sed alia constructione maro Bacuv antonio V : antoniu C : antonino RP, Ce 94 105 c̄sulę B Iulius om. B appellatus] dictus B quod] quia B : etiamque C mense] maxime R ad] sic fere codd. passim pro a.d., sed a hic G : iđ P uutū B (nempe iiiitum in exemplari fuit) : quartas P : quarto Γ 107 Agustus Vδc deinde] dictus B qui] quia C : quam B sextiles C ante R 107–8 honori (honore C) Augusti (ag- δc) daretur Δ, Beda : augusti daretur honori ΠV : augusto daretur honor Ce 108 senatu VB : senacio C consulto C : consultu δbΠ, Beda, Ce, Macrobii codd. β1 (sed recte Vatican. Reg. lat. 1650, s. IX2/2), Beda : consul tuum V cui P uerba] umbra T subieciam Γδc : subietiam V : subieceam P : subiciam B : subitiam S : subieci Macr. 108–9 imperatur G 109 agustus VC, agustus cessar hoc ordine R mensis T consulatu C : consulatum S



68 (94–109)

June instead of Junonius. For in addition a temple was dedicated to Juno Moneta on the Kalends of June. A number of people have thought that the month of June was named after Junius Brutus, who was the first man made consul at Rome, because it was in this month, that is on the Kalends of June, when Tarquin had been expelled, under obligation of his vow he sacrificed to the goddess Carna on the Caelian hill. The Kalends of June are called Bean Kalends by the masses, because in this month ripe beans are employed for sacrifices. 7 ‘Then follows July, which, having in Romulus’ system, in which March began the year, been called Quintilis from its numerical place, nevertheless still kept that name even after Numa had put January and February in front, though it no longer seemed to be fifth but seventh; but subsequently, under a law brought in by the consul Marcus Antonius son of Marcus, it was named July in honour of Julius Caesar because Julius was born on the fourth day before the Ides of Quintilis [12 July]. 8 ‘Next comes August, which was previously called Sextilis until it was granted to Augustus’ honour by a decree of the senate whose terms I shall append: “[Resolved that:] whereas in the month of Sextilis Imperator Caesar Augustus both entered on his first consulate and brought

100–8 consultu [sic] pleraque seruat Beda 100–1 martio—principium Ddt 107 Augustus—108 honori Augusti cf. DdtHeru. i. 129. 1–2 (662 a) 109 mense—110 intulerit cf. DdtHeru. i. 128. 55–6 (662 a)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

110

115

120

125

triumphos tres in Vrbem intulerit et ex Ianiculo legiones deductae secutaeque sint eius auspicia ac fidem, sed et Aegyptus hoc mense in potestatem populi Romani redacta sit, finisque hoc mense bellis ciuilibus inpositus sit, atque ob has causas hic mensis huic imperio felicissimus sit ac fuerit: placere senatui ut hic mensis Augustus appellaretur.” Item plebi scitum factum ob eandem rem Sexto Pacubio tribuno plebem rogante. 9. ‘Mensis September principalem sui retinet appellationem, quem Germanici appellatione, Octobrem uero suo nomine Domitianus in­ uaserat. Sed ubi infaustum uocabulum ex omni aere uel saxo placuit eradi, menses quoque usurpatione tyrannicae appellationis exuti sunt: cautio postea principum ceterorum diri hominis infausta uitantium mensibus a Septembri usque ad Decembrem prisca nomina reseruauit. 10. ‘Haec fuit a Romulo annua ordinata dimensio, qui, sicut supra iam diximus, annum decem mensium, dierum uero quattuor et .ccc. habendum esse constituit, mensesque ita disposuit ut quattuor ex his trigenos singulos, sex uero trigenos haberent dies. Sed cum is numerus 110 tres triumphos Vrbi Ce, Cm cap. xx, DdtHeru. triumphus Γ : triunfus C iii B intulerit VB : intullerit C : intulit DdtHeru. : obtulerit R : : contulerit Π ; contulit Ce, Cm et R caniculo G legionis C ducte C 110–11 secutaeque] secutique C : sicut ęquæ S : seductęque B 111 sunt VCT : om. Ce (inposuit Cm) eiusdem B aspicia VCP aegiptus V : egyptus G 111–12 in potestatem— hoc mense om. P 112 reductę B sit] est Σ ciuilibus] q(ui)lib; P 112–13 impossitus R : inter positus C 113 atque] Adque C : et B ob] ab T has] as C post causas intercapedinem patitur V ac] has P : et B 114 placere] placuit Π, Ce agustus P (hic tantum), δc apellaretur P, (sic deinceps passim) S Iter C 115 scitum RS (114–15 plebis citum B) : situm P : sictum Γ : sinatum C pacubio BS : pacobio C : paucobio P : petubio R : locubio T : deest G : Pacuuio Macr. rogantem C : regente Σ 116–21 September mensis, October, Nouember, December principalem sui retinent appellationem Beda 116 septƀr B : septimber RP suum C retenet P: re tenit 117 germanicum σ C apellacionem C 116–7 quem—appellatione om. B quæm δc apellacione C : appellatione (apel- S, -nem G) Π : R Octobrem S : Octƀr B : Octubrem C : Octimbrem P : Hoctimbrem Γ : Octimber R Domitianus suo nomine R su Nō G : su n̄ T domicianus S : dimitianus G : domiciano C 117–18 inua­ serat] in[ G : inuasserat R : aduaserit C 118 ubi] cum R infaustum] ]m G uocabulum] nomen B omne C hęre P 119 menses quoque] mensesque B usurpacione tirannici apellacionis C 120 cauitio Π : caucioneque C principum S pcT : principium ΔPS ac cete­ rorum] aliorum B hominis δbπg (homi[ G), item codd. Macrob. plerique : nominis C : om. T : ominis Macr. uitancium C 121 septemƀ C : septƀr B : septembrio ΣR (septimbrio G) : septimbro P ad] a P : om. B decembrem σt : decimbrem GRP : december C : decƀr B nomina om. R reseruauimus C : reserauit B 122 a Romulo] romulo P : romuli R an[ ]ua R dimensio Δ (dimensium C), S, Beda : demensio ΓP 122–3 iam supra ΠR : iam om. B annum] annuum C decem CS : x δb (ante 95 annum B): decim G : decimum TP uiro C quatuor et ccc T : iiii et ccc PS : quattuor tricentorum C : ] & ccc G : ccc et iiii δb 124 abendum G : habenda C constitui P Mensisque C : menses R disposuit ita B ex] et P his] ipsis σ quattuor] iiii B 125 xxxi B sex] vi GB : ·iii· S xxx B haberint C post dies add. Beda ex 30 qui hodie quintanas habent nonas, ceteri septimanas, tum nihil inmutato 30 septimanas—33 Kalendarum is RS : his ΓΘP : hic Beda numerus] numeros C : ccc·iiii· numerus P



8–10 (110–25)

three triumphs into the city and legions led down from the Janiculum followed his auspices and protection, but also in this month Egypt was brought under the power of the Roman people, and in this month the civil wars were ended, and for these reasons this month is and has been the most fortunate for this realm, it is the senate’s pleasure that this month be called August.” In addition, a resolution of the plebs to this effect was passed on the motion of the tribune Sextus Pacubius. 9 ‘The month of September still keeps its original designation, though Domitian beset it with that of Germanicus, and October with his own name. But when it was decided that the ill-fortuned word should be erased from every monument in bronze and stone, the months too were delivered from occupation by the tyrant’s name: the caution of all subsequent emperors, who avoided the foul man’s ill-fortune, has preserved the original names for the months from September to December. 10 ‘This was the measure of the year ordained by Romulus, who, as I have already said above, laid down that a year of ten months or 304 days should be observed, and so arranged the months that four of them had thirty-one days, and six had thirty. But since that number fitted

122 Haec—142 soluerentur nonnullis omissis uel inmutatis DdtHeru. i. 130. 34–58 (663 b—c) 125 Sed cum—142 soluerentur] pleraque seruat Beda



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

130

135

140

neque solis cursui neque lunae rationibus conueniret, nonnumquam usu ueniebat ut frigus anni aestiuis mensibus et contra calor hiemalibus proueniret: quod ubi contigisset, tantum dierum sine ullo mensis nomine patiebantur absumi quantum ad id anni tempus adduceret quo caeli habitus instanti mensi aptus inueniretur. 11. ‘Sed secutus Numa, quantum sub caelo rudi et saeculo adhuc inpolito solo ingenio magistro conprehendere potuit, uel quia Graecorum obseruatione forsan instructus est, .l. dies addidit, ut in .cccl. et .iiii. dies, quibus duodecim lunae cursus confici credidit, annus exten­ deretur; atque his .l. diebus a se additis adiecit alios sex retractos illis sex mensibus qui .xxx. habebant dies, id est de singulis singulos, factosque .l. et .vi. dies in duos nouos menses pari ratione diuisit. Ac de duobus priorem Ianuarium nuncupauit primumque anni esse uoluit, tamquam bicipitis dei mensem respicientem ac prospicientem transacti anni finem futurique principia; secundum dicauit Februo deo, qui lustrationum potens creditur, lustrari autem eo mense ciuitatem necesse erat, quo statuit ut iusta diis Manibus soluerentur. Numae ordinationem finitimi mox secuti totidem diebus totidemque mensibus ut Pampilio placuit annum

126 cursuum C rationibus lunae R, Beda racionis C : nationibus σ (]ationib: G) conueniret hucusque G : conuenirit C : conuenire B non- om. T ussu R 127 ueniebat δc, Beda : eueniebat π : čeniebat (= cueniebat) B annum C : animi B ęstibus B mensibus om. σ contra] eiusdem B 127–8 hiemmalibus Ppc : giemmalibus Pac : gemalibus C 128 perueniret TC contegisset S ac tantum dierum] tunc dierum C : tamdiu R : tantum dierum numerus P 129 paciebatur C absumi Macr. : absummi CP : adsumi R : assumi BS : adsummi T anni om. B adduxerit quod C 130 instante mensus C abtus T : aptos 131 Sed C numa CS : numma TBP : numma Cac inueneretur T : inuenietur C R quantum—133 est om. Beda caelo] calore R adhuc] ad C 132 inperium C magistro ingenio B compręhendere C quia] quod R : que C 132–3 grecorum π : gregorum C 133 obseruacione C : obsequutione R forsan B : fons an C : forsitan πR, Ddt ·l·] uel C dies om. T addedit C in om. CP 133–4 cccl· et iiii· T : trecentos ·l· et iiii S : ·ccc·l·iiii· Θ : ·ccc· et ·l·iiii P : tricenos ·l· quatuor R 134 diebus P : diebus ut die C duodecim] xii TRP : xiime S : exduo|deci C : xv B lun̄ C crededit C 135 atque] et B adetis C alius C : alia P sex utrumque] ·vi· TB retractus C illius C 136 dies id est] dies dies ·i· est σ (dies ·i· S pc) factosque] factos quę S : factos B : factus C 137 ·l·vi· B : ·lvi· S ii B nouis mensis C parecondicioni C duabus C 138 ian̄ P noncupauit C : dixit B primumque] primum P tamquam] ta|nqui S : tam C 139 bicipites C dei R, Beda : diei σC : dici P : diem B ac prospicientem om. P propicientem Rac transacti] trans P annum C futurique] et futuri P 140 principia etiam Beda, DdtHeru. i. 130. 54 (PL 90. 663 c) : principium DdtHeru. i. 126. 31 (PL 90. 660 a) : initia B dedicauit π (post deo P) Februo] febroarium C deo qui] deoque C lustrationum σPpc : inlustrationum R : lustrationem Θ (ci- C),Pac 141 credatur R lustrare Θ autem] que R : uero B statuit ut] statuta B 142 iuxta dies municionibus solueantur C nume PS pc : numme δbS acT : nobilissime C ordinacionis C finitimi om. C : post mox B 143 diebus totidemque om. R pampilio δb : pamphylio C



10–1 (126–43)

neither the course of the sun nor the phases of the moon, it sometimes came about that the cold season of the year occurred in the summer months and conversely the hot season in the winter months: when that happened they let as many days go by without a month-name as should bring them to that season in which the state of the heavens was found to suit the coming month. 11 ‘But his successor Numa, to the extent that beneath a rough sky and in an age still unrefined he could understand by his wits alone, or perhaps because he had been instructed by the Greeks, added fifty days, so that the year should extend to the 354 days in which he thought twelve lunar orbits were completed. To these fifty days he had added he appended another six taken away from the six months with thirty days—that is, one from each—and divided the fifty-six days thus made into two new months in a ratio of equality. Of the two he named the first January and chose to make it the first (month) of the year, as being the month of the two-headed god, looking backwards and forwards (respectively) to the end of the year past and the beginning of the year to come. The second he dedicated to the god Februus, who is believed to be master of purification rites; the citizenry had to be purified in that month, in which he decreed that the Di Manes should be paid their due. Soon the neighbouring peoples, following Numa’s system, began to reckon their year in as many months and as many days as Pampilius

131 Sed secutus—193–4 subiungebant Ddt nonnullis omissis uel inmitatis 138 priorem—140 principium [sic] cf. DdtHeru. i. 126. 28–31 (660 a) 140 secundum dicauit Februo deo cf. DdtHeru. i. 126. 42–3 (660 b)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

145

150

155

suum conputare coeperunt: sed hoc solo discrepabant, quod menses undetrigenum trigenumque numero alternauerunt. 12. ‘Paulo post Numa in honorem inparis numeri, secretum hoc et ante Pythagoram parturiente natura, unum adiecit diem quem Ianuario dedit, ut tam in anno quam in mensibus singulis praeter unum Februarium inpar numerus seruaretur. Nam quia .xii. menses, si singuli aut pari aut inpari numero conputarentur, consummationem parem face­ rent, unus pari numero institutus uniuersam putationem inparem fecit. Ianuarius igitur Aprilis Iunius Sextilis September Nouember December undetrigenis censebantur diebus et quintanas Nonas habebant, ac post Idus in omnibus ad septimum decimum Kalendas conputabantur. Martius uero Maius Quintilis et October dies trigenos singulos possidebant. Nonae in his septimanae erant; similiterque post Idus decem et septem dies in singulis usque ad sequentes Kalendas conputabantur: sed solus Februarius xx et viii retinuit dies, quasi inferis et deminutio et par numerus conueniret. 144 quam putare P caeperant P solo] secuti C discrepant P : discrepauerunt R quod] quam P : que C mensis C 144–5 undetricenum tricenumque Macr. : undetrigeno trigenoque σ, (trigenenoque) R : undetrieno trige unoque P : undexxx· xxx B : unde trigenumque om. C 145 numero numerum C alternauerant P : alternantur B 146 numma TRSac : om. B in honorem numa P honore C imparis B : imṕer T numeris P secretum] solum C : om. B 147 ante om. R Pythagoram Macr. : phitagoram σ : pitacoram C : phitagora B : phitogora P : pithagam R unum] ·i· B adiecit diem Δσ, Ddt, Beda : diem adiecit P, Gb ii. 78 (PL 349 c) quam] quem T 148 unum om. B 148–9 febro arium C : febrarium R 149 imparem S ac seruiens C Nam quia] Namque π (Nāq; TP, Nanq; S) menses si singuli] menses singuli B : mense singula C 149–50 aut pari aut] uel B 150 pare C impari Bac : inpare C conputarentur—numero2 om. B conputarentur R : notarentur π : participentur C : putarentur Macr. consummacionem C parem S : paremque T : pari rem P : imparem B : tantum C 151 numero om. P constitutus C putationem Macr. : potacionem C : conputationem P : supputationem σB : institutionem R imparem B 152 ap̄r̄ C : aprelis P : ap̄lis R : aprilius S : aprelius T Septemƀ C : septeƀ S : septƀ TB : septimber RP Nouemƀ Decemƀ C : noueƀ deceƀ σ : octƀ nouƀ decƀ B : nouimber decimber RP 153 undexxx B : unde·xxviiij· C quintanas] quintinas [sic] R : v B habent R 153–4 ac post Idus in omnibus] proidisidibus C 154 ad om. B xviimum· C : ·xvii· δbS : xviimas T kalendas conputabantur P (computabatur Macr.), (Kł) δb : conputabantur Kl T : conputabant Kalendas S : Kł· conpotantur C 154–5 Marcius C : Mar̄ P : Mr̄ B 155 quintiles P et october om. R octimber P : octuƀ C : octƀ B trigenos singulos] xxxi B trigenos] xxx C possedebant σ (-si- S pc) : om. R 156 nonne Θ septæmane C ]iliterque hic redit V, sed ualde mutilus : similiter quam P decem et septem P : ·x· et septem T : ·x· et ·vii· S : xvii B : xviimum C : sepdecim R : deest V 157 in om. R sequentes] secundum C conputabantur πR, (conputa]) V : supputabantur B : disputabant C : putabantur Macr. sol· C 158 fe bro arius C : febrarius R : feƀr B xx et viii R (et habet Macr.) : xxviii πB, Cc : xxvii· C retinuit VB : retenuit TR, Drc, Cc : sæ tenuit &c. &c. C, qui hic desinit inferius B : inferis V ([ris), P : in diebus feriis Drc et2 om. R : et ut π deminucio Cc : diminutio BS, Drc



11–2 (144–59)

had determined, but with this sole difference that they alternated the twenty-nine- and thirty-day months. 12 ‘A little later Numa, in honour of the odd number—a secret that nature created even before Pythagoras—added one day, which he assigned to January, so that both in the year and in the individual months, except February, the odd number should be preserved; for since twelve months, if they were all reckoned with an odd or an even number of days, would make an even total, one month established with an even number made the overall count odd. January, April, June, Sextilis, September, November, and December were therefore registered with twenty-nine days each, and had the Nones on the fifth, and after the Ides they [the days] were counted in them all up to the seventeenth day before the Kalends. But March, May, Quintilis, and October each had thirty-one days: in these the Nones were on the seventh, and seventeen days were likewise counted in each after the Ides to the following Kalends. Only February kept twenty-eight days, on the assumption that both the diminution and the even number were appropriate to the shades below.

146 Paulo post—149 conueniret DdtHeru. i. 130. 58–131. 18 (663 c–d) 146 Paulo—149 seruaretur, omissis tamen 146 secretum—147 natura, Beda (208. 69–71) 157 Sed solus—162 Graecorum Cc C45r = II 1 B (ii. 894. 2–6 Borst) 145–59 sed solus Februarius .xx. et .viii. retenuit dies quasi in diebus feriis, et ut diminutio et par numerus conuenisset Drc cap. xxviii (138. 41–2) 158 quasi—167 interkalarent Beda (208. 71–80)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

160

165

170

13. ‘Cum ergo Romani ex hac distributione Pampilii ad lunae cursum sicut Graeci annum proprium conputarent, necessario et interkalarem mensem instituerunt more Graecorum. Nam et Graeci, cum animad­ uerterent temere se .cccliii. diebus ordinasse annum – quoniam appareret de solis cursu, qui .ccclxv. diebus et quadrante zodiacum conficit, deesse anno suo .xi. dies et quadrantem – interkalares statuta ratione commenti sunt, ita ut octauo quoque anno nonaginta dies, ex quibus tres menses trigenorum dierum conposuerunt, interkalarent. Id Graeci fecerunt, quoniam erat operosum atque difficile omnibus annis .xi. dies et qua­ drantem interkalare. Itaque maluerunt hunc numerum octies multiplicare, et nonaginta dies qui nascuntur si quadrans cum diebus undecim octies conponatur inserere, in tres menses ut diximus distribuendos: hos dies ὑπερβαίνοντας, menses uero ἐμβολισμούς appellitabant. Hunc ergo ordinem Romanis quoque imitari placuit, sed frustra, quippe fugit eos dies unus, sicut supra admonuimus, additum a se ad Graecum numerum

160 Romani] numerus B distribucione Cc pampilii σR : pampili P : ]ạmpili V : pompilii codd. complures Bedae, per emendationem profecto : pamphilii Cc cursu PT 161 sicut Graeci om. Cc an num V necesse Cc interkalurem P 162 mensem om. Cc instituerant P morem T et Graeci om. σ : ]ci V 162–3 animaduerterent] anim aduerte­r int Cc 163 tenere P : treme B annum B, Cc quomodo BP : deest V, sed lacuna qm̄ ap[ capit, qmō ap[ non capit appareret δ, Cc, DdtD, Beda : apparet σV, Ddt rell. : om. P 164 cursu om. B qui] quam B ·ccclxv·] ccclv S ac : c]c ̣ctis ·lxv· V diebus om. R quadrantem B, Cc zoziacum B : zozaicum R, Cc conficit V (confi[), DdtD ; conficit π, DdtS : conficit DdtGRossU, (confidit) DdtC : confecit R : cum uidit Cc : sicut B 165 annum suum xi diebus Cc ·xii· S statuta] stata Macr. ratī B commenti B : commentati RS pc , Beda, Cc : ]ṃentati V : commentata S ac : commendati TP 166 octauo] viii] V (plura lacuna non capit), B anno (s.l.) quoque P nonaginta] nonagenta R : lxl V : xc B, Cc diebus Cc ex] et B tres] iii B : hi Cc 167 xxx B, Cc conposuerunt σ : conposuerant P : conpo|[ V : conpotorum ut B : conputauerunt R, Beda intercalarē S : inter cala|[ V idem S ac 168 quoniam—171 ins]ẹrere V uix legitur erat omnibus annis [ ] adque difficile xi Cc, spatio relicto quod operosū caperet atque] et B deficile R 169 int̄calarē B maluerant P : alluerunt Vuv : uoluerunt Cc occies Cc 170 et—nascuntur] qui fiunt xc dies quoniam erat omnibus annis qui nascuntur Cc et om. P : e R nonaginta S : ·xc· Tδ : lxl VP qui] quam B si—172 appellitabant om. Cc quadras σ cum diebus om. T xi TB 171 octies om. R componant P inserere P tres VRS : ·iii· TBP distribuentes T : dis| V os T 172 υπερβενοντας R : yperbenontas T : υπερbanoτως P : yberbe nontac S : yberbenontas S mg : υπερβονοναc B : ]ṭος V mense P embolismos R : ]μ̣οc V : enaboηlinoc P : eμ bolic μοις S : embolismois S mg : εμβολισμοις T : om. B : ἐμβολίμους Macr. appellitabant B : appella[ V : apellabant σ : appellant P Hinc Cc ergo] eorum B ordinem om. Cc 173 romanus P quoque om. Cc emitari T : immittari B : imitare Cc quippe] qui R fuigit R eos] eo P : deest V 174 dies unus additum δπ : die] s unus ad [V : dicentes unus dies additus Cc : diem unum additum Macr. ammonuimus P : ]ṇuimus V : annotauimus B 174 ad–175 numeri] in honorem inparis numeri ad grecum numerum σ : ]ọnorem in et ]ris ea re V, ut librarius in|paris [nume]ris scripsisse uideatur



13 (160–74)

13 ‘Since, then, the Romans by this allocation of Pampilius’ were reckoning their own year, like the Greeks, according to the moon’s orbit, of necessity they instituted an intercalary month in the Greek manner. For the Greeks too, on noticing that they had rashly arranged the year in 354 days—since it was clear from the sun’s course, which encompasses the zodiac in 365¼ days, that their year was 11¼ days too short—devised the intercalary months according to a regular principle, so that every eight years they inserted ninety days, out of which they made three months each of thirty days. The Greeks did so because it was laborious and troublesome to intercalate 11¼ days every year: they therefore preferred to multiply this number by eight and to insert the ninety days that result if 11¼ days are combined eight times, to be distributed, as I said, into three months. They called these days “surpassing”, the months “inserts”. This arrangement the Romans too decided to emulate—to no avail, since it escaped them that they had added one day to the Greek figure in honour of the odd number, as I pointed out above. For that

162 Nam et—170 nascuntur Cc C45r–v = ii. 2 A (ii. 894. 8–17) 172 Hinc [recte Hunc]—176 octo [omisso annos] Cc C45r = II 2 B (ii. 895. 1–4) 172 Hunc—176 poterat Beda (208. 80–3)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

175

180

185

190

in honorem inparis numeri. Ea re per octennium conuenire numerus atque ordo non poterat; sed nondum hoc errore conperto per octo annos nonaginta quasi superfundendos Graecorum exemplo conputabant dies, alternisque annis binos et uicenos, alternis ternos uicenosque interkalantes expensabant interkalationibus .iiii. Sed octauo quoque anno interkalares .viii. affluebant dies ex singulis quibus uertentis anni nume­ rum apud Romanos supra Graecum abundasse iam ­diximus. Hoc quoque errore iam cognito haec species emendationis inducta est: tertio quoque octennio ita interkalandos dispensabant dies, ut non nonaginta sed sexa­ ginta sex interkalarent, conpensatis .xx. et .iiii. diebus pro illis qui per totidem annos supra Graecorum numerum creuerant. 14. ‘Omni autem interkalationi mensis Februarius deputatus est, quoniam is ultimus anni erat: quod etiam ipsum de Graecorum imitatione faciebant. Nam et illi ultimo anni sui mensi superfluos interse­ rebant dies, ut refert Glaucippus, qui de sacris Atheniensium ­conscripsit. Verum una re a Graecis differebant. Nam illi confecto ultimo mense, Romani non confecto Februario sed post uicesimum et tertium diem 175 honore Cc imparis B per] post Cc octennium RS pc : octenium Cc : octoennium BPS ac : viii.ennium T : ]ṃ V 175–6 numerus—poterat] numerum adque ordinem poterat Cc 176 atque] et B poterant P herrore V ·viii· δVT, Cc 176– 7 annos] annis Cc : ; [sic] P 177 nonaginta—185 creuerant] alterum inter kalare [sic] conabant [sic] sed semper error Cc nona gẹnta R : ·xc· σB : lxl P : deest V superfundendos δ : superfluendos π (superfluos S pc) : superfl[ V 178 dies om. T : ]es V alternisque annis binos et uicenos om. P terinos Tpc : terminos Tac uicenosque] uicenos quam P 178–9 interkalentes P : intrakalentes S ac : intra kalendas (int̄kl̄) T : intercalatione B 179 interkallationibus P iiii] iii R octauo] octo uero P : ·viii· TB : deest V animo P : om. R 180 interkallares P singulis BPS: ]is V, sed ex proximis uersibus apparet x uel xi litteras interisse : illis T : singulis R uertentis δ : conuertentis P : uertentes σ : uerṭ[ V 180–1 anni numerum] annum B : anni numerus σR 181 Romanum B abundasse] habundasse B : numerum habundasse P hoc] hos T quoque] ergo P : om. R 182 cognitio B : incognito R emundationis T quoque] autem P 183 octennio RS pc : octoennio BSac : ·viii·ennio T : octo iennio P : ]ọ|ennio V ita om. σ interkalendos R: intercalendos B : inter kalendas V (iṇ[ ]ạs), (int̄ kl̄) σ, post dies P nonagenta R : ·xc· σB : lxl V 183–4 sexagenta R ·lxvi· πVB 184 ·xx· et ·iiii·] xxvii B ·xx·] ·xxx· T et om. R qui om. Rac 185 anno[ V : annus T grecorum R : grecum πVB (]cū V) creuerunt σB : ]ṇt V 186 omni autem] Omnia de[ ]o|ni (= denique interkalationi?) V : omnique Cc : om. T Februarius mensis Drc : menses febr̄ Cc Febrarius debutatus R 187 is VRS : his TP, Cc : om. B ann̄ ierat B : erat anni P quod] quoniam Cc ipsorum Pac 187–8 emitatione TRP, Drc 188 et om. R, Drc, Beda : nam greci Ddt ultimi P sui mensi] rumensi V mensis T fluas V : superfluo Cc 188–9 interserebat T : interkalabant Drc 189 ut—conscripsit om. Beda, Cc ut] et T glaucippus BS : glaucipp[ V : glaucipͥ; Rac : glaucip; Rpc: glauṗcyppus T : glacipus P qui] quam B atheniensium S : atheniensium B : athenensium T : adtheniensium P : athinensium R : athinẹ [ V conscribsit V : concripsi T 190 ueram iunare P a om. BP diferebant T : deferebant V (defereb[), R, Cc illi π, Cc ultimo confecto P mense se T 191 febrario VR : febr̄ BCc sed om. Cc uicissimum et tert[ium V : xx et tertium R : xxmum et iii σ : xx et iii P, Cc : xxiii B dies B



13–4 (175–91)

reason the number and arrangement could not agree (with the solar year) over an eight-year cycle. But before this error was detected, over eight years they added ninety “overflow” days, so to speak, in the Greek manner, and paid them out in four intercalations by intercalating alternately twenty-two and twenty-three days in the year; but every eighth year there were eight intercalary days too many, resulting from the one day by which I have already said the number in the revolving year among the Romans exceeded the Greek (figure). When this error too was finally recognized, the following form of correction was introduced: in every third eight-year cycle they so disposed the days to be intercalated that they intercalated not ninety but sixty-six days, making up twentyfour days for those that in as many years had accrued over and above the Greek number. 14 ‘To all intercalations the month of February was assigned, since it was the last month of the year; this they also did in imitation of the Greeks, for they too also inserted the extra days in the last month of their year, as reported by Glaucippus, who wrote on the Athenians’ sacred rituals. In one respect, however, they differed from the Greeks, for the latter intercalated when the final month was finished, but the Romans did so not when February was finished but after its twenty-third day,

186 Omni—195 Beda (209. 93–100) 186 Omni—193–4 subiungebant, omissis ta­ men 188 Nam—189 conscripsit, Cc II B (ii. 895. 5–11) 186 Omni—189 dies Drc, cap. lvii (168. 10–12)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

195

200

205

210

eius interkalabant, Terminalibus scilicet iam peractis; deinde reliquos Februarii mensis dies, qui erant quinque, post interkalationem subiungebant, credo ueteri religionis suae more, ut Februarium omnimodo Martius consequeretur. 15. ‘Sed cum saepe eueniret ut nundinae modo in anni principem diem, modo in Nonas caderent (utrumque autem perniciosum rei publi­ cae putabatur), remedium quo hoc auerteretur excogitatum est: quod aperiemus si prius ostenderimus cur nundinae uel primis Kalendis uel Nonis omnibus cauebantur. Nam quoties incipiente anno dies coepit qui addictus est nundinis, omnis ille annus infaustis casibus luctuosus fuit: maximeque Lepidiano tumultu opinio ista firmata est. Nonis autem conuentus uniuersae multitudinis uitandus existimabatur, quoniam populus Romanus exactis etiam regibus diem hunc Nonarum maxime celebrabat, quem natalem Seruii Tullii existimabat: quia, cum incertum esset quo mense Seruius Tullius natus fuisset, Nonis tamen natum esse constaret, omnes Nonas celebri notitia frequentabat: ueritos ergo qui diebus praeerant, ne quid nundinis collecta uniuersitas ob desiderium regis nouaret, cauisse ut Nonae a nundinis segregarentur. Vnde dies ille quo abundare annum diximus eorum est permissus arbitrio qui 192 eiusdem σ : om. V interkallabant P scilicet] etiam B : om. Cc iam] ante scilicet P : supra rasuram S : om. V : sacrificiis DdtGK pactis T deinde reliquos] reliquas autem Drc deinde om. B reliquo V 193 febroarii Cc : febrarii R : februi S feƀ [dies | mensis V erant] erat Cc 193–4 subiugebant R, Ccac 194 credo—232 occasio om. Cc ueteri δσV, Drc, Beda : uetere P (X), Macr. relegionis R : releg[ V ut om. B febrarium R : feƀriū B : feƀ VP 194–5 martius omnimodis R 195 sequeretur Beda 196 euenirent P : euenisset R : euen[ V principem] primam R 197 nonas] nonne T utrumque] utrum quam P autem om. V : hoc R pernitiosum TVBP 197–8 puplicae R 198 mutabatur P quo hoc om. P hoc] hęc B euerteretur R : reuerteretur P : auertaretur V exquogitatum T : cogitatum B quod B 199 ostenderemus V 200 Nonis omnibus] omīnonis Pac: nonis Ppc cauebantur S quotiens B dies] post h.u. add. abhinc dicitvr de idibvs et nonis P 201 adictus R : additus BP nundinis est R annis Sac infaustis] infautibus B : om. T cassibus δVP 202 maximeque] maximeque P, Ruv : maxime V lepidiano R : lipidiano B (lipidia no-), P : limpidiano V : lipiano σ tu|multa V : tum multum B oppinnio R formata T est om. B 203 uniuersae multitudinis] unium similitudinis T existimabantur B 203–4 quoniam] quo P 204 exactus T die P 205 natale T serui VRS tulli VR : om. B existimabant R : exstimat mire scriptum T (x littera in punctum desinente, medio litterae m tractu sursum producto) quia] qui B : qui ergo R 206 esset] esset T quo mense om. σ natus fuisset om. T tamen] tam̄ B : tantum T post tamen ne unum quidem uerbum integrum usque ad 226 Pi]nario praebet V 207 omnes—208–9 desiderium om. R, paene duobus uersibus relictis nonas] non has T celebrari BP notitia] laetitia T frequentabant BPpc ueritos] ueritos P : ueriti sunt σ : ueriti erant (om. ergo) B 208 qui] quam B quod σB 209 cauisse B : cauise R : cauisse (cause P, gauise T) π segregarent B 210 ille T abundare S : habundare TδP diximus annum σ permissus]|[eṣ[t V



14–5 (192–210)

that is to say after the Terminalia had been concluded. They then added the remaining days of February, five in number, after the intercalation; I think from an ancient custom resulting from their religious scruple, that February should in all circumstances be followed by March. 15 ‘But since it often came about that a market-day fell sometimes on the first day of the year, sometimes on the Nones, and both were deemed ruinous to the state, a remedy to avoid this was devised, which I shall reveal after first explaining why a market-day was avoided on the first Kalends of the year and on all Nones. Whenever at the start of a year a day set in that was appointed for the market, the entire year was rendered one of grief by unlucky events; this notion was above all confirmed by the sedition of Lepidus. On the Nones it was thought that a meeting of the entire population should be avoided because even after the expulsion of the kings the Roman people particularly celebrated this day, which they took to be Servius Tullius’ birthday; since, although it was uncertain in which month Servius Tullius had been born, but settled belief that he had been born on the Nones, they crowded in conspicuous throngs on all the Nones, it is said that those who ran the calendar, fearing that the entire population, assembled on the market day, might engage in revolt from longing for the/a king, took care that Nones and market-days should be separated. Accordingly, the day by which I have said that the year “overflows” was entrusted to the judgement of those

192 reliquas [sic]—193–4 subiungebant Drc 169. 20–1 14–15 210 dies—211 interkalaretur Drc 168. 7–11



194 credo—195 Drc 169.

DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

215

220

225

festis praeerant, uti cum uellent interkalaretur, dummodo eum in medio Terminaliorum uel mensis interkalaris ita locarent, ut a suspecto die celebritatem auerteret nundinarum. Atque hoc est quod quidam uete­ rum retulerunt non solum mensem apud Romanos uerum etiam diem interkalarem fuisse. 16. ‘Quando autem primum interkalatum fuit uarie refertur, et Macer quidem Licinius eius rei originem Romulo adsignat; Antias libro secundo Numam Pampilium sacrorum causa id inuenisse contendit; Iunius Seruium Tullium regem primum interkalasse commemorat, a quo et nundinas institutas Varroni placet; Tutitanus refert libro tertio Magistratuum decemuiros qui .x. tabulis duas addiderunt de interkalando populum rogasse; Cassius eosdem scribit auctores; Fuluius autem id egisse Martium consulem dicit ab urbe condita anno quingentesimo sexagesimo secundo, inito mox bello Italico. Sed hoc arguit Varro scribendo antiquissimam legem fuisse incisam in columna aerea a Lucio Pinario et Furio consulibus, cui mentio interkalaris adscribitur. Haec de interkalandi principio satis relata sint.

210–11 qui festis π : qui factis R : quam factis B : def. V : qui fastis Macr. 211 uti] ut B uellent δS : uelint P : uellint T interkalendaretur σ 212 Terminaliorum R : terminali ortus B : Terminalium π interkallares P locarent] loqueretur B a] ad P 213 auerteret P : auerterent σB : euerteret R atque] et B est om. B ueterem T 214 retulerant σ uerum] ueterum T 215 interkallarem P : interkalarent T : intercalarent B 216 quando] quoniam T fuit σR : est P : om. B : sit Macr. uarię S refertur σ : reffertur R : referunt B : referant P et] ut σ 217 quidem] quide P : quidam σ Licinius Macr. : lucinius σR : Linius P eius rei] hanc rei B : ei regi σ assignat BS Antius B : Ambitias P 218 ii B numam 219  Iunius T regem Tullium B primus S pc : nummam TδPS ac pampī T : pāpī S P interkallasse P 219–20 a quo] que B 220 farroni R Tutitanus B : Tutidanus RP, et ita fere vel deterius codd. Macrobii : Tutianus σ :Tuditanus cod. unus et alter Macrobii, quod reposuerunt editores reffert R ·iii· BS 221 magistratuu R : magistratum σ : ]um V, post quod uerbum insequens uersus in ios exit decem uiros S : decim uiros T : ·x·uiros RP uiros qui om. B tabulas S ac duas] ·ii· R 221–2 intercalendo B : interkallendo P 222 kasius P : casius TR eodem TBP scribit BP : scripsit σR foluius P : philias R : fluuius B autem om. B 223 marcum δ : marc(i)um codd, Macrobii : M’. Acilium Jan in ed. Macrobiana (1852) dicitur P condida R annum B 223–4 quingentesimo (quincesimo T) sexagesimo secundo σ : quincentissimo lx· ii R (sed lxviiacuv) : dmo·|lxii· B : dlxvi P 224 initio B Italico sed] italicos T Italico] iralico P : Aetolico Macr. hoc] hęc B : om. R farro R 225 scribendo RP : scribendum T : scribendam S anticissimam R columnam auream P lutio P 226 pinario B : pinnario σ : ]ṇario V : pinndorio R : periario P et] hinc denuo integer V mensio P : mensis J. C. Zeune in editione Macrobiana (Lipsiae, 1774) interkallaris P : intercalares V asscribitur BS 227 interkalendi VTRS ac (-landi pc S ) : intercalendi B ; interkallendi P satis principio V sint δ : sunt πV



15–6 (211–27)

who ran the festivals, to be intercalated when they wished, provided they put it between the Terminalia and the intercalary month in such a way that the market-day crowds were diverted from the dangerous day. And this is why some of the ancients reported that the Romans had not only an intercalary month but an intercalary day as well. 16 ‘On the date of the first intercalation accounts diverge. Licinius Macer, for his part, attributes the origin of the practice to Romulus; Antias in book 2 maintains that Numa Pompilius devised it for the sake of religious rituals; Junius records that King Servius Tullius was the first to intercalate; Varro holds that he also instituted market-days. Tuditanus in book 3 of his Magistracies reports that the Decemvirs, who added two tables to the original ten, put a bill on intercalation to the People. Cassius also writes that they were responsible, but Fulvius says that the consul Martius did it in the 562nd year from the foundation of the city, just after the start of the Italic War. But Varro refutes this claim, writing that there was a very ancient law inscribed on a bronze column by the consuls Lucius Pinarius and Furius [472 bc] that includes a reference to the intercalary month. Let these reports suffice on the beginning of intercalation.



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

230

235

240

17. ‘Verum fuit tempus cum propter superstitionem interkalatio omnis omissa est: nonnumquam uero per gratiam sacerdotum, qui publi­ canis proferri uel inminui consulto anni dies uolebant, modo auctio modo retractio dierum proueniebat, et sub specie obseruationis emergebat maior confusionis occasio. Sed postea Gaius Caesar omnem hanc inconstantiam temporum uagam adhuc et incertam in ordinem statutae diffinitionis coegit adnitente sibi Marco Flauio scriba, qui scriptos dies singulos ita ad dictatorem retulit ut et ordo eorum inueniri facillime posset et inuentus certus status perseueraret. Ergo Gaius Caesar exordium nouae ordinationis initurus dies omnes qui adhuc confusionem poterant facere consumpsit: eaque re factum est ut annus confusionis ultimus in quadringentos quadraginta tres dies protenderetur. Post hoc imitatus Aegyptios solos diuinarum rerum omnium conscios ad numerum solis, qui diebus .ccclxv. et quadrante cursum conficit, annum dirigere contendit. Nam sicut lunaris annus mensis est, quia luna paulo minus quam mensem in zodiaci circuli circumitione consumit, ita solis

228 tempus om. P propter] pp T : ps̄ S : om. B interkallatio P : om. B 228–9 interkalatio omnis] interkalationis V 229 om̄issa V : amissa R est om. B per] propter V sacerdo|dotum Pac qui] quam V 229–30 puplicanis R : publicanus T 230 minui σ : imminutio P consulto VR : consultu π 231 proueniebat VB : praeueniebat P : per­ ueniebat σR et B : ut rell. 231–2 emergebant Tac 232 mor[ ] B occasio S : occassio R Sed—233 statutae om. R, duobus uersibus cum besse relictis post|ea V : post Cc gagius Cc cesar V omne V 233 instantiam V : constantiam P et om. σ incerta T, Cc ordine Cc : hordine P statue T : institute B : statae Macr. 234 difinitionis VR, Cc : definitionis Macr. adnitente—236 perseueraret om. Cc adnitente sibi] inmittente sub 235 ita B marcio V flauio S pc : flabio TS ac : flauo VB : flabo R : flauino P scribtos V B et ordo] ergo Pac 235–6 inuenire facileme possit V : sticillime posset inueniri P 236 posit R inuentus] inuento Macr. status certus V post perseueraret intercapedinem iterum patitur V Ergo—Caesar] gaius iulius cesar ergo Cc gaiur T cessar R 237 ordinationis] institutionis B qui] quam B confussionem R : confusione BP 238 poterunt R re] se Cc confussionis R 239 in om. B dies ccccxliii P quadringentos (quadricentos T) quadraginta tres (·iii· S) σ : quadrincentos xliii R : cccc xl B, Cc 240 imitatus PBS pc : emitatus R, Drc : imitatos Sac , Cc : emitatos T solos—conscios] diuinarum rerum solis conscius Cc omnium om. B : post rerum Drc ad] et T 241 solis] conscilis T qui] que Cc ·ccclxii· R quadrantem Cc cursum] cursu P : om. Cc 241–2 conficit—contendit] anni dirigere conficit fere Ddt 242 dirigere BS pc, Cc : diregere R, Drc : deregere π contendit hucusque Cc nam—244 annus hic om. Ddt, sed postea haec fere praebet Hoc enim dierum numero sol zodiacum circulum circuitu consumit, et hic annus solaris quem diximus, magnus dicitur in comparatione anni lunaris, qui annus lunaris dicitur etiam unus mensis, quia quod sol percurrit in ·ccclxv diebus, luna currit in uno mense lunari. Inde machrobius dicit, Annus solaris magnus habetur, cum lune annus breuis putetur [uel putatur]. sicut] inter B quia] quod R : qui B : quam P luna T 243 zoziaci B : zozaici R circuli om. δ circumitionem BP : circum|one R : circuitione S : circuitionem T 243–4 annus ante solis B : om. R



17 (228–43)

17 ‘However, there was a time when intercalation was entirely suppressed on superstitious grounds; and sometimes through the influence of the priests, who deliberately sought to have the days of the year extended or curtailed for the tax-farmers’ benefit, the number of days was now increased, now reduced, and under pretence of attentiveness a greater cause of confusion would result. But afterwards Gaius Caesar reduced all this calendrical inconsistency, till then ungoverned and indefinite, to the order of a regular system, with the assistance of the clerk Marcus Flavius, who presented a list of the individual days to Caesar so drafted that their order could be very easily ascertained and the ascertained definite arrangement should be permanent. Therefore, when he was about to start this new arrangement, Gaius Caesar used up all the days that might still create confusion: the result was that the last year of the confusion was extended to 443 days. Then imitating the Egyptians, who alone know all things divine, he strove to govern the year reckoning by the sun, which completes its course in 365¼ days. For just as the lunar year is the month—since the moon takes just a little under a month in revolving through the circle of the zodiac—so the solar year must be

232 Sed postea—242 contendit omissis tamen 234 adnitente—236 perseueraret Cc II 2. C (ii. 895. 12–19) 236 Ergo—242 contendit cf. DdtHeru. i. 131. 33–6 (663 d) 236 Gaius Caesar—257 nominandum Ddt 239 post hoc—242 contendit Drc cap. lvi (167. 2–168. 5); Exc V



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

245

250

255

260

annus hoc dierum numero colligendus est quem peragit dum ad id signum se de nouo uertit ex quo egressus est: unde annus uertens uocatur, et habetur magnus, cum lunae annus breuis putetur. Horum Virgilius utrumque conplexus est: Interea magnum sol circumuoluitur annum. Hinc et Ateius Capito annum a circuitu temporis putat dictum, quia ueteres an pro circum ponere solebant, ut Cato in originibus oratorum an terminum, id est circum terminum, et ambire dicitur pro circumire. 18. ‘Iulius igitur Caesar .x. dies obseruationi ueteri superadiecit, ut annum .ccclxv. dies quibus sol zodiacum lustrat efficerent: et, ne qua­ drans deesset, statuit ut .iiii. quoque anno sacerdotes qui curabant mensibus ac diebus unum interkalarent diem, eo scilicet mense ac loco quo etiam apud ueteres mensis interkalabatur, id est ante quinque ultimos Februarii mensis dies, idque bissextum censuit nominandum. Dies autem .x. quos ab eo additos diximus hac ordinatione distribuit: in Ianuarium et Sextilem et Decembrem binos dies inseruit, in Aprilem autem Iunium Septembrem Nouembrem singulos: sed neque mensi Februario addidit diem, ne deum inferum religio inmutaretur, et Martio Maio Quintili Octobri seruauit pristinum statum, quod satis pleno erant 244 dierum numero] enim numero dierum Ddt, sed uide ad 242–4 peragit dum] pagidum Ppc : pagitum Pac ad id] adit T 244–5 singnum B 245 reuertit de nouo fere Ddt (reuertitur denuo D) de nouo δσ (sede nouo S) : denuo P(X), Macr. egressus] digressus Macr. uertens om. R uocatus P : dicitur B 246 brebis T putetur] dicitur B orum P 248 circumuoluit T 249 et om. Rac P, Ddt Ateius R, Macr. : adeius B : Ataius Drc, fere Ddt : Taius σ, Ce 95 : hetheris P annum post temporis B annum a circuitu] annumma circuitum P : annum circuitum DdtC : annus a circuitu DdtD putat Drc, fere Ddt : puta id est circuitus P dici B quia] quod R : quam P 250 an TR : annum (uel an̄) BPS, Ddt, Ce, Cm cap. xxxi : pro circu. an. DdtK per T cato σR, Beda horiginibus Pac oratorum (horarum U) dicit Ddt 251 an σR : annum (uel an̄) BP, Ce, annum B, DdtU, Cm id] ·i· σ : hoc Drc circum δ, Beda : circa π, , Ddt, Ce, Cm pro circumire] percuire DdtC 252 igitur om. Cc cessar R obseruatione Cc ueteris B 253 dies om. T sol om. σ, item Beda, qui ipse de suo subdidit : habent δPCc, item Ddt, C46v : ante lustrat R zoziacum B : zozaicum R : circulum suum Cc lustrat etiam DdtD, Heru. i. 131. 38–9 (PL 665 a) : lustra P : inlustrat uel ill- Ddt rell. : hucusque Cc 253–4 quadras σ, Drc 254 deeet sine titulo R iiiito S : iiiior DdtD annum B 255 ac1] et B unum] ·i· B : annuum P diem interkalarent Drc scilicet] etiam B mense scilicet σR ac2] hac P quo] co P 256 etiam om. Drc menses B interkallebatur P id est] ·i· σ : om. P quinque] ·v· δP 257 Febrarii R : feƀra B mensis om. P : ante Februarii Beda dies im. B bissextum censuit] biscensuit B 257–8 ·x· autem dies B 258 ·x· om. R ordinatione] ratione B 258–9 ienarium T et 2 om. P decēb S pc : decimbrem RP : decē S ac : decim̄ T : dec̄ber B aprelem RP 260 septimbrem PT : septƀr B sep̄ R noūƀr B : noymbrem P : nouim̄ T : nouīm R mensi om. TB, Drc Febrario R : Februario T 261 addidit diem] addit R ne deum δ : ne dium P, Drc : om. σ infer B relegio TRP, Drc inmotaretur R : mutaretur S : motaretur T, Drc et σ marcio T : mr̄ B Maio] micio P : et maio σ 262 Octobri S : octƀr B : octimbri RP : hoctimbri T seruauit om. R quod] quam P : quia B



17–8 (244–62)

calculated from the number of days the sun occupies in returning anew to the sign from which it departed: that is why it is called the “turning year”, and is accounted great, whereas the moon’s year is thought short. Vergil covered both these points: Meanwhile the sun rolls round through the great year. That is also why Ateius Capito thinks that the year [annus] was named after a cycle of time, because the ancients used to say an for circum [“round”], as in the Origins of Orators Cato does, an terminum, that is, circum terminum [“round the boundary-marker”], and as ambire is used for circumire [“to go round”]. 18 ‘Julius Caesar, therefore, added ten days to the old usage, so that the 365 days in which the sun patrols the zodiac should make a year; and so that the quarter-day should not be lacking, he laid down that the priests who looked after the months and days should intercalate one day every fourth year, namely in the same month and position where amongst the ancients too a month used to be intercalated, that is, before the last five days of February, and he decreed that it should be called “the twice sixth”. The ten days that I said he added he distributed according to the following scheme: he inserted two days each in January, Sextilis, and December, and one day each in April, June, September, and November; but he did not add a day to February, so that the rites of the gods below should not be changed, and preserved the original status of March, May, Quintilis, and October, since they had a full enough com-

246 habetur—putetur Ddt 249 Ataius [sic]—251 Ce 95, Drc cap. xliv (153. 2–5) 249 quia—251 Beda cap. xxxvi (248. 2–249. 4), Ps.-Beda cap. viii (589 c) 252–81 cf. DdtHeru. i. 131. 36–132. 26 (663 d–664 c) 252–3 macrobius dicit per conpendium· iulius cesar x dies obseruatione ueteri superadiecit ut annum .ccclxv. quibus sol circulum suum lustrat Cc III 1 A (ii. 899. 11–13) 252 decem—257 nominandum Beda cap. xii (208. 84–209, 93) 253 ne—257 nominandum Drc cap. lii (164. 10–13) 260 sed neque—261 motaretur [sic] Drc cap. xxviii (139. 52–3)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

265

270

275

280

numero, id est dierum singulorum trigenorumque. Ideo et septimanas habent Nonas, sicut Numa constituit, quod nihil in his Iulius mutauit: sed Ianuarius Sextilis December, quibus Caesar binos dies addidit, licet trigenos singulos habere post Caesarem coeperint, quintanas tamen habent Nonas, et ab Idibus illis sequentes Kalendae ad .xviiii. reuertuntur, quia Caesar quos addidit dies neque ante Nonas neque ante Idus inserere uoluit, ne Nonarum aut Iduum religionem, quae statuto erat die, nouella conperendinatione corrumperet. Sed nec post Idus mox uoluit inserere, ne feriarum quarumque uiolaretur indictio, sed peractis cuiusque mensis feriis locum diebus aduenis fecit: ad Ianuarium quidem dies quos diximus quartum et tertium Kalendas Februarias dedit, Aprili sextum Kalendas Maias, Iunio .iii. Kalendas Iulias, Augusto .iiii. et tertium Kalendas Septembres, Septembri tertium Kalendas Octobres, Nouembri .iii. Kalendas Decembres, Decembri uero .iiii. et tertium Kalendas Ianuarias. Ita factum est ut, cum omnes hi menses quibus dies addidit ante hanc ordinationem habuissent mensis sequentis Kalendas ad .xvii. reuertentes, postea ex augmento additorum dierum hi qui duos acceperunt ad .xviiii., qui uero unum ad .xviii. haberent reditum Kalendarum.

263 id est] id tantum σ : ad B trigenarum singularum R : inter xxxi B septimanas RS ac : viinas B : septimas π 264 numma TδS ac quia TB nichil PS in om. σ motauit TR 265 decƀr B : decimber RP : decimus (decim:) T cessar R binos s.l. R : biinos P addidit dies B addit R 266 xxxi B trienos P per σ cessarem R coeperint σ : coeperunt δP quintanas—267 Nonas] v non tamen habent B quintas P 267 nonas habent P sequentis B ad] a P : om. codd. Macr. 267–8 reuertuntur σ reuertantur R 268 quia] qui RP cessar R 269 aut] uel B religionem quae] religio neque B relegionem TR statuto R : statuta πB: stato Macr. 270 cum perendinatione S : comperendi ratione R : conperedinatione T 270–1 uoluit mox B 271 uoluit inserere ne feriarium] inserere om. σ : uoluitur fariarum T quarumcunque σ 272 cuiusque] constat qui P : om. R menses B feriis s.l. P : feriis S : feris TR diebus locum B ad ianuarium δσ : et Ianuario P (X), Macr. quidæm P 273 diximus δσ : dicimus P (X), Macr. iiii et iii kł δ febrari R 273–4 Aprƚi B : Apr̄ R : apreli PT 274 sexto Pac : ·ui· R : ·iii· S : tres T : v B maias S : maī δ : mai T : om. P tertium P Agusto R iiii] iiii ·to· P 275 tertium1 B : iii RPS : iunium T Septembres Macr. : septƀr B : sep̄ R : Septembrias π Septembri—Octobrias om. δ Septembri] septim̄ T tertium 2 P : iii σ Octobres Macr. : Octobrias S : octimbrias P : octīƀ T 276 Nouenƀ S : nouƀr : nouimbri R : nouim̄ T : noimbri P ·iii·] tertium P Decembres] deceƀ S : decimbris R : decimbrias P : deciƀ T : om. B Decembri] decƀr B : Deceƀ σ : Decimbri RP iiiito P : iiiitum T tertium δ : ·iii· π 277 hi] iii B : in P menses hi DdtHeru. i. 132. 19–20 (PL 664 b) dies om. P 278 addit R antehanc R : anthanc P : ante hunc T habuisse B 279 ·xii· T .xvii. π hii δ duo R : ii B 280 acceperunt BS : acciperunt TRP ·xviiii· πB (·xviiiiem· T) : nonum decimum R qui—·xviii· om. R reditum] rectim P



18 (263–81)

plement, namely thirty-one days each. They therefore also have their Nones on the seventh, as Numa determined, because Julius made no changes in them; but January, Sextilis, and December, to each of which Caesar added two days, still have their Nones on the fifth, even though from Caesar’s time onwards they had thirty-one days each, and from their Ides the following Kalends return on the nineteenth day, because Caesar chose not to insert the days he added before either the Nones or the Ides, lest an unprecedented postponement should pervert the religious observance of the Nones or Ides, which was on a fixed date. But neither did he care to insert the days soon after the Ides, lest he should interfere with the announcement of all the religious festivals; instead, he made room for the new days after each month’s festivals were over. Thus he gave to January the days we call the fourth and third before the Kalends of February [= 29 and 30 January]; to April, the sixth before the Kalends of May [= 26 April]; to June, the third day before the Kalends of July [= 29 June]; to August, the third and fourth days before the Kalends of September [= 29 and 30 August]; to September, the third day before the Kalends of October [= 29 September]; to November, the third day before the Kalends of December [= 29 November]; and to December, the third and fourth days before the Kalends of January [= 29 and 30 December]. The result was that whereas all the months to which he added days had, before this arrangement, had the next month’s Kalends returning on the seventeenth day, afterwards, by the accretion of the added days, those that received two days had the return of the Kalends on the nineteenth day, those that got one day on the eighteenth.



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

285

290

295

300

19. ‘Feriarum tamen cuiusque mensis ordo seruatus est. Nam si cui fere tertius ab Idibus dies festus aut feriatus fuit et tunc ad sextum decimum dicebatur, etiam post augmentum dierum eadem religio seruata est, ut tertio ab Idibus die celebraretur, licet ab incremento non iam ad sextum decimum Kalendas sed ad septimum decimum si unus, aut ad octauum decimum si duo sunt additi diceretur; nam ideo nouos dies circa finem cuiusque mensis inseruit, ubi finem omnium quae in mense erant repperit feriarum. Adiectosque omnes a se dies fastos notauit, ut maiorem daret actionibus libertatem: et non solum nullum nefastum sed nec comitialem quemquam de adiectis diebus instituit, ne ambitionem magistratuum augeret adiectio. 20. ‘Sic annum ciuilem Caesar habitis ad limam dimensionibus constitutum edicto palam posito publicauit; et ordo hucusque stare potuisset, nisi sacerdotes sibi errorem nouum ex ipsa emendatione fecissent. Nam cum oporteret diem qui ex quadrantibus conficitur quarto quoque anno confecto antequam quintus inciperet interkalare, illi quarto non peracto sed incipiente interkalabant. Hic error sex et .xxx. annis permansit, quibus annis interkalati sunt dies .xii., cum debuerint interkalari .viiii. Sed hunc quoque errorem sero deprehensum correxit Augustus, qui annos .xii. sine interkalari die transegi iussit, ut illi tres 282 ferarum T cuiuscunque σ Na P si s.l. R 283 fere] feriæ P ab] hic redit V festus] stestus P aut] uel B 283–4 xvim P : xvinum [sic] V : xvi B 284 agmentum Rac : augumentum P eandem V relegio VR (immo relegioser uataē R) seruatum Pac 285 iii P caelebraretur V, (cę-) P licet—297 diceretur om. B 286 xvi . . . xvii P ad 2] et V : 2 om. R decimum om. VR, codd. Macrob. plerique aut om. V 287 octauum decimum VR : ·xviii· π sunt] inter P additi diceretur] adderetur R additi] addidi V idō S 288 fi289 erunt VT : om. R nem1] fine P cuius B ubi] punctum sub b habet P quae] que B repperit VBP : re perit R : reper erit S : reperierit T omnes om. B a] ad P fastos Macr.: factos B : factis R : festos PV : festos esse σ mutauit V 290 actionibus R : auctionibus πVB (libertatem auctionibus P) ullum σ : om. B nefestum R : nec festum P : ne confestum B 291  sed π nec VTR : hec S : om. BP comitialem σ : comitalem P : comilitialem B quemque PS : que T : quendam B de om. B aciectis T : haciectis P : adeactis B instuit R 291–2 ambitione P 292 magistratum VBP adiectio V 293 anum Rac cessar VR habitis Macr. : abitis P : adhibitis S ras : habetis VTδ, Ddt limam Macr., Tδ : lunam PS : ultimum V : limitem Ddt dimensionibus BS : de- VTRP, Ddt (sed di- DdtS pc) 294 possito V : positum T puplicauit TR ordo δ : erro P : error σV, codd. Macrob. 294–5  potuisset P 295 nisi σVR : non P : ni Macr. sibi om. Bσ emendatione] imitatione P 296 oportet P conficitur πB : confecit V : efficitur R : confit Macr. iiiito VP : iiii B 297 v· B incipiperet P : inciperet R interkallare P : int̄calarē B 298 iiiito P : iiii B interkallabant P sex et ·xxx·] ·vi· et xxx σ : sed et xxxta P : xxx et vi δ : xxxvi V 299 annis1] annos σ interkallati P debuerint Macr. : debuerit V : debuerunt πR : debuerant (post intercalari) B 300 interkallari P : interkalare R ·viiii· σVB : nouem R : octo P deprehensum sero B 301 agustus R : agustustus V : om. P sine] siń T interkallari P : interkari V transegi [i.q. transigi] VRP : tersegi B : dr̄ segi S : drs̄ egit T tres VR : ·iii· πB



19–20 (282–301)

19 ‘Yet the disposition of religious festivals in each month was retained: for in any month (say) the third day after the Ides was a festive day or a day of religious observance and was then [i.e. before the reform] called the sixteenth day before the Kalends, even after the accretion of days the same rule was retained that it should be celebrated on the third day after the Ides, even though owing to the increase it was no longer called the sixteenth day, but either seventeenth, if one day was added, or the eighteenth, if two were; for that was why he inserted the new days about the end of every month, where he found the end of all the religious observances in the month. And he designated all the days he inserted dies fasti, to give greater scope to legal proceedings; and not only did he not make any of the added days nefastus, none was even comitialis, so that the addition should not encourage magistrates’ self-advancement. 20 ‘The civil year thus established by precise calculations Caesar published in a publicly posted decree; and the arrangement could have continued down to the present day, if the priests had not concocted a new error out of the correction itself. For whereas they were meant to intercalate the day comprising the quarters when every fourth year was over, before the fifth began, they were intercalating not at the end of the fourth year but at the beginning. This error continued for thirtysix years, in the course of which twelve days were intercalated instead of the nine that were needed. But this error too, belatedly discovered, was corrected by Augustus, who ordered twelve years to pass without an intercalated day, so that the three days too many resulting from priestly

287 ideo—289 feriarum Drc 139. 48–50 293–382 nonnulla hinc hausit Ce 95–6 293–4 publicauit Ddt 293 annum ciuilem—294 constituit [sic] Ddt ter, sed primo habetis ad limitem, deinde certis terminis, postremo certis terminis et demensionibus 296 quarto—297 inciperet cf. Drc lviii (169. 2)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

305

310

315

320

dies qui per annos .xxx. et .vi. uitio sacerdotalis festinationis excreue­ rant sequentibus annis .xii. nullo die interkalato deuorarentur. Post hoc unum diem secundum ordinationem Caesaris quinto quoque incipiente anno interkalari iussit, et omnem hunc ordinem aereae tabulae ad aeternam custodiam incisione mandauit.’ 21. Tunc Chorus: ‘Dies quidem hic’, inquit, ‘interkalaris antequam quintus annus incipiat inserendus cum Aegypti matris artium ratione consentit: sed nihil in illorum mensibus explicandis uidetur operosum, quos trigenarum dierum omnes habent: eoque explicitis .xii. mensibus, id est .ccclx. diebus exactis, tunc inter Augustum atque Septembrem reliquos .v. dies anno suo reddunt, adnectentes quarto quoque anno exacto interkalarem, qui ex quadrantibus conficitur. At hic non a primo in ultimum mensis diem ad incrementum continuum numerus accidit, sed post Kalendas dirigitur in Nonas, inde ad quasdam Idus deflecti audio, post rursus, ni fallor, immo ut nunc quoque retulisti, in sequentes Kalendas. Quae omnia quid sibi uelint scire equidem uellem. Nam illud nec consequi posse me spero, ut uocabula conprehendam quae singulis apud uos diebus adduntur, dum alios fastos uariisque aliis nominibus nuncupatis. Nundinas quoque uestras nescire me fateor: de quibus ob302 annus B xxxvi V : xx xvi B 302–3 excreuerunt δ 303 intercalato V : interkallato P 304 unum] ·i· B secundum VB : sicut (sic̄) P : sed T : pro (ordinatione) S ordinem B cessaris R : om. σ quinto] v B 304–5 incipiente anno V : anno incipiente δπ 305 intercalari VB : interkallari P aereae] herę P 306 incisione δS : incissVTP : nem TP : cisione DdtK 307 chorus δV, item in opusculi titulo Beda 206. 3, 208. 24 : corus π, item Drc, cap. xxxviiii, p. 149. 8, cap. lvii, p. 169. 18 : Horus Macr. inquid VRP : om. B interkallaris P antequam] anqui B 308 annus incipiat quintus R : ·v· incipiant tantum B ęgyptii B ratione m T 309 consensit VT nichil PS in om. Pac explicandis—310 mensibus om. B, sed duae tresue litterae erasae (st?) sub puncto qui dicitur eleuato perspiciuntur explicandis VP : explicatis σ : explicatus R 310 quos] qui R tregenarum P : tricenum Macr. dierum R eoque] eo qui P 311 id est om. σ exactis ante ccclx R tricentis lx V : ccclxv B inter] iter sine titulo R agustum VR atque] et VB septembrem R : septimbrem P : septembrium S : septim· T : sept̄ V : septƀr B 312 reliquos—313 conficitur om. R, duobus uersibus cum amplius sextante relictis dies v· B ·v·] vto T adnectentes S pc et post interkallarem [sic] P : adnectantes VTS ac : annectentes B iiiito V : iiii P : om. B annum B 312–13 exacto] peracto B 313 intercalare B qui] quia V conficitur BP : consistit σ : consistat V : confit Macr. At hic R, Macr. : Atqui hic P : hic autem σ : hic V : Adhuc B 314 ad] adc Vac accidit] accedit Macr. 315 diregitur δVP : dirigit σ in] inter B quasdam] quartum P deflecti] deper- Vac 315–16 audeo V 316 rursus VB : rursum πR nisi σ retullisti R sequendas σ 317 quid] qui S : quod T uellint VT equidem] quidem B : quidæm R uellem S : uellim VT : uelim δP 318 neque V me posse B conprehendam post 319 adduntur B 319 uos] nos B fastos V : festos π : factos δ uariis quam P : furiisque B aliis πB : om. VR : alios Macr. 320 nunc cupatis P : non cupatis S Nundinas—321 narratur paucis inmutatis Drc 149. 9—10 quoque] que V : om. Drc 320–1 obseruatio post cauta Drc



302–20

haste over thirty-six years should be absorbed during the next twelve by non-intercalation. After that, he ordered one day to be intercalated at the start of every fifth year in accordance with Caesar’s arrangement, and entrusted the whole system by inscription to a bronze tablet for perpetual preservation.’ 21 Then Chorus said, ‘This intercalary day, to be inserted before the fifth year begins, agrees with the system of Egypt, the mother of all arts. But no difficulty appears in explaining their months, which they all keep at thirty days, and so when twelve months, that is 360 days, are up they give the year back its remaining five days between August and September; attaching at the end of every fourth year the intercalary day formed by the four quarters. But here [in Rome] the count does not advance by continuous increase from the first day of the month to the last; instead, after the Kalends it is directed towards the Nones, then I hear it is shifted to something called the “Ides”, and after that again, if I am not mistaken—or rather, as you said just now—to the following Kalends. For my part, I should like to know what all that means—because I have no hope even of understanding the names given individual days amongst you, when you call some fasti and give other names to others. I also confess to not understanding your “market-days” [nundinae], of

305 aereae—306 mandauit Ddt 307 dies—308 inserendus cf. Drc capp. xxxix (149. 2), lvii (169. 17), lviii (169. 2) 308 Aegypti matris artium cf. Beda cap. xvi (214. 53–4) 320 Nundinas—321 narratur cf. Drc cap. xxxix (149. 9–10)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

325

330

335

340

seruatio tam diligens, tam cauta narratur. Haec nec mihi erubescendum est ignorare peregrino: a te uero, Praetextate, discere nec quemquam puderet.’ 22. Tunc Praetextatus: ‘Non solum tibi’, inquit, ‘Chore, cum sis Aegypto oriundus, sed ne nobis quidem quibus origo Romana est erubescendum puto quaerere quod quaesitu dignum omnes ueteres putauerunt. Nam de Kalendis Nonis et Idibus deque feriarum uariis obseruationibus innumeros auctores cura quaestionis exercuit; et ideo nos quae de his omnibus dicta sunt in unum breuiter collegimus. 23. ‘Romulus, cum ingenio acri quidem sed agresti statum proprii ordinaret imperii, initium cuiusque mensis ex illo sumebat die quo nouam lunam contigisset uideri. Quia non continuo euenit ut eodem die semper appareat, sed modo tardius modo celerius ex certis causis uideri solet, contigit ut, cum tardius apparuit, praecedenti mensi plures dies, aut cum celerius, pauciores darentur: et singulis quibusque mensibus perpetuam numeri legem primus casus addixit. Sic factum est ut alii .xxx. et unum, alii undexxx sortirentur dies. Omnibus tamen mensibus ex die Nonarum Idus nono die repraesentari placuit: et inter Idus ac sequentes Kalendas constitutum est sedecim dies esse numerandos. Ideo mensis uberior duos illos quibus augebatur dies inter Kalendas suas et

321 dilegens R : delegens Drc tam 2] nam P : quam R nec mihi hec R eruendum B 322 uero] autem B praetexit a te T : prexte R quem Vδ 322–3 pudret V : pudeat σ 324 prextus R inquid VTδP Chore R : core σ : ore V : orę B : quo P 325 nobis] bis P 326 erubescendum] enoscendo B quod] quam P quessitu RPpc : quessitum Pac oms P : om̄e B ueteteres P 327 Nonis et] nominis B deque V : denique π : denice R : de B feriarum post 325–6 obseruationibus P uaris R 328 cura quaestionis exercuit post 327 Idibus B ideo] idem B 328–9 nos quae] nosque T : nos quem P : eos qui B 329 de his] dein P collegimus VRP : colligemus S : collegemus T : colligimus B, codd. Macrob. 330 quidem om. σ, item ST in Exc agresti] agri T agresti Drc statu B propri VR 331 ordinasset Drc cuiusque om. Bedae codd. plerique 332 contigisse P quia non σ, Beda, J : et quia non B : quod non VR : que anno P euenit] et uenit B eodem] eo B : eadem Ddt 333 apparet V : apparit R modo2] mod P 333–4 ex certis causis uideri] exerciis uider P 334 contingit S : sed B apparuit πV, DdtS : aparuerit R : appareret Ddt rell. : om. B praecedenti om. T in Exc : praecidenti VR mensis T in Excs 335 aut] autem Vac : uel B : at Ddt, J cum] con T : om. VP pautiores P quibusque P 336 mumeri Vac ac cassus VPS, item S in Exc : cassius B addixit] indixit V sic—339 constitutum est om. R, paene tribus uersibus relictis sicque V : sicut S 337 xxx et unum] xxxi B : xxxi ·i· S in Exc unum] i P : hi T in Exc alii undexxx om. B undexxx VT, item TS in Exc : un̄·xxx· P : undetriginta S: inde triginta J : xxx Bedae codd. plerique : alii menses (mensis C) xxx alii xxxi (xxx et unum U) dies (RossS ac DG, diem US pc, die C) sortirentur Ddt 338 ex om. B nono] nona VB, J ac] et B 339 constitum VS ac sedecim R, J : ·xvi· πVB diem R numerandas V : numeratos B 340 duos] ·v· B inter Kalendas] interkallandas P et om. Bac



21–3 (321–40)

which so careful and so wary an observance is reported. As a foreigner, I need not blush not to know these matters, but it would not shame anyone, Praetextatus, to learn from you.’ 22 Then Praetextatus said, ‘Not just you, Chorus, seeing you come from Egypt, but not even we of Roman origin need I think blush to ask about a topic that all the ancients thought worthy of investigation. In fact, diligent inquiry into Kalends, Nones, and Ides and the various observances of holy days has exercised innumerable authors: I shall therefore condense what they have all said into one brief account. 23 ‘When Romulus, with his keen to be sure but rustic intellect, was organizing the structure of his dominion, he made every month begin with the day on which the new moon had happened to be seen. Since it does not automatically come about that it always appears on the same day, but for certain reasons is commonly now slower, now quicker to appear, it befell that when the new moon was slower to appear, more days were given to the preceding month, or when it was quicker, fewer were; and each month was assigned as its regular length that which it chanced to have first time. That is how it came about that some were allotted thirty-one days, others twenty-nine. But he decided in every month to set the Ides on the ninth day after the Nones, and it was established that sixteen days must be counted between the Ides and the following Kalends. Therefore, the fuller month had its two additional days between the Kalends and the Nones: hence in some months it is the fifth day

330 Romulus—382 cf. DdtHeru. i. 129. 40–130. 33 (662 c–663 a) 330 Romulus—342 facit Exc III, J 20r 330 Romulus—337 dies Beda cap. xii (206–38), Ddt, usque 333–4 uideri Drc cap. xlix (159. 8–10)



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

345

350

355

Nonas habebat. Hinc aliis quintus a Kalendis dies, aliis septimus Nonas facit. Caesar tamen, ut supra diximus, statuta sacra custodiens, nec in illis mensibus quibus binos adiecit dies ordinem uoluit mutare Nonarum, quia peractis totius mensis feriis dies suos rei diuinae cautus inseruit. 24. ‘Priscis ergo temporibus, antequam fasti Augusti Flauio scriba inuitis patribus in omnium notitiam proderentur, pontifici minori haec prouidentia delegabatur, ut nouae lunae primum obseruaret aspectum uisamque regi sacrificulo nuntiaret. Itaque sacrificio a rege et minore pontifice celebrato idem pontifex kalata, id est uocata, in Capitolium plebe iuxta curiam Kalabram, quae casae Romuli proxima est, quot numero dies a Kalendis ad Nonas superessent pronuntiabat: et quintanas quidem dicto quinquies uerbo καλῶ, septimanas repetito septies praedicabat. Verbum autem καλῶ Graecum est, id est uoco: et hunc diem qui ex his diebus qui calarentur primus esset placuit Kalendas uocari. Hinc et ipsi curiae ad quam uocabantur Kalabrae nomen datum est, et classi, quod omnis in eam populus uocaretur. Ideo autem minor pontifex numerum dierum qui ad Nonas superessent kalendo prodebat, quod post nouam lunam oportebat Nonarum die populares qui in agris essent confluere in urbem accepturos causas feriarum a rege sacrorum

341 aliis . . aliis] alis . . . alis R : aliis . . . alii P septimas P : vii B 342 fecit Drc Cessar R tamen om. B statua V : stata Macr. in om. δ 343 adiecit binos σ motare VTR 344 quia] qui δ peractos B feris VR suos dies B cauitus S : cautos B 345 fasti R: fausti VB : festi π agusti VR : a Cn. Macr. flauio VB, Drc : flabio P : fauio S ac : fabio S pcT : uuluio R 346 inuitatis P, Drc patribus δV, Drc : parentibus π minoris T pontifex minor ac R 347 prouidentia] item complures Macrobiani : prouincia Macr. delegabatur S pc : delegebatur πB: diligebatur VRuv (scissa carta, sed lacuna e litteram non capit) ut] uel T 348 uisamque V : et uisam Drc : uisa noua luna Ce 96 : uisumque Beda, Gb ii. 79 (352 d) : iussum quam P : et uisum σ : uisum δ sacrificulo] sacrificolo B : sacrifico σ sacrifitio P : sacrificio R a rege om. P 349 caelebrato V kallata P : kƚ B uocatam P capitulium P 350 iuxta] vīx̄ B Kalabram] calabrum RP : kalobram V quae] q̄ P : que V casę PS pc : case B : cassȩ TRS ac : casse Drc : cause V quot] quod T 351 a kalendis dies P superessent T quintanas σ 352 dictio P καλω V, codd. Macrob. : kalo πR, Drc : calo B septimanas σV : septumanas R : septimas P : septenas Drc : iiii B repetito R 353 Verbum autem om. B kalo (καλω scripsi) Graecum est πVR : καλα ui greco (om. est1) B : grecum est kalo Drc est2 om. V et ante 335 hinc traiecit R 354 ex] et V qui] quib Bpc kallarentur P : kalerentur V primum T curiae] kyrryae T 355 uocabuntur B kalebrae V : calebrę B : kalubrę R datum] dictum σ 355–6 et classi om. B 356 classi P : clasi V : kalaci σ : classis R quod] quia B in eam omnis B eam VR, Beda : ea πB uocaretur populus R : populus uocabuntur B autem om. P 357 numero B qui] quod B superessent VP, Beda : superesset δS : superesse T kalendo δσV, Cm cap. xxv : kallendo P : calando Macrob. 358 quod] quia B lunam nouam P nonam σVB 359 in urbem confluere Erchanbertus in om. σ accepturos— sacrorum om. Erch. causa P



23–4 (341–59)

from the Kalends that yields the Nones, in others the seventh. Caesar, however, as I said above, in preserving the established rituals, forbore even in those months to which he added two days to alter the position of the Nones, since, heedful of religion, he inserted his days after the holy days of the entire month had been observed. 24 ‘In earliest times, then, before Augustus’ calendar was made known to everyone when Flavius was clerk, against the patrician senators’ wishes, a lesser pontifex was assigned the precaution of watching for the first appearance of the new moon and reporting that he had seen it [the moon] to the rex sacrificulus. Therefore, after the rex and the lesser pontifex had celebrated a sacrifice, the pontifex “called”—that is, summoned—the plebs to the Capitol near the curia Calabra, which is next to Romulus’ hut, and announced the number of days remaining from the Kalends to the Nones; he proclaimed fifth-day Nones by saying the verb kalo five times, seventh-day [Nones] by repeating it seven times. The verb kalo is Greek—it means “I call”—and it was resolved to name the first of the “called” days the Kalends. Hence the name Calabra was given to the meeting-hall (curia) to which they were summoned, and the classis (was so called), because the whole people was summoned to it. The reason why the lesser pontifex revealed by “calling” the number of days remaining to the Nones was that after the new moon citizens who lived in the countryside had to forgather in the city on the Nones in order to be informed by the rex sacrorum the occasions of holy days and to learn

345–82 Ps.-Beda cap. viii (587 b–d) 345 Priscis—353 uoco Drc cap. xxx (142. 14–143. 22) 345 priscis temporibus, 346 pontifici—362 putarentur [sic] pauculis inmu­ tatis descripsit Beda cap. xiii (209. 1–16) 349 kalata—351 pronuntiabatur [sic] habent quibusdam inmutatis Beda, Ddt 350 quot—351 pronuntiabat ad uerbum Erchanbertus 77. 23–78. 1, nisi quod repetito uerbo kalo ante pronuntiabat inseruit 353 Verbum— uoco leuiter inmutata Erchanbertus 77. 21 358 oportebat—360 faciendum Erchanber­ tus 78. 1–3



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

360

365

370

375

sciturosque quid esset eo mense faciendum. Vnde quidam hinc Nonas aestimant dictas, quasi nouae initium obseruationis, uel quod ab eo die semper ad Idus nouem dies putentur: sicut apud Tuscos Nonae plures habebantur, quod hi nono quoque die regem suum salutabant et de propriis negotiis consulebant. 25. ‘Iduum porro nomen a Tuscis, apud quos is dies Itis uocatur, sumptum est; Item autem illi interpretantur Iouis fiduciam. Nam cum Iouem accipiamus lucis auctorem, unde et Lucetium alii in carminibus canunt et Cretenses Δία τὴν ἡμέραν uocant, ipsi quoque Romani Diespitrem appellant ut diei patrem, iure hic dies Iouis fiducia uocatur, cuius lux non finitur cum solis occasu sed splendorem diei et nocte continuat inlustrante luna, quod semper in plenilunio, id est medio mense, fieri solet. Diem igitur qui uel nocturnis caret tenebris Iouis fiduciam Tusco nomine uocauerunt, unde et omnes Idus Iouis ferias obseruandas sanxit antiquitas. Alii putant Idus, quod eo die plena luna uideatur, a uidendo uidus appellatas, mox littera V detracta, sicut contra, quod Graeci ἰδεῖν dicunt, nos V littera addita uidere dicimus. Nonnullis placet Idus dic-

360 sciturosque RP, Beda Dtr (scituri Dt) : sciaturosque V : sciscituros quę B : sciscituros T : sciscitaturos S : scituros Erch. quod T : quidem (qͥđ) S faciendum est TS ac Nonas] non B 361 aestimant VP : existimant σR, Beda : om. B dictas om. R quas B nonae δ (nonȩ R, none B) obseruationis initium σ quod] quia B : qui R ab om. B 362 ad] ab P viiii B noem diem T putentur VBP : putarentur σR, Beda : conputantur Drc Nonae] nouę S plure P : plurales T : om. B 363 habebantur V quia δ hi δS : hui P : hic T : om. V nono quoque P : in nono quoque V : quoque nono R : quoque in nono σ : nomine (nōe) quoque B die om. V rege B de om. T 364 negotis R consulebant 365 idum V nomen VR, BP : consulebantur S pc : consulabant VR : consulabantur S acT (nō) S : non (n̄) T : numero B : om. P tussis P is] his TP itis V : (die) sitis B : idis P : idus σ : istis R uocar B 366 item VRP : idim σ : om. B autem illi] auilli P interpraetentur V : inter B fidutiam BPS 367 Iouem om. B accipiamus δPpc : apiamus Pac : accipimus V : uocamus σ lucis] lucens (lucēs, titulo in tractum producto) T actorem P lucretium σ alii] Salii P(X) carminibus hucusque V certenses P : cretentes Rac 368 Cretenses B διαγηνημηpαν P : διατηνεμεραν σ : idduał αιατηνη pan B : diatenemeran S mg : diapemeron R uocant quasi Graecum P 368–9 Diespitrem BP : dispitrem R : dipitrem σ 369 appellant] dicunt B : om. P ut diei patrem] peratrem P fidutia S uocatur] interpretatur R 370 non om. B cum om. B occassu R : accasu P : occasus B sed om. B die R continuat BP : contineat S : conteneat T : continuet (continu&) R, sed & paene eraso 371 illustrante BS quod] quia T in medio mense π (sed Pac) : in mense medio R 372 Diem] Dum B qui] quod B canet P fidutiam S 374 anticitas R Ali P quod] quia B, Drc eo P : ea δσ, Drc uidetur RP, Drc a] ad R : om. P 375 appellatas R : appellatus P : apellatur S : appellantur T : dict̄ esse B littera V detracta] litteram V detractam Macr. littera V δ : littera quinta σ : V littera P contra] enim B quod] que T : quia B ιδειν B : idin P : δερκεω uel δερλεω σ : dercoe R 376 V om.. R non ullis T 376–7 dictos R : dictus B



24–5 (360–76)

what they needed to do in the course of the month. That is why some think that the Nones were so called as the start of a new [noua] (course of) observance, or because nine [nouem] days are always reckoned from that day to the Ides, just as amongst the Etruscans a plurality of Nones was observed, because they used to greet their king every ninth [nonus] day and consult him on their personal affairs. 25 ‘Furthermore, the name Ides was taken from the Etruscans, amongst whom that day is called Itis, which they interpret as “Jupiter’s surety”. For since we take Jupiter to be the guarantor of light [lux]— which is why others sing of him in their hymns as “Lucetius”, and the Cretans call the day “Zeus”, and the Romans themselves style him Diespiter, as father [pater] of the day [dies]—this day is rightly called “Jupiter’s surety”, because its light is not over at sunset but extends the brilliance of the day even at night, lit by the moon, which always happens at full moon, that is, at mid-month. Therefore they called the day that lacks even the shades of night by the Etruscan name “Jupiter’s surety”, which is why the men of old ordained that all Ides should be observed as Jupiter’s holy day. Others think that because the moon then is seen (uideatur) at the full, the Ides [Idus] were called Vidus from the verb “to see” [uidere], the letter V being subsequently removed, just as on the other hand what the Greeks call derkéō [“I see”] we call uidere with an added letter V. Some judge that the Ides were called by a Greek name,

360 quidam—362 conputantur [sic] Drc 143. 26–32 374 quod—uidendo] nonnullis inmutatis Drc 143. 32 376 nonnullis—378 demonstret Beda 209. 19–210. 20



DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

380

385

390

tas uocabulo Graeco, οἷον ἀπὸ τοῦ εἴδους, quod ea die plenam speciem luna demonstret. Sunt qui aestimant Idus ab oue Iduli dictas, quam hoc nomine uocant Tusci, et omnibus Idibus Ioui immolatur a flamine. Nobis illa ratio nominis uero proprior aestimatur, ut Idus uocemus diem qui diuidit mensem. Iduare enim Etrusca lingua diuidere est: unde ui­ dua, quasi ualde idua, id est ualde diuisa: aut uidua, id est a uiro diuisa. 26. ‘Vt autem Idus omnes Ioui, ita omnes Kalendas Iunoni tributas et Varronis et pontificalis adfirmat auctoritas. Quod etiam L ­ aurentes patres religionibus seruant, qui et cognomen deae ex caerimoniis addiderunt, Kalendarem Iunonem uocantes, sed et omnibus Kalendis a mense Martio ad Decembrem huic deae Kalendarum die suppli­ cant. ­Romae quoque Kalendis omnibus, praeter quod pontifex minor in curia Calabra rem diuinam Iunoni facit, etiam regina sacrorum, id est regis uxor, porcam uel agnam in regia Iunoni immolat: a qua etiam Iunium Iunonium cognominatum diximus, quod illi deo omnis ingressus, huic deae cuncti Kalendarum dies uidentur adscripti. Cum enim initia mensium maiores nostri ab exortu lunae seruauerint, iure Iunoni

377 uocabulo] nomine B οἷον ἀπὸ τοῦ εἴδους Macr. : οιοναποτοξειδρος P : οιο|ναπουειδοιc B : ομιομααποτουιδυοc σ : ουουcαποτουezaxoc R : a specie, quae apud illos idea uocatur Beda quod ea die om. σ quia B ea die Beda, Macr. : eadem P : eo die δ, cf. 278 plenam] plena P : splendida B lunam P 378 demonstret δ, Beda: demonstrat π extimant P : existimant B idus om. Bac iduli δ, Ce: idoli π quam] quod P : quia δ 379 nomine δ, (noē) S : noem T : nom̄ P iobi R immolantur T : immolabatur B afflammine P : a flumine R : a plamine B 380 uero post nominis B, Macr. : post nobis σPR, Drc proprior] propior codd. aliquot Macrobii æstimat P uocemus σB : uocem P : dicemus R 381 diuisit B iuduare P : eduare B etrusca RP : e trusca S : eutrusca B : ectrosca T : et rustica Ce : ethrusca Cm cap. xxvii lingua om. B unde R : unde Drc 382 id est1] id est est π (·i· ē P, ·i· quas R 381–2 idua—ualde1 om. R idua] uidua P 2 ÷ σ) : est tantum B aut] uel B, Drc id est (·i· ÷) σ 383 omnes idus RP omnes2 om. P kalenda B 384 farronis R et2 om. T affirmat B auctoritas adfirmant P quod] quia R 385 patres] patriis Macr. relegionibus TRP qui] quod B cognomen deae om. P ex] et B celemoniis P : ceremonis R 386 kallandarem P : kalendarum B iononem R kalendis a] kƚ da B kallandis P 387 marcio T : martii P : mr̄ B ad π decbr B : decimbrem RP kallandarum P : kƚ B 387–8 supplicant B : suplicant R : supplicabant π 388 quoque δP : autem σ praeter] propter δ 388–9 pontifici minori curia B 389 kalubra P iononi R fecit B 390 uel agnam om. B regia] relegione R immolat a] immolata/ B : immolant a R : immolabat a π (sed bat et S) qua] quę B 391 iunium σR : ianum P(X), Macr. : om. B iunonum B cognomentum B diximus R quia B deo] de eo Rac omnis BP : omnes σR 392  huic π : huic R kalandarum P uidentur dies σ asscripti BS cum enim P 393 nostri] non̄ T lunę ab exortu P luna B seruauerunt R iunoni iure σ iunonia B



25–6 (377–93)

as if from eidos [“form”], because on that day the moon displays its full face. There are those who hold that the Ides are named after the Idessheep [ouis Idulis], which the Etruscans call by that name, and which on every Ides is sacrificed to Jupiter by his flamen. In my judgement the following explanation is closer to the truth: we call the day that divides the month the Ides because iduare in Etruscan means “to divide”, whence comes “widow” [uidua], as if ualde idua, that is, “thoroughly divided”, or else “widow” as if “divided from her husband” [a uiro diuisa]. 26 ‘That, as all Ides are dedicated to Jupiter, so are all Kalends dedicated to Juno, is confirmed by the authority of both Varro and the pontifices. The Laurentian Fathers also have that amongst their religious practices; they also bestow on the goddess a surname derived from those rituals, calling her “Juno of the Kalends”, but in addition offer this goddess supplication on all the Kalends from March to December. At Rome, too, on every Kalends, besides the lesser pontifex’s sacrifice to Juno in the curia Calabra, the regina sacrorum—that is, the wife of the rex sacrorum—offers a sow and a ewe-lamb to Juno in the Regia. I have already stated that June received the surname “Junonian” from her, because all entries are seen to be assigned to that god, all Kalends to this goddess. For since our ancestors observed the beginnings of the months by the rising of the moon, they rightly apportioned the Kalends to Juno,

379–80 Nobis—382 a uiro diuisa Drc 143. 28–31 209. 16–19



380 diem—382 a uiro diuisa Beda

DISPUTATIO CHORI ET PRAETEXTATI

395

addixerunt Kalendas, lunam ac Iunonem eandem putantes; uel quod luna per aerem eat, unde et Graeci lunam Ἄρτεμιν nuncuparunt, id est ἀερότομιν, quod aera secat, Iuno autem aeris arbitra est, merito initia mensium, id est Kalendas, huic deae consecrauerunt.’

394 addixerant kallandas P lunam R ac—luna om. T ac] autem B putantes R uel om. B quod] quia B : qui P 395 eat etiam codd. Macr. stirpis α : meat Macr. Ἄρτεμιν Macr. : aρτιμιν B : arτημιν P : αρτμην R : αεριτομιν S : aepitomin Smg : αρτομειν T nuncuparent R : dixerunt B ·i· est σ 396 αεριτομεν σ : χαεροτομιν P : aepitomen S mgsup : epoτμην R : aerotom̄ B quia δ aere sæcat P : per aere retat B iono R : In iuno B arbitra aeris est Macr. : arbitra aeris R : aeris arbritrata est BP : arbitrata (arbitracta T) est aeris σ initio R 397 ·i· est σ kallendas P consecrarunt R : consecrauerit B : consecrauit P



26 (394–7)

thinking the moon and Juno to be the same; or, because the moon goes through the air (which is why the Greeks called the moon Artemis, that is aerotomis, because she cuts the air), and Juno is the ruler of the air, the beginnings of the months, that is, the Kalends, were deservedly dedicated by them to this goddess.



COMMENTARY

1. quinquies. After Macrobii MSS of the direct tradition read V.C., i.e. uiri clarissimi; the honorific uir clarissimus, used in the classical period for senators, was retained out of cultural conservatism by the aristocracy of the Western Empire despite having been degraded by the late-antique inflation of titles, alongside the inlustris conferred by high office, in Macrobius’ case the praetorian prefecture of Italy.1 These niceties being no more known, C was taken for consulis and V for the numeral adverb quinquies, corrupted in P to quincics; c for e is paralleled in P by dici for diei at 108, though the correct reading is dei. 4. Deinde idem post plura infert. These words do not come from Ma­ crobius, nor do they make sense as the beginning of a text; see Introduction, IV. 4–5 talium commerciorum. Praetextatus has just explained, at some length, the origin and development of the Saturnalia, ending with the exchange of candles and the offering to Saturn of figurines in place of human beings. 7. fastum. See on 289–92 below. 9. retulerunt. The correct spelling is rettulerunt, but the MSS consistently show the single t in this perfect stem. 10. Epitacus. Not a character in the Saturnalia, but a corruption of Epicadus in Sat. 1. 11. 47, namely the scholar L. Cornelius Epicadus, the freedman of Sulla and his daughter Fausta, who completed his late master’s memoirs and wrote various grammatical and antiquarian works. 11. Aurelius Symmachus. Q. Aurelius Symmachus, consul in 391, the literate pagan aristocrat who had pleaded in vain for the Altar of Vic Cameron (1988), 32–3; see A. H. M. Jones (1964), i. 524.

1



Commentary

tory to remain in the senate-house on the ground of religious tolerance. He is the author of letters in which several of the characters in the Sa­ turnalia appear, for example the admirable doctor Dysarius (3. 37; 9. 44) and the disagreeable Euangelus (6. 7. 2); another is Horus, in Disp called Chorus. On the distant relation between his circle and the intellectual world of the Saturnalia see Cameron (2011b), 353–98. 17. Anni certus modus apud solos Aegyptios semper fuit. The ancient Egyptian solar calendar comprised 365 days without intercalation; it contained twelve thirty-day months called the first to the fourth of their respective season, flood, winter, and summer, the fourth month of summer being followed by five ‘days upon the year’, which following the Greeks we call epagomenal (ἐπαγόμεναι, ‘brought in addition’). Individual month-names, from Thoth for the first month of flood to Mesore for the fourth month of summer, are barely attested before the period of Persian rule, but were standard in classical times and have been retained, in Coptic and Arabic, by the Coptic Church. An attempt in 238 bc by Ptolemy III to add a sixth epagomenal day failed, at least in the long run;2 his Macedonian subjects did not yet use the Egyptian calendar, and the native priests were too conservative. The reform was imposed on Alexandria by Augustus in the 20s bc, and gradually spread to the mainland; many astronomers, however, continued to use the unreformed calendar, which allowed a simpler calculation of days elapsed between two observations. Plutarch, Numa 18. 7 reports a theory that the Egyptian year contained first one month, then four; the latter will be a misunderstanding of the seasonal reckoning. 18. dispari numero, pari errore notabat. This is nonsense, the result of a scribe’s omitting aliarum gentium before dispari and corrupting nutabat to notabat.3 Macrobius wrote: ‘[that] of other nations vacillated with a different count but equal error’. hinc. Macrobius wrote et ut contentus sim referendo, ‘and that I may be content citing’, in more natural English ‘to confine myself to (citing)’; P has huic, dative singular of the near demonstrative (‘this’), which does not fit the sentence, but is palaeographically very close to hinc, which at a pinch makes sense; ‘and hence let me be content to cite’.

See Bennett (2011), 178–86. The corruption recalls the spelling motare for mutare frequent in Irish manuscripts; the excerptor may not have understood that he was changing the sense. 2 3



Commentary

19–20, 23. Arcades annum suum tribus mensibus explicabant. Four months according to Plutarch, Numa 18. 6. Both statements are absurd: see Trümpy (1997), 153–8. 21. Incipit 〈Disputatio Chori et Praetextati〉. From the syntactical incoherence of Incipit anni ordo apud aegyptios primus inuentus, ut refert Macrobius Theodosius it is evident that after Incipit a title has been lost; in consequence those words, in both the Sirmond group and C, are written in capital letters. No title being presented in the direct tradition, Ó Cróinín supplied that used by Bede, De temporum ratione 12, ‘ut in disputatione Chori et Praetextati legimus’ (p. 206, l. 3 Jones), ‘in praefata Chori et Praetextati disputatione, unde et ista decerpsimus, qui scire uult inueniet’ (208. 84–5); the latter passage points to a title under which the work could be found, not an arbitrary descriptor.4 Rather than postulate an incipit in the Jarrow copy of the Computus Hibernicus, one might suppose an entry in the contents-list. ‘Chorus’, in the Saturnalia Horus, is the ‘Horus philosophus, uita atque eruditione praecipuus’ commended by Symmachus (Epistulae 2. 39) to Nicomachus Flavianus (another participant in the Saturnalia, who in 394 would be made consul by the usurper Eugenius); however, Macrobius would not have learnt from that source that he came from Egypt (though his name suggests it, being that of a major Egyptian god) and before turning to Cynic philosophy had been a boxer (Sat. 1. 7. 3; 7. 7. 8; 7. 13. 17). He is commonly identified with the Egyptian Horus, son of Bales, who, as Libanius informed Maximus, prefect of Egypt, was victorious (in what discipline we are not told) at the ‘Olympic’ games of Antioch in 364, and whose brother Phanes was allegedly robbed of the prize in his own event;5 since as Kaster ((2011a), i, p. xxxv n. 31) observes, Macrobius is unlikely to have known (let alone read through) Libanius’ correspondence, one would need to suppose that the boxer turned philosopher, following in the footsteps of Cleanthes,6 and as

4 The change of word-order, in an ancient or medieval title, makes no difference. It is of course possible that the title was Bede’s own invention, replacing e.g. anni ordo secundum Macrobium lost by haplography in the archetype. 5 See Libanius, Epistulae 1274–5 (Maximus as prefect), 1278–9 (Horus’ victory); thats the prefect is Maximus of Raphia, modern Rāfa ḥ, dated to 364 by the index of Athanasius’ Festal Letters (ll. 439–40 Martin–Albert) and not Maximus of Nicaea, modern İznik, in 355 (l. 326), is proved by the coincidence with the Antiochene Olympics, which were held (like the modern games, and unlike those of Olympia) in Julian leap-years: Downey (1937), 148 n. 22. 6 See Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers 7. 168.

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Commentary

some said Pythagoras,7 had enjoyed a fame that lasted into Macrobius’ youth. He does not enter the discussion till 307. 23–4. Carnenses. No witness to Disp has the correct form Acarnanes, for Bede’s Acarnanas sex mensium at Epistula ad Pleguinam 11 (311. 5 Jones), Dtr 37 (250. 12), comes from Augustine, De ciuitate Dei 15. 12 (CCSL 48. 469. 39). Again the tale is incredible, though only four Acarnanian names are attested (Trümpy 1997, 203); however, it is conceivable that the semester was a living concept as in certain other Greek calendars, like the misseri in Iceland. Acarnania lies to the north of the Corinthian Gulf at its western end and to the south of the Ambracian Gulf. 25–6. Romani auctore Romulo decem habuisse mensibus ordinatum. Habuisse is not an inappropriately used historic infinitive, but an unassimilated remnant of Macrobius’ sentence, non igitur mirum in hac uarietate Romanos quoque olim auctore Romulo annum suum decem habuisse mensibus ordinatum, ‘It is therefore no surprise that amidst this variation the Romans too of old, following Romulus, had their year arranged in ten months.’ In P habuisse was turned into the finite verb habuisset, in the wrong number, mood, and tense; Ddt, in which the bald notices about the Arcadians and ‘Carnenses’ are expanded into reconstructions of their years, restored coherence by adding the object annum and the finite verb comprobantur. See Introduction, p. 31.8 Against the notion that Rome ever had a ten-month year see Rüpke (1995), 192–202. 28. trigenorum. The classical form of the distributive, triceni, still used by Macrobius, gave way in much medieval Latin to trigeni, the normal form in Disp (though P often writes trieni); the appearance of trice- in Bede and Drc is due rather to correction than to conservation. The old o- and ā-stem genitive plural in -um, generally replaced in classical Latin by the pronominal endings -orum -arum but often retained in numerals, though preserved at 145, has been eliminated here and at 167, as again at 310, where the extant MSS all opt for the feminine; however, the correct gender is C’s masculine.9 Ibid. 8. 47 as transmitted (Pythagoras the first scientific boxer), cf. Lucian, Gallus 8, Augustine, Epist. 137. 3, 12, but the identification cannot stand: see now Amato (2010), 307–9 n. 708 on fr. 64. 8 Plutarch, Numa 18. 2 recounts that in Romulus’ day the Romans had a 360day year of irregular months; at 18. 5 these months are twelve in number, January and February being eleventh and twelfth till Numa moved them, but at 18. 6 he is said to have added them to an originally ten-month year (see too 18. 6–19. 1). 9 In strict classical usage, dies is feminine only in the context of appointing a day, otherwise masculine; even an appointed day is masculine when considered in its own 7

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Commentary

30–3. qui … Kalendarum. Each Roman month had three marker-days, the Kalends on the 1st, the Nones on the 5th or 7th, the Ides on the 13th or 15th; all other days were counted backwards from the next marker-day, using the same inclusive count that reckoned the Nones as the ninth day before the Ides and not as we should say the eighth. The day after the Ides was thus the seventeenth before the Kalends in the 31-day months and the eighteenth in the 30-day months; however, a change of idiom during the Imperial period turned ‘seventeenth before the Kalends’ into ‘seventeenth of the Kalends’, so that Kalendae covered the entire period from the day after the Ides onwards (see 105 -6 ad n.). While ab Idibus—decimum septimum could be translated ‘the Kalends returned on the seventeenth day after the Ides’, ad octavum decimum—Kalendarum is unambiguous. 30. hodie. This suggests it was not so in Romulus’ day; but Macrobius wrote hodieque, ‘even today’. The same error in l. 51. 38–9. tam regia … mutabantur. Macrobius wrote tam in regia curiisque atque10 flaminum domibus laureae ueteres nouis laureis mutabantur, ‘both in the Regia and the Curiae, and in the houses of the flamines, the old laurels were [used to be] changed for new laurels’; again a coherent sentence had been reduced to ungrammatical gibberish. What the excerptor meant perhaps not even he knew; what he has said is either ‘both the royal spear [curis, said to be a Sabine word] and were changed by [or ‘for’] the laurels of the flamines’ or ‘both the Regia were changed by the cares and laurels of the flamines’. The Regia (sc. domus) was the reputed former royal palace on the Sacred Way, which became the religious (not residential) headquarters of the Pontifex Maximus; the Curiae were the cult-centres of the thirty wards (curiae) into which Rome had once been divided; the flamines were the priests who served particular gods, e.g. the flamen Dialis, the priest of Jupiter. 40. ad annum et per annum. Again it is unclear what the excerptor thought he meant; Macrobius wrote ad Annam Perennam, ‘to Anna Perenna’, that is to her grove by the Tiber, for an uninhibited popular celebration on 15 March; see Ovid, Fasti 3. 523–696.

right (e.g. in stating its date), not in relation to its appontment. From Silver times the feminine encroached on the masculine in the singular, but not the plural; see Fraenkel (1917). However, R imports the feminine at 263, where Macrobius used the explicit masculine singulorum tricenorumque. 10 For atque instead of quam as correlative to tam see Valentinian III, Novel 9 (24 June 440) tam militum atque foederatorum.

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Commentary

42. cum ita auspicabantur. Macrobius wrote comitia auspicabantur, ‘they used to inaugurate the voting assemblies’; not understanding this, the excerptor turned comitia into cum ita, ‘when/since/though thus’. The verb (which after cum ought to have been made subjunctive) is variously corrupted: R has the future, P substitutes ‘were looked at’, SG have a non-word. 46–72. The two explanations are also given by Plutarch, Numa 19. 1–4, and ascribed respectively to Greeks and Romans by John Lydus, De mensibus 4. 64, p. 118. 5–13 Wuensch. 47–8. a spuma … creditur. The foam invented in Greek myth to account for the imported name Ἀφροδίτη, on which see West (2000). 51. Romani nominis. Nomen may in Latin mean the thing called by the name; cf. nomen Latinum as a collective term for the Latin peoples. 53. antiquos a Venere dixisse. So CB, and with a different word-order R, misrepresenting Macrobius Sat. 1. 12. 12 sed Cingius … ait imperite quosdam opinari Aprilem mensem antiquos a Venere dixisse; they said so ignorantly, since there was no feast-day or important sacrifice in her honour. Π, with yet another word-order, restores sense by adding non before dixisse. 56. Varro. The polymath M. Terentius Varro; the source is taken to be his Antiquitates humanarum rerum 17 fr. 2 Mirsch = fr. 409 GRF (p. 355). 56–7. Saliorum. The Salii were a company of priests who in the course of their processions in honour of Mars danced, whence their name (salire ‘to leap’), and also sang hymns in a Latin far too ancient to be understood in classical times, let alone reliably copied in our extant fragments. 57. iam. Macrobius wrote ut; ‘there is no praise of Venus as there is of the other heaven-dwellers’. Once again the added matter in P is rendered incomprehensible by corruption. 58. Cinnio. So for Macrobius’ Cingio, itself a corruption of Cincio, i.e. L. Cincius, a grammarian who appears to have written shortly before Varro, in his book De fastis, fr. 6 GRF (p. 374). 66. uerno. Although Macrobius nowhere exhibits either the adverbial use of uerno for uere or uerno tempore attested in the elder Cato and the elder Pliny, or the substantivized uernum used from Tertullian onwards, parallel to the aestiuum and hibernum that have yielded e.g. Catalan estiu and hivern,11 the former interpretation seems less strained than taking uerno with mense, ‘in the spring month, that is this one’. 11 Cf. French hiver; Spanish invierno and Italian inverno show interference from infernum. At Comm. 1. 6. 60 aestiuo, following uerno tempore, must of course be understood as aestiuo tempore.

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Commentary

69. Ἀνθεστηριών. The eighth month of the Athenian year, being in principle the second lunation after the winter solstice, hence closer to February than April. 70. Verrius Flaccus. M. Verrius Flaccus, the leading grammarian of the early Augustan period. 72. causam … praetereundum est. An archaic construction for the more normal causa praetereunda est, restored by B, whereas G’s causa is a mere error. 73. Fuluius Nobilior. M. Fulvius Nobilior, consul 189 bc, a successful general and cultured man (patron of the poet Ennius), dedicated a temple to Hercules and the Muses, in which he set up a copy of the Roman calendar (the Fasti) with commentary. 74. maiores iunioresque. The true division, at the age of 45, was into seniores and iuniores, but Fulvius’ etymology (already quoted at Varro, De lingua Latina 6. 33 ‘Tertius a maioribus Maius, quartus a iunioribus Iunius’; cf. Plutarch, Numa 19. 5) required seniores to be replaced by maiores, as in natu maior ‘older (than)’. Macrobius accordingly wrote maiores iunioresque, but iunioresque was corrupted in the direct tradition of Disp to the regular antonym minoresque, which was also an easy minim error; by contrast, Isidore, Etym. 5. 33. 8–9 correctly distinguished the pairings: ‘Maius dictus a Maia matre Mercurii, uel a maioribus natu, qui erant principes reipublicae. nam hunc mensem maioribus, sequentem uero minoribus consecrauerunt. (§ 9) unde et Iunius dicitur. antea enim populus in centurias seniorum et iuniorum diuisus erat.’ However, the indirect tradition preserved the correct word, albeit in paraphrase: Ce, p. 94. 15–16 ‘Maius Iunius a maioribus et iunioribus populi dicti{s} quos Romulus ad consiliandum et ad bellandum regni [!] constituit’ (whence Cm 17. 2 Iunius ex iunioribus, and other texts cited by Warntjes (2010a), 58): Bede, Dtr 12, p. 206. 19–21 ‘Maium tertium, quartum Iunium posuit, in honorem uidelicet maiorum ac iuniorum12 in quos diuisit populum, ut altera pars consilio altera armis rem publicam tueretur’; Drc 29, p. 141. 15–18 ‘Maius a Maia matre Mercorii nominatus est, uel ex maioribus populi, Iunius uero ex iunioribus populi natu, ut Macrobius dicit: Romulus uero posteaquam populum in maiores minoresque diuisit … sequentem uero Iunium uocauit’.

Jones’s iuniorem, not corrected at CCSL 123B 320. 23, comes from Giles (1843–4), vi. 172; the true reading, which should have been restored even against the MSS, stands in other editions: Sichardus (1529), fol. 21r; Noviomagus (1537), fol. XLIv; Hervagius ii. 79, PL 90. 350 a. 12

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Commentary

76. Aliter. A regular way in commentaries of introduing an alternative explanation. 77. Tusculanos. The people of Tusculum, now Frascati. 78. Cingius. Fr. 8 GRF (p. 375). 79. quam Vulcani dicit uxorem. There were certainly invocations of Maia Vulcani and similar entities listed by Gellius, Noctes Atticae 13. 23. 3, but it was disputed even in antiquity whether these were consorts or abstract qualities. Maia, however, also spelt Maiia and pronounced [̍majja], was conflated with the mother of Hermes/Mercury, in Greek Μαῖα, who ought to have been translated Maea. 79–80. Vulcanale. Correctly Vulcanalis (so Macrobius); but the excerptor has made flamen neuter like other nouns in men, including flamen ‘blast’, ‘blowing’, ‘breath’, used in Christian writing for the Holy Spirit. 80. Kalendis Maiis. In Disp, as in Macrobius, the names of months are still adjectival, agreeing with mensis expressed or understood, and also with the marker-days; we may say ‘the Kalends of May’, following medieval usage, but here, as in classical Latin, they are strictly ‘the May Kalends’. Piso. L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, consul 133 bc, Roman annalist (FRHist 9 F44). 84. Cornelius Labeo. An author on Roman and Etruscan religion, perhaps of the late third century ad; this and the next citation are fr. 5 in Mastandrea (1979), 231. 86. eandem. ‘The same’ (accusative singular feminine), which makes no sense, is a corruption of Macrobius’ aedem, referring to the Bona Dea’s temple on the Aventine, due perhaps to conflation in the source with Sat. 1. 12. 29 ‘quo Maiam eandem esse et terram et Bonam Deam diximus’. Bonae Deae. The Good Goddess; on whose identity Macrobius cites speculations omitted by the excerptor. She was widely worshipped in Rome and Latium; the aristocratic and all-female state ritual in early December, conducted not in her temple but in the home of a leading magistrate, is not typical of her cult overall. See Staples (1998), 11–51. 88. Cingius. Cincius fr. 9 GRF (p. 375). Latinos. The peoples of Latium, speakers of Latin, of which the language commonly called by that name was in origin no more than the Roman dialect. 90. Arcinos. Macrobius has Aricinos, the people of Aricia (modern Ariccia), the centre of the Latin alliance that broke with Rome after the fall of the monarchy.

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Commentary

Praenestinos. The people of Praeneste (modern Palestrina), of whose dialect a few records remain. 91. Nisus. A grammarian of the late first century ad; this passage is fr. 8 Mazzarino (pp. 340–1). 93. et haec appellatio mensis apud maiores diu permansit. This well enough continues quod Iunonius apud Latinos antea uocatus, but is quite incoherent after P’s adeo ut, sicut Nisus in Commentariis fastorum dicit; which is followed in Macrobius by apud maiores quoque nostros haec appellatio mensis diu manserit (‘so that … this name long remained …’). 94–5. Iunoni Monetae. Juno Moneta, whose temple on the Capitol may have been on the site now occupied by S. Maria in Araceli; the name, supposedly ‘She who warns’ but perhaps rather ‘Memory’, gave rise from the striking of coins there to ‘money’, ‘mint’, and their cognates in other languages. 96. Iunio Bruto. L. Iunius Brutus, reputed leader of the republican revolution against Tarquin the Proud; the traditional date for his consulate is 509 bc. 97–8. deae Carnae. Carna was the goddess of hinges and health, powers bestowed on her by Janus as compensation for rape; see Ovid, Fasti 6. 101–68, and for her connection with beans 6. 169–82. 98 uoti reus. In Latin, the obligation to fulfil a vow accompanying a granted prayer is equated with that to pay a penalty upon conviction; the person concerned is said to be guilty of the vow (uoti reus or uoti damnatus). 99–100. Fabiae. Macrobius wrote Fabariae. In modern Rome fave are a speciality in May, particularly on the first; but in Republican times 1 June must sometimes have wandered into their season. 104. Iulii Caesaris. A late-antique style; in his own day C. Iulius Caesar was normally C. Caesar as at 232 and 236 (praenomen and cognomen as commonly for nobiles, men of consular family) or simply Caesar, posthumously Diuus Iulius. dictatoris. Caesar was no longer dictator, being dead; the office is used as an identifier, as often by Tacitus, who applies it even to the time before his dictatorship (Ab excessu diui Augusti 12. 4 cf. 13. 3). 104–5. Marco … consule. Mark Antony was consul in 44 bc, the year of Caesar’s murder and deification. 105–6. The precise relation of a.d. IIII Eid. Quinct. C. Mario VI L. Valerio Flacco coss. in the Roman calendar to 12 July 100 bc in the retrojected Julian calendar cannot be determined.

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Commentary

ad. The excerptor (like early Renaissance printers) failed to recognize the abbreviation a.d. for ante diem. The oldest form of the date, preserved by Macrobius, is ante diem quartum Idus (or rather, in Republican spelling, Eidus)13 Quin(c)tilis, where is is the historically correct accusative plural ending of i-stems (Indo-European *ins), later replaced by es from the nominative plural and from consonant stems; in Imperial Latin ante diem was often omitted, giving quartum Idus Quintiles (or Iulias), in which the no longer understood accusatives were liable to replacement by the ablative and genitive respectively, quarto Iduum Iulia­ rum, ‘on the fourth of the July Ides’, as if all the days after the Nones up to the Ides were themselves Ides (see 30–3 n.). 108. The senatusconsultum is commonly dated to 8 bc, when Augustus corrected the erroneous application of his adoptive father’s calendar (ll. 294–303 with nn.); but see Bennett, ‘Roman Dates’ for evidence that the change had occurred earlier.14 subieciam. A portmanteau of Macrobius’ perfect subieci, which speaks from the time of reading, and the future subiciam, which speaks from the time of writing.15 Cf. on 329. 108–9. Imperator Caesar Augustus. Imperator, ‘commander’, previously either a descriptor or an honorific following the name of a general so saluted by his troops, was taken as a praenomen by C. Caesar Divi f. (whom moderns often call Octavian, a name he never used), apparently in 38 bc to cover up a defeat; originally personal to him, it became an official title prefixed to Caesar from Vespasian onwards. Caesar, rightly used by Tiberius and Caligula,16 was usurped by Claudius, becoming thereafter an imperial name. Augustus, bestowed on Imp. Caesar as a cognomen by the senate in 27 bc, was used by all principes (‘First Citizens’) after him, though by Tiberius with reluctance. R has the inverted 13 Down to the early second century bc Latin distinguished ei, either a diphthong [ei̯] or a long vowel [ı:] intermediate between e and i (cf. Danish tre or Southern English bid), from long i [i:]. By the end of the century only the latter remained, but the spelling continued for some time to compete with (even in places where it had no right to be); Eid(us) long remained in use. 14 The translation ‘decree of the Senate’ for senatusconsultum is traditional but inaccurate, since in Republican times such a resolution was no more than advice (consultum) to magistrates who were free to ignore it, though after the legislative assemblies had ceased to meet in the first century ad it took on the force of law. 15 Our excerptor can hardly have known that subieciam would have been an acceptable spelling of the future in late-Republican times. 16 Since Tiberius was Augustus’ adopted son and Caligula the son of Tiberius’ adopted son Germanicus.

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Commentary

word-order of Vergil, Aen. 6. 792 Augustus Caesar, against the regular Caesar Augustus of the decree and of Luke 2: 1; such inversions are known in prose from the late Republic onwards. 109. primum consulatum inierit. On 19 Sextilis 43 bc, following his march on Rome. 110. triumphos tres in Vrbem intulerit. On 13–15 Sextilis 29 bc, for the pacification of Dalmatia in 34 bc, for the victory over Cleopatra and her ally Antony at Actium in 31 bc, and for their fnal defeat in 30 bc. 110–1. ex Ianiculo … fidem. During the march on Rome, two legions recalled from Africa joined forces with a third to guard the city and the Janiculum hill with its treasury; when Octavian appeared on the scene, in defiance of their commanders they rallied to him. 111. fidem. For the semantic development of this word (first ‘guarantee’, not excluding ‘power’, then ‘trustworthiness’, finally ‘trust’), see Fraen­ kel (1916). At Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, vi/1. 664. 77–80 Fraen­kel observes that when soldiers are said to follow a commander’s fides (e.g. Caesar, De bello Gallico 5. 20. 1; 5. 56. 3) the sense of mutual loyalty is present besides that of protection, but the pairing with auspicia casts the emphasis on the latter: the favourable auspices vouchsafed the commander are the guarantee, protecting his troops, that he has the gods’ approval for his campaign. Cf. Tacitus, Germania 10. 3 auspiciorum adhuc fides exigitur, ‘the guarantee of auspices is still required’. 111–2.. sed … redacta sit. In 30 bc, though it was governed through viceroys (praefecti) as a personal possession and was not integrated into the provincial system till Diocletian. 114. placere. Oratio obliqua is the standard form in senatus consulta (‘[Resolved] that it pleases the Senate, i.e. the Senate wills’); placuit in ΠCe is an uncomprehending trivialization. 114–5. plebi scitum. A vote of the plebs (not merely the common people but all those who did not belong to the patrician gentes, from the very poor to the very rich), which from 287 bc had equal force with a lex passed by the centuriate assembly, and became the normal mode of legislation until the early first century ad. Plebi is the old fifth-declension genitive of plebes, which remained in use beside plebis from third-declension plebs. 115. Pacubio. Correctly Pacuuio, but since all MSS exhibit b for u I have retained this spelling. 116–8. See Suetonius, Domitianus 13. 3: having taken the name Germanicus from his German victories, he renamed September, the month

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Commentary

of his accession, Germanicus, and October, that of his birth, Domitianus. In fact September had already been renamed Germanicus by Caligula in memory of his father (Suet. Caligula 15. 1), but the name had not outlasted his overthrow.17 Plutarch, Numa 19. 7 also mentions Domitian alone. 120–1. cautio … reseruauit. This is not quite true: in 192 Commodus, having bestowed a series of absurd titles on himself, imposed his name thus extended on all twelve months; but on pr. K. Lucias, i.e. 31 December, he was assassinated. hominis. So most MSS of Macrobius, though the true reading is ominis, ‘of the (evil) omen’. 125–30. Sed cum … inueniretur. Macrobius, who here is accurately transcribed, appears to have supposed that one 304-day year followed immediately upon another until a halt to the sequence of months was called (presumably by King Romulus) in order for the state of the sky to catch up with that appropriate to the next month due; in practice, since it would have been obvious at the end of December that conditions in the Roman countryside did not resemble those of early March, this amounts to saying that between one year and the next calendrical reckoning was suspended. Accordingly Ddt states ‘Alii uero lx et unus dies qui superfuerunt sine nomine mensium fuerunt apud Romanos in tempore Romuli’, where 61 days are the difference between Romulus’ and Caesar’s years; a variant is ‘lx dies’, equivalent to two default months. Solinus 1. 37 states that the old reckoning was out of step with the moon, but so must any sequence of 30-day months be. 126. lunae rationibus. It is difficult to find a translation other than ‘phases of the moon’, although the reference of the Latin expression (found thrice in Servius’ commentary on the Aeneid) is not visual but mathematical, to the relative positions of sun, moon, and earth. 131. Numa. The pious and peace-loving intellectual who according to tradition succeeded the bluff soldier-statesman Romulus. 131–2. sub caelo rudi et saeculo adhuc inpolito. So not only the MSS of Disp, but those of Macrobius, as if the early Roman climate had been raw; editors of Macrobius have adopted the correction saeculo rudi et adhuc impolito, first made by Johannes Meursius in Johannes Isacius

By contrast Tiberius had blocked a proposal to call September Tiberius and October (after his mother) Liuius, and when the Senate urged that he might at least let his birth-month November be renamed after him replied ‘And what will you do if there are thirteen Caesars?’ (Suetonius, Tiberius 26 2; Cassius Dio, Roman History 57 18. 2). 17

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Commentary

Pontanus’ Leiden edition of 1597. The corruption was already established when Disp was first written. 141. lustrari autem eo mense ciuitatem necesse erat. For the purificatory rituals see Ovid, Fasti 2. 29–46. 142. diis Manibus. The shades of the dead, who were honoured in the Parentalia from the 13th to the 21st; the name is commonly understood to mean, euphemistically, the Good Gods. 147. ante Pythagoram. There was a tradition, which Macrobius knew to be chronologically impossible, that Numa had learnt arcane wisdom from Pythagoras, one of whose alleged teachings was that odd numbers were male and even female. Pythagoras, who flourished in the mid-sixth century bc, originated in Samos but settled in Croton (the modern Crotone); but his life is enveloped in legend, and his doctrines are hardly to be distinguished from those attributed to him and his followers by later writers (who do not always agree). 152–9. This is the first Roman calendar positively known to have existed; it lasted until 46 bc. The true date of its introduction is controversial; Michels (1967), 126–30 ascribes it to the Decemvirs, but others have invoked Cn. Flavius; cf. Oakley (1997–2005), iii. 611–3. 154. conputabantur. The correct reading in Macrobius is a.d. septimum decimum Kalendas conputabatur, ‘a 17th before the Kalends was counted’; however, the MSS of Disp, which as we have seen show no awareness of the ante diem construction, all point to the plural, even though it lacks a subject, hence the nonsensical translation. 160. Pampilii. A corruption of Macrobius’ Pompilii. 161–2. interkalarem mensem. Here of course interkalaris is a descriptor, but that (or the second-declension variant interkalarius) is also the regular name; Plutarch’s assertion that it was called Mercedinus (Numa 18. 4) or Mercedonius (Caesar 59. 3) finds no support in Latin sources. 162–72. Nam et … appellitabant. A like tale, of an eight-year cycle ending in a year of 444 days, is told by Solinus 1. 42. No such cycle was ever put into practice; the report seems to be a misunderstanding of the octaeteris or eight-year cycle described in Geminus 8. 27–33, with three separate thirty-day intercalations in years 3, 5, and 8. Whether even this was ever anywhere a civic reality is doubtful: all Greek cities had calendars of their own, which were often out of step with each other, did not always keep to an alternation of thirty- and twentynine-day months, and in some cases may have been governed by observation rather than calculation. Although we have far more information about Athens than about any other city, we can no more translate

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Commentary

Athenian dates into retrojected Julian ones than we can those from the Roman republic, unless assisted by external evidence such as an eclipse. 172. ἐμβολισμούς. Despite the incompleteness of V and the disorder of P, this substantive (‘intercalations’) seems to be the transmitted reading in Disp; Macrobius, however, wrote the adjective ἐμβολίμους, ‘intercalary’, parallel to the participle ὑπερβαίνοντας, ‘surpassing’. 174. dies unus … additum. Macrobius wrote fugit eos diem unum … additum a se, ‘it escaped them that one day had been added by them’; the excerptor, deliberately or accidentally, wrote fugit eos dies unus, ‘the one day escaped them’, but after the parenthesis sicut supra admonuimus failed to adjust the case of the participle. 175–6. numerus atque ordo. A hendiadys, ‘the arrangement based on this number’. 176–85. sed nondum … creuerant. It is hardly to be believed that the Romans ever employed the cycle described here by Macrobius (whose exposition requires interkalaribus to be understood with annis), namely years respectively of 355, 377, 355, 378, 355, 377, 355, and 378 days, with or without the modification that the third cycle should have only 66 intercalary days (presumably comprising years of 355, 355, 377, 355, 377, 355, 355, and 377 days); at best, for certain periods of the Republic the pontifices did not allow the year to depart too far from astronomical truth, even if they paid less attention to it than the Greeks (Cicero, II Verr. 2. 129). 179. octauo quoque anno. Here and at 141 the construction is used as in modern languages, not with the usual inclusive count; see below on 296–8. 180. uertentis anni. Cf. 245; annus uertens is a twelvemonth reckoned from any starting-point. 187. quoniam … erat. As is even more clearly indicated by the monthnames from Quintilis to December; but January, dedicated to the god of doorways, fits more naturally into first than into eleventh position.18 Once the ten-month year has been discarded, there is no satisfactory solution, unless we will suppose that at some point it was decided to honour Janus by renaming a month after him, which thereafter had to come first. 18 Ovid, having at Fasti 1. 43–4 made Numa place January and February before the other months, states at 2. 47–54 that though January was always first, February was last until the Decemvirs.

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Commentary

Despite certain new-year-like rituals on 1 March, in classical times the year manifestly began on 1 January, being celebrated by the giving of new year’s gifts (strenae, handsels) and other festivities; it does so in the late-Republican Fasti Antiates Maiores and from the silence of our sources must have done so in those of M. Nobilior. Michels (1967), 97–9 argues that the change from March to January was made when the preJulian calendar was introduced,19 and rightly distinguishes the calendrical new year from the beginning of the consular year, which, having in the fourth century been 1 Quintilis and in the late third and early second 15 March, became 1 January in 153 bc; similarly New Year’s Day was celebrated in medieval and early modern Europe on 1 January even when the millésime or year-number used for dating changed on some other day (as in England and Ireland until 1752, in Scotland until 1600). 188–9. Nam … dies. Not true: in Athens, for instance, where the year was meant to begin at the first new moon after the summer solstice, intercalation was usually effected by repeating the sixth month (Poseideon), and though other months are attested, they do not include the twelfth (Skirophorion). However, the single leap-day of the Alexan­­drian calendar was added at the end of the year, like those of the Fatimid or tabular Islamic calendar, the Iranian solar calendar, the Bahá’í calendar, and the National Calendar of India. 189. Glaucippus. Not otherwise known; the name is Athenian, though not exclusively so. Felix Jacoby, commenting on Fragmente der griechi­ schen Historiker 363 F 1, cites evidence from Dinsmoor (1931), 387 that in the later months of the Athenian year the last (‘old and new’) day might be repeated; however, so might other days, and in other months.20 Perhaps the root of the misunderstanding lay in a statement that Meton’s nineteen-year cycle, which was made known in 433–2 bc and may or may not have had a practical effect, ran from 13 Skirophorion (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 12. 36. 2). 191–4. sed post … subiungebant. This is not quite accurate; see Michels (1967), 161–4. Intercalation followed either the Terminalia on the 23rd or the day after it, and the remaining days of February were omitted; the intercalary month contained 27 days. Since the Regifugium, which 19 Less plausibly Brind’Amour (1983), 217–27 credits the Decemvirs with the opposite change. 20 Thus, in 271–0 bc, 9 Elaphebolion (the ninth month) was intercalated four times (SEG 14. 65, 4); in 122–1 bc, 8 Boedromion (the third month) was repeated in order to bring the actual calendar in line with the theoretical: see Meritt and Traill (1974), no. 64, l. 4.

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Commentary

in common years was 24 February, in leap-year 23 Interkalaris, fell in both cases on a.d. VI K. Mart., and since the sequence of nundinal letters continued from A on pr. K. Mart. to B on K. Mart. in both common and intercalary years (being broken in the latter at the beginning of Interkalaris), it could superficially appear that the last five days of the intercalary month pertained to February; this is disproved not only by the Fasti Antiates maiores, a fragment of which exhibits, to the right of December entries, those for 23 and 24 Interkalaris, respectively E R(egifugium) and F, but by Asconius’ commentary on Cicero’s speech Pro Milone, which states that Pompey was made consul V Kal. Mart. mense intercalario (§ 31, p. 36. 4 Clark). 200–2. Yet even after Lepidus’ revolt, the supposedly ill-omened coincidence recurred in 52 bc, in which the civil disorder that had prevented the election of consuls for the year reached its peak with the assassination of the radical gang-leader P. Clodius by supporters of his conservative counterpart T. Annius Milo. The only evidence for calendrical adjustment to avoid nundinae on 1 January comes from the early years of the Julian calendar, in 41 bc, when according to Cassius Dio 48. 33. 4 a day was intercalated to prevent such coincidence in the following year, and ‘obviously’ cancelled out later, by suppression of a leap-day; whether this bears any relation to the pontifical misinterpretation of Caesar’s instructions is not clear. 202. Lepidiano tumultu. In 78 bc M. Aemilius Lepidus, one of the two consuls for the year, attempted to amend the newly dead Sulla’s constitutional reforms; on being thwarted by his colleague Q. Lutatius Catulus, he put himself at the head of a revolt by the dispossessed of Etruria, which was not put down till the following year. 205. Seruii Tullii. Servius Tullius was reputed the sixth king, and a friend of the people who strengthened the democratic element in the constitution; the poet Accius (late 2nd–early 1st c. bc) made a character in a fabula praetexta (Roman history play) called Brutus (i.e. L. Iunius Brutus, cf. 74) speak of Tullius qui libertatem ciuibus stabiliuerat, ‘Tullius, who had established freedom for the citizens’ (v. 674 Dangel). He was assassinated in a coup d’État staged by Tarquinius Superbus. 205–7. It was Hellenistic Greeks, not Romans, who celebrated their birthdays every month. 207. celebri notitia. Literally ‘with crowded conspicuousness’. 207–9. ueritos … cauisse. The accusative and infinitive ueritos … cauisse indicates that this is merely a report, a frequent device in Latin, but the scribe of π felt a need for an explicit verb of saying after cauisse. However,

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Commentary

instead of adding the singular dicitur (‘it is said that they took care’), he inserted the plural dicuntur (‘they are said to have taken care’) without changing ueritos into ueriti; σ substituted the finite verb ueriti sunt (‘they feared’), producing an asyndetic parataxis. For its part B, which did not add dicuntur, changed ueritos ergo into ueriti erant, yielding the sense ‘they had feared to take precautions’. 208–9. desiderium. Desiderium is especially the desire to have back what one once had. 209. regis. The absence of an article in Latin allows regis to mean both ‘the king’ (Servius Tullius), which would have been the case under Tarquin, and ‘a king’, after his expulsion; throughout Republican history, both factual and legendary, it is the ruling élite that abhors the supremacy of an individual, not the masses. 209–15. cauisse … fuisse. This is total rubbish. No priestly juggle could avoid this coincidence: in the course of a common pre-Julian year the Nones fell in every place of the nundinal cycle except that of 7 January, and in an intercalary year, according as the extra month was added after 23 or 24 February, in every place except that of 1 January or the 8th respectively. Nor does the day on which the year overflows (i.e. exceeds the proper length of 354 days) float at anyone’s pleasure; on Macrobius’ showing (1. 13. 5 ~ 145–6) it is 29 January, a fixed and integral part of Numa’s second calendar, and not the additional day that sometimes divided Kalendae Interkalares from the Terminalia, even though that in itself might be regarded as intercalary. 211. festis. Neither this reading (festivals overseen by magistrates) nor factis (deeds, achievements) makes sense; Macrobius wrote fastis, that is to say the calendar, overseen by the pontifices. cum uellent. That is to say, in whatever year they chose, since its place within the year was determined. 211–2. in medio Terminaliorum uel mensis interkalaris. Equivalent to inter Terminalia et mensem interkalarem, with post-classical uel for et. In medio is as old as Cato, medius with two genitives joined by et is found in Tacitus; some MSS of the Vetus Latina read in medio templi et altaris at Matt. 23: 35. 216. Quando autem primum interkalatum sit uarie refertur. Since intercalation obtains in virtually all lunar calendars other than the Islamic, this amounts to the question when Rome first adopted a lunar calendar (not necessarily that descibed by Macrobius); the likeliest answer is from the outset.

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Commentary

217. Macer … Licinius. C. Licinius Macer, tribune of the plebs 73 bc, radical politician and historian, FRHist 27 F11. Antias. Valerius Antias (first century bc), FRHist 25 F7. 219. Iunius. From Censorinus, De die natali 20. 2 this appears to be the late-second-century-bc antiquarian Iunius Gracchanus, probably the M. Iunius who dedicated a work on Roman magistracies to Atticus’ father and is sometimes identified with the satirist Lucilius’ friend Iunius Congus, who possessed a similar erudition. 220. Varroni. Antiquitates rerum humanarum 16 fr. 5 Mirsch. Tutitanus. C. Sempronius Tuditanus, consul 129 bc, FRHist 10 F1. 221. decemuiros … addiderunt. A Board of Ten (decemuiri, ‘ten men’) supposedy drafted a law-code of ten tables (i.e. tablets) in 451 bc, to which in the next year a second board added two more before attempting to prolong its power and (so the legend ran) provoking its overthrow when the lustful App. Claudius attempted to abduct the maiden Verginia. 222. Cassius. L. Cassius Hemina (first half of second century bc), FRHist 6 F21. His cognomen means, roughly, Halfpint. Fuluius. M. Fulvius Nobilior (see on l. 73). 223. Martium. A corruption in Disp for M’. [= Manium] Acilium, i.e. M’. Acilius Glabrio, consul in 191 bc, in whose term of office war broke out between Rome and the Aetolian League. Fulvius cannot have supposed that intercalation had not previously taken place; rather, Glabrio will have proposed a law to resume intercalation after its abandonment during the Second Punic War (see on 228–9), cf. Michels (1967), 101–3. 223–4. ab urbe condita anno quingentesimo sexagesimo secundo. This implies an epoch of 752 bc. Although years of the City were properly counted from the foundation on 20 April in the pre-Julian calendar (thereafter the 21st, a.d. X K. Mai.), whereas the consular year began in Fulvius’ time on 15 March, on either reckoning the first intercalation made under Glabrio’s law must have taken place towards the end of his term. 224. inito mox bello Italico. Since the outbreak of war preceded the law, mox, as elsewhere in Late Latin, means ‘just after’, even though no instance with the ablative absolute is cited at Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, viii. 1552. 65–1553. 75. Italico is an absurd corruption for Macrobius’ Aetolico; the Italic War, between Rome and her erstwhile allies, also called the Marsic or the Social War, broke out a hundred years later. 225–6. Lucio Pinario et Furio consulibus. The only consul-pair with those names is that of 472 bc (on Varronian chronology), L. Pinarius

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Commentary

Mamercinus Rufus and P. Furius Medullinus Fusus.21 If we can believe in this report, there was already a lunar calendar with intercalation before the Decemvirs, but not necessarily the pre-Julian calendar as we know it. 227. interkalendi. A corruption of interkalandi (restored by the superior learning of S), apparently to match Kalendae (cf. kalendo for Ma­ crobius’ kalando at 357); P, which doubles the l, also has interkallendo at 221–2. relata sint. The perfect subjunctive relata sint (RB, and the α and β2 MSS of Macrobius) is used jussively in imitation of the Greek perfect imperative; cf. in particular Aristotle’s use of εἰρήσθω ‘let [this] have been said’, i.e. stand on record, when changing the subject. So Livy 7. 13. 10 haec dicta sint patribus ‘That is what we have to say [literally: Let these things have been said] to the patricians’, followed immediately by an address to the dictator; Pliny, Natural History 31. 189 haec de sale dicta sint, ‘So much for salt.’ 228. This time is generally understood as the Second Punic War, after which the Roman calendar remained several years ahead of the sun, and of the retrojected Julian calendar at the time: the solar eclipse that by our reckoning took place on 14 March 190 bc was dated 11 July (a.d. V Eid. Quinct.) by the Roman calendar. Compensatory intercalation had reduced the discrepancy to two and a half months by 21 June to 3 September (a.d. III Non. Sept.) 168 bc, when the sun was again eclipsed. By 153 bc, when the new consuls, required by the military situation to depart immediately for Spain, could not be allowed to await the Ides of March, but were obliged to take office on the Kalends of January, the calendar may even have fallen behind the sun, although preparations for a Spanish campaign must have taken more time than for war in Italy. 229–31. Cf. Solinus 1. 43 ‘Quod [the supposed Greek eight-year intercalary cycle, with a 444-day year] cum initio Romani probassent, contemplatione numeri parilis offensi neglectum breui perdiderunt, translata in sacerdotes intercalandi potestate; qui plerumque gratificantes rationibus publicanorum pro libidine sua subtrahebant tempora uel augebant’; more fully Censorinus, De die natali 21. 7 ‘Sed horum plerique ob odium uel gratiam, quo quis magistratu citius abiret diutiusue fungeretur aut publici redemptor ex anni magnitudine in lucro damnoue esset, plus minusue ex libidine intercalando rem sibi ad corrigendum mandatam 21 Although forty years later the three tribuni militares consulari potestate were L. Pinarius Mamercus, Sp. Postumius Albinus Regillensis, and L. Furius Medullinus, the onus of proof lies on whoever should postulate a confusion.

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Commentary

ultro quod deprauarunt [the discrepancy caused Caesar to reform the calendar]’. Cicero’s letters afford evidence for interference by politicians (not least by Cicero himself, desperate to return from his province) rather than tax-farmers; the latter, as Kaster observes ((2011a), i. 166 n. 298), would certainly profit by exacting thirteen months’ taxes after contracting for twelve, but might also be glad of the chance to start extorting money again sooner. 234. adnitente … scriba. There is no other reference to the clerk M. Flavius, nor is it obvious what he is supposed to have done: Caesar may have needed the technical assistance of the astronomer Sosigenes (Pliny, Natural History 18. 211), but he hardly needed to be told the number of days in each month, and knowledge of the days open or closed to public business (ll. 317–20) was available to any citizen, let alone to the Pontifex Maximus, to which post Caesar had been elected in 63 bc. Rather, Flavius (if he is not a mere doublet of the earlier Cn. Flavius, 345 n.) will have drafted the edict under Caesar’s instruction, putting it into the proper legal form and perhaps pointing out the practical problems that needed to be resolved, such as the effect on ages and terms of leases. 236. inuentus. Macrobius wrote inuento: ‘and that, once it had been ascertained, the definite arrangement should be permanent.’ 237–8. dies omnes qui adhuc confusionem poterant facere consumpsit. That is, he incorporated in the last year of the old calendar all the days by which it was out of true, so as to start his own calendar with a clean slate. 238–9. confusionis annus ultimus. The year C. Iulio Caesare III M. Aemilio Lepido coss., conventionally equated with 46 bc, was the last year in which the confusion of the Republican calendar was suffered to remain. Modern writers, forgetting their school grammar,22 have wrongly called it ‘the year of confusion’, meaning the year whose inordinate length led to confusion. The discrepancy had arisen because during the Gallic and Civil Wars intercalations had been made only in 55 and 52 bc, when Caesar, the Pontifex Maximus, was in Italy and in a position to order them. 239. in quadringentos quadraginta tres dies. More correctly Censorinus, De die natali 21. 8 ut C. Caesar pontifex maximus suo III et M. Aemilii Lepidi consulatu, quo retro delictum corrigeret, duos menses A noun in either the genitive or the ablative of quality must be qualified by an epithet; annus magnae confusionis would be Latin for ‘a year of great turmoil’, but annus confusionis can mean only, as here, ‘year pertaining to the confusion’, not ‘year in which there was confusion’. 22

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Commentary

intercalarios dierum LXVII in mensem Nouembrem et Decembrem interponeret, cum iam mense Februario dies III et XX intercalasset, face­ retque eum annum dierum CCCCXLV. 242. dirigere. This is the spelling that Macrobius consistently employed; in good classical Latin the prefix was de- (the sense is ‘down a line’, not ‘apart’), but di- usurped its place, π’s de- merely attesting the constant medieval confusion betwen the two. In the stem, the variant regere (so too VPR at 315) exhibits the tendency of Vulgar Latin to restore the vowel of the simplex for the reduced vowel of the compound; cf. 67 contenit in C.23 245. annus uertens. See on 180. 246–8. Horum … annum. Macrobius has this from Servius, who, commenting on the quoted verse, Aen. 3. 284 (in part echoing his previous note on 1. 299), asserts that Vergil wrote magnum ‘ne putemus lunarem esse’, the ancients having first reckoned with a year of thirty days before discovering the twelve-month solstitialis annus, and that he inserted sol to distinguish this great year from the planetary great year (the usual meaning of the term), the period of the planets’ return to their original positions, which Servius follows Cicero (Hortensius, frr. 80–1 Grilli) in setting at 12,954 years, though other calculations existed. 249. Ateius Capito. C. Ateius Capito, suffect consul ad 5, a politically pliable but unoriginal lawyer: fr. 13 Strzelecki. 249–50. quia ueteres an pro circum ponere solebant. For am/an ‘round’ see Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, i. 1805. 51–76. 250. Cato. M. Porcius Cato, consul 195 bc, censor 184 bc. in originibus. The work cited is his Roman history, Origines, FRHist 4 F127. oratorum. Though transmitted in Macrobius’ MSS as well as in Disp, this does not belong with the title and makes no sense with terminum; the most favoured correction is Jan’s arator, which may be right but not in the sense that he intended, ‘let ploughing take place’, es werde gepflügt, for in real Latin, as opposed to grammars ancient and modern, the imperative ending ‑tor belongs only to deponent verbs (in which during Cato’s lifetime it started to oust ‑to), not to passives. If right, it must mean ‘ploughman’. Sense and syntax apart, the historical context remains obscure.

That is, conténit, cf. French contient, Spanish and Italian contiene, Catalan conté, Portuguese contém. 23

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Commentary

253. The omission of sol in ST, and evidently Bede’s copy, leaves the reader to infer that since the subject of lustrat obviously cannot be Caesar, it must by elimination be annus extracted from annum; Bede’s ipse is manifestly an attempt at indicating that it is the latter. 254. .iiii. quoque anno. As we shall see (ll. 296–8), this expression was to cause problems. 255–7. eo … nominandum. That is to say, the bissextus (in full ante diem bis sextum Kalendas Martias) was to fall between the Terminalia on 23 February (a.d. VII K. Mart.) and the normal a.d. VI K. Mart., which in modern reckoning would become the 25th. Censorinus, De die natali 20. 10 tells the same story; but the legal position was that the regular a.d. VI K. Mart. came first and the bissextus followed.24 That is stated in the early second century ad by the jurist Juventius Celsus (Digest 50. 16. 98. pr.), posterior dies intercalatur, non prior;25 in consequence someone born on 24 February in a common year has a birthday on the first of the two days in leap-year. Mommsen (1859), 279–81 confirmed this from a North African inscription of ad 168 in which 25 February is said to follow leap-day (V K. Mart. qui dies post bis VI K. fuit)26 and the refusal in 364 of the emperor-elect Valentinian I, having reached the army late on the day preceding the bissextus, to take command until leap-day, supposed to be unlucky, should have passed (Ammianus Marcellinus 26. 1. 5–2. 1); both the consularia Constantiniana, in Latin, and the Chronicon Paschale, in Greek, give the day of his accession as the fifth before the Kalends of March, as we should say 26 February,27 which See Mommsen (1859), 279–80. Cited by Ulpian, Digest 4. 4. 3. 3; but the lawyers muddied the waters by applying the term bissextus to the regular and intercalated day together (Ulpian loc. cit.; Basilica 2. 2. 95 τὸ βίσεξτον μία ἡμέρα ἐστί· καὶ ἡ ὑστέρα ἐστὶν ἡ περιττή· ὁ γὰρ Φεβρουάριος εἴκοσι ὀκτὼ ἡμερῶν ἐστι). The only other lex to speak of intercalation is 44. 3. 2 (Marcellus), where the question is whether the intercalary day counts towards a timelimit; but nothing indicates whether the period is due to expire on the intercalary day or to include it. 26 Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum, viii. 6979. 27 Socrates Scholasticus, Historia ecclesiastica 4. 1 translates this into Greek as the 25th, either because he overlooked the leap-year (easy to do when dates are not by era) or because he counted the bissextus as a second 24th. John Lydus, in the sixth century, asserts (De mensibus 3. 10, p. 49. 16–18 Wuensch) that in bissextile years the 25th and 26th were called πρὸ ἓξ Καλανδῶν Μαρτίων, wrong in detail but clearly showing a forward count on the modern pattern, in which leap-year numbered the days of February 1–29 days and acknowledged the 29th as leap-day. Despite official references to the traditional dating system, in the Eastern Roman Empire the forward count was accepted not only in civil but even ecclesiastical use; see e.g. Jordan (2000) 568, under 28 February; 24 25

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Commentary

confirms that the bissextus still divided the regular sixth from the fifth, not the seventh from the sixth. The misunderstanding in Censorinus and Macrobius seems due to the notion that if VII K. precedes VI K., then bis K. should do likewise; it was wide enough spread that when the Western Church assigned 24 February to St Matthias, it generally postponed his day in leap-year to the 25th, according to the widely transmitted rule: Bissextum sextae Martis tenuere Kalendae, Posteriore die celebrantur festa Mathiae.28

That was the case in most countries, but a variant practice of celebrating on the 24th even in leap-year is attested in Norway and Iceland; Pope Alexander III decreed (Liber extra, 5. 40. 14. 1) that either practice was permissible in accordance with the particular church’s custom, but the vigil must always immediately precede (that is, that in the case of postponement it must be held on the 24th not the 23rd). The Gregorian calendar, however, prescribed postponement, which remained the rule until in 1969 Pope Paul VI moved the feast to 14 May. Even when the civil calendar had accepted 29 February as leap-day, the Western church continued to treat February as a 28-day month whose 24th day was followed by a second 24th in leap-year, both days having the Sunday letter F. This remained the case in post-Reformation England, though the Book of Common Prayer in its various recensions was drafted with misleading negligence in a matter that interested neither conservatives nor radicals. Edward VI’s First Prayer Book of 1549 stated that ‘the .xxv. [sic] daie of February, whiche in leape yeres is coumpted for twoo daies, shall in those twoo dayes alter neither Psalme nor Lesson’;29 the figure remained unchanged in Edward’s Second Prayer Book of 1552, Elizabeth I’s prayer-book of 1559, and the Latin edition of 1560, which spelt out the numeral as vicesimus quintus but also mysteriously ruled that legendum est in fine mensis Februarij, videlicet 25. die, in sede litera〈e〉 F, bis Mat. Mat. ut sextus dies Kalendarum … bis nomi-

John Camaterus, Introductio ad astronomiam 50–3, cf. Delehaye (1902), cols 437–40 with annotations. 28 Which tells against the theory that when Celsus said posterior he meant prior and vice versa, because he was counting backwards. 29 Taken at face value, this would imply (contrary to existing custom) that St Matthias was not to be postponed and that the bissextus had become a bisquintus.

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Commentary

netur.30 In 1566, however, it is laid down that ‘the Psalmes and Lessons which serue for the .xxiii. day of February, shalbe read again the day folowing, except it be Sunday’, which implies that leap-day is the 24th. This rule was still being reprinted in 1661; but the 1662 revision, in applying to the first three Psalter cycles, previously 1–30 January, 31 January–1 March, 2–31 March, the rule already in force for April to December of beginning a new cycle on the 1st of every month and in long months repeating the psalms of the 30th on the 31st, stated: ‘But in February it shall be read only to the Twenty eighth, or Twenty ninth day of the month.’ Furthermore, although there is no leap-year rubric, the calendar recognizes a 29 February with lessons of its own but no Sunday Letter or Roman date. The Oxford Almanacks for 1680 and 1684, though they repeated the Sunday Letter, set St Matthias down for the 24th; in the latter year the archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft, ordained that the feast should not be postponed, which thereafter became the rule in the Church of England. The mathematician John Wallis, who had pointed out the error through the bishop of Oxford, John Fell, pestered successive archbishops of Canterbury to reverse it, but to no avail.31 Wallis’s letter, printed twice in the 1710s, distinguishes the ecclesiastical from the civil account (as he called the secular calendar); in the latter there was no question but that, as Swift wrote in his Journal to Stella on 29 February 1712, ‘This is leap-year, and this is leap-day.’ 256. apud ueteres. This is a loose expression at the best of times, but here it applies even to the Romans of Caesar’s own day, and indeed to Caesar himself as Pontifex Maximus. 261. ne deum inferum religio inmutaretur. That is, the principle that the month should be shorter than any other and have an even number of days (157). 264. Numa. A slip for Romulus, but as we shall see on 336–7 the two kings’ parts in this story are not always distinguished. 30 On 25 February in leap year the Sunday Letter is still F; it appears that the cisioianus, which in common years runs Petro Mat from the 22nd to the 24th, is to be read as Petro Mat Mat, but since the feast itself was never repeated, better would be Petro bis Mat. Was bis taken both as a syllable in its own right and as an instruction to print Mat twice? 31 Sancroft, though he confessed the error privately, in 1688 could not, amidst the Seven Bishops’ crisis, admit in public that he had been wrong and James II’s church was right; in 1692, when Sancroft had forfeited office as a nonjuror, his successor John Tillotson had no wish to inflame tension further; in 1696 the next archbishop, William Tenison, was unwilling to upset what was by then established practice.

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Commentary

267. ab Idibus illis. Literally ‘from those Ides’, the demonstrative being parallel to the adjectival designations Idus Ianuariae, etc. 270–1. Sed nec post Idus mox uoluit inserere, ne feriarum quarumque uiolaretur indictio. The festivals following the Ides were announced as so many days after them, not before the next Kalends; cf. ll. 283–7. 273–4. Aprili sextum Kalendas Maias. Macrobius does not point out that this was an unavoidable exception to Caesar’s rule, since uniquely a festival, the Floralia, straddled the last three days of one month and the first three of the next (a.d. IIII K. Mai. to a.d. V Non. Mai.). In ignorance of this fact, the scribe of Σ misread ui as iii, which in T was absurdly expanded to the cardinal tres. 289–92. A dies fastus was one on which the praetor was permitted, under the ancient formalities of the legis actiones, to let cases proceed by pronouncing the words do dico addico,32 which on a dies nefastus he could not; see Bethmann-Hollweg (1864–74), i. 75–85, ii. 167–73, iii. 191–3. A dies comitialis was one on which the voting assemblies (comitia) could meet; all such days were also dies fasti, but the latter term is usually confined to non-comitial days. In calendrical inscriptions (themselves called fasti) from the first century bc and ad the character of each day was noted, even though the legis actiones had largely been superseded by the ordo iudiciorum priuatorum, under which the praetor supplied a formula instructing the judge on the points at issue;33 from the turn of the second century ad the markings were omitted, indicating that the prohibited days were no longer the old dies nefasti but imperial and public holidays. Long before the dramatic date of this dialogue, not only had the ordo iudiciorum had in turn given way to cognitio extraordinaria, in which the magistrate, or a legally trained judge, heard the whole case, but Christian holidays had been added to the pagan as non-judicial days. A little later, in 389, a new system of judicial holidays was introduced (Codex Theodosianus 2. 8. 19, modified in the interpretatio of 438 and in Codex Iustinianus 3. 12. 6). 294. ordo. V and the Sirmond group read error, ‘the error might have lasted thus far [i.e. to Caesar’s reform] and no further’, the text of all Macrobius’ MSS; recent editors have preferred to delete the word, leaving stare potuisset impersonal. R and B, however, present ordo, with perfect sense and structure; as a conjectural emendation it is far too good See the magisterial discussion by Wlassak (1907). The diminished importance of the distinction encouraged a misapprehension (first found at Horace, Odes 2 13. 1) that dies nefasti were days of ill-omen (dies atri). 32 33

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Commentary

for any copyist of Disp. Whether P’s erro (‘vagabond’) is a simple slip or a conflation of error with ordo is hard to determine. 296–8. Nam … interkalabant. After Caesar’s murder in 44 bc, the pontifices, not understanding the astronomy underlying his reforms, followed his instructions according to the normal Latin intendment of quarto quoque anno as inclusive, in English ‘every third year’; this may have translated διὰ τεσσάρων ἐτῶν in Sosigenes’ Greek, which one would expect to mean the same, but which in Theodosius of Bithynia’s exposition of Callippus’ 76-year cycle meant quite unambiguously ‘every fourth year’ (De diebus et noctibus 2. 17). Trying to explain that Caesar had meant ‘every fourth year’ in our sense, Macrobius, either following or sharing a source with Solinus 1. 46 Nam cum praeceptum esset, anno quarto ut intercalarent unum diem, et oporteret confecto quarto anno id obseruari, antequam quintus auspicaretur, illi incipiente quarto intercalarunt, non desinente, supposes that the leap-day was to be added between 31 December and 1 January, against known fact as well as ll. 257–8.34 298–303. Hic error … deuorarentur. Augustus, though to judge by our evidence for the Alexandrian year (see on 307–8) better informed than the Roman pontifices, did not act till he had become Pontifex Maximus on 6 March 12 bc, and even then not immediately, for the three-year cycle was still envisaged when the Asian provincial calendar was established in January of a Roman leap-year by the proconsul Paullus Fabius Maximus. If the corrected calendar was brought back into line with Caesar’s plan, then by retrojection 45 bc was a leap-year (like the first year of the four-year cycle attributed to Eudoxus by Pliny, Natural History 2. 130), and the twelve intercalations were made after his death in 42, 39, 36, 33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12, and 9 bc, instead of the nine due in 41, 37, 33, 29, 25, 21, 17, 13, and 9 bc, the error being corrected by suppressing intercalation in 5 bc, 1 bc, and ad 4; so Mommsen (1859), 282–99. However, as Brind’Amour (1983), 45–6 demonstrates,35 there can have 34 Without antequam quintus inciperet the statement would be correct, but the agreement with Solinus forbids deletion; Rüpke’s assumption ((1995), 383), that the words stood in Caesar’s edict and were taken literally by the pontifices at the cost of interpreting conficere ‘in ingressivem Sinne’, confers maximum discredit not only on the latter—for confecto does not mean even desinente (= adfecto), let alone incipiente—but on the former, who would have departed from his imperatoria breuitas to produce not ambiguity but absurdity. 35 Since 1 January 52 bc was a nundinal day (see on 155–7) and 1 January 40 would have been but for remedial action, the total number of days in the years 52–



Commentary

been only one intercalation in the five years 45–1 bc; on the basis of contemporary double-dates Bennett (2003), (2004) argues for intercalations in 44 bc and every third year thereafter down to 8 bc, after which the triennial leap-days scheduled for 5 bc, 2 bc, and ad 2 were suppressed and the first quadriennial intercalation was made in ad 4, after only a ten-year interval (7 bc–ad 3). If so, Augustus blundered, since in order to honour his adoptive father’s intentions he ought to have begun the four-year cycle in 7 bc, suppressed the bissextus in 4 bc, ad 1, and ad 5, and resumed intercalation in ad 9; nevertheless, the scheme appears to be confirmed by the date of the Asian reform. Although by Pompey’s law of 52 bc Maximus ought not to have embarked on his governorship till five years had elapsed from his consulate in 11 bc, since 5 bc cannot on any reconstruction have been a leap-year he evidently had a dispensation (like other favoured persons) to serve earlier; since only in 8 bc can the day on which the reform was to take place, 24 January, have followed the 14th of a lunar month (Peritios) as required by the decree, that must have been the year of the reform, and hence a Roman leap-year (Stern (2012), 276 with n. 117). 307. Tunc Chorus. Although in life Horus, living in Rome, must have acquired a basic understanding of a calendar thoroughly familiar to even the least educated Roman, in literature he is entitled as an Egyptian to be baffled by what other speakers take for granted (and therefore elicit further information for the benefit of Macrobius’ readers), since Egypt continued to use its native calendar as modified by Augustus (see 14 n.), which is still the calendar of Copts and (with different month-names) Ethiopians. 307–8. antequam quintus annus incipiat. This is correct for the Alexandrian calendar, in which the sixth additional day immediately preceded the first day of the new year. 309. illorum. That is, the Egyptians’; Aegyptiorum is to be understood from Aegypti, a perfectly normal construction in Greek and Latin. 311. inter Augustum atque Septembrem. Loosely spoken: the additional days run from 24 August Julian to the 28th, or the 29th in leap41 would, but for the adjustment, have been divisible by 8; since the intercalation in 52 bc is shown to have comprised 23 days by Asconius, who in his commentary on Cicero’s Pro Milone notes at § 31, p. 36 Clark that Pompey was made consul that year v Kal. Mart. mense intercalario (i.e. not on 25 February; cf. Brind’Amour (1983), 36–9) and there was no further intercalation till the 445-day year in 46 bc, the total number of days would have been 378 + 5 × 355 + 445 + 4 × 365 + 366 = 4424 = 8 × 553.



Commentary

year (some six months before the Julian leap-day), between the months of Mesore and Thoth. 312. adnectentes. The corruption adnectantes should be noted as being far too early to have resulted from the normal cause, the identity of pronunciation in francien (and hence in modern French) of en and an. 317. Nam. As often, this gives the reason, not for what one has just said, but for one’s saying it: Horus asked what Kalends, Nones, and Ides meant because he thinks he might understand them, but has given up on those listed in 317–21. In Macrobius they are explained none the less, but Disp ends before that point because they played no part in practice. 319. alios fastos uariisque aliis nominibus. Aliis is an easy corruption of alios; if, as I have suggested with Kaster’s approval, after alios fastos Macrobius added alios nefastos, it was lost by haplography before Disp was excerpted. 321–3. Haec nec mihi erubescendum est ignorare peregrino: a te uero, Praetextate, discere nec quemquam puderet. Macrobius’ sentence is badly constructed for two reasons: first, instead of correlating the second nec with the first, he was seduced by the possibility of using it for ne … quidem, secondly, having belatedly realized that he could not balance peregrino in its technical sense of ‘non-citizen’, with (nec) ciuem, since as a result of Caracalla’s constitutio Antoniniana (probably 212), which made all free subjects of the empire Roman citizens, (M.) Aurelius Horus too was a ciuis,36 he was obliged to let peregrino mean ‘stranger to Rome’ and oppose it to ‘anyone’. but instead of restoring proper correlation with nec a te, Praetextate, discere quemquam puderet he left nec in its new place immediately before quemquam even though it could mean no more than haud. 329. collegimus. The perfect speaks from the time of reading, a common ancient convention. Macrobius’ MSS, followed by B, have the inappropriate present colligimus. 336–7. ut alii .xxx. et unum, alii undexxx sortirentur dies. For undexxx = undetriginta Bede, according to most of Jones’s MSS, read xxx here (206. 10); so too the rewording in Ddt. This is correct with respect to Romulus’ year of 304 days, but the sequel (which both Bede and Ddt omit) demonstrates that Macrobius is already thinking of the definitive pre-Caesarian year supposedly ordained by Numa. 36 Since Caracalla’s official name was Imp. Caesar M. Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Aug., his new citizens and their descendants added M. Aurelius or simply ‘Aurelius’ if male, Aurelia if female, before their native name.



Commentary

345. Augusti. Corrupt for a Cn. (acn > avg). On the conflicting sour­ ces for the freedman’s son and lowly clerk Gnaeus Flavius, who became curule aedile in 304 bc, see (with alternative exercises in selective disbelief) Wolf (1980), Oakley (1997–2005), iii. 600–45, on Livy 9. 46. Ma­ crobius’ notion that he divulged the length of the months and the position of the Nones would entail either that the Romans were too stupid to induce the correlations from experience or that the calendar had not in fact been regulated by Numa or anyone else; rather, he published a list of the dies fasti and nefasti,37 previously known only to the pontifices, and also the procedures for bringing suit, the legis actiones. 346. patribus. The patres were properly the patrician senators, who claimed sole access to the divine will and till the Lex Ogulnia of 300 bc were alone eligible for the pontificate; nevertheless, since the rich and powerful plebeians who had forced their way into supreme office were already making common cause with the patricians, the distinction between patricians and plebeians was beginning to recede in political practice, though not in law, before that between nobiles (104 n.) and the rest. pontifici minori. Livy 22. 57. 3, recording a scandal of 216 bc, speaks of L. Cantilius scriba pontificius, quos nunc minores pontifices appellant; but Macrobius’ language is no more anachronistic than Tacitus’ description of Pilate as procurator of Judaea instead of prefect,38 and the universal use of consul for praetor in accounts of the early Republic, before the separate praetorship was instituted in or about 367 bc. 347. prouidentia. An error, already in the source MS, for prouincia, the proper term for an assigned duty; the territorial sense is secondary, from the area in which the duty assigned by the Senate to a magistrate or promagistrate would need to be discharged. 348. uisamque. Understand lunam; but in most MSS of Disp the masculine uisum is substituted, agreeing with the nearer noun aspectum. This is also the reading of the Glossae Brideferti, which less plausibly take it as neuter, ‘the thing seen’. regi sacrificulo. The rex sacrificulus, rex sacrorum, or simply rex was a pontifex who performed certain rituals that in regal times had been incumbent on the king. 350. plebe. It was for tribunes, not pontifices, to summon the plebs; below (356) we correctly find the whole people, omnis … populus. 37 So Michels (1967), 106–18, who argues that the distinction between dies fasti and dies comitiales was introduced by the Lex Hortensia of 287 bc. 38 Ab excessu Diui Augusti 15. 42. 3; for the true title see L’Année épigraphique, 1963, no. 104.



Commentary

352. dicto quinquies uerbo καλῶ. Varro, De lingua Latina 6. 27, however, states that the Nones are announced (calantur, present) by the formula Die te quinti/Die septimi te kalo Iuno Couella, ‘I proclaim thee, Juno Covella [= Hollow, i.e. crescent], on the fifth/seventh day hence.’ καλῶ. I take V’s reading here and B’s in the next line as remnants of the Macrobian tradition, which presents the word in Greek script. Timpanaro (1978), 540–4 argues for reading calo in Macrobius, which I had rather spell kalo;39 this is a Latin word in its own right (an ā-stem as against the Greek e-stem), though all but obsolete in classical times. Readers of the translation are warned that since in natural English the etymologically unrelated call is the counterpart not of Latin kalo but of Latin uoco and Greek καλῶ, not only for frequency but for meaning both ‘name’ and ‘summon’, it has not always proved possible to render the same Latin verb with the same English one. 354. Kalendas. Latin Kalendae is from a gerundive form *Kalandae (preserved in Greek as Κάλανδαι), which had become sufficiently detached from the verb for the usual change of post-tonic blocked ă to ĕ wrought by the initial stress of pre-literary Latin (e.g. *perfactos > perfectus) not to be inhibited or reversed by analogy within the verbal paradigm as e.g. in amandus. 355. Kalabrae. Predicative dative, as often when nomen est used with dative of the person or thing named. 356. classi. Classis here has its original sense of the people under arms, technically including the voting assembly in the Campus Martius known as the comitia centuriata; it came to denote any of five property classes, or the highest of them, and also a fleet (not necessarily Roman). 359. causas feriarum. Not only the dates, but the objects of celebration. The statement implies that before Cn. Flavius there were no feriae between the Kalends and the Nones; but an exception must be made at least for the Poplifugia on a.d. III Non. Quint. (5 July), a day whose past importance caused it to be recorded in large letters on the Fasti even though Romans of the classical age had no idea what it commemorated.40 361–2. uel … putentur. This is of course the true explanation. 39 The voiceless velar was originally spelt K before A, C before E or I, and Q before O or V; even when C had become normal in all positions except before consonantal V, the combination KA survived in certain words such as Kalendae, Karthago, kaput. 40 Since it appears to mean ‘the day on which the people ran away’, it was associated with the Gaulish sack of Rome in 387–6 (the true date, not 390) bc; yet it obviously balances the Regifugium on 24 February, supposed to be the day on which proud King Tarquin was expelled from Rome. The large-letter feriae are constant between inscriptions, which has led to the notion that they were more ancient than the rest;



Commentary

362–4. sicut … consulebant. Since the Etruscans, like the Greeks and the Latins, were united culturally, but politically separate, individual cities had their own king (Etruscan lauχume). In any case, the report would offer a parallel for the Roman nundinae, not the Nones. 365. Itis. We have no independent confirmation of the Etruscan etymologies proposed here and at 381. Macrobius’ ultimate source, Varro, De lingua Latina 6. 28, who owned an estate at Sabine Reate (now Rie­ ti), prefers a more local alternative: Idus ab eo quod Tusci Itus, uel potius quod Sabini Idus dicunt. By Varro’s day Sabine speech had been largely Latinized, but traces remained of a language related (precisely how is unclear) to Umbrian and Oscan, which latter exhibits a dative/ablative plural eidúís;41 as noted on 105–6, the Latin word too originally began with Ei-, and indeed was normally so spelt even in Varro’s day. 366. Iouis. The supreme god of the Etruscans, equated with the Greek Zeus and Roman Jupiter, was Tinia; like theirs, his name meant ‘day’. 367. Lucetium. Although this is the usual form of this name, a corrupt quotation from one of the Saliar hymns appears to present, lightly disguised as leuce si ae, a vocative Leucesie; in classical Latin this would have been Luceri, cf. Corpus Glossarum Latinarum, ii. 124. 34 Lucerius ξευς [sic = Ζεύς]. See Radke (1981), 115–6, 214 n. 13. 368. Cretenses Δία τὴν ἡμέραν uocant. There seems to be no support for this assertion: in the dialectal inscriptions the regular word for ‘day’ is ἀμέρα, corresponding to Attic/Koine ἡμέρα, Zeus appearing in the dative as Τηνί and in the accusative as Δῆνα, Τῆνα, or Ττῆνα. 368–9. ipsi quoque Romani Diespitrem appellant ut diei patrem. Both Greek Ζεύς ‘Zeus’ and Latin diēs ‘day’ are derived, with much readjustment of both stem and declension, from the Indo-European *dyéws/dyḗws, ‘sky’; in apposition with ‘father’ we find Vedic dyáuḥ pitā,́ Greek Ζεὺς πατήρ, and Latin Diēspiter besides the Iuppiter that functioned simply as the nominative and vocative of Iouis. The accusative Diespitrem is a monstrosity; had the word been declined, as in practice it was not (to the puzzlement of Varro, De lingua Latina 9. 75–7), the correct form would have been Diempitrem, but Macrobius’ ut diei patrem indicates that he took dies for the archaic genitive discussed by Gellius, Noctes Atticae 9. 14. 5–7. see, however, Michels (1967), 93–4, 133–5, who holds that they represented religious observations for the whole people. 41 Pronounced /eidois/. The use of bold indicates by convention that the Oscan word is transliterated from its native alphabet, italic would signify that it had been written in the Latin script.



Commentary

374. a uidendo. The construction with a and the ablative gerund is the normal way of stating an etymology from a verb. 375. Macrobius wrote ἰδεῖν, the aorist infinitive active of the normal verb ‘see’, which B reproduces and P spells in Latin script as idin. The readings of our other MSS are to be explained as follows. There is in classical Greek a poetic verb δέρκομαι, ‘I behold’, in the middle voice, which is active in the aorist (ἔδρακον) and perfect (δέδορκα); imperial grammarians created an active present δέρκω, whose infinitive δέρκειν appears at Sat. 1. 20. 3. A copyist intruded it here, to the ruination of the etymology, misinterpreting the unaccented δερκειν as a contracted infinitive δερκεῖν, for which he substituted the usual citation-form (the πρώτη θέσις, prima positio), the first person singular present indicative active, using (as is still the fashion in modern grammars and lexica) the uncontracted form έω. This was then further corrupted in the MSS. 377. οἷον ἀπὸ τοῦ εἴδους. This theory is advanced by Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae 24 (269 d). In σ Macrobius’ οἷον has been reinterpreted as (misspelt) ὁμοίωμα, ‘resemblance’. ea die. So Macrobius and Bede; in the absence not only of VC but also of σ I take this reading to be confirmed by P’s corruption eadem, and the masculine eo die in Δ to be a harmonization with 286. 378. Iduli. John Lydus, De mensibus 3. 10, p. 47. 12–43 Wuensch, ascribes the etymology from εἶδος to ‘political’ authors and that from Idulis to ‘the priests’, that is to say those respectively concerned with res humanae and res diuinae. 379. et … immolatur. Understand ea, referring back to oue; where English would repeat the relative Latin often uses is, which in the nominative is liable to omission. a flamine. The flamen Dialis or priest of Jupiter, subject to numerous taboos that made it impossible to participate (and exert undue influence) in political life. 381. Iduare. Neither the voiced consonant nor the Latin infinitive can be Etruscan. 381–2. uidua. Not Etruscan but Indo-European, derived like English ‘widow’ from *widhewā. 384. Varronis. Antiquitates humanarum rerum 16 fr. 8 Mirsch. 384–5. Laurentes patres. The inhabitants of Lavinium (near modern Pratica di Mare), a Latin city of ancient religious significance, were known as Laurentes, supposedly through fusion of Laurentum, the site of Aeneas’ landfall, with Lavinium, his foundation; the ‘fathers’ were evidently a priesthood.



Commentary

391. Iunium. For the corruption Iunium P has the correct Ianum, no doubt from X. Iunonium. Macrobius’ explanation is accepted at Radke (1979), 148, but rejected ibid. 32 in favour of ‘Janus who operates in Juno’s sphere’, without elucidation; despite their antiquarian researches, the Romans even of classical times understood so little of their own ancestral religion that not even modern linguistics and anthropology can advance beyond surmise. diximus. Another redactional slip; the reference is to Sat. 1. 9. 15– 16, not included in the excerpt. 396. ἀερότομιν. At John Lydus, De mensibus 2. 2, p. 19. 13–14 Wuensch this artificial construct appears as ἀερότεμιν.



INDEXES

Index of Calendars and Computistics* Anthesterion, Athenian month: 58, 105 August: 38, 62, 64, 125 see also Sextilis April: 4, 54–8, 68, 80, 82, 105 Bede: 3, 4, 6, 27–9 De temporibus: 5, 27 De temporum ratione: 5, 27 revises matter from Disp: 5 n. 16, 28 see also Index of Passages Cited bissextus: see leap-day calendars: of Asia (Roman province): 124–5 Athenian: 58, 105, 111, 113 Egyptian: 64, 78, 86, 100, 125 Greek: 102, 111 lunar: 114 solar: 100 Computus Coloniensis: 11, 14, 19, 28–9 Computus Hibernicus: 5–6, 101

December: 54, 64, 68, 80, 82, 94, 110, 112 De diuisionibus temporum: 5 n. 16, 27–8, 30–4 De ratione conputandi: 24–5, 27, 29, 31, 34 see also Index of Passages Cited dies comitiales, fasti, nefasti: 84, 123, 127 Disputatio Chori et Praetextati: date: 5–6 expanded version: 35–7 indirect tradition: 27–32, 105 manuscripts: 8–27 corrections: 26–7 corruptions: 9, 12, 117, 126 origin: 6–7 title: 101 transmission history: 33–4 Disputatio Morini: 10–11, 13 Einsiedeln Computus: 27–8, 33, 105 epagomenal days: 100, 125 Excerpta O-Croniniana: 13, 32

* Pages of Disp, given in italic, pertain to the Latin text, but implicitly include the facing translation.

Index of Calendars and Computistics

Fasti Antiates Maiores (pre-Julian calendar incription): 113 February: 5 n. 16, 38, 62, 66, 68, 72–74, 80, 82, 105, 113 Floralia, festival: 123

March: 3, 38, 54, (56), 68, 74, 80, 110, 113 marker-day: see Ides; Kalends; Nones market-day: see nundinae May: 4, 54, 58, 60, 68, 80, 82 Mesore, last month of Egyptian year: 100, 126

Germanicus, as month-name: 64, 109–10

Nones: 3, 68, 74, 82, 86–90, 103, 115, 126, 127, 128, 129 November: 54, 68, 80, 82 nundinae: 74, 86, 114, 115, 129

Hrabanus Maurus: 8 n. 27, 27 n. 100, 32 Ides: 3, 54, 68, 82–8, 92, 94, 103, 108, 123, 126, 129 of March: 117 of Quintilis: 62 intercalation: of day, see leap-day of month:70–8, 111–18

October: 54, 64, 68, 80, 82, 110 Prologus Cyrilli: 13 Quintilis: 5, 54, 62, 68, 80, 82, 113

January: 3, 62, 66, 68, 80, 82, 94, 112, 113 June: 54, 58, 68, 80, 82 Junonius: 60 July: 62, 82 see also Quintilis

Regifugium, Roman festival: 113–4 Saturnalia, festival: 1, 36, 52, 56, 99 September: 54, 64, 68, 80, 82, 86, 109–10, 125 Sextilis (=August): 5, 54, 62, 68, 80, 82 Sigillaria: 36

Kalends: 3, 54, 68, 82–90, 94, 96, 103, 106, 111, 123, 126, 128 of Interkalaris: 115 of January: 52, 74, 117 of March: 120 of May: 60 of June: 4, 62

Terminalia, Roman festival: 74–6, 113, 115 Thoth, first month of Egyptian year 100, 126

leap-day: 3, 74, 80, 113, 114, 120–2 added in wrong years: 84–6, 124

year: great: 119 new: calendrical 113 consular 113, 116 turning (annus uertens): 80



Index of Manuscripts Bern, Burgerbibliothek 417: 6 n. 19 Bremen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, msc 0046: 11, 15 Cologne, Erzbischöfliche Diozesan- und Domblibliothek 83II: 11, 16–17 Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale 448: 27 n. 100 Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek 321: 39 Geneva, Bibliothèque de Genève lat. 50: 12, 13–14 Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek 442: 27 n. 100 London, British Library, Harley 3859: 34 n. 125 Melk, Stiftsbibliothek 412: 3 n. 11 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14456: 27 n. 99 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. F 3. 14: 30 n. 111 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 309: 6 n. 19, 8, 13–14 Oxford, St John’s College 17: 32 Padua, Pontificia Biblioteca Antoniana 27: 8, 14–15, 35–7 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arsenal 890: 5 n. 14 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 9768: 16 n. 55 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, nouv. acq. lat. 1612, 1613, 1614: 9 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, nouv. acq. lat. 1615: 27 n. 100 Salzburg, Universitätsbibliothek M 1489: 4 n. 12 Sankt Gallen: Stiftsbibliothek 251: 8 n. 28 Tours, Bibliothèque municipale 334: 9 Tours, Saint-Martin 42: 9, 13–14 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 886: 4 n. 12 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. lat. 586: 9–11, 15 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ross. lat. 247: 27 n. 100 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Urb. lat. 200 Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Ser. n. 37: 12, 18



Index of Passages Cited Accius, L.: Brutus fr. 674 Dangel: 114 Alexander III: Liber extra 5. 40. 14. 1: 121 Ammianus Marcellinus: Res Gestae 26. 1. 5–2. 1: 120 Antias, Valerius: FRHist 25 F7: 76, 116 Asconius Pedianus, Q.: In Milonianam § 31, p. 36. 4 Clark: 114 Ateius Capito, C.: fr. 13 Strzelecki: 80, 119 Augustine: De ciuitate Dei 15. 12 (CCSL 48. 469. 39): 102 De Genesi ad litteram 2. 14. 29: 11 Epistulae 137. 3. 12: 102 n. 7

Cassiodorus Senator: Expositio psalmorum on Ps. 10: 7 (CCSL 97. 116. 125–8): 6 n. 23 Cato, M. Porcius: FRHist 4. 127: 80, 119 Celsus, Juventius: Digest 50. 16. 98. pr.: 129 Censorinus: De die natali 18–22: 3 n. 9 20. 2: 116 20. 10: 129 21. 7: 117 21. 8: 118 31. 189: 117 Chronicon Paschale: i. 555. 19: 120 Cicero: Hortensius frr. 80–1 Grilli: 119 Cincius, L. (‘Cinnius’, ‘Cingius’): fr. 6 GRF: 56, 104 fr. 8: 60, 106 fr. 9: 60, 106 Codex Iustinianus: 3. 12. 6: 123 Codex Theodosianus: 2. 8. 19: 123 Consularia Constantinopolitana: p. 239 Burgess: 120 Cornelius Labeo: fr. 5 Mastandrea: 60, 106 Corpus Glossarum Latinarum: ii. 124. 34: 129 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum viii. 6979: 120 n. 26

Basilica: 2. 2. 95: 120 n. 25 Bede: De temporum ratione 2, p. 182. 9 Jones: 32 n. 118 12, p. 206. 3: 3 n. 9, 101 p. 206. 19–21: 105 p. 208. 84–5: 3 n. 9, 101 37, p. 250. 12: 102 Epistula ad Pleguinam 11, p. 311. 5: 102 Boethius: De consolatione philosophiae 1. 1, metr. 1: 11. Caesar: De bello Gallico 5. 20. 1; 5. 56. 3: 109 Cassius Dio: Roman History 48. 33. 4: 114 Cassius Hemina, L.: FRHist 6F 21: 76, 116

De ratione conputandi 29, p. 141. 15–18: 105 Diodorus Siculus: Bibliotheca historica 12. 36. 2: 113



Index of Passages Cited

Diogenes Laertius: Lives of the Philosophers 7. 168: 101 n. 6 8. 47: 102 n. 7

Macer, C. Licinius: FRHist 27 F11: 76, 116 Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius: In Somnium Scipionis: 2 n. 7, 32 Saturnalia: 1. 7. 3: 101 1. 9. 15–16: 131 1. 11. 47: 99 1. 12. 2–22, 30–7: 5 n. 14 1. 12. 19: 5 1. 12. 29: 106 1. 12. 12: 104 1. 16. 36: 32 n. 118 1. 20. 3: 130 1. 24. 2: 2 2. 4. 11: 2 n. 6 3. 10. 2–12. 10: 2 5. 21. 18: 6 n. 23 7. 7. 8, 7. 13. 17: 101 Marcellus: Digest 44. 3. 2: 120 n. 25 Munich Computus: 17. 2: 105

Einsiedeln Computus: p. 94. 15–16: 105 Gellius, Aulus: Noctes Atticae 9. 14. 5–7: 129 Geminus Introduction to Astronomy 8. 27–33: 111 Helperic of Auxerre: Liber de computo 9: 30 Horace: Odes 2. 13. 1: 123 n. 33 Hrabanus Maurus: De computo 32: 2 Isidore: Etymologiae 5. 33. 8–9: 105

Nisus: fr. 8 Mazzarino: 60, 107

John Camaterus: Introductio ad astronomiam 50–3: 120–1 n. 27 John Lydus: De mensibus 2. 2, p. 19. 13–14 Wuensch: 131 3. 10, pp. 43. 17–49. 24: 3 n. 9 p. 47. 12–43: 130 p. 49. 16–17: 120 n. 17 4. 64, p. 118. 5–13: 104

Ovid: Fasti 1. 43–4, 2. 47–54: 112 n. 18 2. 29–46: 111 3. 523–696: 103 Pliny: Natural History 2. 130: 124 18. 211: 118 31. 189: 117 Plutarch: Caesar 59. 3: 111 Numa 18–19: 3 n. 9 18. 4: 104 18. 6: 101 18. 7: 100 19. 5: 105 19. 7: 110

Libanius: Epistulae 1274–5, 1278–9: 101 n. 5 Livy: Ab urbe condita 9. 46: 127 Lucian: Aduersus indoctum 2 n. 5 Gallus 8: 102 n. 7

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Index of Passages Cited

Quaestiones Romanae 24 (269 d): 130

De diebus et noctibus 2. 17: 124 Tuditanus (‘Tutitanus’), C. Sempronius: FRHist 10 F1: 76, 116

Servius: In Vergilii Aeneidem 3. 284: 119 Socrates Scholasticus: Historia Ecclesiastica 4. 1: 120 n. 27 Solinus, C. Julius: Collectanea 1. 14–47: 3 n. 9 1. 37: 110 1. 42: 111 1. 43: 117 1. 46: 124 Suetonius: Caligula 15. 1: 110 Domitianus 13. 3: 109 Sylloge: 5222: 2 n. 5 Symmachus: Epistulae 2. 39: 101 3. 37, 6. 7. 2, 9. 44: 100 6. 7. 32: 1

Ulpian: Digest 4. 4. 3. 3: 120 n. 25 Valentinian III Novel 9: 103 n. 10 Varro, M. Terentius: Antiquitates rerum humanarum: 16 fr. 5 Mirsch: 76, 116 fr. 8: 94, 130 17 fr. 2 = fr. 409 GRF: 56, 104 De lingua Latina: 6. 27: 128 6. 28: 129 6. 33: 105 9. 75–7: 129 Vergil: Aeneid 3. 284: 80, 119 6. 792: 109 Verrius Flaccus, M.: (uncollected fragment): 58, 105

Tacitus: Germania 10. 3: 109 Theodosius of Bithynia:

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General Index Acilius Glabrio, M’. (‘Martius’): 76, 116 Aeneas, son of Venus: 56 Aetolian War: 116 Alcuin, abbot of Tours: 9 Antias, Valerius 76 Ambrose, bishop of Milan: 2 Antonius, M. (‘Mark Antony’) 62, 107, 109 Aricia, people of: 60, 106 astrology: 4, 7 Augustus, Imp. Caesar: 7, 62, 86, 108–9, 124–5

elective monarchies, length of reigns in: 3 n. 10 ‘Epitacus’ (L. Cornelius Epicadus): 36, 52, 99 Erchanbertus: 28 Etruscans: 92, 94 Euangelus, boorish gatecrasher: 1–2 Fergal (Virgil of Salzburg): 12, 33 Flavius, (Cn.), clerk: 90, 111, 118, 127 Flavius, M., clerk: 78, 118 Fleury: 9 Fulvius Nobilior, M.: 58, 76, 105, 113 Furius, (P.): 76, 116–7

beans: 4, 62 Boethius: 2, 11 Bona Dea (the ‘Good Goddess): 4, 60, 106 Brutus, L. Junius, reputed liberator: 4, 62, 107, 114 Bucherius (Gilles Bouchier): 8 Byrhtferð of Ramsey: 30, 32

Glaucippus, Athenian writer: 72, 113 Glossae Brideferti 30–1, 32 n. 118, 127 Greek language: 3, 4, 7, 56, 90–6 Greeks: 52, 56, 66, 70, 72, 114 Hengist, legendary invader of Britain: 3 Horsa, legendary invader of Britain: 3 Horus (Chorus), Egyptian interlocutor: 2, 86, 88, 100–1, 125, 126 Housman, A. E.: 22

Caesar, Julius: 2, 5, 7, 62, 78–86, 107, 108, 110, 118, 122 Capitol: 90, 106 Carna, Roman goddess: 4. 62, 107 Cassiodorus Senator, Fl. Magnus Aurelius: 1 n. 1 Caracalla, Roman emperor: 126 Chorus: see Horus Cicero, De re publica: 2 Cologne: 11 Commodus, Roman emperor: 110 Cretans: 92, 129 curia Kalabra: 90, 94, 128

Insular: learning in Frankish sources: 28 spellings and corruptions 9, 12 see also Irish Irish abbreviations:9, 12, 15 n. 23 computistics 3, 5–6, 13, 27, 33 manuscripts, posited 12, 33 monastic culture 7 spellings, of Latin 21, 29, 38, 100 n. 3 see also Insular

Decemvirs: 76, 111, 116, 117 Di Manes: 66, 111 Domitian, Roman emperor: 64, 109

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General Index

Italic War: 116 by mistake for Aetolian War: 76 Janiculum: 64, 109 Janus, Roman god: 5 n. 16, 112 called Junius Junonius: 94, 131 Jarrow: 3, 101 'Junius' (M. Iunius Gracchanus?): 76, 116 Juno, Roman goddess: 7, 94–6 Juno Covella: 128 Juno Moneta: 62, 107 Jupiter, Roman god: 7, 60, 92, 129 Kaster, Robert A.: vii, 35 n. 118, 101, 118, 126 Latercus: 6 Latin language: 3, 56 Latins: 60 Laurentian Fathers: 94, 130 Lepidus, M. Aemilius, rebel: 74, 114 Libanius, pagan rhetorician: 101 Libri, comte Guillaume, thief: 9 Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius: 1–2, 22–3, 99 Saturnalia: 1–2, 100, 101 in relation to Disp: 3–37, 99–132 Maia, mother of Mercury: 5, 60, 106 wife of Vulcan: 60, 106 Maiesta: 60 Maius, Tusculan god: 60 Mars, Roman god: 4, 54, 56, 104 Martin, St, as patron of churches: 13 ‘Martius’: see Acilius Glabrio, M’. Massay, Saint-Martin de: 12 Mercury, Roman god: 5. 60 Merovingian Latinity: 16 Míl Espáine, legendary invader of Ireland 3

moon: 64, 78, 94–6, 110 full moon: 92–4 new moon: 88, 90, 113 Munich Computus: 27, 33 mythology, pagan: 5–7 Numa Pompilius, legendary king of Rome: 2–3, 7, 62, 66–70, 76, 102 n. 8, 110, 111, 122, 126 Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí: vii, 6, 13 n. 40, 101 ‘Pacubius’ (Pacuvius), Sex.: 64 ‘Pampilius’: see Numa Pompilius Petavius (Denys Pétau): 8 Pinarius, L.: 76, 116–17 Piso Frugi, L. Calpurnius: 60, 106 plebs: 68, 90, 109, 127 tribunes of: 64 Plutarch, Numa 18–19: 3 n. 9 Pontifex Maximus 103, 118, 122, 124 pontifices: 90, 94, 127 Praeneste, people of: 60, 107 Praetextatus, Vettius Agorius, learned Roman aristocrat 2–3, 52, 88, 99 priests: 78, 80 see also pontifices 124 Punic War, Second 116, 117 Pythagoras: 68, 102, 111 Quierzy: 33 regina sacrorum: 94 rex sacrificulus, sacrorum: 90, 127 Romulus, legendary king of Rome: 2–3, 7, 54, 56, 58, 102 n. 8, 110, 122, 126

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General Index

Salii, ancient Roman priesthood: 20, 57–8, 104 Salzburg: 12 Sankt Gallen: 11 Saturn, Roman god: 99 Servius Tullius, reputed sixth king of Rome: 74, 114, 115 solstice, summer: 113 winter: 106 Sirmond Collection: 8, 13 n. 42 Sirmond group: 13–14, 101, 123 Sirmond, Jacques 8 Sosigenes, astronomer: 118, 124 Suibine mac Commáin, death of: 6 sun 64, 78–80, 110, 117 Symmachus, Q. Aurelius 52, 99–100

Tarquinius Superbus, L. (‘Tarquin the Proud’), reputed last king of Rome: 4, 107, 114, 115, 128 n. 40 tax-farmers, machinations of: 7 Theodosius I, Roman emperor: 2 Tours, Saint-Martin de: 9 Tusculum people of: 77 Vendôme: 13 Venus, Roman goddess: 4, 56, 58, 104 Verona: 8 Vesta, Roman goddess: 54 Vetus Latina 115 Victorius of Aquitaine: 11 Vulcan, Roman god: 60 Warntjes, Immo vii, 10 n. 34, 11 n. 35, 27 nn. 98, 100

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