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The didactic epos Φαινόμενα καὶ Διοσεμεῖα by Aratus of Soloi was very popular among the Romans. Thus, it was translated into Latin by several Roman authors including Marcus Tullius Cicero and Germanicus Iulius Caesar. The aim of this paper is to find out whether these two authors only translated the information contained in Aratus' text or whether they also managed to imitate the didactic tone of the poem. Did both translators manage to play their roles as teachers? Did they try to make the lectures more interesting and perhaps to interact with the reader? Or did they minimize the didactic aspects of the epos and concentrated on other features of the text? The main goal of my paper is to analyse the ways in which Cicero and Germanicus applied the features of the didactic poetry genre in their translations. This includes a comparison of these with Aratus' text and with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A guide of an underworld tour is one of the significant features in medieval visionary literature as well as in ancient catabases and Jewish-Christian apocalyptic. It represents an archetype and universal motif of many otherworld journeys through the centuries and cultures. This paper based on a huge collection of sources investigates this topos in medieval visionary accounts composed between the 6th and 13th century. Here the most frequent appearing guide figure is an angel, especially an archangel or a guardian angel. In many other visions a saint holds the role of an instructor and protector. It is almost always possible to find a closer relation between the saint and the visionary - a kind of patronage (personal or local patron). The third usual guide type represents a human connected to the visionary with a spiritual bond (confrère, superior) or a blood relationship (family member). This paper introduces a short characteristic of these three basic otherworld guides and offers a list of all visionary records from the mentioned period including this figure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his De errore profanarum religionum, Firmicus Maternus fiercely attacks the traditional cults of the Roman Empire as well as the mysteries, which he considers to be the invention of the devil and a complete perversion of Christian sacraments. This paper analyses the motif of blood in his work. A close reading of the text reveals that Firmicus applies dichotomic functions to the use of blood in ritual contexts, such as poison and remedy, purity and pollution, and salvation and damnation. These dichotomies serve two purposes for him: First, they allow him to construct clear boundaries between the pagan religion (deliberately constructed as 'one' system and suppressing its diversity) and Christianity as two opposing religious systems. Second, by turning the tables, they allow him to undermine the traditional conceptions concerning ritually used blood. Thus, he presents 'pagan' blood as being venomous, polluting, and only leading on the road to perdition, whereas only the blood of Christ truly has the power to heal, to cleanse, to redeem, and to grant eternal salvation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the means of expressing indirect (inferentive and reportative) evidentiality in Latin narrative prose of I-II A. D. on the material Petron's Satyricon and Apuleius' Meta-morphoses. Morphological forms and syntactic constructions treated as evidential strategies are taken into account, since their main meanings are within the pattern of the grammatical categories (tense, mood etc.), and the information about the source and/or means of access to information is contextually motivated side effect. The result of the research reveals singling out eight strategies to express indirect evidentiality. Inferentive evidentiality is represented by five evidential strategies, while the reportative -- by the three. Different use of evidential strategies in both works relates to context and personal choice of the authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the re-analysis of the evidence this paper demonstrates that a variety of Celtic was indeed spoken in Pannonia at least until the end of the 2nd c. AD. It also argues that most of the proposals regarding the influence of Celtic on Pannonian Latin cannot be upheld, because there were no demonstrable Celtic features that could have triggered such a change. The remaining cases are attested outside of the Celtic speaking areas too, and thus Celtic could at best have reinforced these changes. Only the sound change a > e might be attributed to Celtic influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Vulgar Latin, the nominative and the accusative are used as neutral forms of nouns to replace the oblique cases, whose meaning and functions they can duly acquire. In this paper, I analyse the examples of such uses in the epigraphic corpus of early and late Lusitania, with special attention to the development of the Ibero-Romance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gorgias is frequently read as a dialogue in which Socrates fails to convince especially his last interlocutor Callicles to adopt a philosophical way of life. Instead, Callicles becomes increasingly indignant about the repeated refutation of his personal convictions and eventually refuses to participate in the conversation any longer. In general scholars explain this result by Callicles' recalcitrance. It is supposed that the dialogue illustrates the impossibility of persuasion if an interlocutor refuses to cooperate - which would imply certain limitations of the Socratic elenchus. In contrast, this paper demonstrates that Socrates indeed achieves his aim of shaking Callicles' faith. By decoding the medicine and court imagery, ubiquitous throughout the whole dialogue, it will be argued that, far from being an illustration of failure, the text instead indicates that Socrates' conversation with Callicles is successful - and thus proves the efficacy of the elenctic method even on reluctant opponents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Seneca (and the Stoics in general) benefactions are the essential element for social bonding: they are meant to be reciprocal and thus create relationships. But as he points out in the beginning of De beneficiis they often remain unanswered (and thus fail to create or stabilize community life) because of the recipients' ingratitude. What Seneca undertakes in De beneficiis is to teach people how to avoid ingratitude. As he points out in the beginning of the treatise, a real philosopher's duty is to heal people's souls, so his approach is a therapeutic one. In my paper I present Seneca's therapy of ingratitude. I argue that it is rooted in Stoic Ethics and at the same time adapted to his non-sage readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lucian, one of the most prolific authors during the Second Sophistic, is famous for his multifaceted and manifold literary production. His works are dealing with different topics such as literary criticism, philosophy and myth, and display a wide range of various stylistic devices such as irony, parody and satire. Especially the art of rhetoric is highly present in his texts. This has been emphasized in different works regarding his theoretical writings. This reflects the importance of the rhetorical handbooks, the progymnasmata, which were flourishing during the Second Sophistic and had a strong influence on Lucian. However, the rhetorical approach in Lucian's shorter dialogues has not attracted much attention. An exhaustive commentary on the dialogues is also missing. This paper focusses on Dialogue of the Dead (28) and analyses the rhetoric used by the figures in this dialogue. It is shown that Lucian - in a playful manner - displays different modes of persuasion (especially logos and pathos) with the help of his figures Protesilaos and Pluto arguing in the dialogue with each other. In addition to this treatment of the dialogue, the influence of the progymnasmata is also discussed. Further, it is argued that the dialogue can be seen as a 'model' for rhetoric in practice. Therefore, the dialogue fulfills two purposes: rhetorical education and entertainment by using myth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, the meaning and word formation of the Homeric adjectival compound κορυϑαίoλος are discussed. This compound is smally translated as either 'with glancing helm' or 'moving the helmet quickly', but there is no decisive argument in favour of one of the two meanings. However, a more fine-grained analysis of the internal structure of this compound as well as the contexts in which it occurs, including some remarks on Greek military equipment in Homeric times, clearly show that the meaning 'with glancing helm' must but be secondary. The problem remains how the secondary meaning developed from the original therefore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sermon with central theme Diliges Dominum Deum was preached by Jan Hus as his first synodical sermon at the synod of Prague Archdiocese on the feast of st. Lucas at the 19th of October 1405. This text, written in form of thematic preaching, is concerned with usual problems of the Church at that time, especially with sins of adultery and simony. The value of the sermon lies in an opening part, in which Jan Hus described his ecclesiological meanings based on the opinions of John Wycliff. This occurence of Wycliffe's ecclesiology is one of the earliest evidences of his influence over Jan Hus' concept of the Church. The aim of this paper is to introduce the sermon Diliges and the context, in which was preached. Attention will be paid not only to content, but also to form of the sermon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]