This article examines Numenius’ use of the concept of undiminished giving in fr. 14 des Places, discussing briefly its philosophical antecedents and parallels from Plato to Early Imperial thinkers and highlighting the striking similarity of the fragment to Philo of Alexandria’s De gigantibus 25–8. This similarity indicates the potential direct influence of Philo on Numenius, contributing to the debate on Philo’s impact on pagan philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism.

In 1911, Franz Pichlmayr listed Vatican codex Barb. Lat. 812 as a manuscript attributing De uiris illustribus to Aurelius Victor—a unique and significant claim. Later scholars, notably Sage, questioned the reliability of the claim and urged caution owing to past cataloguing errors. A 2025 examination of Barb. Lat. 812 revealed that it contains records from the Council of Trent, not De uiris illustribus. Attempts to resolve the discrepancy by checking related shelfmarks were unsuccessful. Whether Pichlmayr’s manuscript ever existed—and, if it did, what its identity was—remains unknown.

This article considers the vexed problem of whether the letters of the Antiochene sophist Libanius provide evidence for the life and career of the historian Ammianus Marcellinus. After brief consideration of the debate on Ep. 1063, it turns to Ep. 233 of a.d. 360, which mentions an Ammianus in imperial service, setting out the various attempts to identify this individual as the historian. It then outlines the later Roman onomastic system, casting new light in particular on the role which names played in indicating social status and on the way in which Libanius used names. It shows that fourth-century conventions of naming preclude identifying the Ammianus of the letter with Ammianus Marcellinus.

This paper focuses on Early Roman thin-walled (ThW) pottery from the agora and Fabrika Hill in Nea Paphos, Cyprus. The material was examined macroscopically, and a selection of samples was subjected to elemental analysis (WD-XRF) and thin-section petrography to trace their provenance. The results revealed the presence of local production as well as off-island imports. They also show the low consumption of ThW pottery at the site as well as the dominance of the imports from Asia Minor over local production. These support the interpretation that external cultural influence, although present, had little effect on the islanders, who apparently were conservative in their choice of vessels and practices. The paper thus aims to contribute to a broader scholarly debate on the influence of Roman traditions on local productions and on processes of globalisation in antiquity. Furthermore, it discusses the phenomenon of the production of ThW vessels in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.

Cicero’s use of the adjective repentinus at Brut. 242 (C. L. Caepasii fratres … ignoti homines et repentini) has a singularly negative and offensive meaning. Both Tertullian (Adu. Marc. 4.7.7) and Ammianus Marcellinus (14.6.13, 21.16.3) echo Cicero, employing the same adjective in conjunction with ignotus or with its synonym incognitus, albeit without the same negative and defaming nuance.

A small glass flask found in 1983–4 in a late second-century context at Tanner Row, York has been identified as a kohl bottle. These were used as eye makeup containers, and are overwhelmingly found in Egypt. The use of kohl can rarely be traced via its containers outside that area. This article explores the implications of this find for York and the soldiers stationed there.

The paper discusses a dozen passages from book 2 of Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica, proposing some twenty new conjectures.

The Berlanga Cup is the second piece found in Hispania of the type known as the Hadrian’s Wall series. Despite its artistic interest, it bears important information about the Wall, since it is the only element of the series that mentions the forts located on the eastern side of Hadrian’s Wall. This study encompasses research on epigraphy, archaeometry, the virtualisation of the piece, and the survey of its context with a GPR and an artefactual survey. Arguments are provided regarding use as gifts purchased by their owner or given to him to commemorate his military career, perhaps linked to the Corhors I Celtiberorum, which would later accompany him on his return to his place of origin in Roman Celtiberia.

This article introduces the special collection Teaching Late Latin: Past and Present, Challenges and Prospects and sets out a deliberately innovative, contrastive agenda for this issue of the Journal of Classics Teaching. While clearly programmatic in nature, this article advances a central claim: that examining the teaching of Latin in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages alongside the teaching of Late Latin today offers a productive lens through which to rethink Latin pedagogy across time. The special collection is structured around two dialoguing sections, Ars docendi antiqua and Ars docendi nova, which place medieval and contemporary classrooms side by side. In both contexts, teachers respond to shifting sociolinguistic landscapes with methodological creativity. By foregrounding these parallels, the volume challenges the widespread equation (still prevalent across much of the education system) of “Latin” with a narrowly defined Classical norm. At the same time, it calls for closer dialogue between philology and pedagogy, between historical transmission and present-day practice, and between scholars who research Late Antiquity and those who teach it. Our aim is not to offer definitive solutions, but to initiate a conversation. If this editorial has a programmatic edge, it is because we believe that reflecting on how Latin was (and is) taught is inseparable from reflecting on what kind of subject Classics wishes to be.