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Three Ambivii

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Ronald Syme
Ronald Syme
Affiliation:
Wolfson College, Oxford
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Extract

I. The name earned early notoriety from L. Ambivius Turpio, the actor who performed in all the plays of Terence. It appealed to Lucilius:

quid tibi ego ambages Ambivi scribere coner?

Also to Wilhelm Schulze, duly citing the Lucilian reference. In the sequel the nomen failed to enlist proper regard. Three persons bore it, diverse in life and rank: a tavern keeper on the Via Latina, a gourmet writer, a procurator governing Judaea. To the first and to the third, erudition in the recent time denies recognition; and the second through inadvertence misses his place and period. The Ambivii call for redemption. The venture will lead along circuitous or devious paths, ‘per ambages’, in the pursuit of names and identities. From that operation various instruction accrues on the flank.

II. First, a casual notice in the criminal record of a family of the better sort at Larinum. Cluentius and his slaves, so it was alleged, had made an assault on ‘Ambivium quendam, coponem de via Latina’ (Pro Cluentio 163).

Traditional texts remained content with that name. Not so long ago recourse to manuscripts produced ‘A. Bivium’. It was adopted in two standard editions. Had editors given a thought to nomenclature, they might have conceived some disquiet. Absent from the repertorium, the nomen appeared to lack attestation. In itself no bar, to be sure. The dense forest of local Italian nomenclature carries plenty of unique specimens. Reassurance could be sought from ‘Bivellius’ and ‘Bivonius’.

Information

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , May 1986 , pp. 271 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1986

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References

1 Lucilius 1281 M.

2 Schulze, , LE 68Google Scholar.

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4 Clark (OCT, 1905); Boyancé (Budé, 1953).

5 Schulze, , LE 227Google Scholar, adduced four instances of ‘Bivellius’ from Italian towns, one of ‘Bivonius’ (CIL v.4487: Brixia).

6 On which, CQ 31 (1981), 424Google Scholar = Roman Papers (1984), iii.1417Google Scholar. Further, ‘Names and identities in Quintilian’, Acta Classica 28 (1985)Google Scholar, forthcoming.

7 CIL viii.5730 (Sigus); Epigraphica 28 (1976), 142Google Scholar (Thurii). Each indexed under ‘Vibius’.

8 Manganaro, G., Arch. class. 10 (1958), 207ff.Google Scholar, with Pl. LXVIII, 1. The site is Torre de Mezzavia.

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53 If so, one entry to be abolished in PIR 2 A — and two to accrue.

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