Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T18:15:21.524Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Illusion and Reality in Latin Topographical Writing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Nicholas Horsfall
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

From Cluverius and Holstenius, through Nissen and Hülsen to the distinguished contributors to the Quaderni dell' Istituto di Topografia antica, the study of Italian topography has achieved solid progress, sometimes with important consequences for military and economic history. New concords between battles and battlefields, between nameless sites and siteless names, continue to be proposed and the steady popularity of a subject involving archaeology, epigraphy, literary texts, and country walks is readily understandable: we must all be grateful for the very real improvements which continue to be made to our map of central Italy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , October 1985 , pp. 197 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1. Weiss, R., The Renaissance discovery of classical antiquity (Oxford, 1969), pp. 105Google Scholar ff. I am most grateful to Rene van Royen foi an invitation to lecture on this topic at the University of Amsterdam, and for his splendid hospitality; an element of áγώνισμα ές τò παραχρῆ৫μα has deliberately not been suppressed, but Lisa Fentress and Tim Cornell wisely insisted on some changes.

2. Some of the topographical material from an unpublished Oxford D.Phil, thesis on Aeneid 7 (1971Google Scholar) will shortly appear much altered in the Enciclopedia Virgiliana, ss.vv Laurentes, Nomentum, ortinae classes, Praeneste, Tetrica, Severus, Rosea rura, Velinus, Tevere.

3. Rose, H. J., Aeneas Pontifex (London, 1948Google Scholar), showing that the spirit of Servius is not yet dead; see Georgii, H., Die antike Aneiskritik (Stuttgart, 1891), pp. 566–7Google Scholar, Bartelink, G. J. M., Etymologisering bij Vergilius (Amsterdam, 1965), pp. 21ffGoogle Scholar. Some of these exaggerated claims are at least in pan an inheritance from Greek attitudes to Homer, R. Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship (Oxford, 1968), passimGoogle Scholar.

4. Rehm, B., Das geogr. Bild des alten Italien in Vergils Aeneis, Philologus supplbd. 24.2 (1932), 97Google Scholar; this admirable pamphlet remains much the best guide to the subject.

5. Mackail, J. W., JRS 3 (1913), 7Google Scholar, Wellesley, K. in Vindex humanitatis, essays in honour of J. H. Bishop (Armidale, 1980), p. 169Google Scholar.

6. Ritter, R., De Varrone Vergilii narrandis urbium populorumque Italiae originibus auctore, Diss. Phil. Halenses 13 (1897), 285–416Google Scholar, Rehm, op. cit. (n. 4); see Horsfall, Varrone (e l'Eneide), Enc. Virg.forthcoming.

7. Maiuri, A., Saggi di varia antichita (Venezia, 1954), pp. 216–17Google Scholar, Walsh, P. G. (ed.), Livy xxi, 195Google Scholar, Sommella, P., ‘Antichi Campi di battaglia in Italia’, Quad. 1st. Top. Ant. (Rome, 1967), 45Google Scholar.

8. Cf. the irreproachably balanced summary in Lazenby, J. F., Hannibal's War (Warminster, 1978), pp. 35–48Google Scholar; that Hannibal's route lay across the Mt. Cenis massif is overwhelmingly likely and a preference for the Col du Clapier is not unreasonable.

9. 3.48.12; Walbank, F. W., Polybius (Berkeley, 1972), pp. 117ffGoogle Scholar.

10. 2.14.9, 15.8, 3.47.2; cf. Hyde, W. W., Roman Alpine Routes (Philadelphia, 1935), p. 11Google Scholar.

11. Plb. 34.10 = Strab. 4 pp. 208–9; Varro ap. Serv., ad Aen. 10.13Google Scholar; Amm., Marc. 15. 10Google Scholar, Hyde (n. 10), pp. 11–12, 51.

12. Sall, , Hist. fr. 2.98.2Google Scholar Maur., Hyde (n. 10), 52.

13. Macdonald, A. H., Alpine Journal (1956), 93ffGoogle Scholar.: this admirable discussion is by no means so well known as it deserves to be. Once it is realized that Livy 21.31 contains two narratives, not one, many difficulties (cf. Lazenby, , op. cit. (n. 8), pp. 39Google Scholarf.) disappear.

14. Walsh, P. G., Livy (Cambridge, 1961), pp. 153ffGoogle Scholar., Anderson, W. B. (ed.), Livy ix, 247fGoogle Scholar.: Wiseman, T. P., Clio's Cosmetics (Leicester, 1979), pp. 43fGoogle Scholar.

15. PBSR 50 (1982), 45ff.Google Scholar: Maiuri, (op. cit. (n. 7), but more cautiously in Passeggiate Campane (Firenze, 1957), p. 350Google Scholar) goes to extreme lengths in order to save Livy's credit as a geographer.

16. Walbank, , op. cit. (n. 9), pp. 23–5Google Scholar, Plb. 4.2.2, 10.11.4, etc.

17. Macdonald, A. H., JRS 47 (1957), 159ff.Google Scholar, E. Rawson, ibid. 62 (1972), 42ff., Walsh, , op. cit. (n. 14), pp. 32ffGoogle Scholar.

18. Sall., Jug. 17–19Google Scholar; Sardinia and Corsica: Hist. 2. fr. 1–11 Maur.; Black Sea: 3. fr. 61–1 Maur.; on islands, see Gabba, E., JRS 71 (1981), 55Google Scholarff.

19. See his note on Aen. 6.201 in Austin's commentary.

20. Williams, G. W., Tradition and originality in Roman poetry (Oxford, 1968), pp. 637Google Scholarff., Buchheit, V., Vergil über die Sendung Roms (Heidelberg, 1963), pp. 183ffGoogle Scholar.

21. But he refers forthwith to the harbour of New Carthage; see the commentaries of Con way and Austin ad loc.

22. PBSR 50 (1982), 50Google Scholar, after Mackail ad loc. and Rehm, , op. cit. (n. 4), 79fGoogle Scholar.

23. Carcopino, J., Virgile et les origines d'Ostie 2 (Paris, 1968), pp. 294fGoogle Scholar.

24. No conventional ‘veni vidi scripsi’ formula exists in the historians for economical attestation of autopsy.

25. Woodman, A. J. in West, D. and Woodman, T. (eds.), Creative imitation and Latin literature (Cambridge, 1979), p. 152Google Scholar.

26. Gernentz, L., Laudes Romae (diss. Rostock, 1908), 1–70Google Scholar contains some matter of interest too.

27. Menander Rhetor, ed. Russell, D. A. and Wilson, N. G. (Oxford, 1981), p. 250Google Scholar, citing Strabo 12.2.9, 3.11, 3.39. Cf. Classen, C. J., Die Stadt.. (Hildesheim, 1980) pp. 16ffGoogle Scholar.

28. Guillemin, A.-M., Pline et la vie litteraire de son temps (Paris, 1929), p. 118Google Scholar.

29. Horsfall, , op. cit. (n. 22), 47Google Scholar, against Maiuri, , op. cit. (n. 7), p. 219Google Scholar.

30. Livy 38.56; cf. Luce, T. J., Livy (Princeton, 1977), p. 101Google Scholar; above p. 199.

31. Cf. Horsfall, CR 34 (1984), 133fGoogle Scholar.

32. Op. cit. (n. 5), p. 169; cf. Evans, J. A. S., Vergilius 10 (1964), 12ff.Google Scholar; ivi et ipse; vidi; scripsi.

33. Cf. Woodman, loc. cit. (n. 25).

34. Ogilvie, R. M., Commentary on Livy Books 1–5, p. 720Google Scholaret passim; extended, Horsfall, , CJ 76 (1981), pp. 307fGoogle Scholar.

35. Op. cit. (n. 22), 51–2.

36. But such a conclusion did not escape Stefan Weinstock, RE vi A.1.833–5.

37. Horsfall, Enc. Virg. s.v. Laurentes, forthcoming, cf. Carcopino, op. cit. (n. 23), pp. 288ff., 355ff. Anderson, W. S., TAPA 88 (1957), 25Google Scholar.

38. It hardly needs repetition that the Borghese Palace at Pratica has contributed greatly to the seduction of the unwary.

39. stone, Boundary: Aen. 12.898ffGoogle Scholar.; cf. Il. 21.405, but see Carcopino, , op. cit. (n. 23), p. 284Google Scholar; Turnus, and Ardea, : Aen. 12.44fGoogle Scholar.; cf. the Homeric τηλόθι πάτρης but see Carcopino, , op. cit., p. 308Google Scholar.

40. For Homeric topography, cf. Pfeiffer, , op. cit. (n. 3), pp. 249ff., 257ffGoogle Scholar. Tib. Don.: 2.642.16, Schanz-Hosius, Röm. Literaturgesch.4 ii. 106. The strikingly small scale of the geographical element in the Virgil scholia appears to have escaped all attentionGoogle Scholar.

41. Cf. notably the admirable discussion in Bruckmann, H., Die röm. Niederlagen (Bochum, 1936)Google Scholar.

42. Burck, E., Die Erzāhlungskunst des T. Livius (Berlin, 1934), pp. 198fGoogle Scholar.

43. From the Rhine to China: Klotz, A., Klio 24 (1931), 424ff., 434ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar., Brunt, P. A., JRS 53 (1963), 175Google Scholar; cf. MacMullen, R., Roman Government's response to crisis (New Haven, 1976), pp. 52fGoogle Scholar.

44. Thomson, J. O., History of Ancient Geography (Cambridge, 1948), pp. 336ffGoogle Scholar. Cary, M. and Warmington, E. H., The Ancient Explorers (Harmondsworth, 1963), pp. 225fGoogle Scholar. On the variable accuracy of the marble plan, cf. Bloch, H., JRS 51 (1961), 146–7Google Scholar, Gatti, G. in Carettoni, G. et al. Lapianta marmorea (Rome, 1955), pp. 228ff.Google Scholar, Rodriguez-Almeida, E.MEFR(A) 89 (1977), 222Google Scholar and Forma urbis marmorea. Aggiornamento generate 1980 (Rome, 1981), pp. 44 ff., 52Google Scholar.

45. To the references to Stürenburg (cf. n. 47) and Wistrand, Nach innen oder nach aussen? made at PBSR 50 (1982), 50Google Scholar n. 25, nothing further is as yet to be added.

46. DS 14.114; cf. Ogilvie, , op. cit. (n. 34), p. 718Google Scholar.

47. In Relative Ortsbezeicknung (Leipzig, 1934), pp. 31ffGoogle Scholar.

48. On ‘compass points’, cf. Kaibel, G., Hermes 20 (1885), 579ff.Google Scholar; on cartography, see most recently, Arnaud, P., MEFR(A) 95 (1983), 677ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49. Griffin, J., JRS 66 (1976), 91Google Scholar, Smith, R. R. R., JRS 71 (1981), 28fGoogle Scholar.

50. Price, M. J. and Trell, B. L., Coins and their cities (London, 1977)Google Scholar.

51. Heurgon, J., JRS 41 (1951), 22ff.Google Scholar, cf. Sherk, R. K., ANRW ii.1, 560, 562Google Scholar.

52. Puteoli, , Ostrow, S. E., Puteoli 3 (1979), 77ff.Google Scholar, a reference for which I am indebted to Mr. N. Purcell; Alexandria: Picard, C., Latomus 18 (1959), 46fGoogle Scholar., Fraser, P., Ptolemaic Alexandria ii (Oxford, 1972), pp. 45ffGoogle Scholar.

53. Wiseman, T. P., Antiquaries Journal 61 (1981), 36fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54. At least all those reproduced in Ryberg, I. S., Rites of the State Religion in Roman Art, MAAR 22 (1955Google Scholar), Nash, E., Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome (London, 1961Google Scholar), and Dudley, D. R., Urbs Roma (London, 1967Google Scholar) have been considered.

55. Ward-Perkins, J. B. and Claridge, AmandaPompeii AD 79 (London, 1979Google Scholar) nos. 16, 17, Grant, M.Cities of Vesuvius (London, 1971), p. 26, et saepeGoogle Scholar.

56. Lugli, G., Il centro monumentale (Rome, 1946), p. 320Google Scholar, Helbig, Fūhrer..1 4 no. 1076, Castagnoli, F., BCAR 69 (1941), 59ffGoogle Scholar.

57. The painting, Schefold, , Wände, 12 (I.3. 23)Google Scholar, Grant, , op. cit. (n. 55), p. 73Google Scholar; the amphitheatre, see e.g. Grant, pp. 70–71.

58. Gombrich, E. H., Art and illusion (London, 1977), pp. 58ff.Google Scholar, a reference for which I am grateful to Miss Marie Leahy.