Advances in general linguistics, central to which has been the address to language as a means of communicating knowledge and intentions, rather than from a purely formal syntactic or semantic angle, have meant that many literary scholars (particularly in the field of rhetoric) today share a set of common assumptions and interests with linguists, opening up rich possibilities for cross-disciplinary studies. My thesis emerges from the recognition that classical Athenian symbouleutic speeches, like other uses of language, aim at successful communication (or, persuasion), and that this function can be observed through its linguistic patterns. Though the communicative function of oratory was understood by ancient rhetoricians, they (and modern scholar under their influence) tend to see the components of classical political speeches in a rather simplified and rigid manner, which does reflect the complexity of the speeches as a product of sophisticated socio-political communication. My thesis aims, firstly, to redirect the discussion about communication in classical symbouleutic oratory, using the perspective of systemic functional grammars, and secondly, to reflect on the gap between traditional rhetorical theories and the textual evidence from surviving speeches. Starting from a detailed analysis of existing examples of the genre, my thesis postulates a 'functional structure' for classical symbouleutic speeches and describes the communicative purposes and semantic attributes of each of the components. I then utilise the data I have accumulated during the detailed annotation process, and analyse the formal patterns of the speeches with regard to two aspects of communication— alignment (focusing on stance-taking and characterisation: personal references, illocution, affect) and evidentiality (focusing on modes of generating external authority: impersonal expressions, actualisation, reported speech). I attempt to approach the multi-layered functioning of communication in the Athenian assembly by examining how various linguistic patterns co-occur and interact with each other in speech sections that have similar purposes.

My thesis is a narratological analysis of Petronius’ Satyrica, particularly of the first section taking place in South Italy (Petron. 1–99), based on the methodology and terminology of Gérard Genette. There are two main objectives for the present study, which are closely connected to each other. One the one hand, I wish to identify and analyse the narrative characteristics of the Satyrica, including a selection of its literary models and the ways in which they are imitated or transformed and embedded in a new narrative schema, as well as the impact, which those texts that are connected to it have on our interpretation of the work. My narratological investigation of transtextuality in the case of Petronius includes: the assessment of matters of onymity and pseudonymity, rhematic and thematic titles, and the real and implied author in the sections on para-, inter- and metatexts; features belonging to the categories of narrative voice, mood, and time in the section on the narration (‘narrating’) and the récit (‘narrative’); the hypertextual relationships between the Satyrica and a selection of its potential models or sources in the section on the histoire (‘story’); and the architext or genre of the Satyrica. The aim of helping us understand better and appreciate the learnedness of the author Petronius and the complex piece of literary work that he has created is closely connected to our historical assessment of the date of composition of the Satyrica. It has implications that immediately concern our interpretation of the work and beyond. Moving the date of composition of the Satyrica to the second century affects our perception of the Neronian age and our understanding of the development of Imperial Latin literature, more generally.

Cicero, Livy and the younger Pliny all claimed that the Roman republic, or the Trajanic principate, offered citizens a freedom that depended on governance according to the law. But did they contemplate that the Roman legal system conformed to the rule of law as it is now understood? Chapter I outlines a model of the rule of law advanced by Lon Fuller and briefly considers certain features of the legal system of the late Roman republic by reference to this model. Chapters II to IV examine in more detail Cicero's conception of the Roman legal system; Livy's treatment of the evolution of the republic as a society subject to the commands of the laws; and (more briefly) the younger Seneca's proposal to Nero of an alternative model of governance of Roman society, and Pliny's claims that Trajan had restored the rule of law by, in some sense, subjecting himself to the laws. By comparing their presentations of Rome's legal system with Fuller's model, the thesis draws out distinctive aspects of each author's ideas; it concludes that Cicero, Livy and Pliny all identified and valued features of the Roman legal system contemplated by Fuller's model to be central to the rule of law, but each author emphasised different aspects of the law as central to its effectiveness. Seneca provides an informative contrast. In exploring these matters, the thesis examines the treatment of the law in different literary genres; the relationship between legal reasoning, on the one hand, and rhetoric and philosophy, on the other; the role of examples in legal reasoning; and the authors' exploration of extra-legal grounds for commitment to the rule of law.

In the first half of the fourth century BCE, when Plato is writing his dialogues, the titles ‘sophist’ and ‘philosopher’ have no widely-accepted application and, as a result, the use of them for some purposes rather than others is controversial and subject to dispute. In the tradition that follows Plato, ‘philosophy’ becomes a term of art and the philosophos is distinguished from the class of the sophistai and other alleged sophoi such as poets, orators and politicians. Considering Plato is among other competitors for the appropriation and legitimisation of these labels, the present dissertation examines the importance each of these notions have in the Platonic corpus, drawing attention to the way they are (re)defined and appropriated, whether they are novel or distinct. By observing examples in pre-Platonic and Platonic literature, section I of the thesis focuses on sophos/sophia, section II on philosophos/philosophia and section III on sophistēs. The investigation allows us to reassess two problems that have not been fully considered in Platonic scholarship: (i) Plato’s conception of 'sophia' within the Greek tradition of wisdom, and (ii) the identity of and distinction between the philosopher and the sophist in Plato’s dialogues. I intend to consider both Plato’s inheritance from the tradition and Plato’s own contribution to creating an identity for the sophistēs and the philosophos from a deeper understanding of sophos/sophia. The legacy of the precedent tradition is reflected by the presence of the agonistic, authoritative, and moral strands. Plato’s contribution, on the other hand, is reflected by the presence of two elements, namely the principle whereby these titles are meaningful names, and a consistent conceptualisation of them in epistemic terms. I propose that Plato makes use of the meaning of these words by conceiving of them more as descriptors than as titles of authority or reputation. By using ‘real’ definitions, he is allowed to confront the ‘apparent’ with the ‘real sophos’ (Apology), to create a narrative of love for the philosopher (Phaedo, Lysis, Symposium and Republic), and to argue that the sophist ‘seems to know’—hence the name 'sophistēs' (Sophist).

This thesis seeks to show the consistency and quality of Aristotle’s ontology in its treatment of worldly being(s) by examining how Aristotle treats a range of worldly phenomena. It does so by following Aristotle and considering (a) the structuring of worldly being in general by establishing that we exist as objects in a world of objects and that it is as determinate beings that we exhibit states and characteristics, (b) the structuring of our “physical” human engagement with the world through our exhibition of desire, choice, pleasure, and natural human biological development, (c) the structuring of our “mental” human engagement with the world through our human faculties for imagination, memory, and reason, (d) the structuring of organic being in accordance with the underlying concepts of limit (determinateness), priority (temporality), symmetry (duality), the “mean” (centredness), and proportion (dynamic wholeness), (e) the structuring of organic being as soul and matter, and (f) the meaning of “God” as the keystone of this system. It ultimately seeks to defend the value of Aristotle’s ontological or architectonic approach to the world and does so, implicitly and to some extent explicitly, vis-à-vis other philosophical approaches to the world.

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Aristophanes allows Euripides to interrupt constantly. In Athenian comedy of the fifth century they are on stage together, both literally and figuratively. Despite Aristophanes’ comedies having a meaning of their own, Euripides’ lines are so clearly visible underneath them that they can only be described as the verbal equivalent of a palimpsest. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a palimpsest as a manuscript or piece of writing on which later writing has superimposed or effaced earlier writing, or something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form. It is clear that a palimpsest is the product of layering that results in something as new, whilst still bearing traces of the original. Dillon describes the palimpsest as " ... an involuted phenomenon where otherwise unrelated texts are involved and entangled, intricately interwoven, interrupting and inhabiting each other". Aristophanes takes texts, particularly those of Euripides, which may otherwise have been unrelated, and weaves them together to form something new. I will show that in a number of cases Aristophanes offers scenes that have already been performed in Euripides’ plays but lays his own plot over the tragedian’s, whilst at the same time drawing the audiences’ attention to the original. The nature of this borrowing overwrites Kristeva’s theory of ‘intertextuality’ and provides a new and more apposite name for the permutation of texts in which the geno-text corresponds to infinite possibilities of palimpsestuous textuality (and the pheno-text to a singular text, which contains echoes of what it could have been). The plurality of Euripides’ texts, whilst engendering those of Aristophanes, constantly interrupts them. Through the consideration of ancient and modern literary theory and by a close analysis of Aristophanes’ and Euripides’ plays, this thesis sets out to offer a new reading of the relationship between these two poets. It shows that they were engaged in a dialogue of reciprocal influence that came to a head at the end of the Peloponnesian War.

Inaug.-diss.--Rostock. / Lebenslauf. Litteratur-verzeichnis: p. [50]-53.