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Preface: The scope of the commentary is limited. I have been concerned with establishing the diction of Silius in Book 11. I have shown which words are confined to epic, which words are poetic and which words are prosaic. I have not attempted to establish whether there is a correlation between Silius' use of 'poetic' and' prosaic' words and the content of what he is saying. But I have noticed that Silius frequently uses prosaic words when he is following Livy or some other historical source. In other cases, Silius may be using prosaic words because of his own training as an orator. He is clearly indebted to Cicero. Nor have I attempted to establish whether there is any particular effect when Silius uses a'poetic' or 'prosaic' word or phrase or construction. I have been influenced by considerations of length and also by the fact that I believe any such attempted interpretation, although it might produce valuable results, would of necessity be much more subjective than what I have actually done. I leave any such interpretation to future researchers of Silius.

This thesis presents a study of the metrics and prosody of the carmina latina epigraphica from the Roman provinces of North Africa, the purpose of which is to test the prevailing but unsubstantiated view that these carmina exhibit especially poor versification, and that in them can be observed a chronological decline in quality of versification. A representative corpus of dated carmina latina epigraphica africana is established, the inscriptions are subjected to an analysis of their metrics and prosody, and conclusions are drawn concerning the nature, extent and chronology of their deviation from classical standards of versification. The corpus of inscriptions has four introductory chapters, which form Part II of the study. The first describes the criteria according to which the texts have been chosen. The second, third and fourth present three premises on which analysis and interpretation of their versification are based; these concern the authorship of the carmina, the educational background of the authors, and the linguistic milieu in which they were composed. The core of the thesis is Part III, which comprises the texts of eighty-six dated carmina, analyses of their versification and commentaries on several features of their composition. Observations are offered regarding: the nature and possible causes of unclassical metric and prosodic phenomena; the extent to which an author deviates from literary norms, and the effect of his errors on a quantitative reading of the poem; a brief assessment of each author's understanding of and competence in the composition of classical quantitative verse; the graphic disposition of the text and its effect on the reader's recognition and recitation of the poetic content. Conclusions drawn from the data compiled in Part III include the following. Unclassical metric features characteristic of the corpus include the combination of different meters in one poem, the composition of hypermetric and hypometric lines and the intermixture of prose with lines of verse. Such phenomena are found in about one-half the texts. Prosodical irregularities fall into two main types: those that can be considered classical (ascribable to an author's application of classical licences); and those that are errors, most of which are attributable to the intrusion of certain unclassical phonological features of an author's everyday speech. Prosodical errors occur in about three-quarters of the texts. Four main observations are offered regarding the distribution of errors in the corpus. The extent to which individual authors adhere to literary norms varies widely; the majority of versifiers, however, have adhered sufficiently well that their works can be read quantitatively without serious hindrance. The presence of metric deviations in a poem carries no chronological significance, for these are fairly evenly distributed throughout the corpus; a general chronological decline in adherence to classical prosody is discernible from the first century to the fifth, with a reverse in the decline seen in poems dated to the last three centuries of the period. The presence in the corpus of several poems of unsound versification of very early date and of poems of sound versification of very late date proves that the practice of some scholars of dating otherwise undatable carmina according to their quality of versification is unsafe. Pagan authors tend to adhere slightly more closely than their Christian counterparts to classical metrics and prosody. Poems of reasonably sound metrics and prosody tend to be inscribed in such a way as to facilitate the reader's recognition and recitation of their poetic content, while poems of poor quality of versification tend to be inscribed haphazardly. Appendix I provides full scansion of each carmen. Appendix II lists initia carminum. / Arts, Faculty of / Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of / Graduate

The main body of this thesis is a commentary on sections 1.19b-33 and 1.97-109 of Cicero's De Inuentione. These sections treat partes orationis in general (1.19b), then exordium (1.20-26), narratio (1.27-30), partitio (1.31-33), digressio (1.97), and conclusio (1.98-109). Due to the imposed word limit, the sections on confirmatio (1.34-77) and reprehensio (1.78-96) could not be included in the thesis. The structure of the commentary on each of these sections will be: introduction to the section, references to parallel passages in other Latin and Greek rhetorical texts, the most important general literature on the subject of the section, comparison of the passage in Cic.Inu.1 with the corresponding one in Rhet.Her, individual lemmata. The lemmata will cover various kinds of information, such as textual, grammatical, and linguistic issues, background information on persons, objects etc. mentioned, the young Cicero's position within the rhetorical tradition for a particular point (i.e. influence on and by Cic.Inu.). To the commentary proper, a number of introduction chapters have been added. Due to the word limit, only a selection of these can be included in the thesis: the title 'De Inuentione' and Cicero's intention to write on all five partes artis; the structure of Cic.Inu.; subdividing the art; rhythm and clausulae; the young Cicero's knowledge of Aristotle's works; the relationship between Cic.Inu. and Rhet.Her. (abbreviated version); the proems of Cic.Inu. (abbreviated version); preliminary comments on Narratio; the Orestes case in the rhetorical tradition; examples in Cic.Inu. (abbreviated version). The structure of the commentary on each of these sections will be: introduction to the section, references to parallel passages in other Latin and Greek rhetorical texts, the most important general literature on the subject of the section, comparison of the passage in Cic.Inu.1 with the corresponding one in Rhet.Her, individual lemmata. The lemmata will cover various kinds of information, such as textual, grammatical, and linguistic issues, background information on persons, objects etc. mentioned, the young Cicero's position within the rhetorical tradition for a particular point (i.e. influence on and by Cic.Inu.). To the commentary proper, a number of introduction chapters have been added. Due to the word limit, only a selection of these can be included in the thesis: the title 'De Inuentione' and Cicero's intention to write on all five partes artis; the structure of Cic.Inu.; subdividing the art; rhythm and clausulae; the young Cicero's knowledge of Aristotle's works; the relationship between Cic.Inu. and Rhet.Her. (abbreviated version); the proems of Cic.Inu. (abbreviated version); preliminary comments on Narratio; the Orestes case in the rhetorical tradition; examples in Cic.Inu. (abbreviated version).

Latin erotic poetry is an important genre recording surviving examples of male friendship. This report argues that a specific group of poems involving the poet and his powerful friend should be identified and studied separately as a sub-genre. Drawing examples largely from Horace, Catullus and Propertius, I argue that homosocial erotic poetry exploits the same repertoire of generic conventions as erotic poetry, but reshapes some of them for different functions. To articulate the erotic emphasis and the generic concern of this report, Eve Sedgwick’s notion of “homosocial desire” (1985) is introduced. The concept of homosociality is useful in revealing how male desire in our sub-genre has an erotic tinge and functions to foster the social bond of male friendship, but precludes the homoerotic possibility. Chapter One introduces the important terms and methodology chosen for this study, while Chapters Two to Four define and describe three distinctive features of the sub-genre. Chapter Two is devoted to showing that sermo amatorius, the “love speech” often featured in romantic relationships, can be assimilable to the structure of male homosocial relations. Chapters Three and Four examine how the sub-genre reshapes the recusatio and the topos of wealth to negotiate the tension of desire between the poets and their powerful friends. Ultimately, this report argues that male homosocial desire motivates the sub-generic conventions and thereby the seemingly disparate poems constitute a coherent sub-generic classification. / text