In Xenophon’s Oeconomicus Ischomachus instructs his wife in the management of their household. The detailed account of this subject which emerges has no parallel in Greek literature. Textile production is an important aspect of this household’s implicit self-sufficiency, which in this respect is still Homeric. Ischomachus’ division of his and his wife’s spheres of activity between outdoors and indoors also corresponds to Hector’s admonition to Andromache in the Iliad (6.490-93). There is a fundamental dissymmetry between Ischomachus and his wife. His rationale for the division of labor between men and women reappears in another form in Aristotle’s account of the origin of the polis in the Politics.

The study focuses on six etymologies explicitly attributed to Soranus of Ephesus by one source at least (χολάδες, λύπη, μασχάλη, κράτα, κρανίον, σιαγών). A comparison between the texts of Orion, Meletius and the Byzantine Etymologica shows that all the sources ascribe to Soranus etymologies that were not his, as a result of a loss of information or of a misunderstanding of the source text, namely Orion. It also shows that Meletius’ text agrees with the Et. Gudianum and the version of Orion’s Excerpta transmitted by the Paris. gr. 2630 rather than with the main manuscript of Orion, the Paris. gr. 2653.

This paper highlights a SERENE acrostic in Lucan’s encomium of Cato (BC 9.600-605) and interprets it against the background of Seneca’s De Constantia Sapientis 6.8-7.1, where the author, addressing Serenus (Serene), presents Cato the Younger as the perfect embodiment of virtus. Lucan’s SERENE and the passage decorated by it might thus be read as alluding to Seneca’s Serene and its entire context. As I argue, this intertextual acrostic makes Lucan able to join Seneca’s argumentation in a metaleptic way.

The essay shows that Ovid believed to know why he was relegated to Tomis and had every reason to avoid lying about it; therefore, his assertions are to be considered trustworthy. They are consistent with each other and seem to point to a stage representation of Ovid’s works in which Augustus was mocked. It was organized by influential people who wanted thereby to protest against the lex Papia Poppaea. Julia minor may have taken part in it. The challenge of Augustus’s political and perhaps paternal authority and the emperor’s antipathy against the erotic revolution for which he made Ovid responsible are the main causes of the relegatio. The main alternative explanations are shown to be incompatible with the sources and with probable assumptions about human behavior.

The paper argues for a new architectural pattern in Horace’s second book of Satires, complementing the schemes of Boll and Ludwig. The book is structured around the investigation of ethical options. The poems evaluate, pro and con, three major approaches to the happy life - a structure probably influenced by Cicero’s De Finibus. Horace wades through virtue ethics (2.2-3), materialist ethics (2.4-5), and dependent ethics (2.6-7), and he frames his investigation by reflecting on options (2.1, 2.8). A book for a mid-life crisis, Satires 2 consolidates and critically evaluates a menu of options for living.

The standard view is that Nola was besieged after the civil war of 83-82, and that its Samnite garrison did not surrender to Sulla until 80. The proof text for this chronology is unreliable, and this article puts forward new arguments for the alternative dating of the fall of Nola to the winter of 82/81. Nola opened its gates at the mere threat of a siege, and I argue that the Samnite garrison mutinied against its commander, the proscribed C. Papius Mutilus, to secure favourable terms of surrender. If Aesernia also capitulated in 82/81, then the settlement of Sulla’s veterans in Campania could have started in 81, not 80. In postwar Italy there was no armed resistance to Sulla except in Etruria, at Populonia and Volaterrae, and further north in Liguria.

Whereas in its earlier days ancient Greek philosophy was most of all a science of the nature of the world in general, in the course of time the scientists started searching into more specific fields. One such specialism, now called ‘epistemology’, concerned the nature and origin of knowledge in living creatures. In turn, the questions in this field became of interest to practitioners of yet another developing specialism: the art of medicine. My paper investigates the epistemology expounded in the medical treatise De Morbo Sacro. I posit that the usually adopted interpretation of one of its chapters was the main source of a misunderstanding of the author’s view. At some point, this ‘traditional’ reading resulted in the assumption that there are contradictions in the position of the Hippocratic writer. I intend to show that the ancient author should be absolved from this charge, and that, in fact, he tells a coherent story.

The setting of Plato’s Phaedrus at a locus amoenus has elicited numerous interpretations, and has been seen both as a positive and as a negative symbol. Building on those interpretations, this paper argues that Plato drew on the literary tradition of the dangerous locus amoenus, represented especially by Homer, in order to convey the danger coming from rhetoric. The paper suggests that the danger inherent to the locus amoenus traditionally exhibited two facets: the presence of an aggressive entity eager to detain or otherwise harm the visitors of the locus; and the presence of such charms that tempt the visitor never to leave the locus. It further argues that both of those traditional aspects of the dangerous locus amoenus have been weaved into the fabric of the Phaedrus.

In the fasti of almost all praetorian provinces there seems to be a lacuna in the years 54 to 51 BC. In fact, there is not a single praetor from the colleges 55, 54 and 53 BC for whom a province ex praetura is known. It is argued here that anarchy and obstruction made the allocation of provinces impossible from 55 BC onwards. This was probably the main reason for the senateʼs decision in 53 BC to send privati to the provinces.