Compitum

Eric Teyssier, Commode. L'empereur gladiateur, Paris, 2018.

Éditeur : Perrin
Collection : Perrin biographie
380 pages
ISBN : 9782262070410
23 €

Qui ne connait pas Commode, dernier empereur de la dynastie des Antonins, immortalisé par le film "Gladiator" ? On le dit sanguinaire, auteur de la mort de son père et responsable de l'exil de sa sœur. Est-ce seulement vrai ? Pour lever le voile sur cet empereur à la sombre notoriété, Eric Teyssier se réfère aux sources et démêle la légende de l'histoire.
Etudier Commode, c'est scruter le destin d'un homme dans une période troublée. Lorsque le jeune prince voit le jour, en 161 ; le règne pacifique d'Antonin le Pieux, généralement considéré comme l'apogée de Rome, s'achève. À sa mort, en 192 soit trente-et-un ans plus tard, l'Empire est affaibli. Commode laisse un Empire fragilisé : chute démographique dû à la peste, aux guerres et aux famines ; faiblesse militaire (pour la première fois, les légions peinent à contenir des barbares) ; et, enfin, récession économique.

John F. Miller et Jenny Strauss Clay (dir.), Tracking Hermes, Pursuing Mercury, Oxford, 2019.

Éditeur : Oxford University Press
416 pages
ISBN : 9780198777342
80 £

Of all the divinities of classical antiquity, the Greek Hermes (Mercury in his Roman alter ego) is the most versatile, enigmatic, complex, and ambiguous. The runt of the Olympian litter, he is the god of lies and tricks, yet is also kindly towards mankind and a bringer of luck. His functions embrace both the marking of boundaries and their transgression, but also extend to commerce, lucre, and theft, as well as rhetoric and practical jokes. In another guise, he plays the role of mediator between all realms of human and divine activity, embracing heaven, earth, and the netherworld.

P. H. Matthews, What Graeco-Roman Grammar Was About, Oxford, 2019.

Éditeur : Oxford University Press
256 pages
ISBN : 9780198830115
60 £

This book explains how the grammarians of the Graeco-Romance world perceived the nature and structure of the languages they taught. The volume focuses primarily on the early centuries AD, a time when the Roman Empire was at its peak; in this period, a grammarian not only had a secure place in the ancient system of education, but could take for granted an established technical understanding of language. By delineating what that ancient model of grammar was, P. H. Matthews highlights both those aspects that have persisted to this day and seem reassuringly familiar, such as 'parts of speech', as well as those aspects that are wholly dissimilar to our present understanding of grammar and language. The volume is written to be accessible to students of linguistics from undergraduate level upwards, and assumes no knowledge of Latin or Ancient Greek.

Wolfgang David Cirilo de Melo (éd.), Varro: De lingua Latina. Introduction, Text, Translation, and Commentary, Oxford, 2019.

Éditeur : Oxford University Press
1360 pages
ISBN : 9780199659739
250 £

Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC) was the greatest polymath of the Roman republic. During his lifetime he authored several hundred books, and though many of them dealt with linguistic topics, the De lingua Latina ('On the Latin language'), the first large-scale linguistic treatment of Latin, was by far his most significant work. Originally consisting of twenty-five volumes - one introductory, followed by six on etymology, six on morphology, and twelve on syntax - only books 5-10 treating etymology and morphology have come down to us in a more or less complete form, though a fair number of fragments of other volumes have been transmitted in other authors.

B. Donaghey, N. Harold Kaylor Jr., P. Edward Phillips, P. E. Szarmach et K. C. Hawley (éd.), Remaking Boethius. The English Language Translation Tradition of the Consolation of Philosophy, Turnhout, 2019.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 40
XXVIII+496 p. pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-58467-6
€85 (excl. TVA + shipping)

Provides a comprehensive inventory of all English translations of the Consolatio of Boethius and supplies basic information on the salient features that interested readers will need in initial phases of research on the large and complex English translation tradition.
This volume is a reference work, organized chronologically in its sections, with a separate entry for each translator's work. The sections are defined by the type of translations they comprise, whether complete, partial, meters only, etc. The plan of the book is encyclopedic in nature: some biographical material is provided for each translator; the translations are described briefly, as are their linguistic peculiarities, their implied audiences, their links with other translations, and their general reception. Sample passages from the translations are provided, and where possible these are two of the most well-known moments in the Consolatio: the appearance of Lady Philosophy, narrated by the Prisoner, and the cosmological hymn to the Deus of the work, sung by Lady Philosophy.

Th. Haintaler, F. Mali, G. Emmenegger et M. Lenkaityté Ostermann (éd.), Pronoia. The Providence of God - Die Vorsehung Gottes. Forscher aus dem Osten und Westen Europas an den Quellen des gemeinsamen Glaubens. Wiener Patristische Tagungen VIII, Innsbruck, 2019.

Éditeur : Tyrolia Verlag
Collection : Pro Oriente, Bd. 42; Wiener patristische Tagungen, Bd. VIII
445 pages
ISBN : 978-3-7022-3819-3
29 €

Das Thema der Göttlichen Vorsehung behandelten katholische und orthodoxe Patristiker aus verschiedenen Ländern auf einer Tagung 2017 in der polnischen Hauptstadt Warschau. Ausgehend vom Schicksalsbegriff in den griechischen Tragödien und dem Begriff der „Pronoia“ bei Xenophon, Platon und den Stoikern wird der Zusammenhang von Vorsehung und Vorherbestimmung, von Schicksal und Freiheit bei Athenagoras von Athen, Clemens von Rom, Ignatius von Antiochien, Gregor von Nyssa, Johannes Chrysostomos, Theodoret, Origenes und Boethius, Ambrosius und Augustinus, aber auch bei Joseph Hazzaya und Maximus dem Bekenner untersucht.

Source : Tyrolia Verlag