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Three Ambivii

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Ronald Syme
Ronald Syme
Affiliation:
Wolfson College, Oxford
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Extract

I. The name earned early notoriety from L. Ambivius Turpio, the actor who performed in all the plays of Terence. It appealed to Lucilius:

quid tibi ego ambages Ambivi scribere coner?

Also to Wilhelm Schulze, duly citing the Lucilian reference. In the sequel the nomen failed to enlist proper regard. Three persons bore it, diverse in life and rank: a tavern keeper on the Via Latina, a gourmet writer, a procurator governing Judaea. To the first and to the third, erudition in the recent time denies recognition; and the second through inadvertence misses his place and period. The Ambivii call for redemption. The venture will lead along circuitous or devious paths, ‘per ambages’, in the pursuit of names and identities. From that operation various instruction accrues on the flank.

II. First, a casual notice in the criminal record of a family of the better sort at Larinum. Cluentius and his slaves, so it was alleged, had made an assault on ‘Ambivium quendam, coponem de via Latina’ (Pro Cluentio 163).

Traditional texts remained content with that name. Not so long ago recourse to manuscripts produced ‘A. Bivium’. It was adopted in two standard editions. Had editors given a thought to nomenclature, they might have conceived some disquiet. Absent from the repertorium, the nomen appeared to lack attestation. In itself no bar, to be sure. The dense forest of local Italian nomenclature carries plenty of unique specimens. Reassurance could be sought from ‘Bivellius’ and ‘Bivonius’.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , May 1986 , pp. 271 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1986

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References

1 Lucilius 1281 M.

2 Schulze, , LE 68Google Scholar.

3 Thus Fruechtel (Teubner, 1933), as Orelli, , Onom. Tull. (1837)Google Scholar, and Klebs, , RE I, 1804Google Scholar.

4 Clark (OCT, 1905); Boyancé (Budé, 1953).

5 Schulze, , LE 227Google Scholar, adduced four instances of ‘Bivellius’ from Italian towns, one of ‘Bivonius’ (CIL v.4487: Brixia).

6 On which, CQ 31 (1981), 424Google Scholar = Roman Papers (1984), iii.1417Google Scholar. Further, ‘Names and identities in Quintilian’, Acta Classica 28 (1985)Google Scholar, forthcoming.

7 CIL viii.5730 (Sigus); Epigraphica 28 (1976), 142Google Scholar (Thurii). Each indexed under ‘Vibius’.

8 Manganaro, G., Arch. class. 10 (1958), 207ff.Google Scholar, with Pl. LXVIII, 1. The site is Torre de Mezzavia.

9 The tavern keeper was duly cited by Manganaro and by Degrassi, ILLRP 927a. Not however under AE 1960. 60.

10 Schanz-Hosius, , Gesch. der r. Lit. (1927), i.4604Google Scholar.

11 Cichorius, C., Römische Studien (1922), 245ff.Google Scholar

12 Columella 5.10.16. To the testimonia in PIR 2 M 369 is to be added Suetonius, Dom. 21 (the temperate habits of an emperor). Also Quintilian 3.1.18, which confirms the literary interests of this Matius. The rhetor Apollodorus of Pergamum sent to Matius the text of his ‘Ars’.

13 Münzer, , RE XIV, 2210Google Scholar.

14 Schanz–Hosius, op. cit. (1927), i. 605. And in (1935), ii. 358, occurs only the solitary reference to Matius in relation to Apollodorus (Quintilian 3.1.18).

15 Thus no hint in Koestermann's note on Ann. 12.60.4. Further, one Matius, firmly, in Nicolet, C., L'Ordre Équestre (1974), ii. 947ffGoogle Scholar. And observe Shackleton Bailey on Ad Att. 9.11.2: ‘may have been his son’.

16 Schulze, , LE 68Google Scholar.

17 On whom, Münzer, , RE XVIII, 907f.Google Scholar: with full documentation on the name.

18 CIL vi.11534f. These Rusticelii have ‘Scaptia’ for tribe. For the nomen, LE 111.

19 LE 68.

20 CIL xii.4573.

21 Hirschfeld, O., Kl. Schr. (1913), 31Google Scholar.

22 He got a missive from Augustine (Epp. 175).

23 CIL iii.13762 = Didyma 525. The verses that follow were dated by Wilhelm to the middle of the second century. See Peek, , Gr. Vers-Inschriften (1955)Google Scholar, no. 1762, with brief comment by Robert, L., Opera Minora Selecta (1969), 1653Google Scholar. Further, SEG 30 (1980), 1292Google Scholar.

24 For this man and his family, Didyma 182; 243f.; 359.

25 IG ii2 4166, cf. Graindor, P., Athènes sous Auguste (1927), 61Google Scholar. He observed ‘omis dans la RE et les suppléments’.

26 See the Index to Hatzfeld, J., Les Trafiquants italiens dans l'Orient Hellénistigue (1919)Google Scholar. Observe, for example, Aborieni, Acoreni, Ambasii, Aplasii, Apustii, Atalinii.

27 SEG 1.388. And Athens paid honour to his daughter (IG ii2 4243).

28 Nicolet, C., L'Ordre Équestre (1974), ii. 760f.Google Scholar Add a magistrate on a coin of Corinth (Grant, M., FITA [1946], 266f.Google Scholar).

29 IGR iv.1302.

30 Varro, , R.R. 1.1.2Google Scholar; 3.2.17.

31 Being absent from RE and from PIR 2 L and M.

32 Thus Gesner (Mannheim, 1781). Also the Loeb edition (1955). André, Likewise J., L'Alimentation et la cuisine à Rome (1961), 217Google Scholar.

33 V. Lundström (Uppsala, 1968). From MSS, he also cited ‘Bascenas’, ‘Vascenas’ ‘Bastenas’.

34 He is ‘Menodorus’ in Appian, ‘Menas’ in Plutarch, Dio, the Latin writers; cf. Münzer, , RE XV, 896ff.Google Scholar

35 Schulze, , LE 185Google Scholar; 286.

36 Not in RE.

37 For Murrius, , Münzer, , RE XVI, 669Google Scholar. There is no call to emend ‘Gaberius’ (as suggested by Nicolet, op. cit. 163). The name, preternaturally rare, got to Narbo (CIL xii.4883).

38 CIL vi.33968 = ILS 5246. Not in ILLRP.

39 Münzer, , RE VIA, 943Google Scholar. He was taken to task by Fraenkel, who used the word ‘unfortunately’ (Horace [1957], 86 n. 2).

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42 On this society, JRS 51 (1961), 23ff.Google Scholar = Roman Papers (1979), 518ff. (discussing Vedius Pollio).

43 PIR 2 G 91; Schanz–Hosius, op. cit. (1935), ii.4 791f.

44 Ann. 3.55.

45 Thus Rohden, P. v., RE I, 1798Google Scholar.

46 L. H. Feldman (Loeb, 1969); Smallwood, E. M., The Jews under Roman Rule (1976), 156Google Scholar; Vermes, G. and Millar, F. in Schürer, 's History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (revised edition, 1973), i.382Google Scholar. They all note the problem of the name — but omit Casaubon's emendation.

47 Only five specimens in CIL vi. And Africa yields only one (viii.6023). It apparently baffled Kajanto, I., The Latin Cognomina (1965)Google Scholar.

48 Of which, only two specimens, and one of them (CIL xi.4396: Ameria) may not be genuine; cf. Historia 27 (1978), 601f.Google Scholar = RP iii (1984), 1117f.Google Scholar

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51 For his career, ILS 9486 (Cuicul). For his father, a procurator, AE 1971, 85 (Capua).

52 Casaubon's studies in the Historia Augusta might sharpen an interest in unusual names.

53 If so, one entry to be abolished in PIR 2 A — and two to accrue.

54 AJ 18.31ff.

55 Hence early confirmation of the ruler's noteworthy practices (Ann. 1.80).

56 Cicero, , Pro Balbo 52Google Scholar. To the rubric add ILS 3700: ‘Felicitatei | T. Cauponius T. f. | C. Aufestius C. f. | aed.’.

57 Viz. the father-in-law of P. Silius Nerva (Velleius 2.83.3).

58 On which, Historia 23 (1974), 491Google Scholar = RP (1984), iii.947Google Scholar.

59 IG ii2 4166.

60 Stiglitz, R., RE VIIIA, 2419ff.Google Scholar; PIR 2 G 170.