No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Nationality of Vergil
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2009
Abstract
![Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'](https://static.cambridge.org/content/id/urn%3Acambridge.org%3Aid%3Aarticle%3AS0009840X00048368/resource/name/firstPage-S0009840X00048368a.jpg)
- Type
- Original Contributions
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Classical Association 1915
References
page 104 note 1 I have not consulted C.I.L. I, which contains the older Latin inscriptions arranged according to their dates ; they are all found again in the other volumes of the C.I.L., which are arranged geographically. Nor can the names found in C.I.L. VI (Rome) be used for purposes of comparison. In Rome, apart from the Latin population, we must expect to find foreigners from all parts of the Roman world. Livy (39, 3, 4) tells us that as early as 187 B.C. the Latin allies sent envoys to Rome, complaining that thousands of their citizens had migrated thither in order to avoid taxation in their native towns. An investigation was made, and Livy adds : Hac conquisitione duodecim milia Latinorum doinos redierunt, iam turn mullitudine alienigenarum urbem onerante. This intermingling of nationalities at Rome must have become still more complete under the empire, and it would be most unsafe to build any theories on the names of such a heterogeneous population.
page 104 note 2 C.I.L. V also contains Venetia and Liguria.
page 105 note 1 I.e., C.I.L. II (Spain), III (mainly the Danube Provinces, but also Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt), V (Gallia Cisalpina, Venetia, and Liguria), VII (Britain), XII (Gallia Narbonensis) ; C.I.L. XIII (the rest of France, Belgium, Holland, and the Rhine Provinces) has unfortunately not yet been provided with an index, and the large number of inscriptions it contains would have made the labour of collecting the Keltic names from them quite disproportionate to the scope of the present paper. It is possible that the conclusions arrived at in the following pages may have to be slightly revised when I have worked through C.I.L. XIII; but it is not probable that they will suffer any serious alteration. The volumes that deal with Italy are IV (Pompeii), IX (Calabria, Apulia, Samnium, Sabini, Picenum), X (Bruttium, Lucania, Campania, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica), XIV (Latium) ; C.I.L. XI (Etruria and Umbria) has, as yet, no index.
page 105 note 2 Diehl, E., Vitae Vergilianae (Bonn, 1911).Google Scholar
page 105 note 3 It should be noted that six examples occur on one stone, so that for purposes of comparison it would, perhaps, be fairer to deduct about four.
page 105 note 4 Corpus Inscriptionum Rhenanarum.
page 105 note 5 The numbers of the inscriptions provided with indices are as follows: IV 7115 and 155 Tabulae Ceratae, IX 6419, X 8422, XIV 4278, II 6350, III 15, 220, V (with Pais' Supplement) circ. 10,000, VII 1355, XII 6038, Brambach 2027. The Ephemeris Epigraphica, it is true, contains a number of additional inscriptions not yet incorporated in the C.I.L., but the instances of the names in question in its indices are so rare that we may safely leave them aside.
page 105 note 6 Altceltischer Sprachschatz.
page 106 note 1 For the variation between c and g see Pedersen, Vergl. Keltische Grammalik, I 533. Vercobretus occurs, but the usual form is with a g. There are no examples of Verdlius for Vergilius.
page 106 note 2 Munaiia is not Keltic, though Caiulla is. In the case of Vergilia Vera the cognomen is not Keltic, but the nomen may be.
page 106 note 3 The Tartarus at its nearest point is twelve miles from Pietole; cf. Jucundus' statement about (b).
page 106 note 4 Possibly a Gallic slave, who took his Roman (?) master's name. If so, Gallus will not support Vergilius' claim to be Keltic. But why, if he is C. l., did he take the praenomen M?
Vergilius Maro, the grammarian (cf. Teuffel, Geschichte d. röm. Literatur, 6th Ed., 1913, § 497, 7), should be mentioned here. He himself says that he was a Gaul, and it seems highly probable that his nomen was derived from a Gallic stem uergo-. It is strange that he should bear the cognomen Maro. It may conceivably be a real Keltic name and different from that of the poet Vergil (see under Maro). But it seems more natural to suppose that the grammarian Vergilius, and perhaps other Vergilii also, were given the cognomen Maro in honour of the poet Vergil. The fact that the grammarian Vergilius was called Maro cannot be adduced to support the Keltic claim to the poet Vergil's cognomen. It is also quite possible that the nomen of the grammarian and that of the poet were of different origin, the former Keltic and the latter perhaps Etrusco-Latin ; it is even conceivable that the grammarian's nomen was not Keltic, but Latin, although he was a Kelt by race.
page 107 note 1 Zur Geschichte Lateinischer Eigennamen.
page 107 note 2 Aen. 10, 198 ff., a passage now lucidly explained by A. Rosenberg, Der Staat der alien Italiker, p. 129 ff.
page 107 note 3 Cf. Magius below.
page 107 note 4 See footnote 1, p. 105.
page 107 note 5 The quantity of the a is not marked in the inscriptions in question. Of course, a Keltic cognomen Māro (gen. Mārōnis), from the stem māro-, is theoretically quite possible.
page 107 note 6 Also Etruscan, according to Schulze, p. 306.
page 107 note 7 See Pape-Benseler, Griech. Wörterbuch.
page 107 note 8 On this point Mr. Raper has built a suggestive, but somewhat imaginative series of conjectures in the Classical Review, 1913, p. 13 ff.
page 107 note 9 Cf. Rosenberg, p. 48.
page 108 note 1 V 5105 (Inter Ollium et Sarium) : Magia Catulla, 4990 (Riva): Magius Magianus, 6602 (Ager Novariensis) : P. Magius Messor, 4483 (Brixia): Magius Valerius Surio, grandfather of Primus Valerius Magirra. In V 4642 (Brixia) we have a L. Magius Primio, husband of a Keltic woman, Messia Atticilla.
page 108 note 2 See footnote 1, p. 105.
page 108 note 3 One example may be quoted, V 5713 (Ager Mediolaniensis) : C. Atilius Mocetius … C. Atilio Magio fratri … et Surae Messoris f. Mocetius, Sura, and Messor are Keltic names, and cf. Magius Messor in note 1 above.
page 108 note 4 V 5567 (Infra Lacum Verbanum): Samaus Taeiei f. et Banuca Magiaci f. uxor, 6957 (Taurini) : T. Mattius Ateuriti f. Magiacus. Most of these names are clearly Keltic (see Holder for parallels).
page 108 note 5 Magilius is also found once in C.I.L. XIV.
page 108 note 6 Cf. Vergilius, Vergius : uergo- above, and the parallels quoted.
page 108 note 7 We cannot be sure that the Etruscan claims should be allowed in the case of Magius. It occurs in Etruria in both the Latin and the Etruscan forms. But in spite of this, it may well be purely Latin in all these examples.
page 108 note 8 See Pedersen, I 96 f. The form Maia may, however, be entirely due to mediaeval scribes, who very commonly substituted i for g. Professor W. B. Anderson has kindly given me parallels from Lucan, MS. Z (ninth century), 1, 166 fuitur for fugitur, 6, 431 maiorum for magorum. The latter example is almost exactly parallel to Maia for Magia. Professor R. S. Conway has also given me similar examples from Livy MSS. of the tenth and eleventh centuries (e.g., iero for gero). I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my deep gratitude to Professor Conway and Professor Anderson, both of whom have read my paper in MS. and offered many valuable suggestions.
page 108 note 9 Calvisano is thirty miles north-west of Mantua, a distance that corresponds exactly with Probus' ‘xxx m. p. a Mantua distare’ (referring to Andes, the birthplace of Vergil). Pietole is barely three miles south-east of Mantua.
page 109 note 1 See footnote 1, p. 105.
page 109 note 2 Endubro is certainly Keltic (see Holder, I 1437)
page 109 note 3 Cf. V 5883 (Mediolaniutn): T. Pomponius Valentinus … C. Pomponio Fido patri et Viriae Virocanti f. Silae main. Viria and Virocantus are indisputably Keltic.
page 109 note 4 The distribution of Mascellio proves it to be Keltic (see Holder under Mascellio).
page 109 note 5 There is some evidence also of an Oscan stem sil-; the leader of the Marsi in the Social War was called Q. Pompaedius Silo, and there was a large forest in Bruttium called Sila (cf. Vergil, Aen. 12, 715). whence perhaps the cognomen Silanus was derived.
page 109 note 6 In C.I.L. V we find the following: Andetiaca M' f. Galla, Andenius, Anderoudus, Andia, Andoblalio (with Atecingus and Demined), Andovarto; and in Pais, Additamenta ad C.I.L. Vol. V, Andelius, Ando.
page 109 note 7 Aen. 10, 200 ff.
page 109 note 8 E.g., Mezentius and Arruns ; and cf. Aen. ii, 732ff.
page 109 note 9 René Pichon, Histoire de la Littérature Latine, pp. 328, 329.
page 109 note 10 Cf. also Sellar, Vergil, pp. 104, 105, and Slater, The Poetry of Catullus, pp. 26–28.
page 110 note 1 Cf. also Sellar, Vergil, pp. 104, 105, and Slater, The Poetry of Catullus, pp. 26–28.