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AN EMENDATION TO PLINY, PANEGYRIC 95.4

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2023

Tristan Power
Tristan Power*
Affiliation:
New York
*
tristan.power@gmail.com
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Abstract

This paper suggests a new emendation to the text of the final passage of Pliny's Panegyric, where a small lacuna has long been suspected after substiti.

Keywords

Pliny the YoungerRoman panegyricLatin styletextual criticism
Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , December 2022 , pp. 952 - 955
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

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References

1 For Pliny, I print or adapt the texts of Mynors, R.A.B. (ed.), C. Plini Caecili Secundi Epistularum libri decem (Oxford, 1963)Google Scholar and Mynors, R.A.B. (ed.), XII Panegyrici Latini (Oxford, 1964)Google Scholar, as well as the Loeb translations of Radice, B. (ed.), Pliny: Letters and Panegyricus, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA, 1969)Google Scholar. For Livy, I use the translation of Yardley, J.C., Livy: Hannibal's War; Books 21–30 (Oxford, 2006)Google Scholar. I thank Bruce Gibson and the anonymous reader of CQ for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

2 C.A. Heumann, apud Schwarz, C.G. (ed.), C. Plinii Caecilii Secundi Panegyricus Caesari imp. Neruae Traiano Aug. dictus (Nuremberg, 1746), 487Google Scholar (ad loc.); cf. Baehrens, E. (ed.), XII Panegyrici Latini (Leipzig, 1874)Google Scholar; Kukula, R.C. (ed.), C. Plini Caecili Secundi Epistularum libri novem, Epistularum ad Traianum liber, Panegyricus (Leipzig, 1912 2)Google Scholar; Olivar, M. (ed.), Plini el jove: Panegíric (Barcelona, 1932)Google Scholar.

3 Schwarz (n. 2), 488, reluctantly suggesting either ac or et before cum; Keil, H. (ed.), C. Plini Caecili Secundi Epistularum libri novem, Epistularum ad Traianum liber, Panegyricus (Leipzig, 1870)Google Scholar, independently conjecturing et; Whitton, C., ‘Pliny's progress: on a troublesome Domitianic career’, Chiron 45 (2015), 1–22, at 2Google Scholar, accepting Schwarz's et and also offering the alternative conjecture cum<que>; cf. Gibson, R.K., Man of High Empire: The Life of Pliny the Younger (New York, 2020), 101CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 123 n. 126. The reading et had most notably been followed by Mommsen, T., ‘Zur Lebensgeschichte des jüngeren Plinius’, Hermes 3 (1869), 31–139Google Scholar, at 87, although it was later removed from the posthumous reprint, possibly by his literary executor who checked it against the text of a more judicious editor than the text read by Mommsen; contrast Mommsen, T., ‘Zur Lebensgeschichte des jüngeren Plinius’, in Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 4 (Berlin, 1906), 366–468Google Scholar, at 421 n. 2.

4 Cf. Oakley, S.P., Studies in the Transmission of Latin Texts. Volume I: Quintus Curtius Rufus & Dictys Cretensis (Oxford, 2020), 334–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar on Dictys Cretensis 3.19, where a corruption in the manuscripts has resulted from confusion of the ligatures rt and st.

5 Müller, C.F.W. (ed.), C. Plini Caecili Secundi Epistularum libri novem, Epistularum ad Traianum liber, Panegyricus (Leipzig, 1903)Google Scholar; Durry, M. (ed.), Pline le jeune: Panégyrique de Trajan (Paris, 1938)Google Scholar; Schuster, M. (ed.), C. Plini Caecili Secundi Epistularum libri novem, Epistularum ad Traianum librum, Panegyricus, rev. Hanslik, R. (Leipzig, 1958 3)Google Scholar; Radice (n. 1); Soldevila, R. Moreno (ed.), Plinio el joven: Panegírico de Trajano (Madrid, 2010)Google Scholar.

6 Vannini, G., ‘Due note al Panegirico di Plinio (34,2; 95,4)’, RhM 160 (2017), 105–8Google Scholar, at 107–8, citing Gesner, M. (ed.), C. Plinii Caecilii Secundi Epistolarum libri decem eiusdem gratiarum actio sive Panegyricus (Leipzig, 1739), 652Google Scholar (ad loc.) on cum … malui as an explanation of substiti. Vannini prints the Latin text with parentheses in his own edition; see Vannini, G. (ed.), Plinio il giovane: Panegirico a Traiano (Milan, 2019)Google Scholar.

7 Cf. Whitton (n. 3), 2: ‘[Pliny] admits to rapid advancement under Domitian (cursu quodam prouectus) but asserts that, once things turned sour, he “halted” (substiti). A strong statement—immediately modified and softened with a gloss, longius iter malui.’

8 On the similar use of connectives by Pliny's contemporary and friend Suetonius, see Power, T., ‘Suetonius, De grammaticis 13.1’, CQ 62 (2012), 886–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; repr. in Power, T., Collected Papers on Suetonius (Abingdon, 2021), 141–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also T. Power, ‘Jesus’ flight into Egypt in Suetonius’, in Power, T., Collected Papers on Suetonius (Abingdon, 2021), 216–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar on Suet. Claud. 25.4, arguing for the reading enim pulso orbe [Iudaea] Christo; cf. Livy 31.7.5 pulso Italia Hannibale.

9 See also e.g. Cic. Att. 7.13, 10.3, Amic. 8.28; Livy 4.24.8, 4.57.10, 26.39.9; Vell. Pat. 2.56.3; Apul. Met. 2.22. Another notable appearance of this word order (quippe cum …) within a work of oratory is in Cicero's Third Philippic (Phil. 3.1.1), where, not unlike in Pliny's flamboyant closing passage, it has a prominent place in the rhetorical opening flourish; cf. also the preface to Nepos’ Lives of generals (praef. 4).

10 For the abbreviation qpp for quippe, see Cappelli, A., Dizionario di abbreviature latine ed italiane (Milan, 1929 3), 312Google Scholar.