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Fulgentius and His Sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Barry Baldwin
Barry Baldwin*
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
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Extract

Any late writer who quotes from an alleged Jokebook of Cornelius Tacitus is doomed to incur suspicion, and the culprit Fulgentius has duly met his fate. In the words of one distinguished scholar he was ‘something of a fraud; many of the learned titles he quotes he had certainly never read, many never even existed,’ whilst another characterises his work as ‘a curious mixture of genuine citation and cool forgery, none of it trustworthy without external confirmation.’ Both were writing on other matters, which enhances the need for a full consideration of Fulgentius‘ methods. The problem has been looked into before, but not in the wider context required. Thus, for easy instance, editors of Petronius still print the fragments of their author cited by Fulgentius without reflecting upon their authenticity. And devotees of that more famous fraud, the Historia Augusta, could profit more than they have done from a closer look at our man.

Type
Articles
Information
Traditio , Volume 44 , 1988 , pp. 37 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Cameron, Alan, ‘The Pervigilium Veneris,’ La Poesia tardoantica: Tra retorica, teologia e politica (Messina 1984) 226.Google Scholar

2 Champlin, E., Fronto and Antonine Rome (Cambridge, Mass. 1980) 67.Google Scholar

3 See Zink, M., Der Mytholog Fulgentius (Würzburg, 1867) 62; Courcelle, P., Late Latin Writers and their Greek Sources (Eng. tr. Wedeck, H. E.; Cambridge, Mass. 1969) 223 (= Courcelle).Google Scholar

4 Glimpses were provided by Syme, R., Ammianus and the Historia Augusta (Oxford 1968) 125, and Emperors and Biography (Oxford 1971) 266.Google Scholar

5 Cf. Courcelle 268–70; Herren, M., ‘Some New Light on the Life of Virgilius Maro Grammaticus,’ Proc. Royal Irish Acad. 79 (1979) 28–71; Law, V., The Insular Latin Grammarians (Dublin 1982) 40–52; Syme, , Ammianus and the Historia Augusta 125, calling Virgil ‘a lunatic.’ Google Scholar

6 Pliny, , N H pref. 31. Lucian, , Rhet. Praec. 17, has his unscrupulous teacher recommend the fabrication of sources to confound the critics.Google Scholar

7 For discussion and bibliography, cf. Grafton, A., Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship I (Oxford 1983) 20.Google Scholar

8 Helm, R., rev. J. Préaux (Stuttgart 1970). In the present paper, references will be to the page and line nos. of this edition, with the following abbreviations of title: M (Mitologiae), VC (Expositio Virgilianae continentiae), SA (Expositio sermonum antiquorum), MH (De aetatibus mundi et hominis), ST (Super Thebaiden).Google Scholar

9 Most authorities regard the equation as probable, if not certain. Pertinent examples from the mass of secondary literature include Helm, , ‘Der Bischof Fulgentius und der Mythograph,’ Rhein. Mus. 54 (1899) 111–34; Courcelle 220 n. 90; Syme, , loc. cit. (n. 4 supra); Langlois, P., ‘Les œuvres de Fulgence le mythographe et le problème des deux Fulgences,’ Jahrb. f. Ant. u. Christ. 7 (1964) 94–105; Stevens, S. T., ‘The Circle of Bishop Fulgentius,’ Traditio 38 (1982) 328 n. 5.Google Scholar