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Fragment 520246

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Marius,

Original French:  Marius,

Modern French:  Marius,


Marius

Marius
Because of many common details with the so-called « Sulla » (proportions, open mouth, large eyes), it is advanced that both statues (brothers, adversaries?) were concieved and exhibited together.


Marius

Gaius Marius (157 BC – 86 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. He held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his important reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the structure of the legions into separate cohorts. Marius defeated the invading Germanic tribes (the Teutones, Ambrones, and the Cimbri), for which he was called “the third founder of Rome.” His life and career were significant in Rome’s transformation from Republic to Empire.

Wikipedia
Wikipedia

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Posted 10 February 2013. Modified 8 February 2016.

Sulla

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Sulla,

Original French:  Sylla,

Modern French:  Sylla,


Sylla [or Sulla] is also mentioned later in this chapter for being “unable to burn a wooden tower constructed for purposes of defence, although it had been surrounded with fire on every side, because Archelaus had smeared it with alum.”


Notes

Sulla

Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (c. 138 BC – 78 BC)


crémation

Ipsum cremare apud Romanos non fuit veteris instituti; terra condebantur. at postquam longinquis bellis obrutos erui eognovere, tunc institutum. et tamen multae familiae priscos servavere ritus, sicut in Cornelia nemo ante Sullam dictatorem traditur crematus, idque voluisse veritum talionem eruto C. Mari cadavere. [sepultus vero intellegitur quoquo modo conditus, humatus vero humo contectus.] [Secl. Mayhoff]

Cremation was not actually an old practice at Rome: the dead used to be buried. But cremation was instituted after it became known that the bodies of those fallen in wars abroad were dug up again. All the same many families kept on the old ritual, for instance it is recorded that nobody in the family of the Cornelii was cremated before Sulla the dictator, and that he had desired it because he was afraid of reprisals for having dug up the corpse of Gaius Marius. [But burial is understood to denote any mode of disposal of a corpse, but interment means covering up with earth.]

Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD), The Natural History. Volume 2: Books 3 – 7. Harris Rackham (1868–1944), translator. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1942. 07.54. Loeb Classical Library

Sulla’s circus

A fight with several lions at once was first bestowed on Rome by Quintus Scaevola when consular aedile, but the first of all who exhibited a combat of 100 maned lions was Lucius Sulla, later dictator, in his praetorship [93 BC]. After Sulla, Pompey the Great showed in the Circus 600, including 315 with manes, and Caesar when dictator 400.

Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD), The Natural History. Volume 3: Books 8– 11. Harris Rackham (1868–1944), translator. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1940. 08.20. Loeb Classical Library

The Labyrinths, turrets, sundry fashions of burials

Book 3, Chapter 8: The Romans, because the dead corps, that died in battel, were after their burial digged out of the ground, instituted the manner of burning the carcases of men departed, which Rite was executed on Sylla, chief of all the house and kindred of the Cornelians, which feared lest he should be served as he had used Marius.

Vergilii, Polydori (c. 1470-1555), De inventoribus rerum. John Langley, translator. New York: 1868. Google Books

Sylla

Pliny vii. 54, § 55; Plutarch, Caes. 68.

Rabelais, François (1483?–1553), The Five Books and Minor Writings. Volume 1: Books I-III. William Francis Smith (1842–1919), translator. London: Alexader P. Watt, 1893. Internet Archive

Sylla

Sulla

Rabelais, François (1483?–1553), Complete works of Rabelais. Jacques LeClercq (1891–1971), translator. New York: Modern Library, 1936.

L’usage de la crémation

L’usage de la crémation se répandit à Rome à partir de Sylla selon Polydore Vergile (De rerum inuentorivus, III, 10), Cœlius Rhodiginus (Antiquae Lectiones, XVII, 20 et 21), Alexander ab Alexandro (Geniales Dies, III, 2), etc.

Rabelais, François (1483?–1553), Le Tiers Livre. Edition critique. Jean Céard, editor. Librarie Général Français, 1995. p. 470.

Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (c. 138 BC – 78 BC), known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as reviving the dictatorship. Sulla was awarded a grass crown, the most prestigious and rarest Roman military honor, during the Social War. His life was habitually included in the ancient biographical collections of leading generals and politicians, originating in the biographical compendium of famous Romans, published by Marcus Terentius Varro. In Plutarch’s Parallel Lives Sulla is paired with the Spartan general and strategist Lysander.

In older sources, his name may be found as Sylla. This is a Hellenism, like sylva for classical Latin silva, reinforced by the fact that two major ancient sources, Plutarch and Appian, wrote in Greek, and call him Σύλλα.


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Posted . Modified 14 April 2020.

funnel of ivy

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of a funnel of ivy.

Original French:  d’un entonnoir de Lierre.

Modern French:  d’un entonnoir de Lierre.



Notes

Lilium

Lilium

Meydenbach, Jacob, Ortus Sanitatis. Mainz, Germany: 1491. 117v. University of Cambridge Digital Library

ivy

111 If you wish to determine whether wine has been watered or not: Make a vessel of ivy wood and put in it some of the wine you think has water in it. If it contains water, the wine will soak through and the water will remain, for a vessel of ivy wood will not hold wine.

Cato, Marcus (234 BC-149 BC), De Re Rustica. Penelope

ivy to walls

Hedera iam dicitur in Asia nasci. circiter urbis Romae annum ccccxxxx negaverat Theophrastus, nec in India nisi in monte Mero, quin et Harpalum omni modo laborasse ut sereret eam in Medis frustra, Alexandrum vero ob raritatem ita coronato exercitu victorem ex India redisse exemplo Liberi patris; cuius dei et nunc adornat thyrsos galeasque etiam ac scuta in Thraciae populis sollemnibus sacris, inimica arboribus satisque omnibus, sepulchra, muros rumpens, serpentium frigori gratissima, ut mirum sit ullum honorem habitum ei.

It is said that ivy now grows in Asia Minor. Theophrastus about 314 b.c. had stated that it did not grow there, nor yet in India except on Mount Meros, and indeed that Harpalus had used every effort to grow it in Media without success, while Alexander had come back victorious from India with his army wearing wreaths of ivy, because of its rarity, in imitation of Father Liber; and it is even now used at solemn festivals among the peoples of Thrace to decorate the wands of that god, and also the worshippers’ helmets and shields, although it is injurious to all trees and plants and destructive to tombs and walls, and very agreeable to chilly snakes, so that it is surprising that any honour has been paid to it.

Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD), The Natural History. Volume 4: Books 12–16. Harris Rackham (1868–1944), translator. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1945. 16.62. Loeb Classical Library

Smilax

Similis est hederae e Cilicia quidem primum profecta sed in Graecia frequentior quam vocant smilacem, densis geniculata caulibus, spinosis frutectosa ramis, folio hederaceo, parvo, non anguloso, a pediculo emittente pampinos, flore candido, olente lilium. fert racemos labruscae modo, non hederae, colore rubro, conplexa acinis maioribus nucleos ternos, minoribus singulos, nigros durosque, infausta omnibus sacris et coronis, quoniam sit lugubris virgine eius nominis propter amorem iuvenis Croci mutata in hunc fruticem. id volgus ignorans plerumque festa sua polluit hederam existimando, sicut in poetis aut Libero patre aut Sileno, quis omnino scit1 quibus coronentur?
E smilace fiunt codicilli; propriumque materia est ut admota auribus lenem sonum reddat. hederae mira proditur natura ad experienda vina, si vas fiat e ligno eius, vina transfluere ac remanere aquam si qua fuerit mixta.

Resembling ivy is the plant called smilax [A species of bind-weed] which first came from Cilicia, but is now more common in Greece; it has thick jointed stalks and thorny branches that make it a kind of shrub; the leaf resembles that of the ivy, but is small and has no corners, and throws out tendrils from its stalk; the flower is white and has the scent of a lily. It bears clusters of berries like those of the wild vine, not of the ivy; they are red in colour, and the larger ones enclose three hard black stones but the smaller a single stone. This plant is unlucky to use at all sacred rites and for wreaths, because it has a mournful association, a maiden named Smilax having been turned into a smilax shrub because of her love for a youth named Crocus. The common people not knowing this usually pollute their festivals with it because they think that it is ivy; just as in the case of the poets or Father Liber or Silenus, who wear wreaths made of who in the world knows what?
Smilax is used for making tablets; it is a peculiarity of this wood to give out a slight sound when placed to one’s ear. It is said that ivy has a remarkable property [Cato R.R. CXI] for testing wines, inasmuch as a vessel made of its wood allows wine to pass through it, water that has been mixed with the wine stops in the vessel.

Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD), The Natural History. Volume 4: Books 12–16. Harris Rackham (1868–1944), translator. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1945. 16.63. Loeb Classical Library

Chap. xxii.: Comment Gargantua employt le temps quand l’air estoit pluvieux.

Mais encores que ycelle iournée feust passée sans livres & lectures, ponct elle n’estoyt passée sans profit. Car en beau pré ilz recoloient par cueur quelques plaisans vers de l’agriculture de Virgile, de Hesiode, du Rustice de Politian, descryvoient quelque plaisans epigrammes en latin: puys les mettoient par rondeaux & balades en langue françoise, En bancquetant du vin aisgué separoient l’eau, comme l’enseigne Cato de re rust. & Pline, avecques un goubelet de Lyerre, lavoient le vin en plain bassin d’eau puys le retiroient avec un embut faisoient aller l’eau d’un verre en aultre, bastissoient plusieurs petitz engins automates, c’est à dyre, soy movens eulx mesmes.

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), Gargantua. La Vie Inestimable du Grand Gargantua, Pere de Pantagruel, iadis composée par l’abstracteur de quinte essence. 1534. Ch. 22. Athena

un guoubelet de Lierre

The devices Garguantua decreed for the ships in Pantagruel’s expedition:

Sus la pouppe de la seconde estoit hault enlevée une lanterne antiquaire… La huictième un guoubelet de Lierre bien precieux battu d’or à la Damasquine.

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), Le Quart Livre des Faicts et dicts Heroïques du bon Pantagruel. Composé par M. François Rabelais docteur en Medicine. Paris: 1552. c. 01. Athena

Funnel of Ivy

Pliny N.H. xvi. 35, § 63: “Hederae mira proditura natura ad experienda vina, si vas fiat e ligno ejus, vina transfluere et remanere aquam si qua fuerit mista.” Cf. i. 24, n. 11.

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), The Five Books and Minor Writings. Volume 1: Books I-III. William Francis Smith (1842–1919), translator. London: Alexader P. Watt, 1893. Internet Archive

entonnoir de lierre

Rabelais a déjà fait allusion à cette prétendue propriété du lierre, au l. 1 [Gargantua], ch XXIV.

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), Oeuvres. Édition critique. Tome Cinquieme: Tiers Livre. Abel Lefranc (1863-1952), editor. Paris: Librairie Ancienne Honoré Champion, 1931. p. 370. Internet Archive

un guobelet de lyerre

Rabelais accepte la notion classique, appuyée sur l’autorité de Caton et de Pline, que le lierre (plante consacrée à Bacchus) aide à séparer l’eau et le vin : cf. Garg. XXIV, « En banquetant, du vin aisgué séparoient l’eau, comme l’enseignent Caton, De re rust. [CXV] et Pline [XVI, 35], avecques un guobelet de lyerre; lavoient le vin en plein bassin d’eau, puis le retiroient avec un embut [=entonnoir]».

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), Le Tiers Livre. Edition critique. Michael A. Screech (b. 1926), editor. Paris-Genève: Librarie Droz, 1964.

entonnoir de Lierre.

Allusion à une propriété légendaire du lierre; voir Gargantua, p. 73 et n. 5.

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), Œuvres complètes. Mireille Huchon, editor. Paris: Gallimard, 1994. p. 510, n. 3.

entonnoir de Lierre

«Du vin aisgué séparaient l’eau, comme l’enseigne Cato De re rust. [CXXI], et Pline [XVI, 35], avec un gobelet de Lierre» (Gargantua, chap XXII, p. 259). Cette légende est très répandue.

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), Le Tiers Livre. Edition critique. Jean Céard, editor. Librarie Général Français, 1995. p. 470.

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Posted . Modified 6 July 2018.