Someone to work on Severus Sebokht?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The 7th century Syriac father Severus Sebokht has left several scientific and philosophical works behind.  I grew interested in him, enough to acquire a PDF of the main manuscript of his mostly unpublished works, but other things supervened and I never pursued the matter.  There are several unpublished letters in the ms. (BNF Syriac 346), one of which is the earliest mention of what we now call Arabic numbers in the west.  The letter has never been translated, tho.

David Bertaina has posted on the Hugoye list a query about him.  Apparently he has a post-grad. student who read mathematics, and is interested in having a go at his works.  This is very good news, if so, and I have written to encourage him and offer support.

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Paulinus of Nola

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Paulinus of Nola (353-431) has never come to my attention hitherto.  He was a contemporary of St. Augustine and lived through the times of the fall of Rome.  His works consist of poems and letters.  The poems include anti-pagan material which must therefore be of value for late paganism.  His works were translated in the Ancient Christian Writers series by P. Walsh during the late 60’s and 70’s.

Rather to my surprise I can find no trace of any of his works online in English.  There must be few fathers of that period so under-represented!

Among the material sent to me about the bruma is this from carmen 14, v.13 (p. 46):

 ergo dies, tanto quae munere condidit alto 
 Felicem caelo, sacris sollemnibus ista est, 
 quae post solstitium, quo Christus corpore natus
 sole nouo gelidae mutauit tempora brumae
 atque salutiferum praestans mortalibus ortum 
 procedente die se cum decrescere noctes 
 iussit, ab hoc quae lux oritur uicesima nobis, 
 sidereum meriti signat Felicis honorem.

Linking the birth of Christ and the bruma, it would be interesting to know what it says.

UPDATE: Here it is, from the Walsh translation, p.77:

13. So the day which bestowed so great a gift by setting Felix in the heights of heaven is the day of our yearly ritual. It comes after the solstice, the time when Christ was born in the flesh and transformed the cold winter season with a new sun, when He granted men His birth that brings salvation, and ordered the nights to shorten and the daylight to grow with Himself. The twentieth day that dawns on us after the solstice marks the heavenly glory which Felix merited.

De la Cerda believed that solstitium only meant summer solstice, in the purest Latin.  But by the time of Paulinus this was clearly no longer so.  This identifies the day of Christmas with the solstice, solstitium (“after the solstice … the twentieth day” is the martyrdom of Felix, not Christmas).

UPDATE: A preview of the Walsh translation is here.

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Censorinus and the secular games

Posted on by Roger Pearse

One  benefit of my fruitless efforts to determine the meaning of the word bruma was to cause me to read bits of the Birthday book (De die natalis) by Censorinus.  This work was written in 238 AD (as he tells us) as a present for a friend, and is a compilation of material, mostly linked to the theme of birthdays.  I came across this portion, which quotes from a lost book of Livy, on the secular games.  It shows how much uncertainty there was on these matters, even in antiquity.

7. Some think that the Roman “age” or saeculum is marked by the Secular Games. If we could believe this, it would mean that the time span of the Roman saeculum or “century” is variable, since when it comes to the intervals at which the games ought to be held, we are ignorant not only of how long they were in the past but also how long they ought to be now. 8. We have it on the authority of Antias and other historians that they were originally founded to occur every hundred years. Varro wrote the same thing in Book I of The Early Theater at Rome: “Since there were many portents, and both the wall and tower between the Colline and the Esquiline gates were touched by heaven, the Council of Fifteen consulted the Sibylline books and announced that the Tarentine Games should be held in the Field of Mars in honor of Father Jupiter and Persephone for three days, and that black animals should be sacrificed, and that the games should be held every hundred years.”

9. Livy says the same in Book 136:

“In that same year [17 BC], Caesar Augustus held the Secular Games with great pomp, which once was the custom to hold every hundred years, for these games marked the end of a saeculum.”

On the other hand, the Records of the Council of Fifteen and the edicts of the divine Augustus seem to testify that the games were repeated after 110 years. So Horace in the song which was sung at the Secular Games designated the length of time as:

A fixed circle of ten times eleven years
to bring back song and crowded games

This from Censorinus: the birthday book, tr. Holt N. Parker, Chicago (2007), p.36.  And he then goes on to list instances of uncertainty on this matter.  Slightly earlier he adds:

An “age” (or saeculum) is the longest period of human life, delimited by birth and death.

which is again an interesting view.

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Too much data to find out what “bruma” means

Posted on by Roger Pearse

There seem to be 336 results on a search on bruma in the PHI Latin CDROM (thanks to those who did the search).  There is probably more data in the Greek side.  And then there is the question of brumalia, which I have not even started on. 

I have only one hour this evening which is my own, and the same will be true for most evenings. I cannot grapple with that much data in that sort of time.  To digest these, collect or make translations, and tabulate them would require several uninterrupted days at least.  This means that I shall have to abandon my wish to find out what this means, by the only certain method, which is to go through the data and see what it all says.  Selective quotation is never a good idea. Nor do I propose to spend my entire Christmas holiday on it. 

It’s a pity, but the demands of earning a living will prevent me dealing with this further.

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Searching classical authors in Latin

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Does anyone know of a website where I can type in the Latin word “bruma” and see which classical authors use it, and the text?

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More sources for the meaning of “bruma”; winter solstice? midwinter? etc

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Following this post, in which I listed the supposed sources for the meaning of the term “bruma” and quoted some, I have been looking up some more.  The English translations are not specially concerned with this word, so should be treated only as a guide.

Ovid, Fasti, book 1, line 163:

quaesieram multis; non multis ille moratus
contulit in versus sic sua verba duos:
‘bruma novi prima est veterisque novissima solis:
principium capiunt Phoebus et annus idem.’  (from here)

[161] Thus questioned I at length; he answered prompt and tersely,
throwing his words into twain verses, thus:
“Midwinter is the beginning of the new sun and the end of the old one.
Phoebus and the year take their start from the same point.”  (from here).

 Cicero, Epistulae ad familiares (Letters to his friends) 3.7.3:

Quid? cum dabas iis litteras, per quas mecum agebas, ne eos impedirem, quo minus ante hiemem aedificarent, non eos ad me venturos arbitrabare? tametsi id quidem fecerunt ridicule; quas enim litteras afferebant, ut opus aestate facere possent, eas mihi post brumam reddiderunt. (from here)

What! at the time you delivered that letter to them, in which you remonstrated with me against preventing them from finishing their building before winter, did you suppose that they would not come to me? However, on that point, at least, they made a ridiculous blunder: for the letter they brought with them asking to be allowed to carry on the work in the summer, they delivered to me after midwinter. (from here)

Caesar, Gallic Wars 5.5:

In hoc medio cursu est insula, quae appellatur Mona: complures praeterea minores subiectae insulae existimantur, de quibus insulis nonnulli scripserunt dies continuos triginta sub bruma esse noctem. Nos nihil de eo percontationibus reperiebamus, nisi certis ex aqua mensuris breviores esse quam in continenti noctes videbamus. (from here)

In the middle of this voyage, is an island, which is called Mona: many smaller islands besides are supposed to lie [there], of which islands some have written that at the time of the winter solstice it is night there for thirty consecutive days. We, in our inquiries about that matter, ascertained nothing, except that, by accurate measurements with water, we perceived the nights to be shorter there than on the continent. (from here)

Vitruvius 9.3.3:

3. scorpionem autem cum sol ingressus fuerit occidentibus vergiliis, minuit progrediens ad meridianas partes longitudines dierum. escorpione cum percurrendo init in sagittarium ad femina eius, contractiorem diurnum pervolat cursum. cum autem incipit a feminibus sagittarii, quae pars est attributa capricorno, ad partem octavam, brevissimum caeli percurrit spatium. ex eo a brevitate diurna bruma ac dies brumalis appellantur. e capricorno autem transiens in aquarium adauget ex aequa sagittarii longitudine diei spatium. ab aquario cum ingressus est in pisces favonio flante, scorpionis comparat aequalem fursum. ita sol ea signa circum pervagando certis temporibus auget aut minuit dierum et horarum spatia. Nunc de ceteris sideribus quae sunt dextra ac sinistra zonam signorum meridiana septentrionalique parte mundi stellis disposita figurataque dicam. (from here)

3. When the sun enters into Scorpio at the setting of the Pleiades, he diminishes, in passing to the southern parts, the length of the days; and from Scorpio passing to a point near the thighs of Sagittarius, he makes a shorter diurnal circuit. Then beginning from the thighs of Sagittarius, which are in Capricornus, at the eighth part of the latter he makes the shortest course in the heavens. This time from the shortness of the days, is called Bruma (winter) and the days Brumales. From Capricornus passing into Aquarius, the length of days is increased to that of those when he was in Sagittarius. From Aquarius he passes into Pisces at the time that the west wind blows; and his course is equal to that he made in Scorpio. Thus the sun travelling through these signs at stated times, increases and diminishes the duration of the days and hours. I shall now treat of the other constellations on the right and left side of the zodiac, as well those on the south as on the north side of the heavens. (from here)

Livy 43.18.1:

[18] Perseus principio hiemis egredi Macedoniae finibus non ausus, ne qua in regnum uacuum inrumperent Romani, sub tempus brumae, cum inexsuperabilis ab Thessalia montes niuis altitudo facit, occasionem esse ratus frangendi finitimorum spes animosque, ne quid auerso se in Romanum bellum periculi ab iis esset,… (from here)

[43.18](B.C. 170-69) In the early days of winter Perseus did not venture beyond his frontiers for fear of the Romans attempting an invasion while he was absent from his kingdom. About mid-winter, however, when snow had blocked the mountain passes on the side of Thessaly, he thought it a good opportunity for crushing the hopes and spirits of his neighbours, so that there might be no danger from them while his attention was wholly devoted to the war with Rome. (from here)

Columella, De arboribus (On trees) 24:

XXIV [1] Piros autumno ante brumam serito, ita ut minime dies quinqueet viginti ad brumam supersint. Quae ut sint feraces, cum iam adoleverint, alte ablaqueato et iuxta ipsam radicem truncum findito. In fissuram cuneumpineum tedae adicito et ibi relinquito; deinde obruta oblaqueatione cineremsupra terram spargito. (from here)

[English translation to be found]

Manilius 2.404.

Temporibus quoque sunt propriis pollentia signa:          265
aestas a Geminis, autumnus Virgine surgit,
bruma Sagittifero, ver Piscibus incipit esse.
quattuor in partes scribuntur sidera terna;
hiberna aestivis, autumni verna repugnant.
…
quod si forte libet, quae sunt contraria, signa
per titulos celebrare suos sedesque, memento
solstitium brumae, Capricornum opponere Cancro,
Lanigerum Librae (par nox in utroque diesque est),          405
Piscibus Erigonen, iuvenique urnaeque Leonem;
Scorpios e summo cum fulget, Taurus in imo est,
et cadit Arcitenens Geminis orientibus orbi.  (from here)

[English translation]

Censorinus, De die Natali (The birthday book) 21:

[12] Initia autem istorum annorum propterea notavi, ne quis eos aut ex kal. Januariis aut ex aliquo tempore simul putaret incipere, cum in iis conditorum voluntates non minus diversae sint, quam opiniones philosophorum:[13] idcirco aliis a novo sole, id est a bruma, aliis ab aestivo solstitio, plerisque ab aequinoctio verno, partim ab autumnali aequinoctio, quibusdam ab ortu vergiliarum, nonnullis ab earum occasu, multis a canis exortu incipere annus naturalis videtur. (from here)

I have indicated at what epoch these years commence, so that nobody should suppose they always dated from the calends of January, or from any other like day; because on the question of aeras, one does not find less diversity among the statements of their founders than amongst the opinions of the philosophers. Some make the natural year commence at the Birth of the Sun, that is to say, at Brumalia, and others at the Summer Solstice; some make it the Vernal Equinox, and others the Autumnal Equinox; some at the rising and some at the setting of the Pleiades, while still others fix it at the rising of the Canicular star. (from here).

J’ai dû indiquer à quelle époque commencent ces années, pour empêcher qu’on ne pensât qu’elles commençaient toujours aux calendes de janvier, ou à quelque autre jour semblable ; car, sur la question des diverses ères, on ne remarque pas moins de divergence dans les volontés de leurs fondateurs que dans les opinions des philosophes. Aussi les uns font-ils commencer l’année naturelle au lever du soleil nouveau, c’est-à-dire en hiver, les autres au solstice d’été, plusieurs à l’équinoxe de printemps, les autres à l’équinoxe d’automne, ceux-ci au lever, ceux-là au coucher des Pléiades, d’autres enfin au lever de la Canicule. (from here)

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, book 18:  (There are several references, which I must work on more):

221: horae nunc in omni accessione aequinoctiales, non cuiuscumque die significantur —, omnesque eae differentiae fiunt in octavis partibus signorum, bruma capricorni a. d. VIII kal. Ian. fere, aequinoctium vernum arietis, solstitium cancri, alterumque aequinoctium librae, qui et ipsi dies raro non aliquos tempestatum significatus habent. …

227: miretur hoc qui non meminerit ipso brumali die puleium in carnariis florere….

231: a kal. Novemb. gallinis ova supponere nolito, donec bruma conficiatur. in eum diem ternadena subicito aestate tota, hieme pauciora, non tamen infra novena. Democritus talem futuram hiemem arbitratur, qualis fuerit brumae dies et circa eum terni; item solstitio aestatem. circa brumam plerisque bis septeni halcyonum feturae ventorum quiete molliunt caelum. sed et in his et in aliis omnibus ex eventu significationum intellegi sidera debebunt, non ad dies utique praefinitos expectari tempestatum vadimonia.

lxiii   232: Per brumam vitem ne colito. vina tum defaecari vel etiam diffundi Hyginus suadet a confecta ea septimo die, utique si septima luna conpetat; cerasa circa brumam seri. bubus glandem tum adspergi convenit in iuga singula modios. largior valetudinem infestat, et quocumque tempore detur, si minus xxx diebus continuis data sit, narrant verna scabie poenitere. materiae caedendae tempus hoc dedimus. …

lxiv  234: A bruma in favonium Caesari nobilia sidera significant, III kal. Ian. matutino canis occidens, quo die Atticae et finitimis regionibus aquila vesperi occidere traditur. pridie nonas Ian. Caesari delphinus matutino exoritur et postero die fidicula, quo Aegypto sagitta vesperi occidit. (from here)

221: The winter solstice begins at the eighth degree of Capricorn, the eighth day before the calends of January, in general…

[More English to be added, when I can find it]

Others to find: Terence Ph. 709; Cicero Div. 2.52; solis accessus discessusque solstitiis brumisque cognosci; Cicero Natura Deorum 2.19.

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Is there an English translation of Varro’s “De lingua latina”?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I find that book 6 has an interesting bit on the bruma and the solstice; quoted in this post of mine.  I’d like to see a professional translation.

UPDATE: There are two volumes in Loeb, and they’re on Archive.org: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

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More on Choricius of Gaza

Posted on by Roger Pearse

We’re interested in Choricius because one of his works contains a description of the magnificent celebration of the winter festival, the brumalia, by the emperor Justinian.  We’re interested in the facts about the brumalia because there are rumours online that Christmas is ‘really’ the brumalia.

This evening I find the following in the latest Patrology volume (tr. Adrian Walford), p. 269-70:

Chroricius of Gaza was the disciple and successor of Procopius of Gaza, whose close friend he was and whose funeral oration he delivered.  He spent the whole of his life in Gaza, which was then, in the 6th century A.D., at the height of its fame.  He composed encomia for Marcianus bishop of Gaza and other notables, a funeral oration for Marcianus’ mother Mary, and epithalamia for several of his pupils.  In addition there survive declamations on various mythological and historical subjects, and popular discourses on various philosophical subjects.  Although undoubtedly a Christian, his writings display no interest in theology.  As a rhetor, he was regarded as a model for later Byzantines.

Editions: CPG 7518; R. Foerster, E. Richsteig, Orationes, declamationes, dialexes, Leipzig 1929.
Studies: Photius, Bibliotheca, cod. 160 (ed. Henry, vol. 2, 121-123); H. Gärtner: Der Kleine Pauly Lexicon der Antike 1 (1964) 1159-1160; D. Stiernon, EEC 1 (1992) 201.

The mention of dialexes must be significant; one of these contains the Justinian material.  The content of his work means that he does not appear in Migne.

CPG 7518 is found in volume 3 of the Clavis Patrum Graecorum, p. 403; but just gives the 1929 edition.  However it does add that the edition also contains the funerary oration on Procopius of Gaza (p.109-128) and the oration on Mary the bishop’s mother on p. 99-109.

Few people know that Google books search gives different results if you are outside the US to inside.  It’s not just that some books are not viewable; the list of results differs.  This evening I have found more on Choricius, in Reinhard Pummer, Early Christian authors on Samaritans and Samaritanism, here.  Chunks on the Samaritans are given from Foerster, with Litsas’ translation, preceded by the following introduction:

Choricius of Gaza
c. 490 – c. 543

Almost nothing is known of the life of Choricius.[1] He mentions that he was born in Gaza but gives no further details about his life. Nor do any of his contemporaries, including Procopius, who was his teacher, speak about or refer to him. Later sources, such as Photius and Suda. speak only of his literary works. The approximate date of his birth is inferred from his first oration, held shortly after 518, at the occasion of the death of the mother of Bishop Marcian, Maria;[2] Marcian must then have been thirty or thirty-five years old. Moreover, at the time of the oration, Choricius already had established himself as an excellent rhetorician. For these reasons, he must have been born in the early 490s.[3]

There are a number of similarities between Choricius and Procopius. Like Procopius, Choricius lived all his life in Gaza, except for his studies in Alexandria and Caesarea; he seems to have declined offers to teach in other cities; and he was never married. His life was dedicated to scholarship, teaching, charitable work, and the administration of the school.

The extant works of Choricius can be grouped thus:[4] 10 Orations (lo/goi),[5] 12 Declamations (mele/tai),[6] and 25 Dialexeis (diale/ceij). The latter are either independent compositions about philosophical subjects or proems to longer orations. Choricius’ excellent education in classics comes to the fore in quotations from Greek writers, including Homer, Thucydides, and Demosthenes.

Choricius’ primary concern was rhetoric. Any historical data contained in his works are therefore incidental to his main goal and, in fact, are sunk “into a profusion of allusions, rhetorical nuances or stylistic ornamentation.”[7] The Samaritans are never mentioned by name. It is only through affinities with other sources, such as Cyril of Scythopolis’ Vit. Sab. 70, that we are able to tell that certain passages in some of Choricius’ orations make reference to Samaritan unrests in 529-30.

1 For a short summary see PLRE 3, 302.
2 On Marcian cf. PLRE 3, 819-820 (Marcianus 1); on Maria. PLRE 3, 827 (Maria 1).
3 See Litsas. Choricius 13.
4 Cf. the edition of Choricius’ works by Foerster and Richtsteig p. XXXV.
5 Encomia in honour of important personalities; epithalamia: and epitaphs.
6 On mythical, historical, and invented subjects.
7 Litsas, Choricius 64.

This is very helpful for those of us trying to get a handle on what Choricius wrote.  Some of the orations were published by Foerster for the first time in the late 19th century, prior to including them in his edition, such as this one, on Miltiades.  Online is also his orations on Achilleus and Polyxena here.

Choricius has a great deal to say on how speeches should be made.  In his funeral oration on Procopius, he says that “no non-Attic word ever passed his lips” (from here).  A couple of extracts from one of his orations are to be found here.

UPDATE (22 Dec. 2016): A translation of Choricius’ oration about the Brumalia, and a wonderful summary of information on Bruma and Brumalia, has been made by Roberta Mazza, and is online here.[1]

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  1. [1]Roberta Mazza, “Choricius of Gaza Oration XIII: Religion and State in the Age of Justinian”, in: E. Digeser, R.M. Frakes, J. Stephens (eds.), The Rhetoric of Power in Late Antiquity: Religion and Politics in Byzantium, Europe and the early Islamic World, Tauris Academic Studies: London-New York 2010, 172-93.↩

Was the winter solstice on 25 December in the Julian calendar

Posted on by Roger Pearse

This claim seems to be widely made online.  But is it true?  Does anyone know, and how do we know?

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Choricius of Gaza, the Suda on the “brumalia”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

One of the authors mentioned in yesterday’s post about evidence for the winter festival of the Brumalia was Choricius of Gaza.  Apparently he records the magnificent celebration of this festival in the first consulship of the emperor Justinian.  If you’re like me, this is an author about whom you know very little.  He seems to be an author of the 6th century, whose declamations have come down to us, at least in part.

Unfortunately the 1929 edition by Richard Förster and Eberhard Richtsteig, Choricii Gazaei opera, does not seem to be online.  The Wikipedia article lists an English translation by Robert J. Penella, made in this very year, but of course none of us plebs have access to that.

I would like to pin down the portion that deals with the brumalia, and quote it.  There is an 1846 edition online here.  Unfortunately the only reference to the brumalia is in a footnote on p.305.

The introduction to the Penella volume appears here on this site, discussing the “twelve declamations” and gives the following reference:

…on the occasion of Justinian’s Brumalia, the sophist [Choricius] compares the emperor to Zeus, but makes no reference to his Christianity (Dialex. 7 [XIII]).

The excerpt on the site gives a very clear idea that Penella’s volume is a good solid piece of work, which I wish I had access to.

Moving on, the 10th century lexicon the Suda is online.  The entry (beta, 556) for “Brumalia” reads:

This was devised by Romus, since he and his brother Remus, having been born as a result of fornication, were exposed and reared by a woman. It was [considered] disgraceful among the Romans to eat someone else’s food. At drinking parties each guest would bring his own food and drink in order not to gain the reputation of being feeders-off-others. On account of this Romus invented the Brumalia, having declared that it was necessary for the king to feed his senate in the winter, when they enjoyed respite from war, starting with the alpha up to the omega, and he ordered the senate likewise to invite the soldiers. And when the soldiers were ready to leave, they used to play pipes starting in the evening so they would know where they would find their meal. And Romus devised this in atonement for his own outrage, giving the meal the name “Brumalium”, which is ‘to feed off another’s goods’ in the Roman language.

This gives no indication of when the brumalia was held beyond “winter”.

UPDATE (22 Dec. 2016): A translation of the oration in question by Choricius, and a wonderful summary of information on Bruma and Brumalia, has been made by Roberta Mazza, and is online here.[1]

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  1. [1]Roberta Mazza, “Choricius of Gaza Oration XIII: Religion and State in the Age of Justinian”, in: E. Digeser, R.M. Frakes, J. Stephens (eds.), The Rhetoric of Power in Late Antiquity: Religion and Politics in Byzantium, Europe and the early Islamic World, Tauris Academic Studies: London-New York 2010, 172-93.↩