The New Maximianus the Elegies of Maximianus. Edited by Richard Webster, Classical Fellow of Princeton University
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The Classical Review http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR Additional services for The Classical Review: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here The New Maximianus The Elegies of Maximianus. Edited by Richard Webster, Classical Fellow of Princeton University. Princeton Press. 1900. Studio sulle Elegie di Massimiano. Giardelli. Savona, 1899. Der Elegiker Maximianus. Von Prof. Dr F. Heege. Blaubeuren, 1893. Robinson Ellis The Classical Review / Volume 15 / Issue 07 / October 1901, pp 368 - 371 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00031000, Published online: 27 October 2009 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00031000 How to cite this article: Robinson Ellis (1901). The Classical Review, 15, pp 368-371 doi:10.1017/ S0009840X00031000 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 132.239.1.231 on 14 Mar 2015 368 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. Under the head of the 'Mood of Prohi- down by Hoffmann and widely current, but bition ' Dr. Lebreton naturally discusses the rejected now by Schmalz in his third edition. conclusions of Professor Elmer, to which he He acutely notices that if Riemann was does not consider that the articles contri- right in supposing cum in such cases to be buted to the Classical Review by Sir W. co-ordinating rather than subordinating, the Geddes, added anything of value; and sub- cum clause ought to go into the infinitive in mits them to a severe criticism, following reported speech, whereas it is always in the mostly the lines of Professor Bennett. He subjunctive. protests against the exclusion of the letters, There is a good discussion of the subjunc- as not representing the classical usage; tive in conditional sentences; but it does and insists on the prohibitive force of the not take us much farther than the view perfect subjunctive with nee, nihil and ne- stated so clearly by Mr. Roby, that the quidem, examining the examples of these mental attitude may be shifted between the constructions. With regard to ne with the clauses of a hypothesis. present subjunctive Dr. Lebreton holds that Several other points call for notice, such Professor Elmer is as lax in admitting as the use of the infinitive with a relative, cases, as he was severe in excluding them the omission of the subject of an infinitive, previously. There is an interesting collec- the use of the gerundive, the use of ab with tion of instances of the usage of quaeso, passive verbs, and the attaching of -que, -ne, a propos of the much-discussed Att. xiv., -ve to e. But enough has been said to show 1, 2, ' Tu, quaeso, quicquid novi (multaautem the nature and variety of the topics treated. exspecto) scribere ne pigrere'; in which Dr. It may just be remarked that in the Introduc- Postgate's view is duly noted, but not dis- tion there is a caveat against an undue as- cussed. The conclusion is that in Cicero sumption of resemblances between Cicero's there are forty-three instances of the perfect epistolary style and the diction of the Latin subjunctive in prohibitions, and not one comedians. Dr. Lebreton points out, what no decisive instance of the present. one has better indicated than Dr. Tyrrell, In dealing with the use of the moods in who is here criticised, that Cicero has not relative sentences, Dr. Lebreton adopts fully one, but a dozen epistolary styles ; and that the negative results of Dittmar's criticism of phrases natural in the letter to Lentulus, Professor W. G. Hale's theories (cf. C.R., would be quite out of place in writing to for December 1898); but considers him to Trebatius or Hirtius. Still it is clear that have failed completely in substituting for it the Letters must not be left out of account his rival theory of the ' polemical' force of in studying classical Latin prose. the subjunctive. The exegesis of the passages Whatever may be thought of particular quoted in this part of his book seems to me conclusions, Dr. Lebreton's studies show so particularly good. On Pro Sest. 67, 140, he much acuteness and diligence, and, so far as is quite clear in his support of Dr. Eeid's it has been possible to control them, so view as against Dr. Holden's. much accuracy, that all who have to do In discussing the usage of cum ' equiva- with the language of Cicero will do well to lent,' much use is made of the investigations keep them within easy reach for frequent of Lattmann, which, however, deal more reference, facilitated as this is by very full with the tense than with the mood. He indexes of subjects, of words, and of definitely rejects the theory of grammarians quotations. The last indeed almost amounts who like Madvig allow the use of the sub- to a grammatical commentary on the whole junctive imperfect with an ' equivalent * cum. works of Cicero. For cutn-tum Dr. Lebreton accepts the refut- A. S. WILKINS. ation by Professor Hale of the rules laid THE NEW MAXIMIANUS. The Ulegies of Maximianus. Edited by Der JElegiker Maximianus. VON PROF. DR. RICHAHD WEBSTER, Classical Fellow of F. HEEGE. Blaubeuren, 1893. Princeton University. Princeton Press. 1900. THESE three works on the Elegies of Maxi- Studio sulle Elegie di Afassimiano. GIAR- mianus, all within the compass of eight DELLI. Savona, 1899. years, and especially the first of them, open THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 369 again, but hardly solve, the points in dispute Maximianus is the name of the poet himself : about the life, personality and date of the e.g. Bodl.2 after the poems has the words poet, his creed, and the relation of the MSS. explicit liber Maodmiani. But it must be to each other. Dr. Heege's programm is observed that the Eton MS., which is mainly occupied with the diction, syntax, acknowledged to be the best, has no heading and prosodial specialities of Maxim., and or conclusion of the kind : that Bo1 (Bodl. on these points is copious and erudite; it is 38) ends with a mere Finit: while Keg. 15 perhaps somewhat excessive in demonstrating A 7 has this colophon. how closely the language of the Elegies is Talibus infecte deponis uerba senecte modelled on the classical period, though it 1 is useful to be assured of this; and I may Scriptus ab auricamo maximiane lupo be allowed here once more to protest against in which the obviously corrupt auricamo the statistical record of the distribution of may perhaps represent an original ewrimaco dactyls and spondees in the verses of the or evnnachio, if we may make such an in- poet as not compensating the writer's ference from the form it bears in a marginal labour by any corresponding utility. note in the Antwerp edition of 1567 eumacho, The Savona professor's dissertation is which with other marginalia was written by divided into the following sections: 1. the younger P. Pithou, as he himself informs Morphology, including peculiarities in the us : contuli cum MS. Puteanorum fratrum comparison of adjectives, pronouns, verbs, Lutetiae MDCXI KAL SEP Petrus Pitkoeus.2 adverbs, prepositions, particles. 2. Syntax. Again, it would be easy and natural to This section is very well done, and forms an transfer the name which originally attached excellent introduction to the Elegies. to the hero of El. iv. 26 to the poet himself, 3. Locution. 4. Metric; short, but dwelling to say nothing of a mediaeval Maximianus on everything that can fairly be called of cent. XII. who wrote on old age, but of salient. 5. Imitation. 6. A critical ap- whom little is known. pendix treating many of the more difficult As regards the date of the author, passages. I have read this with great Webster, accepting the prevailing identifica- interest, and can recommend Giardelli's tion of Boetius in El. iii. with the philosopher lively and unpedantic style as likely to of that name, and considering it improbable make the poems, themselves lively and from the close resemblance to the Consolatio natural, more read and studied. traceable in many passages, that the poems These works, excellent so far as they go, can be far removed from Boetius' death in are, however, in importance, not comparable 524 A.D., and on the other hand, pointing to with the elaborate edition of It. Webster. the palpable imitations of Maxim, found in The volume, which is most beautifully the Xth and Xlth of the minor poems of printed at the Princeton Press, contains 128 Eugenius of Toledo, places them between octavo pages, of which the following is a 524 and the death year of Eugenius 657, short account. 1. Bibliography, giving a yet so that they lie much nearer to the 6th list of all the most recent dissertations, than to the 7th century. editions, or articles on Maxim. 2. Author- The arguments of Manitius in support of ship. 3. Manuscripts. 4. Text of the the poet being a Christian, Webster shows Elegies with a full app. crit. 5. Critical to be of an unsolid kind : we cannot argue Appendix mentioning most of the emenda- from the uncertain attitude of the philoso- tions which are of any importance. 6. Com- pher to the uncertain language of the poet. mentary. 7. Index. It is rather more probable that he was not Webster, remarking on the increasing a Christian. Heege, however, p. 6 note, unreality of Roman Elegy as exhibited from calls attention to three passages which to Tibullus to Ovid, on the fact that the Elegies me have a Christian ring. III. 83 Salute are little more than variations on the sancta, inquam, semperque intacta maneto theme • old age,' exhibiting in a formalistic Uirginitas : per me plena pudoris eris : I.