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Three Ciceroniana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Heikki Solin
Heikki Solin
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
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Extract

Mundus istum M. En(n)ius in the manuscripts of Att. 15.26.5 is surely corrupt, as has been unanimously acknowledged (above all Cicero would avoid giving the three parts of a name in the order cognomen + praenomen + nomen, not to speak of the inexplicable istum). Also the modern Vulgate Mundus iste cum M. Ennio, introduced by Wesenberg in his Teubner text, is an improbable guess. Shackleton Bailey has recently proposed Maenius or Men(n)ius as the gentile name of Mundus. Mennius, however, is a very rare name and does not occur in Republican documents, while Maenius, although attested in Republican inscriptions, diverges unnecessarily from the manuscript tradition. Moreover, Shackleton Bailey must forcibly change istum to iste (even if he does not say so expressly). But it is possible to avoid practically any infringement of the transmitted text if we simply read Mundus Istummenius. The name (H) istumen(n)ius, (H)istimen(n)ius (also Inst-), written in a wide variety of ways, does occur some 20 times in urban inscriptions, mostly of the early Imperial period. It is attested also outside Rome: at Velitrae (CIL X 6556, of the early Imperial period), and even as far away as Gallia (CIL XIII 739, Bordeaux, early Empire). This gens must therefore have been somehow present among the Roman population of the Julio-Claudian age. In particular, attention should be paid to an Instumennius on a tessera nummularia of 60 B.C. (CIL I 915). No major figures occur in this gens, the name remaining restricted to the lower strata of the Roman population. That suits Mundus down to the ground. He clearly belongs to the grey mob of Rome. If he is, as it seems, identical with that Mundus mentioned in 15.29.1, then Cicero gives his family name in the first instance. The transmitted form with -mm- could represent a transposition of the double consonant of the common form Istumennius.

Information

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , December 1987 , pp. 521 - 523
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1987

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References

1 ‘M. Histimenius Treptus Histimeniae fil(iae)... Histiraeniae Rufinae uxori.’ The family may be of Roman origin. Some other attestations: AE 1980, 386 (Histimennius, Interamnia), 1981, 479 (Istumenius, Sardinia).

2 Mundus is by no means improbable as a Republican cognomen, even if attested only rarely.

3 ‘ Tulliois an odd cognomen even for a Roman’, says Shackleton Bailey (see the following note). This is not, in fact, true. Cognomina formed with -io from gentilicia or praenomina (like Tullus) are not uncommon; see Kajanto, Latin Cognomina, 163–5, where many items could be added.

4 Two Studies, 70.

5 As far as I know, this name occurs only once: IG IX 2, 538 (Larisa, A.D. 117, freedman). MAMA III 167 and 635 are Christian and very late, and represent only a careless way of writing the name of St Pantaleon. And the name of a ruler at Cyrene, transmitted by Arist. fr. 611.21, p. 376 Rose in the form , may be a careless writing of , the latter name being common in Cyrenian onomastics (according to an unpublished work by A. Laronde, Prosopographie cyrénéenne, communicated to me by Olivier Masson). Similarly the author of an early cookery book (fifth century), whose name is given in Pollux 6.70 in the form , may in reality be a Pantaleon, if he is identical with that Pantaleon mentioned as the title bearer of a play by Theopompus, Meineke II 869 = Kock I 145 (cf. Schmid-Stahlin I 4 [1946], 164).

6 Pantaleon as the name of two notarii of the Roman Church in the sixth century (Greg. M. epist. passim) derives from the saint. The same judgement applies to the name of a presbyter in Constantinople (Mansi VIII 1055 B) and that of a bishop of Iuliopolis in Galatia (Mansi VIII 974 D).

7 Pantaleon as the name of two notarii of the Roman Church in the sixth century (Greg. M. epist. passim) derives from the saint. The same judgement applies to the name of a presbyter in Constantinople (Mansi VIII 1055 B) and that of a bishop of Iuliopolis in Galatia (Mansi VIII 974 D).

8 See the lists in Bechtel, HPN, 55Off. and in Solin, Griech. Personennamen in Rom, 566IT.

9 As e.g. Shackleton Bailey does. Lenaghan, J. O., A Commentary on Cicero's Oration De haruspicum responsis (The Hague, 1969), 49 is indecisive on this point.Google Scholar

10 Two Studies, 17; cf. also his commentary, ad loc.

11 V. Gardthausen, Philologus 51 (1892), 518. Shackleton Bailey, Two Studies, 17 and his commentary ad loc. Tyrrell-Purser, vol. VI, 2nd edn. (1933), 250 is confused on this point.

12 Now listed in the Supplement of Broughton's MRR (Atlanta, 1986), 33.

13 After I made this conjecture, I noticed that it had already been proposed by V. Gardthausen, Philotogus 51 (1892), 518. He failed, however, to explain fully the name form. At any rate, his conjecture deserves to be rescued from oblivion. Strangely enough, it has been banished from the critical apparatuses of most modern editions.