Contemporary historians of philosophy almost universally embrace the idea that the young Plato had a close, personal relationship with the historical Socrates. Many refuse to countenance a similar status for Plato’s contemporary, Xenophon. This note takes as its focus a novel argument intended to support the claim that Xenophon was never on intimate terms with Socrates or even privy to reliable information about him. The reply offered here has implications far beyond this apparently narrow focus, however, and points to pervasive biases in Socratic studies generally that remain in sore need of correction.

This note examines five passages of Cicero, De haruspicum responsis in light of the commented edition of A. Corbeill. New conjectures are offered on §§29 and 50; the transmitted text of §46 is defended; and a different interpretation of the text is offered at §§37 and 61.

This article demonstrates that Ovid placed an incomplete reverse acrostic at Rem. am. 681–5 reading desin-. I will argue that it is intentional, noting that it fits the context in which it appears. Additionally, I will discuss how Ovid is drawing the reader’s attention to his engagement with the poetry of Catullus by referencing another possible acrostic in Catullus 36, as well as by playing with themes (and acrostics) from Catullus 8.

Conjectures in the Cynegetica and the Cyropaideia of Xenophon.

This article discusses Ovid’s allusive engagement in Tr. 1.2.75–80 with his own earlier works, as well as with the works of his elegiac predecessors—Propertius and Tibullus—and of Catullus. It is argued that this suggestive intertextuality may point toward Ovid’s re-articulation of his conceptualization of elegy as it is now to be written from exile.

Some features of the mathematical passage at Plato, Theaetetus 147d–148b, are presented; the ability of Theaetetus as a definition-maker is thereby assessed.

The article argues for an emendation in Plin. HN 9.126. Modern editors are accustomed to print the text cum testa uiuas, adopting J. Hardouin’s conjecture for cum terra uitis, the reading transmitted in most manuscripts. Nevertheless, the overlooked manuscript reading contritis conchis allows us to deduce a palaeographically neater solution contritis if conchis is considered a gloss which entered the text.

This note addresses a grammatical objection, first raised by Torstrik, to the transmitted text of Aristotle’s De anima 3.7, namely that the text contains at 431a4–7 a μέν without a corresponding δέ (or another adversative particle). Rejecting Corcilius’s suggestion that this is a μέν solitarium, the note shows that modest repunctuation reveals a responding δέ and makes better sense of this part of the text.

In praising Sallust, Tacitus chose the epithet florentissimus in delightful allusion to the former’s apparently innovative (and influential) use of the adverb carptim in his presentation of his novel approach to writing res gestae populi Romani: the adverb and the superlative adjective share an easily discernible etymological connection.

This article discusses a passage in the speech of Lycurgus against Leocrates, and argues that a phrase usually interpreted as ‘in the willows’ should be emended to a phrase meaning ‘in the wicker market’.

This short note argues that at Aen. 1.487, in the midst of Virgil’s ekphrasis of the paintings on the temple of Juno in Carthage, the phrase tendentemque manus Priamum conspexit inermis alludes to the name of Hermes, the god who escorted the unarmed Priam from Troy to Achilles’ tent where he ransomed the body of Hector. This wordplay aligns with other instances in which the poet invites readers to observe his dextrous paronomasia, especially involving names.

The middle-Platonic tendencies of Plutarch are not only pervasive in his philosophical ideas; his temperate approach to life can be appreciated in many other contexts, and the culinary world is no exception. Particularly interesting, given his moderate views, is his depiction of foods bringing opposites together to create balance. This article first considers the combination of the opposite concepts of γλυκύς (sweet) and πικρός (bitter) in Plutarch in general; then, with reference to food consumption, it studies references to honey, both in association with a bitter element and when honey itself is described as both sweet and bitter. The article surveys the appearance of honey in other sources to obtain a wider picture before drawing conclusions with regard to Plutarch’s own literary creation.

This study examines overlooked or underexplored fragments from Rufus of Ephesus’ On Melancholy, as cited in Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī’s seminal medical work, The Comprehensive Book (Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb). Through an analysis of Arabic texts and Latin translations, we present two previously unexamined fragments and one of doubtful authenticity which reference Rufus’ understanding of melancholy. Preserved across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts, these fragments illuminate the transmission of ancient Graeco-Roman medical knowledge into the Islamic Golden Age and Renaissance Europe. Arabic texts are compared with corresponding Latin editions to verify their authenticity and trace their historical transmission.

This article examines Numenius’ use of the concept of undiminished giving in fr. 14 des Places, discussing briefly its philosophical antecedents and parallels from Plato to Early Imperial thinkers and highlighting the striking similarity of the fragment to Philo of Alexandria’s De gigantibus 25–8. This similarity indicates the potential direct influence of Philo on Numenius, contributing to the debate on Philo’s impact on pagan philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism.

In 1911, Franz Pichlmayr listed Vatican codex Barb. Lat. 812 as a manuscript attributing De uiris illustribus to Aurelius Victor—a unique and significant claim. Later scholars, notably Sage, questioned the reliability of the claim and urged caution owing to past cataloguing errors. A 2025 examination of Barb. Lat. 812 revealed that it contains records from the Council of Trent, not De uiris illustribus. Attempts to resolve the discrepancy by checking related shelfmarks were unsuccessful. Whether Pichlmayr’s manuscript ever existed—and, if it did, what its identity was—remains unknown.

This note argues that imitation of Ausonius’ Cento nuptialis in the Peruigilium Veneris establishes 374 c.e. as the terminus post quem for the Peruigilium Veneris. The note enlarges on the argument of Danuta Shanzer, who identified debts to Ausonius in the Peruigilium Veneris and dated the latter poem accordingly: the approach is to locate evidence for Ausonian imitation that Shanzer missed, and thus to reinforce and confirm her position. While the note does not propose a poet for the Peruigilium Veneris, it shows that certain figures to whom the work is commonly attributed, notably Florus and Tiberianus, cannot be its author.

Escaping from the sack of Amida in 359, the historian Ammianus Marcellinus encountered a runaway horse pulling behind it the dead body of a groom who had tied himself to the horse and fallen off (19.8.6–7). The article argues that errors in text and punctuation and a lack of equestrian knowledge have led to an illogical interpretation of the passage. Where most translators describe the groom being tied to the reins, we should understand habena as a halter used to guide the animal from on foot. Prose rhythm implies that ne labi possit ex more should be taken as a single clause, meaning ‘in the usual manner to stop [the horse] escaping’. Moreover, attention to prose rhythm and Ammianus’ usage also shows that we should further emend sedens to insidens.