Articles & Chapters by Joseph McAlhany
Writing Literary History in the Greek and Roman World, 2024
Throughout Varro’s fragmentary corpus is a seeming obsession with textual afterlives, his own as ... more Throughout Varro’s fragmentary corpus is a seeming obsession with textual afterlives, his own as well as of others. This was not merely a literary trope, but an idea grounded in Neoptolemus of Parium’s ars poetica and its counter-intuitive definition of ‘poet’. In his theory of poetry, ‘poet’ refers not to the historical poet who creates a poem, but to the meaning or ‘mind’ of a poem, and this ‘poet’ (the poet scriptus) acquires an immortality denied to the flesh-and-blood poet (the poet scribens). Varro’s approach to literary history is informed by this definition of ‘poet’, and when he writes about Rome’s literary past, his interest is less in biographical data about historical poets than in poetic self-preservation through mimesis. An examination of fragments from the De poetis, the De poematis, the De comoediis Plautinis, and the poetic epitaphs preserved in Gellius demonstrates how Varro’s interest in literary immortality and mimesis was misread as literary history in the narrow sense.
American Journal of Philology, 2024
The Trikaranos, a work of Varro's preserved only by title in Appian's Bellum Civile, has usually ... more The Trikaranos, a work of Varro's preserved only by title in Appian's Bellum Civile, has usually been considered a satirical attack on the alliance of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus in 59 b.c.e. as a "three-headed monster." However, a re-examination of the evidence reveals that the Trikaranos was instead a pseudonymous satire directed not at the political alliance of the three men, but at Caesar alone, who was attacked as the single autocrat who spoke for all three members of the so-called "first triumvirate." 10 Brunt 1988, 475-7 does not view most of these individuals as "loyal adherents" of Pompey, excepting only Afranius and Gabinius; Varro is dismissed in a footnote (477 n. 49) as being "of no political consequence." 11 cass. Dio 38.3.3, where petreius delivers his dramatic rebuke: "I'd rather be with cato in prison that here in the senate with you." By 55, petreius is together with Afranius in spain administering the province for pompey, who remained in Rome (Vell. pat. 2.48.1). 12 on the dating of the legislation, see Taylor 1968.
Didactic Literature in the Roman World, 2023
One fragment of the Menippean Papia Papae has been subjected to numerous textual interventions by... more One fragment of the Menippean Papia Papae has been subjected to numerous textual interventions by critics who read it as the product of a scholarly mind with antiquarian interests. This paper presents an interpretation which preserves the transmitted text from editorial interventions, but also reveals its poetic ambiguity.
Mohammed Albakry, ed. Translation and the Intersection of Texts, Contexts, and Politics: Historical and Socio-Cultural Perspectives, 2017
Among Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, the 123rd recounts an encounter between an unpleasant geomet... more Among Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, the 123rd recounts an encounter between an unpleasant geometer and a translator. The latter, after announcing the recent publication of his translation of Horace, endures a barrage of criticisms, in which the geometer deploys commmonplace tropes of translation to deny its possibilty. Since, as he claims, an “animating spirit” will always be lacking in a translation’s new body, true translation never actually occurs. The geometer’s use of body and spirit leads to an examination of this trope in early debates about the possibility and legitmacy of translations of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Septuagint translation in particular, in which seventry translators independently produced seventy identical renderings. The legend of this translation was told in various ways. While the earliest version (the pseudoepigraphical Letter of Aristeas) offers a mundane version of the translation process, which involves collboration anong a community, other “translations” of the Septuagint legend, particularly those by Christians wishing to imbue the translation with the spirtual authority of the original, emphasize how the “spirits” of translation permit a miraculous and perfect transfer of meaning. These “spirits” of translation persisted as the object of translation for the Romans, and the transfer of a text’s “spirit,” even if only partial, remains a translation ideal to this day; the darker side to these spirits is their authorization of the overwriting of original texts, and thus translation becomes a form of cultural approriation. The chapter concludes with Benjamin’s difficult essay “The Task of the Translator,” and connects its concerns with meaning for the translator, rather than the fidelity of the translation, to the justified silence of Montesquieu’s translator.
At a pivotal moment early in his revolt against Rome, Quintus Sertorius, a key figure in Sallust'... more At a pivotal moment early in his revolt against Rome, Quintus Sertorius, a key figure in Sallust's fragmentary Histories, is tempted by the opportunity to sail away to the " Isles of the Blessed. " Sallust's few fragments on these islands, when compared to Plutarch's more detailed description, reveal how the Roman historian, by emphasizing their place in the literary tradition rather than in the geography of the known world, constructs a commentary on two " histories " : Sertorius' impossible position in his revolt against Rome, and the tragic political conditions of his own day. The echoes of Sertorius' illusory escape to a utopia in Horace's Epode 16, in stark contrast to Plutarch's rationalizing account, help bring to light both of these histories in Sallust's brief account of this episode. uintus Sertorius has long been a polarizing figure of Roman history, as is demonstrated by the historiographical vicissitudes of his reputation over the centuries. At one extreme stands Theodor Mommsen, who hailed him as one of the greatest, if not the greatest man Rome had produced up to his time, one who in more fortunate circumstances could have become the savior (Regenerator) of his country; Helmut Berve, at the other extreme, declared Sertorius a traitor, a hostis populi Romani, aligned with Rome's other great enemy of the period, Mithridates. 1 * I would like to thank the editor, the anonymous referees and Ben DeSmidt for their valuable criticisms and corrections; a special debt of gratitude is owed to John T. Ramsey, whose acumen and learning greatly improved the article. I would also like to thank the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute for a generous fellowship during which this article was completed. 1 Mommsen (1904) 3.37: " So endigte einer der größten, wo nicht der größte Mann, den Rom bisher hervorgebracht, ein Mann, der unter glücklicheren Umständen vielleicht der Regenerator
Recent critical attention, as well as the publication of newly discovered manuscripts, brought im... more Recent critical attention, as well as the publication of newly discovered manuscripts, brought improvements to the text of Guibert of Nogent’s Monodiae, yet several passages remained obscure or textually problematic. This article seeks to clarify through emendation and new
interpretation nine passages, not only in order to remedy these imperfectly understood episodes, but also to provide further evidence of Guibert’s intellectual background and the careful composition of the Monodiae.
Terence's famous humanistic motto, "homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto," was transmitted from... more Terence's famous humanistic motto, "homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto," was transmitted from antiquity to modernity as an isolated fragment of a surviving play, and was subjected to various forms of translation and interpretation. In this essay, Joseph McAlhany argues that fragments and translation, by their nature, resist completion and wholeness, and it is this quality that makes them paradigmatically humanistic. After a history of the uses and abuses of this line, in particular the unsuccessful scholarly attempts to provide it with an authoritative meaning and a definitive translation, a close reading of the line reveals the humanistic ironies already present in the line itself. The translations of this fragment demonstrate not only the resistance to completion and the recognition of loss that are essential to humanism, but also how, and why, this crumb of classical antiquity continues to nourish the discourse of humanism.
[I provided the translation which was the basis of this article.]
Books by Joseph McAlhany
Drafts by Joseph McAlhany
Translation to accompany an article on the brontoscopic calendar preserved in a work by the 6th c... more Translation to accompany an article on the brontoscopic calendar preserved in a work by the 6th c. AD Byzantine scholar John of Lydus. The calendar, in Greek, purports to derive from a literal translation by 1st c. BC scholar Nigidius Figulus of "the books of Tages," Etruscan religious texts collectively comprising the disciplina Etrusca.
Translations by Joseph McAlhany
Parerga und Paralipomena II.601-607 (1851) §309
Talks & Presentations by Joseph McAlhany
Thank you everyone, and thank you, John, for organizing this, I think; it is nice to have an oppo... more Thank you everyone, and thank you, John, for organizing this, I think; it is nice to have an opportunity to speak about texts, not in the role of scholar or expert-and for the record, I would consider myself neither in any of the texts about which I'll talk-but as a human being, and if there is a value to a liberal arts institution (and it is fair to ask whether Carthage is one) or any meaning to the word "humanities," it is in the exchange of ideas beyond the confines of institutionalized disciplines: the non-disciplinary rather than the interdisciplinary. One of the problems with the interdisciplinary is that it only came to exist-only acquired meaning-, once disciplines and the faculty who teach in them became separated, and then felt a need to be bridged; I'm never quite sure whether the promotion of the interdisciplinary is a sign of academic health or academic disease. However, these noble attempts to join together what man has torn asunder might bring about a more fruitful and deeper connection than was possible before the separation, and it is this specific problem-how the things that separate us might be what bring us together, that I want to look at in three texts, two of which you have met, and one of which I hope you'll enjoy meeting.
Book Reviews by Joseph McAlhany
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Articles & Chapters by Joseph McAlhany
interpretation nine passages, not only in order to remedy these imperfectly understood episodes, but also to provide further evidence of Guibert’s intellectual background and the careful composition of the Monodiae.
Books by Joseph McAlhany
Drafts by Joseph McAlhany
Translations by Joseph McAlhany
Talks & Presentations by Joseph McAlhany
Book Reviews by Joseph McAlhany
interpretation nine passages, not only in order to remedy these imperfectly understood episodes, but also to provide further evidence of Guibert’s intellectual background and the careful composition of the Monodiae.