Aulus Gellius’ Noctes Atticae Book 2 and the Didactic Logic of Miscellany
By Scott J. DiGiulio
While the scholarly community has traditionally held Aulus Gellius to be an unimaginative compiler of information and excerpts, the process of rehabilitating the Noctes Atticae (NA) and its author is now well underway, and Gellius is increasingly considered to be a rich source of information on the vibrant Antonine intellectual culture. As the NA gain more critical attention, the focus typically remains the socio-cultural background of the text (e.g. the seminal Holford-Strevens 2003); recently, more attention has been given to Gellius’ literary techniques (e.g.
Education and Power in Plutarch Quaestiones convivales 736D-737D
By Gavin Weaire
Plutarch's Quaestiones convivales (Symposiaka problemata) has attracted much attention in recent years (e.g. König 2007; Klotz & Oikonomopoulou 2011). The position of Quaest. conv. 9.1 (736D-737C) marks it as especially important, for it opens the final (and exceptionally long) ninth book. This paper examines Plutarch's use of this first problema in book nine to present divergent perspectives on the relationship between education and political power.
Plutarch and Oracles in the Lives and the Moralia
By Amy Lather
The role of oracles in Herodotus and Thucydides has been well examined. It has been argued, for example, that oracles provide Herodotus with a way for him to authorize his narrative voice (Kindt 2006) or to invite the reader's interpretation of the text (Barker 2006). Similarly, Marinatos (1981) has maintained that Thucydides critically engages with the ambiguities of oracular language. However, the oracles that appear in Plutarch's Lives have received no such systematic attention.