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5874545kirk Summers-Prudentius Psychomachia 317
5874545kirk Summers-Prudentius Psychomachia 317
5874545kirk Summers-Prudentius Psychomachia 317
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Christianae
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: jjjjf : Vigiliae
Christianae
BRILL Vigiliae Christianae 66 (2012) 426-429 brill.nl/vc
Kirk Summers
ksummers@ML.AS. UA.EDU
University of Alabama
Box 870246
Tuscaloosa , AL 35487
Abstract
The Latin text at Prudentius, Psychomachia 31 7 presents some syntactical difficulties,
mostly stemming from the unexpected word quia. The manuscripts and glossa vetus
offer little help on the matter. Gilbert Wakefield offered a convincing solution to the
problem in a note that was buried in an edition of Lucretius that he edited in 1797.
No subsequent editor of Prudentius has noticed his emendation, which should be
revived and included in future editions.
Keywords
Prudentius, Psychomachia, Wakefield
0 Gilbert Wakefield, T. Lucretii Cari De rerum natura libros sex, ad exemplarium mss.fidem
recensitosy longe emendatiores reddidit , commentariis perpetuis illustravit, indicibus instruxit; et
cum animadversionibus Ricardi Bentleii non ante vulgaris, vol. 2 (London, 1797) 159.
I am indebted to Prof. Christian Gnilka for his efforts in distinguishing between the notes
of Wakefield and Bentley and correcting my initial attribution to Bentley. Prof. Gnilka was
able to corroborate his conclusion by reference to a complete list of Bentley s notes on Lucre-
tius that Wakefield collected in vol. IV, pp. 407-68 of the 1813 Glasgow edition.
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"Prudentius Psychomachia 317 " 427
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428 K Summers / Vigiliae Christianae 66 (2012) 426-429
One must note, however, that Thomson does not translate, "Because she
had heard . . but introduces the temporal "when" in the mix. It is obvious
that the atque of 318 hardly continues the thought introduced by the
causal quia in the previous line. Given that, we must imagine that the glos-
sator intended for the ablative absolute to carry a temporal force: "Then
Indulgence, when she had heard the horns, was going to war."
It is that disruption of the syntactical and logical flow caused by the quia
that Gilbert Wakefield wants to correct as he delineates two possible inter-
pretations of marees in the aforementioned passage of Lucretius. For the
second (and, for him, less preferred) option he refers to Arnobius Adv. nat.
2.30, where that author writes, "Ne delieiis mareeat, et corrumpatur molti-
tudine vitiorum ." The phrase delieiis mareeat in particular seems to have
reminded Wakefield of our Prudentius passage, and so he adds: "Hinc
interea lieeat emendare versus ornatissimos Prudentii de Luxuria, psychom.
316." He then cites the entire sentence from At tunc down to that, with a
comma after cena (he has cœna ), but emends the quia of line 317 to quã:
" Sub lucemt quã forte, jacens ad fercula, raucos. . ." He explains: "Qua scilicet ,
ubi: editi y quia. Has autem voculas in scriptis saepe permutari, multis exemplis
Drakenborchius praestantissimus docuit , ad Liv. xl.29.8 et redeas ad ver. 491."
If Wakefield s emendation is correct, then the passage fits together more
coherently as follows:
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"Prudentius Psychomachia 317 " 429
Even then exhausted Indulgence was belching up her night-long dinner, where,
by chance, still lying at her plates at the approach of dawn, she heard the raucous
horns, and leaving there her lukewarm cups, she went slipping on spilt wine and
balsam to war, crushing flowers under her feet.
And so, with the simple change of quia to quã , a vexed text is made more
comprehensible. I submit, therefore, that the latter is the correct reading
and should be incorporated into future editions.
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