Gnaeus Gellius ( half of 2nd centuryBC) was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

historian. Very little is known about his life and work, which has only survived in scattered fragments. He continued the historical tradition set by Fabius Pictor of writing a year-by-year history of Rome from mythological times to his day. However, with about a hundred books, Gellius' ''Annales'' were massively more developed than the other Roman annalists, and was only surpassed by

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

's gigantic ''

History of Rome The history of Rome includes the history of the city of Rome as well as the civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman law has influenced ...

''.

Life

Gnaeus Gellius belonged to the

plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins ...

gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; plural: ''gentes'' ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same nomen and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (plural: ''stirpes''). The ''gen ...

'' Gellia. The gens was probably of Samnite origin as two generals of the Second and Third Samnite wars bore this name (

Statius Gellius Statius Gellius (fl. 305 BC) was a Samnite general who fought against the Romans, in the Second Samnite War. He was defeated and taken prisoner in 305 BC, at the Battle of Bovianum.Livy, ix. 44. 13. See also * Gellia gens * Gellius Egnatius * ...

and

Gellius Egnatius Gellius Egnatius (died 295 BC) was the leader of the Varriani, a leading clan of the Samnites during the Third Samnite War, which broke out in 298 BC. By the end of the second campaign the Samnites appeared completely defeated, however in the foll ...

). Some of its members later moved to Rome, perhaps not long before the historian was born, since only one Roman named Gellius is known before him—likely his father, likewise with the name Gnaeus. The historian's father was opposed in court to a man named Lucius Turius, who was defended by

Cato the Censor Marcus Porcius Cato (; 234–149 BC), also known as Cato the Censor ( la, Censorius), the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write his ...

. Several scholars have however considered that the historian was the same as Cato's opponent, but this view seems now abandoned. Gellius' only known magistracy was that of ''

triumvir monetalis The ''triumvir monetalis'' ( ''tresviri'' or ''triumviri monetales'', also called the , abbreviated IIIVIR A. A. A. F. F.) was a moneyer during the Roman Republic and the Empire, who oversaw the minting of coins. In that role, he would be respon ...

'' in 138, during which he minted

denarii The denarius (, dēnāriī ) was the standard Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the antoninianus. It continued to be minted in very ...

and bronze fractions ( semis, triens, and quadrans). This denarius features on the reverse a quadriga led by

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

with a character beside him, which was initially thought to be Nerio—a goddess of

Sabine The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines di ...

origin that was the partner of

—but this view has been rejected by Michael Crawford and later historians, who argue the second character is only a captive.Crawford, ''Roman Republican Coinage'', p. 265. The confusion arose from the fact that most of the knowledge on Nerio comes precisely from a rare fragment of Gellius' ''Annales''. Several modern historians have postulated that Gellius belonged to the ''

Populares Optimates (; Latin for "best ones", ) and populares (; Latin for "supporters of the people", ) are labels applied to politicians, political groups, traditions, strategies, or ideologies in the late Roman Republic. There is "heated academic dis ...

'', the reformist faction during the last century of the Republic, because he was used by Licinius Macer, another Popularis historian, and his writing appears to favour the plebeians. He also detailed several legends on other Italian peoples, whom the Populares wanted to grant the Roman citizenship at the time of Gellius. Moreover, several Gellii are known for the 1st century BC; they took the cognomen ''Poplicola'' ("of the people"), which could reveal a link with the Populares. Evidences have nevertheless been judged too thin by later scholars; John Briscoe does not even discuss this theory.

Work

Date

Gellius followed the standard established by Fabius Pictor—the first Roman historian—of writing a chronological history of Rome from mythological times to the present. Although Pictor wrote his book in Greek, Roman historians switched to Latin after Cato published his '' Origines'' in that language at the end of his life (in the 150s). The date of composition is uncertain. Modern historians have ordered the Roman annalists after two enumerations by Cicero, who put Gellius' ''Annales'' after those of

Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi may refer to: * Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (consul 133 BC), Roman annalist and politician * Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus (38 – 15 January 69) was a Roman noblema ...

, Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus and Gaius Fannius C. f., but before Lucius Coelius Antipater's shorter history of the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

. The latter possibly wrote his book circa 110. He or Piso were probably the first to give their work the title of ''Annales''.

Size

The most striking feature of Gellius' work is its huge size. Charisius indeed quotes a word from "book 97", which may not even be the last one of the ''Annales''. This number was unprecedented in Roman historiography; for instance, Lucius Cassius Hemina wrote only five books, Piso about 8, and Tuditanus at least 13. Modern historians have consequently doubted that Gellius reached that number. Münzer thought that it was an invention of a later grammarian to boast about the extent of his reading. Others suggested that "97" is a corruption in the manuscript; Martine Chassignet corrected it as "book 27", Maixner, Beck and Walter as "book 47".

Elizabeth Rawson Elizabeth Donata Rawson, FBA (13 April 1934 – 10 December 1988''The Cambridge Ancient History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1994), vol. 9, preface, p. xvii.) was a classical scholar known primarily for her work in the intellectual history of ...

notes that these numbers were still much higher than Gellius' predecessors. However, John Briscoe sees no reason to dismiss the initial number of books. He shows that while

tells all the events prior to the foundation of the Roman Republic in his first book, Gellius was still dealing with the

Rape of the Sabines The Rape of the Sabine Women ( ), also known as the Abduction of the Sabine Women or the Kidnapping of the Sabine Women, was an incident in Roman mythology in which the men of Rome committed a mass abduction of young women from the other citi ...

in his third book, whereas this event took place at the beginning of the reign of

Romulus Romulus () was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of these ...

. We also know that the events of 216 are described by Livy in his 23rd book, while Gellius had already reached book 33 by that time. The number of 97 books is therefore consistent with Gellius' chronology; moreover, as with the other Roman historians, he probably spent more time telling about the events he witnessed.Rich, "Fabius Pictor", p. 53. It was first thought, especially by

Ernst Badian Ernst Badian (8 August 1925 – 1 February 2011) was an Austrian-born classical scholar who served as a professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1998. Early life and education Badian was born in Vienna in 1925 and in 1938 fled the Nazis w ...

, that Gellius could only have produced such quantity of books by including into his work the information contained in the '' Annales Maximi''. These were a compilation of omens and religious events recorded from the earliest times by the pontifex maximus; they counted 80 volumes and were said to have been published by Publius Mucius Scaecola, pontifex maximus between 130 and 115—the years of Gellius' activity. This theory crumbled after a study published by Bruce Frier in 1979, who argued that the true date of the ''Annales Maximi'''s publication was under

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

. Frier triggered a long debate among scholars, but they have agreed with him that their significance was not as crucial as Badian used to think, and the view that they were used by Gellius to fill his hundred books has been abandoned. Briscoe suggests instead that Gellius filled his books with invented speeches; significantly, the only long verbatim quote of Gellius' work is a speech of the Sabine Hersilia (and Romulus' wife) in the aftermath of the Rape of the Sabines. In addition, Gellius seems to have combined several legends to invent his own. For example, he said that King

Numa Nuclear mitotic apparatus protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''NUMA1'' gene. Interactions Nuclear mitotic apparatus protein 1 has been shown to interact with PIM1, Band 4.1, GPSM2 G-protein-signaling modulator 2, also ca ...

had only one daughter, Pompilia, while the canonical view was that he had four sons. He also tells that

Cacus In Roman mythology, Cacus ( grc, Κάκος, derived from κακός, meaning bad) was a fire-breathing giant and the son of Vulcan (Plutarch called him son of Hephaestus). He was killed by Hercules after terrorizing the Aventine Hill before the ...

seized a kingdom in

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

, whereas the standard story presents him as a brigand. He furthermore mentions a flood of the Fucine Lake that destroyed the otherwise unknown town of Archippe, but this Greek name is improbable for a town in central Italy and should be regarded as Gellius' invention, who was possibly inspired by a real flood which occurred in 137. As a result of these literary artifices, Gellius must be the Roman historian that vastly inflated the Roman historical narrative, since his predecessors' histories of Rome were much shorter, and his successors wrote longer works (though not as long as Gellius'). This process called "the expansion of the past" by Badian was concluded by Livy in his monumental ''

'', which is also full of fictitious speeches and repetitive military campaigns.

Later use

Gellius was later used as a source by Gaius Licinius Macer, a Popularis historian writing in the 70s BC. As with Gellius, Macer's work is lost, but he is cited three times alongside Gellius by Dionysios, a strong indication that Macer reproduced Gellius' work in his own ''Annales''. Dionysios is the only surviving historian with citations of Gellius (six), but he does not quote him ''verbatim''. Dionysios cites Gellius four times to show that he disagreed with other writers (fragments 1, 21–23), and two times to criticise him for his carelessness (fragments 24 and 25). As Gellius especially developed the founding myths of the world, he was used five times by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

in his '' Natural History'', principally about the inventions of writing, mining, weights and measures, etc. (fragments 12–16). Nevertheless, the majority of the fragments of Gellius' work come from Latin grammarians of the Late Empire, such as

Macrobius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, usually referred to as Macrobius (fl. AD 400), was a Roman provincial who lived during the early fifth century, during late antiquity, the period of time corresponding to the Later Roman Empire, and when Latin was ...

( 5th century AD), Servius, or Charisius (both 4th century AD), who, with 11 fragments, was the author who cited Gellius the most. Moreover, the only verbatim quote of Gellius comes from

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...

, a grammarian and antiquarian of the 2nd century BC. He was apparently both an accurate chronologer and a diligent investigator of ancient usages, respectfully cited by many later authorities.

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

, ''de Divin.'' i. 26; comp. ''de Leg.'' i. 2;

Dionysius The name Dionysius (; el, Διονύσιος ''Dionysios'', "of Dionysus"; la, Dionysius) was common in classical and post-classical times. Etymologically it is a nominalized adjective formed with a -ios suffix from the stem Dionys- of the name ...

, i. 7, ii. 31, 72, 76, iv. 6, vi. 11, vii. 1; Pliny, ''Hist. Nat.'' vii. 56;

Solinus Solinus may refer to: * Gaius Julius Solinus, a 3rd century Latin author * Solinus (horse), a British racehorse (1975–1979) * Solinus, Duke of Ephesus, a character in William Shakespeare's play ''The Comedy of Errors'' See also * Salinas (disam ...

''Polyhistor'' 2, where one of the best MSS. has Gellius for Caelius;

, xiii. 22, xviii. 12;

Censorinus Censorinus was a Roman grammarian and miscellaneous writer from the 3rd century AD. Biography He was the author of a lost work ''De Accentibus'' and of an extant treatise ''De Die Natali'', written in 238, and dedicated to his patron Quintus C ...

, ''de Die Natali'', 17;

, ''Sat.'' i. 8, 16, ii. 13; Choricius, pp. 39, 40, 50, 55; Servius, ''ad Virg. Aen.'' iv. 390, viii. 638;

Victorinus Marcus Piavonius VictorinusSome of the inscriptions record his name as M. Piavvonius Victorinus, as does the first release of coins from the Colonia mint. A mosaic from Augusta Treverorum (Trier) lists him as Piaonius. was emperor in the Gallic ...

, p. 2468. Regarding historical events themselves, his work was cited by

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( grc, Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασσεύς, ; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary styl ...

but largely ignored by

and

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

List of fragments

References

Citations

Footnotes

Bibliography

Ancient sources

Marcus Tullius Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

, '' De Divinatione'', ''

De Legibus The ''De Legibus'' (''On the Laws'') is a dialogue written by Marcus Tullius Cicero during the last years of the Roman Republic. It bears the same name as Plato's famous dialogue, ''The Laws''. Unlike his previous work ''De re publica,'' in whi ...

'.'' *

, ''Attic Nights''. *

, ''

Parallel lives Plutarch's ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', commonly called ''Parallel Lives'' or ''Plutarch's Lives'', is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably writt ...

''.

Modern sources

* Ernest Babelon, ''Description Historique et Chronologique des Monnaies de la République Romaine, Vulgairement Appelées Monnaies Consulaires'', Paris, 1885. *

, "The Early Historians", in Thomas Allen Dorey, ''Latin Historians'', New York, Basic Books, 1966, pp. 1–38. * T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association, 1951–1952. * Martine Chassignet, ''L'Annalistique romaine. T. II : L'Annalistique Moyenne (Fragments)'', Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1999. *——, "L'annaliste Cn. Gellius ou l'"heurématologie" au service de l'histoire", ''Ktèma'', 24, 1999, pp. 85–91. * Tim Cornell (editor), ''The Fragments of the Roman Historians'', Oxford University Press, 2013. *Bruce W. Frier, ''Libri Annales Pontificum Maximorum: The Origins of the Annalistic Tradition'', Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1999 (first published in 1979). *

August Pauly August Friedrich von Pauly (; ; 9 May 1796, in Benningen am Neckar – 2 May 1845, in Stuttgart) was a German educator and classical philologist. From 1813 to 1818 he studied at the University of Tübingen, then furthered his education at Heide ...

Georg Wissowa Georg Otto August Wissowa (17 June 1859 – 11 May 1931) was a German classical philologist born in Neudorf, near Breslau. Education and career Wissowa studied classical philology under August Reifferscheid at the University of Bresla ...

Friedrich Münzer Friedrich Münzer (22 April 1868 – 20 October 1942) was a German classical scholar noted for the development of prosopography, particularly for his demonstrations of how family relationships in ancient Rome connected to political struggles. He ...

, ''et alii'', '' Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft'' (abbreviated ''RE''), J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 1894–1980. * Hermann Peter, '' Historicorum Romanorum reliquiae'', Leipzig, 1914. *

,
The First Latin Annalists
, ''Latomus'', T. 35, Fasc. 4 (oct.-déc. 1976), pp. 689–717. *John Rich, "Fabius Pictor, Ennius and the Origins of Roman Annalistic Historiography", in Christopher Smith, Kaj Sandberg (editors), ''Omnium Annalium Monumenta: Historical Writing and Historical Evidence in Republican Rome'', Leiden & Boston, Brill, 2017, pp. 17–65. *Edward Allen Sydenham, ''The Coinage of the Roman Republic'', London, Spink, 1952. *G. J. Szemler, ''The Priests of the Roman Republic, A Study of Interactions, between Priesthoods and Magistracies'', Bruxelles, Latomus, 1972. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gellius, Gnaeus 2nd-century BC historians 2nd-century BC Romans 2nd-century BC writers Latin historians Gellii Moneyers of ancient Rome