Can Latin tempus fall in? Some remarks on the ciusinscription (CIL III 7494 = ils 770) and uses of the verb ingruo Текст научной статьи по специальности «Языкознание и литературоведение»

A. S. Vanyukov

CAN LATIN TEMPUS FALL IN? SOME REMARKS ON THE CIUS INSCRIPTION (CIL III 7494 = ILS 770) AND USES OF THE VERB INGRUO*

Надпись из Киуса относится ко времени первой готской войны имп. Валента (367-369 гг. н. э.). Во второй половине XIX века она была предметом оживленной дискуссии, не прекратившейся до конца и в наши дни. Поскольку надпись сохранилась примерно наполовину, относительно содержания утраченной части выдвигались различные гипотезы. Реконструкция, предложенная Т. Моммзеном в 1882 г., стала практически общепринятой, хотя отдельные ее положения подвергались критике. В статье обсуждается реконструированная Моммзеном третья строка надписи - ingruente item in victorias illa]s tempore feliciter quinqennaliorum. Анализируются более 100 употреблений глагола ingruo в латинских текстах. На основании полученных данных реконструкция ставится под сомнение: (а) у ingruo нет значения 'приходиться на'; (б) во всех случаях, когда при ingruo употребляется предлог in с аккузативом, подлежащее означает то или иное бедствие, а дополнение - его жертв (напр.: pestilentia, quae priore anno in boues ingruerat).

Ключевые слова: Надпись из Киуса, римская эпиграфика, император Валент, quinquennalia, ingruo, Моммзен.

1) The inscription from Cius (not far from modern Hirsova, Romania) has provoked a long-term discussion among scholars. As only half of the text survived, a number of hypotheses were put forward to reconstruct the lost part. Proper study of the Cius inscription began in 1882 with the correct edition of the record1 (Tocilescu 1882: 47-51) and the interpretation proposed by Theodor Mommsen.

Before 1882 there were two major obstacles to a suitable interpretation of the Cius inscription. Firstly, the scholars interpreted the emperor's name as an -us form, thus reconstructing the name as Gallienus, Constantinus or Constantius II2. The correct edition by

* The paper is supported by RFBR grant № 13-06-00086.

1 Unfortunately, the first edition (Desjardins 1868: 102-104) turned out to be of unsatisfactory quality, though this was not the editor's fault.

2 (Desjardins 1868: 104), (Mommsen 1868) and (Gardthausen 1882: 264) respectively.

Tocilescu helped overcome this difficulty - now there was no doubt that the emperor whom the inscription refers to was Valens. Secondly, the scholars believed that the inscription mentions the 15th anniversary of the emperor's reign (literally "happy time of thrice 5th anniversary"). An idea suggested by Mommsen solved this difficulty: he combined felici and ter (these words were read as isolated verbs in previous interpretations) in feliciter. Thus, the interval between accession to the throne and the Gothic war was reduced thrice (Mommsen 1882: 524).

dn invictissimE princeps f. u alens maximus triumfator

in fidem recepto rege Athan arico victis superatisque gothis

ingruente item in victorias illa s tempore feliciter quinqennaliorum

[. . . . . hunc burgum] ob defensionem rei publicae extruxit

[labore......devotissi] morum militum suorumPrimanorum

[et ......comissor] um cure Marciani trib. et Ursicini p(ae)p(ositi) semper vestri

crdinante fL] Stercorio viro clarissimo duce

Cius inscription (ILS I, 770) On the right side - the extant part of inscription, on the left - the Mommsen's 1882 reconstruction

2) It became clear that Cius inscription dealt with the events of Valens' first Gothic war (367-9). In the mid-360s the relations between the Goths and the Romans deteriorated. The support Goths provided to Procopius' unsuccessful usurpation (365-6) exhausted Valens' patience. In 367 and 369, he conducted two trans-Danubian campaigns on the territory controlled by the Goths (the excessive flooding of the Danube stopped the Romans from war in 368). In 367, the Roman army achieved modest success: the Goths preferred to seek refuge in the Carpathian foothills. In 369, there were more significant battles around the Dniester. Though the Goths were not defeated, they were exhausted by the war. They implored the emperor for granting them the peace. Some voices in favor of reconciliation were heard at the Roman side, too. Finally, though reluctantly, Valens agreed to negotiations.

The talks between him and the Gothic chief Athanarich proceeded in the middle of the Danube on shipboards, and resulted in a compromise treaty. The Goths retained their territory but their right to trade on the Roman lands was restricted. It seems plausible that they were released from some military duties to the Empire (Lenski 2002: 137). For some years, peace was established on the Danubian

borders until the second Gothic war and the Adrianople catastrophe (378). In these circumstances, the Romans founded and built a small fortress, and its "inaugural label" is the topic of this paper.

3) Let us turn to Mommsen's reconstruction (we are concerned with only three lines at the beginning of the inscription). It can be said that Mommsen has shown a way to overcome a deadlock. His version, however, is far from being irreproachable. The inscription as reconstructed by Mommsen seems to contain some kind of anachronism: war was ended after the summer campaign of 369, whereas quinqennalia fall upon the interval from the March of 368 till the March of 369 (and the celebration occurred at the beginning of the period). Mommsen was aware of this temporal mismatch. According to him, as the condition of the inscription is far from integrity, it's hard to judge about the interconnection between quinquennalia and the victory over the Goths; the fortress was built in 369 at the time of victory or right after it; both events are mentioned post factum3.

The alternative approach to dating the Cius inscription has shaped gradually throughout the 20th century. Followers of this view (and I am inclined to share their opinion) believe that the Cius fortress was built during quinquennalia in 368 or shortly before it, and therefore, the mentioning of "defeated and beaten Goths" refers to the campaign of 367 (Chastagnol 1987: 261). Chastagnol rejects the second line of Mommsen's reconstruction (in fidem recepto rege Athan]arico) because this could happen only upon end of the war4.

Two more considerations may be added here. Firstly, Athanaric never possessed royal dignity - and the sources express it

3 «wird in der Inschrift rückblickend sowohl der kriegerischen Erfolge wie der Quinquennalien gedacht» (Mommsen 1882: 526)

4 The second line has been subject to criticism for a long time. As Scholze reports, «ac mihi de Domaszewski interroganti "in solo barb]arico" scribendum esse respondit» (Scholze 1911: 35). Hermann Dessau in Corrigenda had to admit that "mentio regis Athanarici sine urgente causa, in hunc titulum inlata (ILS III: CLXXII)" (with reference to Scholze). Unfortunately, the motives of change remain hidden. Conjecture made by von Domaszewski was accepted by many scholars (for bibliography see (Popescu 1976: 241-244), (Chastagnol 1987: 258-261)). Only Chastagnol advanced rather vague reasons against «rege Athanarico» and made his own conjecture: secundum pollicitationes facta]s tempore feliciter quin-quennaliorum (Chastagnol 1987: 260).

unambiguously5. It is difficult to explain such an ascension in the inscription from a second-rate fortress. Secondly, the expression "in fidem recipi" means 'surrender'6. Nothing of that kind happened in 369. According to a modern historian of Valens' epoch, the peace concluded on the Danube "was in fact an uncomfortable agreement for both sides" (Lenski 2002: 134). The treaty conclusion ceremony also accentuated a "symbolic diplomatic equality" of the parties (Heather, Matthews 2004: 23). These facts disprove the version of the Goths surrendering at Valens' mercy7.

4) It seems that the third line in Mommsen's reconstruction has never been called into question. This task is undertaken here, as long as the usage of ingruo provokes some doubts. As many occurrences of this verb as possible are surveyed. In my investigation, I used free database prepared by The Packard Humanities Institute 8 . Unfortunately, this resource contains nearly all monuments of the Golden and Silver ages but lacks many texts of the 3rd and the 4th centuries. So, looking for later texts in digital format I resorted to other resources, in first place, to Bibliotheca Augustana9.

5) I have to make some emphases in advance: (a) tempus doesn't collocate as subject with ingruo as predicate; (b) sometimes ingruo

5 Athanaricum ea tempestate iudicem potentissimum ... coegit in fugam (sc. Valens). Amm. 27, 5,6;

ovtw yovv т-qv ¡ev тои ftauiXews enwvu^lav ana^ioi, тгу тои hiKaOTov he ayana... Them.10 134 c 10 - d 1.

6 The following example is an illustration of what in fidem recipere means: omnis enim multitudo oppidanorum armis proiectis munitionibusque svis relictis, veste ea sumpta qua supplices dominantes deprecari consuerunt, sacrisque omnibus prolatis quorum religione precari offensos iratosque animos regum erant soliti, advenienti Caesari occurrerunt seque ei dedide-runt. Caesar in fidem receptos consolatus ... etc. Bell. Alex. 32, 3, 2 - 4,2

7 A review of various appraisals given to the peace treaty concluded between Valens and Athanarich see in a recent work on the events of 367369 (Ермолова 2013: 44-46).

8 Classical Latin Texts. A Resource Prepared by The Packard Humanities Institute (http ://latin .packhum.org/index).

9 www.hs-augsburg.de. In addition to that, I made use of a number of other websites that represent late Latin texts (http://khazarzar.skeptik.net/, http://www.attalus.org/, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/ (Lacus Curtius), and http://www.augustinus.it/). Thesaurus linguae Latinae (TLL) is an important source. Some Latin works mentioned here (Bd. VII. 1, pp. 1579-80) are not taken into consideration in this article. On the other hand, I have taken into account several works that are not mentioned in TLL.

can be translated by verbs derived from 'to fall' (e.g. 'fall on' or 'befall'10; such phrases as The disaster befell the human race or He fell suddenly on them with four legions can be correctly rendered into Latin with ingruo.) At the same time, ingruo doesn't mean 'concide', so while translating New Year's Day falls on Wednesday into Latin, we should omit ingruo. For the Cius inscription this seems to be of particular importance, because the reconstruction offered in 1882 is based on this nonexistent meaning of ingruo. Can we interpret ingruente item in victorias illa]s tempore feliciter quinqennaliorum in another sense than moreover time of quinqennalia happily falls on those victories? 11

6) Let us examine all uses of the verb ingruo. Various objects, people, concepts, or phenomena can be used as its subject. The uses of ingruo are distributed in groups in accordance with the literal meaning of the subject. For instance, "the steel rain" is referred to the group of weather and atmospheric phenomena, while "the attack of temptation" is referred to the military sphere.

(a) Precipitation, light and shade, frost and heat.

venti ingruunt inanes (Plin. NH, 2, 103, 7); magis magisque ingruunt nimbi (Sen. iun. Nat. Quaest. 3, 27, 3); propter incursione (sic) ingruentium procellarum (ILS II, 1 5895); (Apes) Ingruentis pluviae et ventorum adventum praesentiunt. Quod si ventus eis praeter opinionem ingruerit...(Aelian. NA 5, 13); tempestas telorum ac ferreus ingruit imber (Verg. Aen. 12, 284); interitus quasi tempestas (Vulg. Proverb. 1, 27); tunc saxeus imber ingruit (Sil. Pun. 13, 181-2); si bellica nubes ingrueret (Claudianus, Carm. min. 30, 197) - NB, combination imber (nubes) + ingruo occurs solely metaphorically.

luna ingruentium solis radiorum haut dubie differentias sentit (Plin. NH, 2, 80, 5-6); bis uitibus ingruit umbra (Verg. Georg. 2, 410); earth shade: neque aliud esse noctem quam terrae umbram, figuram autem umbrae similem metae ac turbini inverso, quando mucrone tantum ingruat neque lunae excedat altitudinem (Plin. NH,

10 Oxford Latin dictionary vs. ingruo:

1. (of armies, etc.) To advance threateningly, make an onslaught (upon).

2. (of things) To descend violently or threateningly, bear down (on).

3. (of unwelcome circumstances) To attack, fall (on). b to threaten, impend.

11 Chastagnol understands identically: "le temps heureux des quinquennales tombant précisément au moment de ces victoires" (Chastagnol 1987: 260).

2, 47, 5-8); tenebrae ingruentes (Hieronym. Comm. in Matth. IV, two occasiones);

cum autumno aut etiam ingruente hieme frumenta iacimus (Columela RR, 2, 9, 2, 6); si hiemps ingruerit, habeam quo me recipiam (Dig. 8, 3, 6, 1, 6); several similar occurrences with frigus (Columela RR, 4, 24, 2, 6; 4, 29, 4, 5) and aestas (Columela RR, 7, 4, 7, 2-3; 11, 3, 18, 3).

(b) Decease attacks.

Ingruentibus deinde morbis, quos odor cadaverum ... vulgaverat (Ruf. 5. 1. 11); again morbi (Plin. NH, 7, 107, 7; Liv. AUC, 4, 30, 8; Liv. AUC, 37, 23, 2; Hieronym. ep. CXLIII; Augustin. ep. 202); prima species lvis pandemus adpellatur . secunda epidemus, quae tempore ingruens acies hebetat luminum (Amm. 19, 4, 7); lues in metaphorical sense (Sil. Pun. 5, 108).

(c) Violence (mainly military) and disasters.

missiles: ingruentibus hostium telis saxisque (Flor. Epitomae 2, 13, 225-226); ingruentia tela (Tac. Ann. 1, 65, 20-21);

enemies: Verg. Aen.11, 899; Tac. Ann. 12, 12, 5; Veget. 3, 8; enemy called by the name: ingruente Vologese (Tac. Ann. 15, 3, 6); other names, including ethnonyma: Tac. Ann. 12, 30, 2-3; Tac. Hist., 3, 34, 3; Sil. Pun. 12, 208; Sil. Pun. 17, 584; Verg. Aen. 12, 628; Oros. Hist. 6, 13; also barbaris ingruentibus, Eutr. Brev. 9, 23; ingruente barbarie, Eugip. Vita Severini XXVII, 3;

enemies, whose names were omitted: Amm. 16, 2, 7; Tac. Ann.

1, 27, 9-10; Veget. 3, 6; 4, 3; Dictys, III; also saevi proximis ingruunt Tac. Hist. 4, 74, 9 (sc. saevi principes); nostri contra ingruont (Plaut. Amph. 236);

animal rushing: Plin. NH, 8, 54, 3-4; Plin. NH, 8, 150, 5; Solin. 30, 29;

human masses more or less formed: exercitus, Sil. Pun. 14,140; uulgusque tremendum, Sil. Pun. 5, 108; catervae, Tac. Ann.

2, 11, 11-12; multitudo, Tac. Ann. 16, 5, 9-10; Amm. 18, 9, 3; ne externa moles utrimque ingrueret, Tac. Hist. 3, 46, 11; globus Barbarorum ingruens, Dictys, XL.

zealous accusers: Tac. Ann. 3, 56, 1-2; Tac. Ann. 6, 38, 6; repente ingruunt et instant vehementius - lenders who lay a claim to debt redemption (Ambros. De Tobia, VI, 24);

punishment: Tac. Ann. 4, 35, 10; persecution: Augustin. De Baptismo contra Donat., 1,9;

war: ubi bellum ingruat, Tac. Ann. 1, 48, 8-9; see also Tac. Ann. 1, 60, 4; Tac. Hist. 3, 58, 3; Tac. Hist. 2, 100, 10; Sen.

iun. Med. 525; Verg. Aen. 8, 535; Vulg. Exod. 1, 10; Vulg. Qoh.

(Ecclesiastes), 8, 8;

weapon: Romanaque insuper arma ingruere, Liv. AUC, 26, 25, 10;

attack (metaphorically): Si autem ingruerit tentationis impugnatio, Apophthegmata Macarii Aeg. XIX;

vis (various spheres): externa vis (Liv. AUC, 7, 25, 9; Ruf. 5, 1, 27, 5); tanta vis ingruebat mali (Liv. AUC, 25, 26, 15); uim, quae de fato extrinsecus ingruit (Aul. Gell. NA, 7, 2, 8); fortuna, ubi uim suam ingruentem refringi non uolt (Liv. AUC,

5, 37, 1); eadem vis mali, Liv. AUC, 29, 10, 1-2 (sc. morbus); vis subita (Sen. iun. Herc. Fur. 637); improvisa, Tac. Hist. 3, 71, 14; vulgi acrior vis, Tac. Ann. 14, 61, 9; unnamed (Tac. Ann. 15, 13, 7); vis eloquentiae (Quint. Inst. 11, 3, 56; similar case: 3, 8, 22); tanta vis valetudinis (Fronto. Ad Antoninum Pium, 8, 2);

fortune, fate: ingruente fato (Liv. AUC, 5, 32, 7); fors ... inferior (Amm. 30, 8, 14); fortuna sequior (Amm. 18, 6, 5); eadem in illos ingruit fortuna (Liv. AUC, 26, 41, 21);

various disasters: iniquorum temporum uices (Sen. iun. Dialogi,

6, 22, 8); ingruentia mala (Tac. Hist. 4, 84, 10-11; Boet. Cons. 2, 3, 8); in speech: graves casus adlevare possis si non ingruant ac semel veniant (Quint. Decl. minores 337, 8); interitus (Vulg. Proverb. 1, 27); various military disasters, belli clades, see quotation infra (Liv. AUC, 28, 44, 15);

danger (Liv. AUC, 5, 21, 5; Tac. Ann. 16, 10, 11); something ill: quid bellici terroris (Liv. AUC, 6, 6, 7); si quid hostile ingruat (Tac. Ann. 2, 77, 4); quid subitum (Tac. Ann. 4, 2, 5); nisi quid amplius ingruerit (Fronto. Ad M.Caesarem et invicem 5, 21); quid aduersum (Amm. 20, 5, 6);

(d) Mental sphere

fear: metus (Plin. NH, 9, 95, 6); armorumque ingruit horror (Verg. Aen. 2, 301); terror ingens (Liv. AUC, 6, 3, 1);

hatred: Tac. Ann. 4, 41, 2-3; meditation: consultatio ingruerat (Apul. De deo Soc. 18, 22-23)

(e) Subjects defying classification

creatura: si universa simul creatura ei ingruat, creature which can't rebel against Lord (Hieronym. ad Algasiam. De Quaestionibus XI, cap. IX); debita fiscalia (CTh. 3. 32. 2); diversitas: offendit igitur aures ingruens diversitas (Fronto. De eloquentia 5, 3, 4-5); dominatio: ingruentiumque dominationum provisor, one who forecasts growing influence (Tac. Ann. 12, 4, 2); humanitas (CTh.

9. 19. 4. 2); latratus (Apul. Met. 2, 4, 13); necessitas (Tac. Ann. 6, 10, 13); Oceanus ... torrentibus ingruit undis (Sil. Pun. 3, 52); peccata (Zeno Veron. 1, 3, 24; Grig. Tur. HF 5, 48); susurrus (Zeno Veron. 2, 10, 1); level of health: ingruente tristissima valetudine (SHA, 24, 1);

(f) Temporal intervals (year, day and their parts). In some cases it is difficult to attribute the subject to a proper category: hiems means 'winter weather' as much as 'winter' itself, just as aestas denotes both 'summer' and 'heat'. I have referred abovementioned examples of hiems and aestas (taken from an agricultural context) to the weather phenomena section (a). The following example seems to be more temporal:

(Blaesilla) ... ingruente jam hieme, Jerosolymam navigavit (Hieronym. ep. XXXIX, 4).

Some instances are included in the temporal section for formal reasons only:

et ingruebat nox nimbo atrox, Tac. Ann.,4,50,16 (= (prima) nocte nimbus atrox ingruebat), and so on:

nullae ideo pestes nec luctifer ingruat annus, Val. Flacc. 3, 454; et dies nobis mortis ingruerit, Hieronym. ep. CXL, 14 Very few instances seem to be undoubtedly temporal: hinc pari numero dierum senio ingruente, Plin. NH, 7, 175, 5-6; ingruente iam uespera cum requiescerent partes, Amm. 19, 7, 5 (however, it is quite possible that what is meant in this particular case is a sudden or abrupt onset of darkness, as in the example mentioned above: ingruentibus tenebris).

7) Let us return to the Cius inscription. Two circumstances shown above should be noted.

a) In some cases, the nouns denoting temporal intervals are used as the subjects of ingruo. However, in none of these cases there is preposition in with a complement in accusative case, nor some event coincides with another one.

By the way, in the majority of cases ingruo is used with no complement or preposition at all12.

12 The total number of cases considered is 130. In seven instances the verb ingruo has a complement in the dative. In eight cases preposition in + accusative form depends on ingruo (Liv. AUC, 37, 23, 2-3). In two examples the verb is used with preposition per (Tac. Hist. 3, 58, 3; 3, 71, 14), and there is at least one instance with preposition contra (Vulg. Exod. 1, 10). It seems that the use of ingruo in combination with in +

b) Accusative form used in combination with ingruo + in designates somebody who has fallen victim to various disasters. There is no exception to this rule.

uolgatique in homines morbi. et primo in agrestes ingruerant seruitiaque (Liv. AUC, 4, 30, 8)

aliam in partem terror ingens ingruerat (Liv. AUC, 6, 3,1) eadem in illos ingruit fortuna quae nuper nos adflixit (Liv. AUC, 26, 41, 21)

illuc terror fugaque, populatio agrorum, defectio sociorum, ceterae belli clades, quae in nos per quattuordecim annos ingruerunt, uertantur (Liv. AUC, 28, 44, 15)

se exercitumque suum graui morbo adflictari, nec sisti potvisse ni eadem vis mali aut grauior etiam in hostes ingrvisset (Liv. AUC, 29, 10,2)

ad hoc insolito odore ingruere morbi uulgo, maxime in remiges, coeperunt (Liv. AUC, 37, 23, 2-3).

pestilentia, quae priore anno in boues ingruerat, eo uerterat in hominum morbos (Liv. AUC, 41, 21, 5)

ingruente in Italiam Annibale (Tac. Hist. 3, 34, 3) In the light of these facts we should consider the third line of Mommsen's reconstruction impossible sub specie linguae. Victories by no means can be victims of time. So, ingruente in victorias illas tempore likewise in fidem recepto rege Athanarico should be written off from active academic service to the honorary repose. That will incur no more harm to Mommsen's reputation than the notorious "eight legs of insects" phrase impairs the authority of Stagirites13.

Bibliography

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A. S. Vanyukov. Can Latin tempus fall in? Some remarks on the Cius inscription (CIL III 7494 = ILS 770) and uses of the verb ingruo

The inscription from Cius deals with events of Valens' first Gothic war (367-9). In the second half of the 19th century, it became the topic of a serious discussion among scholars. The discussion is not over yet. As only half of the text survived, a number of hypotheses were put forward to reconstruct the lost part. The reconstruction of the lost part proposed by Theodor Mommsen in 1882 was generally accepted, though some details of Mommsen's reconstruction were criticized and corrected. The paper deals with the third line of Mommsen's reconstruction: ingruente item in victorias illa]s tempore feliciter quinqennaliorum. More than 100 instances of the use of the verb ingruo in Latin texts have been analyzed. On the evidence of our data Mommsen's reconstruction should be called into question: (a) ingruo does not mean 'fall on'('occur at a specified time'); (b) if ingruo is followed by preposition in with the accusative, the word used as the subject designates some kind of a disaster, and when used as an object it means somebody or something who has fallen victim to something. (e.g. pestilen-tia, quae priore anno in boues ingruerat).

Keywords: Athanarichus; Cius; Goths; limes; Scythia Minor; quin-quennalia; Valens; verbal government; ingruo; epigraphy; Chastagnol; Mommsen.