DUSIC - Dipartimento di discipline umanistiche, sociali e delle imprese culturali

De terrae motuum indice secundum Ioannis Lydi testimonium hic disputatur,
utrum terrae motuum genera in De ostentis servata Posidonio tribuenda sint, ut Theiler
proposuit, an magis composito rationis doctrinaeque processu (e.g. Pseudaristotelis Περὶ
κόσμου et Apuleii De mundo libris collatis) Lydo ascribenda, quod probabilius argumentis
permultis demonstratur, ex quibus medici verborum usus praecipue illustrari libet.

John Lydus’ De ostentis 53 preserves an interesting section dedicated to seismic phaenomena. While dealing with the explanation of the causes of earthquakes, the author appears to be following the Pneumatic school of thought, and even though there is abundance of evidence suggesting that Lydus derives much information from Pseudo-Aristotle’s Περὶ κόσμου and Apuleius’ De mundo, this paper aims at focusing on specific traits (i.e. the author’s use of particular words, as ἐξαραίωσις [«rarefaction»]) which point towards the direction of original reinterpretation of multiple sources by John Lydus.

By way of formal and linguistic analysis of a specific iunctura (humilitas humana) transmitted by Letter xi of the pseudepigraphical correspondence between Seneca and Paul, the present paper aims at providing further proof of the interpolation of Letter xi.

This paper aims at investigating the peculiar example of Sirach 27,15 VL
translation of the Greek version, together with the possibility that Apuleius met. 3,24 had an influence on the Sirach Latin translator.

Keywords: Latin Sirach; Vetus Latina; Apuleius; Metamorphosis; Hermas.

The paper discusses the quotation of Ov. Fast. 1,103 by Lyd. Mens. 4,2 and
questions the direct circulation of Ovid’s Fasti in 6th-century Constantinople. The possibility that Lydus did not read directly, but only thanks to intermediate, doxographical sources, Ovid’s Fasti is thus here presented.

Keywords: Ovid; John Lydus; Ovid’s Fasti; Cornelius Labeo; Justinianic Constantinople.