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Catalogue Raisonné of J. L. Speranza’s Publications – H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Blo

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Blossio – Ossia: Grice e Blossio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Blossio. TheBlossi, also spelled Blosi, are a Roman family of Campanian origin, which came to prominence during the Second Punic War. The most famous member of this gens is probably Gaius B., an intimate friend of Tiberius SEMPRONIO Gracchus, whom he urged to bring forward his agrarian law. He fled from Rome after the murder of Gracchus, and eventually took his own life for fear of falling into the hands of his enemies. Marius Blossius, praetor of the Campanians at the time of the revolt of Capua against Rome in 216 BC.[3] Blossii, two brothers whose praenomina are not recorded, who attempted to bring about another revolt at Capua in 210 BC, but who were instead captured and put to death.[4] Gaius Blossius, a native of Cumae and scholar of philosophy, was a close friend of Tiberius SEMPRONIO Gracchus, whose agrarian law he encouraged. After Gracchus' death he was denounced, and fled to the protection of Eumenes of Pergamum; but following the latter's downfall, he took his own life to prevent his capture by Roman forces.[5][6][7] See also List of Roman gentes References  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 429 ("Blosius or Blossius").  Livy, xxiii. 7, xxvii. 3.  Livy, xxiii. 7.  Livy, xxvii. 3.  Cicero, Laelius de Amicitia, 11; De Lege Agraria, ii. 34.  Valerius Maximus, iv. 7. § 1.  Plutarch, "The Life of Tiberius Gracchus", 8, 17, 20. Bibliography Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Lege Agraria contra Rullum; Laelius de Amicitia. Titus Livius (Livy), History of Rome. Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium (Memorable Facts and Sayings). Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Plutarch), Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). GENS                   This article about Roman gentes is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.  Categories: Roman gentesRoman gentes stubs

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Blossio -- Grice e Blossio: la ragione conversazionale al portico a Roma – filosofia italiana – . (Cumae).  Gaio Blossio: la ragione conversazionale al portico a Roma – filosofia italiana – . (Cumae). Abstract. Grice: “Philosophy was obviously taught at Oxford within the Faculty of Literae Humaniores – Philosophy being a sub-faculty – and therefore, we all were OBLIGED, ineed, obligated, to know what stoicism, epicureanism, cynicism, and all the rest meant. Yet, if you would ask, say, Austin, what are the DEFINING features of, say, stoicism, he (the literalist that he was) would say: ‘the painted porch’!” -- Filosofo italiano. Alla stoa romana si collega B. di Cuma (il nome ha origine osca), che e scolaro dello stoico Antipatro di Tarso. Dopo la morte di Tiberio Gracco, B. dove difendersi davanti ai consoli.. Poi, B. fugge da Roma, e si reca in Asia presso Aristonico di Pergamo e, quando questo e sconfitto, si da la morte. A member of the Porch who is thought to have had an influence on the reforms introduced in Rome by Tiberio Gracco. GRICEVS: Blossi, cum Oxonii Stoicos didicissem, putabam “stoicismum” esse doctrinam, sed Austinus (litteralis ille) respondit: “porticus picta.” BLOSSIVS: Recte dicit, Grice, nam si “stoicus” a porticu venit, ego “Blossius” a floribus venio—itaque tu sub tecto philosopharis, ego in horto. GRICEVS: At tu sub eadem porticu Romae cum Tiberio Graccho ambulasti, donec consules te interrogaverunt, quod est viva vox sine tea. BLOSSIVS: Ita vero, sed melius est in Asia honeste exire e vita quam Romae cotidie audire “define Stoicum” et postea solum parietem spectare. Grice and Speranza divide the people by consonantal clusters and Bl- has only Blossio -- so what more do we know about this /bl-/cluster in Roman onomastics. We don't suppose it was a gens, but he seems ancient enough. Gaio Blossius would indicate gens Blossia -- any members of the gens. He seems importantly philosophically and not only unique phonetically -- can you explain why? Yes. In this case we do seem to have a gens, and that is already the first surprise. Blossius is not merely a curious sound-cluster with one famous bearer. The evidence points to a Blossia gens, also spelled Blosia, of Campanian origin, and Gaius Blossius is explicitly treated as one of its members. So your instinctive formula is correct: Gaio Blossio would indeed indicate a gens Blossia, or at least a nomen from which a Blossia gens is reconstructed. [en.wikipedia.org], [en.wiktionary.org] And there were other members. The family is traced in the sources to Campania during the Second Punic War: Marius Blossius, praetor of the Campanians at Capua in 216 BC, and two unnamed Blossii involved in another attempted revolt in 210 BC, besides Gaius Blossius of Cumae, the Stoic associate of Tiberius Gracchus. That means the name is not a one-off eccentricity but part of a small, regionally marked family line. [en.wikipedia.org] So the /bl/ cluster is phonetically striking, but not philosophically decisive by itself. What is decisive is that the name feels non-central in the old Roman way because the family is Campanian rather than one of the great old central Roman gentes. Nova Roma notes that some nomina carry signs of non-Latin or regional origin, and your own passage’s remark about Oscan colouring fits the broader fact that the Blossia gens is treated as Campanian. The cluster therefore matters less as a mysterious Roman sound and more as a clue to a local, perhaps Oscan-Campanian, background entering Roman political and intellectual life. [Nomen - NovaRoma], [en.wikipedia.org] Why, then, is Blossius philosophically important and not merely phonetically memorable. Because he sits at a very charged intersection of Stoicism and Roman political action. HandWiki’s summary, reflecting the ancient tradition, describes him as a student of Antipater of Tarsus, from Cumae, and closely linked to the reform movement of Tiberius Gracchus. Oxford Reference adds a still sharper point: he was regarded as a descendant of a prominent anti-Roman family of Hannibalic Capua and a Stoic friend of Gracchus. That gives him the peculiar profile Grice would love: not simply a Stoic with doctrines, but a Stoic whose philosophical commitments become politically incandescent. [handwiki.org], [oxfordreference.com] So the real explanation is not that the /bl/ cluster is unique, though it is rare enough to catch the ear. It is that Blossius combines three unusual things at once: a regionally marked Campanian name, a Stoic intellectual pedigree, and direct involvement in one of the defining political crises of the Roman republic. That is why he stands out in a catalogue. His name sounds old and local; his life sounds doctrinal and revolutionary. [en.wikipedia.org], [handwiki.org], [oxfordreference.com] If I put it in the driest Speranzian form. Blossius is not merely a phonetic curiosity under Bl-. He belongs to the Blossia gens, a small Campanian family already visible in the Hannibalic and post-Hannibalic period; and he matters philosophically because, as Gaius Blossius of Cumae, student of Antipater of Tarsus and ally of Tiberius Gracchus, he embodies the passage from Stoic instruction to Roman reformist action. [en.wikipedia.org], [handwiki.org], [oxfordreference.com] If you like, I can next do a very narrow follow-up on the likely Oscan side of Blossius and whether the doubling in Blossius, rather than a simpler Blosius, tells us anything philologically.Blossio (XXX). Dicta.