SEL

 

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

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Selizio – Ossia: Grice e Selizio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Selizio The gens Selicia, possibly identical with Silicia, was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Hardly any members of this gens are mentioned in history, but a number are known from inscriptions.[1]  Origin From a large number of inscriptions found there, it seems probable that the Selicii originated at the ancient Latin town of Praeneste, about 22 miles (35 kilometres) east of Rome. The nomen Selicius belongs to a class of gentilicia formed primarily from words or names ending in -ex. The root of this nomen appears to be selectus, chosen, for which Selex may have been a cognominal variant.[2][3]  Praenomina The main praenomina of the Selicii were Gaius and Quintus, two of the most common names throughout all periods of Roman history. The Selicii also used a variety of other common praenomina, including Lucius, Publius, and Marcus, and occasionally other names, such as Aulus and Numerius.  Members This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation. Selicia P. f., named in an inscription from Praeneste in Latium.[4] Selicius, named in an inscription from Iufi in Africa Proconsularis.[5] Gaius Selicius C. f., named in a funerary inscription from Rome, together with his freedwomen, Selicia Flora and Selicia Amoena, and a freedman, Gaius Selicius Hurtica.[6] Lucius Selicius, buried at Pola in Venetia and Histria.[7] Lucius Selicius, priest of Saturn at Mons Balcaranensis in Africa Proconsularis.[8] Lucius Selicius N. f., named in an inscription from Praeneste.[9] Marcus Selicius C. f., named in an inscription from Praeneste.[10] Publius Selicius, named in an inscription from Praeneste.[11] Publius Selicius, made an offering to Mercury at Thugga in Africa Proconsularis.[12] Quintus Selicius, a friend and ally of Cicero and Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, whom Cicero regarded as particularly shrewd and loyal. In 61 BC, Cicero names him as a possible source of money, at a time when he was expecting repayment from Gaius Antonius, who kept making excuses. Cicero considered buying a villa from Selicius in 46, but subsequently informed Lucius Papirius Paetus, who was acting as his agent at Neapolis, that he had decided against the purchase.[13] Quintus Selicius, a freedman named in a mid-first century inscription from Aquileia in Venetia and Histria, together with Selicia Optata, and another freedman named Quintus Selicius Liccaeus.[14] Quintus Selicius Q. f. Albinus, one of the municipal duumvirs at Pola, had been a military tribune, cavalry prefect, and aedile.[15] Selicia C. l. Amoena, a freedwoman named in a funerary inscription from Rome, together with her former master, Gaius Selicius, another freedwoman, Selicia Flora, and the freedman Gaius Selicius Hurtica.[6] Quintus Selicius Q. l. Antais, a freedman buried at Rome, together with Stratonice, a freedwoman.[16] Selicius C. f. Apollinaris, buried at Mactaris in Africa Proconsularis, aged thirty-two, with a monument from his client, Lucius Silicius Restutus.[17] Gaius Selicius L. f. Arabus, buried at Thugga, aged thirty.[18] Lucius Selicius Artemas, one of the clients of Selicia Donata, to whom he built a monument at Ostia in Latium.[19] Marcus Selicius Bassus, buried at Mactaris, aged seventy.[20] Quintus Selicius Calippus, named in an inscription from Rome.[21] Gaius Selicius C. f. C. n. Calvus, named in an inscription from Praeneste.[22] Selicia Donata, buried at Ostia, with a monument from her clients, Lucius Selicius Restitutus, Lucius Selicius Artemas, Selicia Sabina, and Selicia Tusca.[19] Selicia Euphrosyne, dedicated a monument at Rome to her friend, Gaius Julius Atticus.[23] Selicia F[...] Ingenua, buried at Mactaris, aged seventy-six years, two months.[24] Selicius Felix, buried at Sutunura in Africa Proconsularis, with a monument from his son, Selicius Saturninus, dating to the early third century.[25] Gaius Selicius C. et P. Rutili l. Felix, the freedman of Gaius Selicius and Publius Rutilius, named in an inscription from Rome, together with the freedman Gaius Selicius Glyco, and the freedwoman Selicia Melete.[26] Selicia C. l. Flora, a freedwoman named in a funerary inscription from Rome, together with her former master, Gaius Selicius, another freedwoman, Selicia Amoena, and the freedman Gaius Selicius Hurtica.[6] Selicius Geminus, one of the Seviri Augustales at Pola, dedicated a monument to Laecania Amoena.[27] Lucius Selicius Geminus, the master of Nothus, a slave employed as a money-changer at Pola, where Nothus was buried, aged twenty-three.[28] Aulus Selicius A. l. Gentius, a freedman named in an inscription from Praeneste.[29] Gaius Selicius C. l. Glyco, a freedman named in an inscription from Rome, together with the freedwoman Selicia Melete, and the freedman Gaius Selicius Felix. Perhaps the same Gaius Selicius Glyco[i] buried at Rome.[26][30] Gaius Selicius C. l. Hurtica, a freedman named in a funerary inscription from Rome, together with his former master, Gaius Selicius, and the freedwomen Selicia Flora and Selicia Amoena.[6] Quintus Selicius Q. l. Liccaeus, a freedman named in a mid-first century inscription from Aquileia, together with Selicia Optata, and another freedman named Quintus Selicius.[14] Selicia C. l. Melete, a freedwoman named in an inscription from Rome, together with the freedmen Gaius Selicius Glyco and Gaius Selicius Felix.[26] Selicia Q. l. Menodice, a freedwoman buried at Rome in the late first century BC.[31] Selicia Q. l. Optata, a freedwoman named in a mid-first century inscription from Aquileia, together with freedmen named Quintus Selicius and Quintus Selicius Liccaeus.[14] Selicia C. f. Postuma, named in an inscription from Pola, together with Gaius Octavius Attus.[32] Lucius Selicius Restitutus, one of the clients of Selicia Donata, to whom he built a monument at Ostia.[19] Lucius Selicius Restutus, built a monument at Mactaris to his patron, Selicius Apollinaris.[17] Gaius Selicius Rogatus, buried at Mactaris, aged thirteen.[33] Selicia Sabina, one of the clients of Selicia Donata, to whom she built a monument at Ostia.[19] Selicia P. f. Saturnina, buried at Mactaris, aged between fifty and sixty.[34] Selicius Saturninus, one of the municipal officials at Sutunura, dedicated a monument to his father, Selicius Felix, dating to the early third century.[25] Selicia Tusca, one of the clients of Selicia Donata, to whom she built a monument at Ostia.[19] Gaius Selicius Victor, buried at Carthage in Africa Proconsularis.[35] See also List of Roman gentes Footnotes  His surname given as "Glucon" in the inscription. References  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 776 ("Selicius").  Chase, p. 126.  New College Latin & English Dictionary, s. vv. seligo, selectus.  CIL XIV, 3260.  CNSATunisie, 28-278.  CIL VI, 26132.  CIL V, 73b.  CIL VIII, 24216.  CIL XIV, 3257.  CIL XIV, 3258.  CIL I, 3077.  CIL VIII, 26487.  Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, i. 5, ix. 16; Epistulae ad Atticum, i. 12.  CIL V, 1325.  CIL V, 49.  CIL VI, 26133.  BCTH, 1951/52, 197.  MAD, 1128.  CIL XIV, 1589.  AE 1980, 932.  CIL VI, 26134.  CIL XIV, 3256.  CIL VI, 19865.  CIL VIII, 11853.  AE 1992, 1798.  CIL VI, 26135.  Incriptiones Italiae, x. 1. 584.  CIL V, 93.  CIL I, 3070.  CIL VI, 26136.  CIL VI, 26137.  Inscriptiones Italiae, x. 1, 136.  CIL VIII, 23519.  CIL VIII, 23515.  CIL VIII, 13132. Bibliography Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, Epistulae ad Familiares. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present). Bulletin Archéologique du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques (Archaeological Bulletin of the Committee on Historic and Scientific Works, abbreviated BCTH), Imprimerie Nationale, Paris (1885–1973). René Cagnat et alii, L'Année épigraphique (The Year in Epigraphy, abbreviated AE), Presses Universitaires de France (1888–present). George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897). Inscriptiones Italiae (Inscriptions from Italy), Rome (1931-present). John C. Traupman, The New College Latin & English Dictionary, Bantam Books, New York (1995). Mustapha Khanoussi and Louis Maurin, Mourir à Dougga. Receuil des inscriptions funéraires (Death at Dougga: a Collection of Funerary Inscriptions, abbreviated MAD), Bordeaux, Tunis (2002). Carte Nationale des Sites Archéologiques et des Monuments Historiques (National Register of Archeological Sites and Historical Monuments of Tunisia, abbreviated CNSATunisie). Category: Roman gentes and your first-best choice for a Grice-Speranza vignette from THIS gens? Thanks

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Selizio – Ossia: Grice e Selizio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Selizio For Selicius, the first-best Grice-Speranza choice is Quintus Selicius, Cicero’s shrewd and loyal friend, possible source of money, and later seller of a villa Cicero considered buying and then declined. The reason is simple: he gives the best conversational material. The inscriptions are useful, and Selicia Donata at Ostia with her clients is tempting, but Quintus Selicius lets Speranza bring together friendship, money, excuses, loyalty, prudence, and the root selectus, “chosen.” A Selicius is, etymologically if one is indulgent, the chosen man; Cicero chooses him precisely when one needs someone who can be trusted with delicate matters. The best title would be Grice e Selizio: l’amico scelto. The point is not that Selicius is philosophically grand. He is not Carneades, not Cicero, not even a splendid villain. He is the sort of person on whom conversation actually depends: a reliable intermediary, a financial possibility, a man whose intelligence and loyalty are presupposed rather than declaimed. That makes him very Gricean. Much of conversation rests not on heroes of assertion, but on those whom one can safely implicate in practical arrangements. A loan, a purchase, a delay, an excuse, a refusal: these are not minor matters if one is Cicero. A reconstructed exchange could run: Cicero: “Selici, Antonius promittit; ego nummos exspecto.” “Selicius, Antonius promises; I am waiting for the money.” Implicature: Cicero does not merely report Antonius’ delay; he invites Selicius to understand that another source of liquidity may be needed. Selicius: “Promissum debitoris saepe longius est quam via Appia.” “A debtor’s promise is often longer than the Appian Way.” Implicature: Antonius’ excuses should not be treated as reliable. Selicius signals practical intelligence without accusing too baldly. Cicero: “Ergo apud te rem quaeram?” “Then shall I look to you in the matter?” Implicature: Cicero is turning friendship into financial recourse, but carefully, so that request and consultation remain decorously blurred. Selicius: “Si amicus quaerit, inveniet; si emptor, aestimabit.” “If a friend seeks, he will find; if a buyer, he will reckon the price.” Implicature: Selicius distinguishes friendship from transaction without severing them. He is willing to help, but he will not let Cicero pretend that money is not money. Cicero: “Villam quoque tuam cogitabam.” “I was also considering your villa.” Implicature: Cicero shifts from borrowing to purchase, a safer and more honourable frame for money. Selicius: “Cogitatio emere non solet.” “Thinking does not usually buy.” Implicature: Selicius gently refuses Cicero’s habit of converting intention into obligation. Consideration is not commitment. This is why he works so well. Selicius allows Speranza to stage the pragmatics of Roman friendship without declamation. Cicero’s world depends on favours, loans, introductions, property, letters, and delays. These are all regions where what is said is carefully less than what is meant. “I am expecting repayment” may mean “can you help?” “I am considering your villa” may mean “keep it available,” or merely “I want you to know I might be serious.” Selicius’s shrewdness lies in hearing the implicature without surrendering to it too soon. The etymological play is also useful. If Selicius is connected with selectus or Selex, then the gens-name becomes a joke on selection. Cicero does not choose Selicius for glory; he chooses him for usefulness, loyalty, and discretion. That is often the higher Roman compliment. Speranza can say that Selicius is not “chosen” because history chose him for fame, but because Cicero chose him for the things fame forgets: money, trust, property, prudence, and the management of excuses. Dry Speranzian formula: Selicius is the chosen man in the least heroic and most necessary sense. He is not chosen to die for Rome, but to understand Cicero’s hint about money before it becomes embarrassing. That is enough for Grice.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sellio – Ossia: Grice e Sellio: la ragione conversazionale dell’allievo di Filone. Note su De ratione conversatoria. Il Gruppo di Gioco di H. P. Grice. Gaio Sellio (Roma, Lazio): la ragione conversazionale dell’allievo di Filone. In the figure of Gaius Sellius, as presented in the exchange with Grice, we see a conception of conversational reason that aligns closely with Grice’s theory while grounding it in pedagogical and cultural practice rather than abstract rule. Grice’s account of reason‑governed conversational meaning emphasizes that what is meant in conversation is shaped by rational expectations, shared intentions, and an implicit commitment to cooperation, even when speakers deviate from literal norms. Sellius embodies this same commitment, but as a pupil formed within Philo’s Stoic discipline, where reason governs not only utterance but demeanor, silence, movement, and tone. His insistence that truth must be said well anticipates Grice’s insight that meaning is not exhausted by propositional content, but depends on how that content is presented and taken up by an audience. Yet where Grice theorizes these phenomena in terms of implicature, maxims, and the calculability of speaker intention, Sellius presents them as a cultivated habit learned through example and correction, in which gravity of doctrine is balanced by conversational lightness. Both figures thus converge on the idea that conversation is rationally ordered without being rigid, but Sellius locates that order in the ethical and educational formation of the speaker, while Grice articulates it as a general framework governing conversational meaning across contexts. Pupil of Filo at Rome.  GRICEVS: Salvē, Sellī. Audīvī tē apud Rōmānōs Philōnis discipulum esse: dic mihi, utrum plus in scholā discātur an in ipsō ambulationis strepitū? SELLIVS: Salvē, Grice. Apud Philōnem, etiam silentium docet: ambulāmus, sed mens sedet; disputāmus, sed animus regitur—Stoicē, sed nōn sine salsā urbanitāte Rōmānā. GRICEVS: Bene. (At saepe fit ut discipulus, dum “scholam” laudat, magis magistrum quam doctrīnam amet; et dum “Philōnem” nominat, iam dimidiam sententiam reliquā partī parat.) Itaque rogō: tu Philōnem sequeris quia verum dicit, an quia bene dicit? SELLIVS: Ego, ut decet discipulum, dīcam “verum”; sed, ut decet Rōmānum, intellegam “bene.” Nam apud Philōnem, Grice, verum ita proponitur ut et animus moveātur et superbia frangātur: ita fit ut doctrina sit gravis, sed sermo levis—et uterque utilis. Grice’s Weekly essay assignment: Sellio. There are, apparently, two Sellii in Rome and perhaps a family resemblance beyond the convenience of editors. Write on [Gaius Sellius] as if you had not yet met [Lucius Sellius], and explain whether a pupil of [Philo] is to be judged chiefly by doctrine, by manner, or by the dangerous Roman habit of saying “verum” while understanding “bene.” You must make clear, before the end, why a De ratione conversatoria written by one Sellius is not automatically to be attributed to the other merely because the surname behaves fraternally. Typewriting disallowed. Handwriting counts. Sellio, Gaio (a. u. c. DCLXVIII). De ratione conversatoria. Roma.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sellio – Ossia: Grice e Sellio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sellio The gens Sellia or Selia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned in the time of Cicero, but none of them attained any of the higher offices of the Roman state.[1]  Praenomina The main praenomina of the Sellii were Lucius and Gaius, the two most common names throughout all periods of Roman history. Other names regularly used by this gens included Sextus, Marcus, Publius, and Quintus, all of which were also quite common. Occurring less frequently were names such as Aulus, Decimus, and Titus. There seems to be one instance of Paullus used as a praenomen by one of the Sellii; although it was an old praenomen, by the late Republic and in Imperial times it was generally regarded as a cognomen.[2]  Members This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation. Aulus Sellius,[i] a cavalry officer serving under Gaius Sempronius Atratinus, consul in 423 BC, was elected tribune of the plebs in 422, together with three of his colleagues, in the hopes of preventing Sempronius' prosecution by the tribune Lucius Hortensius for his actions in the war against the Volscians. Sellius and the others were only able to delay Sempronius' trial, as he was convicted in 420.[3][4] Publius Selius, perhaps the brother of Gaius, was one of the friends of Lucullus who heard Philo speak at Rome, and whom Philo allowed to copy one of his manuscripts.[5] Gaius Selius, perhaps the brother of Publius, copied Philo's manuscript after hearing him speak at Rome.[5] Selius, a poor orator whom Cicero mentions in a letter to Publius Volumnius Eutrapelus in 51 BC.[6] Selia, donated an altar to the temple of Fortuna at Falerii Novi in Etruria, dating between the late first century BC and the middle of the first century AD.[7] Sellia Ephyre, an aurivestrix, or maker of clothing embellished with gold, whose shop was on the Via Sacra in Rome. Named on a funerary urn dating between the death of Augustus and the middle of the first century AD.[8] Gaius Selius Rufus, named as consul in AD 41, alongside Quintus Ostorius Scapula, in an inscription from Thuburbo Maius in Africa Proconsularis, seems to be a mistake for Publius Suillius Rufus.[9] Gaius Selius Hermes, aged forty, was buried in a first-century tomb at Rome.[10] Marcus Selius Philadelphus, named in a first-century inscription from Rome.[11] Lucius Selius Spinther, built a first-century tomb at Rome for himself and Ampliata.[12] Lucius Sellius Gorgia, one of the priests of Minerva at Rome in AD 57, holding the office of magister for the third time.[13] Gaius Selius Saturninus, a soldier stationed at Rome in AD 70, serving in the century of Decimus Roetius Secundus.[14] Selia Q. l. Jucunda, a freedwoman named in a late first- or early second-century inscription from Concordia in Venetia and Histria.[15] Sellia Porphyria, dedicated a second- or early third-century monument at Rome to her husband, aged eighty.[16] Sellius Claudianus, one of the curators of public works at Rome in AD 193.[17] Sellia Q. f. Satura, the wife of Marcus Aufidius Honoratus, and after his death, of his brother, Gaius Aufidius Honoratus, and the mother of Marcus Aufidius Honoratus, who dedicated a statue at Saldae in Mauretania Caesariensis in honor of his mother and stepfather, on the ninth day before the Kalends of January in AD 197.[18] Sellia Celerina, buried at Rome, aged fifty-three, in a tomb dating between the middle of the second century and the end of the third.[19] Undated Sellii Selia Sex. f., named in an inscription from Hispellum in Umbria.[20] Selius, named in an inscription from Thamugadi in Numidia.[21] Publius Selius P. f., one of the pontifexes at Sutrium in Etruria.[22] Gaius Sellius Acut[...], buried at Rome, with a monument from his wife, Sellia Edone.[23] Gaius Sellius Aerastus, the husband of Sellia Helpis, and father of Sellia Primigenia, a little girl buried at Rome.[24] Lucius Sellius D. f. Artorius, the son of Decimus Sellius Felix and Artoria Secundina, was buried at Laus Pompeia in Cisalpine Gaul, aged eight years, nine months.[25] Marcus Sellius Atticus, buried at Messana in Sicily, aged twenty-five.[26] Sellius Castus, the father of Aelia Festa, for whom he dedicated a tomb at Rome, together with her husband, Publius Aelius Patrocles.[27] Selia M. l. Chia, a freedwoman buried at Salona in Dalmatia.[28] Sextus Selius Sex. l. Epaphroditus, a freedman buried at Rome, together with Sextus Selius Nicephorus, and Selia Nice.[29] Lucius Selius L. f. Eucaerus, a freedman buried at Rome.[30] Sellia Euhodia, buried at Rome, with a monument from her daughter, Sellia Nape.[31] Sellia Felicula, built a tomb at Rome for her husband, Marcus Pomponius Laetus, aged forty.[32] Selia T. l. Felix, a freedwoman named in an inscription from Rome.[33] Decimus Sellius Felix, the husband of Artoria Secundina, and father of Lucius Sellius Artorius, a child buried at Laus Pompeia.[25] Lucius Selius L. f. Fortis, a freedman buried at Rome.[34] Gaius Sellius Helius, the husband of Juventia Ilias, named in an inscription from Rome.[35] Sellia Helpis, the wife of Gaius Sellius Aerastus, and mother of Sellia Primigenia, a little girl buried at Rome.[24] Lucius Selius Hermes, named in a funerary inscription from Rome.[36] Lucius Sellius Hermes, the husband of Herennia Eutychia, and father of Sellius Valentinus, with whom he dedicated a tomb for his wife at Salona.[37] Gaius Sellius Hilarus, built a tomb at Rome for himself and Gaius Sellius Latinus, aged twenty-four.[38] Sextus Selius Sex. f. Homullinus, a little boy buried at Lugdunum in Gallia Lugdunensis, aged four years and forty days, with a monument from his parents.[39] Marcus Sellius L. f. Honoratus, a native of Choba in Mauretania Caesariensis, was a cavalry prefect serving in Hispania Citerior, where he donated to the building of a foundation for the temple of Hercules at Petavonium.[40] Gaius Sellius Latinus, buried at Rome, aged twenty-four, in a tomb built by Gaius Sellius Hilarus.[38] Sellia C. f. Nape, dedicated a tomb at Rome for her mother, Sellia Euhodia.[31] Sellia Nice, the wife of Gaius Sellius Onesimus, was buried at Rome, aged thirty-five years, six months, and twenty-one days, with a tomb built by her husband.[41] Selia Sex. l. Nice, a freedwoman buried at Rome, together with Sextus Selius Epaphroditus and Sextus Selius Nicephorus.[29] Sextus Selius Sex. l. Nicephorus, a freedman buried at Rome, together with Sextus Selius Epaphroditus and Selia Nice.[29] Gaius Sellius Onesimus, a flaturarius, or founder, and the husband of Sellia Nice, for whom he built a tomb at Rome.[41] Lucius Sellius L. f. P[...] Appenninus, named in an inscription from Tibur.[42] Selia Q. l. Prima, named in an inscription from Rome.[43] Sellia C. f. Primigenia, the young daughter of Gaius Sellius Aerastus and Sellia Helpis, buried at Rome, aged two.[24] Lucius Selius L. l. Primus, a freedman buried at Rome, together with Selia Tyche.[44] Selia Secunda, together with Aulus Selius Theophilus, made an offering to Sarrius, god of the Sarrius river, at Bergomum in Cisalpine Gaul.[45] Selia Sexta, buried at the present site of Andancette, formerly part of Gallia Narbonensis, with tomb dedicated by her husband, Alcius Sabinianus, with whom she lived for twenty-three years, five months, and twenty-one days, and her brother, Sextinus.[46] Paullus Sellius Tertius, a centurion named in an inscription from Ulpia Trajana in Germania Inferior.[47] Aulus Selius Theophilus, together with Selia Secunda, made an offering to Sarrius at Bergomum.[45] Selia L. l. Tyche, a freedwoman buried at Rome, together with Lucius Selius Primus.[44] Sellius L. f. Valentinus, the son of Lucius Sellius Hermes, with whom he dedicated a tomb at Salona for his mother, Herennia Eutychia.[37] Selia Victorina, buried at Rome, aged about thirty-three, with a monument from her husband, Aurelius Felix, with whom she lived for fifteen years.[48] See also List of Roman gentes Footnotes  Broughton, following Mommsen, gives his name as Marcus Asellius, reasoning that the 'M' for Marcus was lost in manuscripts of Livy following the accusative Tempanium. Asellius was a much more common gentilicium than Sellius, which otherwise is not heard from before the final century of the Republic. References  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 776 ("Selius", "Aulus Sellius").  Chase, p. 150.  Livy, iv. 42.  Broughton, vol. I, p. 69.  Cicero, Academica Priora, ii. 4.  Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, vii. 32.  CIL XI, 3075.  CIL VI, 5287, CIL VI, 9214.  AE 1980, 907.  BCAR, 1923, 122.  NSA, 1923, 371.  AE 1995, 176.  CIL VI, 268.  CIL VI, 200.  CIL V, 8705.  AE 1974, 47.  CIL VI, 41261.  CIL VIII, 8937.  CIL VI, 26140.  CIL XI, 5337.  AE 1904, 146.  CIL XI, 3254.  CIL VI, 26138.  CIL VI, 7513.  CIL V, 6387.  Bitto, Iscrizioni Greche e Latine di Messina, 35.  CIL VI, 34258.  ILJug, ii. 2759.  CIL VI, 38883.  CIL VI, 26139.  CIL VI, 26142.  CIL VI, 24623.  CIL VI, 26143.  CIL VI, 5718.  CIL VI, 10404.  CIL VI, 22354.  CIL III, 2349.  CIL VI, 6822.  CIL XIII, 2266.  AE 1963, 16.  CIL VI, 9418.  CIL XIV, 3840.  CIL VI, 29468.  CIL VI, 5719.  AE 2000, 628.  CIL XII, 1796.  AE 2010, 1028.  ICUR, vii. 19332. Bibliography Marcus Tullius Cicero, Academica Priora, Epistulae ad Familiares. Titus Livius (Livy), History of Rome. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present). Giovanni Battista de Rossi, Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romanae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores (Christian Inscriptions from Rome of the First Seven Centuries, abbreviated ICUR), Vatican Library, Rome (1857–1861, 1888). Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale in Roma (Bulletin of the Municipal Archaeological Commission of Rome, abbreviated BCAR), (1872–present). Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità (News of Excavations from Antiquity, abbreviated NSA), Accademia dei Lincei (1876–present). René Cagnat et alii, L'Année épigraphique (The Year in Epigraphy, abbreviated AE), Presses Universitaires de France (1888–present). George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897). Anna and Jaroslav Šašel, Inscriptiones Latinae quae in Iugoslavia inter annos MCMXL et MCMLX repertae et editae sunt (Inscriptions from Yugoslavia Found and Published between 1940 and 1960, abbreviated ILJug), Ljubljana (1963–1986). T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952–1986). Irma Bitto, Le Iscrizioni Greche e Latine di Messina (The Greek and Latin Inscriptions of Messina), Dipartimento di Scienze dell'antichita dell'Universita di Messina (2001). Category: Roman gentes

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sellio – Ossia: Grice e Sellio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sellio For the gens Sellia/Selia, my first-best choice would be Sellia Ephyre, the aurivestrix on the Via Sacra. She is not the most historically grand Sellia, but she is the best Speranzian one: a woman named by inscription, a craftswoman, apparently making or working with gold-embroidered clothing, with a shop on Rome’s most charged ceremonial street. That gives Grice the right material: dress, display, social reading, and the difference between what a garment says and what its wearer means by wearing it. The Via Sacra is the point. If a Sellia makes gold-worked garments there, she is not merely sewing finery. She is supplying visible signs for public life: status, piety, triumphal proximity, wealth, mourning, marriage, theatricality, priestly dignity, and perhaps vulgar pretension. An aurivestrix works in the grammar of surfaces. She produces the material by which Roman bodies become readable in public. That is more Gricean than a consul accidentally entered under the wrong nomen. A dry title would be: Grice e Sellia Ephyre: l’oro del detto. A reconstructed exchange: Sellia: “Vestem auro texo; dominus postea significat.” (“I weave the garment with gold; the owner afterwards signifies.”) Implicature: The craft supplies the sign-vehicle, but the wearer’s occasion, rank, and intention determine its social meaning. Scepticus: “Aurum ipsum loquitur.” (“Gold itself speaks.”) Implicature: Wealth is taken as self-interpreting; no further communicative intention is needed. Sellia: “Loquitur, sed saepe mentitur.” (“It speaks, but it often lies.”) Implicature: Display can mislead. Gold may signify dignity, but also vanity, borrowed wealth, theatrical pretence, or anxiety. Scepticus: “Ergo tu mendacia consuis?” (“Then do you stitch lies?”) Implicature: If clothing deceives, the craftswoman is implicated in the deception. Sellia: “Non mendacia; occasiones.” (“Not lies; occasions.”) Implicature: She does not determine meaning; she makes possible socially interpretable presentation. The same garment can be honour, seduction, office, parody, or fraud. That is why she is preferable to Aulus Sellius the early tribune, though he has political interest, or Publius and Gaius Selius as copyists of Philo, though they are good for manuscript transmission. Sellia Ephyre gives a cleaner semiotic object: visible adornment as socially read sign. Grice can ask whether the gold means wealth naturally, conventionally, or because the wearer intends it to be taken under a certain description. Speranza can answer that Rome rarely allowed a garment to be merely a garment. The best formula: Sellia Ephyre did not write philosophy; she embroidered its public conditions. In Rome, to appear was already to enter conversation, and gold was one of the more expensive ways of leaving something unsaid.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Sellio – Ossia: Grice e Sellio: la ragione conversazionale del fratello. Note su Dicta de Ratione Conversatoria Fraterna. Il Gruppo di Gioco di H. P. Grice. Lucio Sellio (Roma, Lazio): la ragione conversazionale del fratello. Sellio’s position, as dramatized in the passage, anticipates key elements of Grice’s later theory of reason‑governed conversational meaning, but it does so from a markedly different angle. Where Grice analyses conversation in terms of shared rational principles, maxims, and calculable implicatures that regulate what is meant beyond what is said, Sellio emphasizes the lived texture of conversational reason as it emerges within personal, fraternal exchange. For Grice, the orderliness of conversation depends on an impersonal cooperative framework that interlocutors implicitly respect, even when they flout it for effect; for Sellio, conversational reason is first experienced as a practice learned with and through others, especially those bound by familiarity, affection, and tacit understanding. The culinary metaphors in Sellio’s remarks capture something Grice later theorizes abstractly: that excess, irony, and play are tolerable, even productive, so long as they presuppose a shared orientation toward rational exchange. Yet Sellio’s emphasis differs in kind: he treats conversational reason less as a system of norms governing meaning and more as a cultivated sensibility, one refined by intimacy and moderated by judgment, exemplified in the fraternal dialogue that Philo oversees rather than engineers. In this way, Sellio complements Grice by embodying, at the social and ethical level, the very rational discipline that Grice reconstructs at the conceptual level: both agree that conversation is not mere talk, but Sellio roots that insight in relational practice, while Grice renders it into theory. Pupil of Filone at Rome – possibly Gaio Sellio’s brother. GRICEVS: Salvē, Sellī! Dic mihi: utrum magis tibi placet ratio conversatōria fraterna, an illa discipulōrum apud Fīlonem? SELLIVS: O Gricevs, ratio fratēris semper dulcior est! Disputāre cum Gaio, fratre meō, est quasi cōquī duo in eādem culīnā – interdum piper addimus, interdum sal, sed semper finis est disputatio, non cena. GRICEVS: Ha! Bene dixisti, Sellī! Sed cave: si disputatio nimis salīta fiat, fortasse Fīlo ipse interveniet ut saporem philosophiae servet. SELLIVS: Et tamen, Grice, Fīlo ipse saepe ridebat, cum fratres inter se “condirent” disputationem: “salem,” inquit, “philosophia amat; sed si nimium salis addideritis, nemo amplius sitiet veritatem—tantum vinum petet.” Grice’s weekly essay assignment. Sellio. Assume, for the purpose of the week, that [Lucius Sellius] and [Gaius Sellius] are brothers until proved otherwise, and then prove otherwise as carefully as you can. Your essay should determine whether fraternal conversation improves philosophy by seasoning it, or merely gives philosophers an excuse to quarrel domestically under [Philo]’s supervision; in either case, explain why “ratio conversatoria fraterna” is philosophically more revealing than it first sounds, and less edible than its culinary metaphors suggest. Typewriting disallowed. Handwriting counts. Sellio, Lucio (a. u. c. DCCIV). Dicta de Ratione Conversatoria Fraterna. Roma.