SEP

 

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

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Seppieno – Ossia: Grice e Seppieno -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Seppieno The gens Seppiena was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. None of the Seppieni are mentioned in ancient writers, but several members of this gens are known from inscriptions.  Origin The nomen Seppienus seems to be derived from the same root as that of the Seppia gens, and is thus a patronymic surname derived from the Oscan or Umbrian praenomen Seppius. That name is cognate with the rare Latin praenomen Septimus, and its more common derivative, the nomen Septimius. The root of all these names is the numeral seven, which in the earliest period would have been given either to a seventh child or seventh son, or to a child born in the month of September, originally the seventh month of the Roman calendar.[1][2] Chase notes that the gentile-forming suffix -enus was typical of Picenum and adjacent regions, and although the majority of the small number of Seppieni found in inscriptions appear to have been colonials, there are examples from Umbria and neighbouring Cisalpine Gaul, suggesting that the family was most likely of Umbrian origin.[3]  Members This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation. Seppienus, a centurion, and the commander of Lucius Voconius Proculus, a scout buried at Rome in the last part of the first century, or the early part of the second.[4] Publius Seppienus P. f. Aelianus, a soldier mentioned in an inscription from the present site of Botew in Bulgaria, formerly part of Moesia Inferior, dating from AD 78.[5] Marcus Seppienus M. f. Aurio, a boy buried at Salona in Dalmatia, aged nine, with a monument from his father, Marcus Seppienus Eutychus, dating between AD 150 and 300.[6] Lucius Seppienus Bithus, together with his little girl, Epidia Procula, dedicated a monument at Rome to his wife, Epidia Gnome, aged twenty-four.[7] Marcus Seppienus Eutychus, dedicated a second- or third-century tomb at Salona to his son, Marcus Seppienus Aurio.[6] Seppiena Lais, buried in a first-century tomb at Thermae Himeraeae in Sicily.[8] Seppiena Nike, dedicated a tomb at Salona to her son, Eutyches, dating between AD 150 and 300.[9] Seppiena Philomena, buried at Salona in a tomb built by her mother, Seppiena Restituta, and dating to the first century, or the first half of the second.[10] Seppiena Q. f. Polla, named in an inscription from Brixellum in Cisalpine Gaul.[11] Seppiena Prima, the wife of Gaius Caesius Pantheris, and mother of Gaius Caesius Vitulus, who donated a pot in memory of his parents at Mons Feretur, near Callium in Umbria.[12] Seppiena Restituta, a freedwoman who built a first- or second-century tomb at Salona for her daughter, Seppiena Philomena.[10] See also List of Roman gentes References  Chase, pp. 150, 151.  Petersen, pp. 347, 348.  Chase, p. 118.  AE 2014, 203.  CIL XVI, 22.  ILJug, iii. 2737.  CIL VI, 17223.  AE 1980, 523.  ILJug, iii. 2738.  CIL III, 8642.  CIL XI, 6933.  CIL XI, 6486. Bibliography Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–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). Hans Petersen, "The Numeral Praenomina of the Romans", in Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. xciii, pp. 347–354 (1962). 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). Category: Roman gentes

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Seppieno – Ossia: Grice e Seppieno -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Seppieno For the Seppieni, the first-best Grice-Speranza choice is not the centurion, though he is respectable, but Seppiena Restituta, the freedwoman who built a tomb at Salona for her daughter Seppiena Philomena. The reason is that she gives the richest pressure on naming, restoration, and memorial meaning. The gens-name itself likely carries the old “seventh” root, but the entry becomes philosophically alive when a woman called Restituta restores, or tries to restore, a daughter called Philomena to public memory by inscription. That is almost too Speranzian. A good title would be Grice e Seppiena: Restituta restituit. SEPPİENA RESTITVTA. Filiae meae monumentum pono. (I place a monument for my daughter.) +> My daughter is to remain publicly nameable after death. SCEPTICVS. Mortua nihil audit. (The dead girl hears nothing.) +> The act cannot benefit the addressee if the addressee is gone. RESTİTVTA. Non ut audiat, sed ne taceat. (Not so that she may hear, but so that she may not be silent.) +> The inscription gives the dead a continuing social voice. SCEPTICVS. Nomen tantum manet. (Only the name remains.) +> Memorial preservation is thin, almost empty. RESTİTVTA. Nomen satis est, si amor intellegitur. (The name is enough, if love is understood.) +> The inscription means more than it states because the relation mother-daughter supplies the missing content. SCEPTICVS. Ergo lapis loquitur? (Then the stone speaks?) +> You are treating a material object as a communicative act. RESTİTVTA. Immo ego per lapidem. (Rather, I speak through the stone.) +> The monument is not a natural sign but an intentional vehicle of memory. The Gricean point is clean. The stone does not naturally mean grief, and the name does not by itself mean the mother’s love. But placed by Restituta, under funerary convention, for Philomena, the inscription becomes a non-natural sign: the mother intends later readers to recognise that the daughter mattered, that the family relation persists in public form, and that the dead should not vanish into mere biological absence. There is also a neat play on Restituta. She is “restored” by name, a freedwoman perhaps restored into civic nameability, and she restores Philomena by making her retrievable through stone. Philomena, “beloved” in Greek colouring, intensifies the point. If the nomen Seppienus reaches back toward sevenfold numbering, this tomb reaches forward into singular remembrance: not the seventh, not one among many, but this daughter. Dry Speranzian formula: the centurion commands men; Seppiena Restituta commands memory. The stone does not say much, but it means enough: a freedwoman has restored a daughter to the conversation of the living.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali:  Seppio – Ossia: Grice e Seppio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Seppio The gens Seppia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens appear in history, but many are known from inscriptions.  Origin The nomen Seppius is a patronymic surname derived from the Oscan praenomen Seppiis or Seppius, cognate with the rare Latin praenomen Septimus, and its more common derivative, the nomen Septimius. The root of all these names is the numeral seven, which in the earliest period would have been given either to a seventh child or seventh son, or to a child born in the month of September, originally the seventh month of the Roman calendar.[1][2] The majority of the Seppii known from inscriptions seem to have lived in Samnium and adjacent portions of Italy, where Oscan languages were spoken; a large number of these are from the neighbourhoods of Beneventum and Venusia, in the southern part of the region. Chase lists Seppius among those nomina that were not of Roman origin, but which originated in other parts of Italy.[3]  Praenomina The Seppii bore a variety of common praenomina, apparently preferring Gaius, Marcus, Lucius, and Publius. In inscriptions there are also multiple instances of Aulus, Sextus Quintus, and Numerius, of which the last was relatively scarce at Rome, although common in Oscan-speaking regions, such as Samnium.[4]  Branches and cognomina As they only seem to have become incorporated into the Roman state toward the end of the Republic, the Seppii are not known to have been divided into separate branches. Although many early Seppii bore no cognomen, the family used a wide range of familiar surnames in imperial times. The most abundant of these seems to have been Rufus, referring to the colour red, and usually bestowed upon someone with red hair. This was typical of a large class of cognomina derived from a person's physical features, which often became hereditary over time, although it is not known whether the Seppii Rufi of Abellinum and Venusia constituted a distinct family.[5]  Members This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation. Seppia, the mother of Lucius Petronius Rebilus, according to an inscription from Clusium in Etruria.[6] Seppia, the wife of a veteran of the third legion, buried at Lambaesis in Numidia, whose name is preserved only as the initials "P. S."[7] Seppia, named in a sepulchral inscription from Patavium in Venetia and Histria, dating to the first half of the first century.[8] Seppia Ɔ. l., a freedwoman named in an inscription from Casilinum in Campania, dating to the latter half of the first century BC, or the first half of the first century BC.[9] Seppius, a companion of Marcius Celer; along with Celer's granddaughter Marcia and Arria Crescens, he dedicated a monument at Ravenna in Celer's memory.[10] Aulus Seppius A. f., one of several persons mentioned in an inscription from Casilinum, dating to 104 BC.[11] Gaius Seppius C. f., named in an inscription from Concordia in Venetia and Histria, dating to the late first or early second century.[12] Gaius Seppius M. f., named along with Marcus Seppius Canus, probably either his father or his brother, in an inscription from Venafrum in Samnium, dating to the first half of the first century.[13] Gaius Seppius P. f., named in an inscription from Opitergium in Venetia and Histria, dating to the latter half of the first century BC.[14] Lucius Seppius L. f., along with his son, Lucius, made an offering to Hercules at Uria in Calabria, in the latter part of the second or early part of the first century BC.[15] Lucius Seppius L. f. L. n., along with his father, Lucius, made an offering to Hercules at Uria in the latter second or early first century BC.[15] Marcus Seppius, named in a fragmentary inscription from Pompeii in Campania.[16] Titus Seppius, a potter who worked in the Alpine province of Alpes Poeninae at an uncertain period, between the first and third centuries.[17] Gaius Seppius Achoristus, buried at Rome, with a tomb dedicated by his client, Gaius Seppius Primigenius.[18] Seppia Amarantis, buried in a second-century tomb at Venusia in Samnium, dedicated by her sons, Seppius Ampliatus and Pactolus.[19] Seppius Ampliatus, along with his brother, Pactolus, dedicated a second-century monument at Venusia to their mother, Seppia Amarantis.[19] Seppia A. l. Apate, a freedwoman who dedicated a first-century sepulchre at Rome for herself, her former master, Aulus Seppius Philomusus, and their freedmen.[20] Gaius Seppius C. l. Aphrodisius, a freedman named in an inscription from Rome, dating to the era of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.[21] Seppia Benivola, buried at Venusia in the second or third quarter of the second century, with a tomb dedicated by her husband, Quintus Seppius Fortunus.[22] Marcus Seppius M. f. Canus, named along with a Gaius Seppius, probably either his brother or his son, in an inscription from Venafrum, dating to the first half of the first century.[13] Marcus Seppius Castor, buried at Rome in the latter half of the first century, or the first half of the second, in a tomb dedicated by his son, Marcus Seppius Hermes.[23] Seppia Chrysaspis, buried at Concordia along with Seppia Thisbe and Quintus Valerius Anthus, in a tomb dating to the late first or early second century.[24] Marcus Seppius Creon, gave offerings to Hercules and Mercury at Mogontiacum in Germania Superior.[25] Gnaeus Seppius Sex. f. Cordus, buried at Terventum in Samnium, aged eight, along with his brothers, Sextus Seppius Maximus and Publius Seppius Severus, in a tomb built by their parents, Sextus Seppius Severus and Varia Maxima, dating to the late first century BC or early first century AD.[26] Gaius Seppius Crescens, the husband of Novellia Trophime, and stepfather of Lucius Novellius Lucifer, he was buried at the age of seventy-five, in a family sepulchre built by his stepson at Dyrrachium in Macedonia, dating from the first century.[27] Gaius Seppius C. f. Curvus, one of the municipal duumvirs of Aeclanum in Samnium, where he dedicated a sepulchre for himself, his wife, Spendia Prima, and his son, Gaius Seppius Sabinus.[28] Seppius Ɔ. l. Davus, a freedman named in a dedicatory inscription from Casilinum, dating to the first century BC or first century AD.[29] Publius Seppius P. l. Faustus, a freedman who dedicated a sepulchre at Mutina in Cisalpine Gaul, dating to the late first century BC or early first century AD, for himself, Publius Seppius Lepidus, and Severa, his concubine.[30] Seppia C. l. Fidelis, a freedwoman who made two offerings at Aequum Tuticum in Samnium, dating to the second century, or the last part of the first.[31] Seppia L. l. Fortunata, a freedwoman named in an inscription from Rome, dating to the first half of the first century.[32] Seppius Fortunatus, dedicated a tomb for his wife, Tatia Felicitas, aged forty, at Telesia in Samnium, dating to the second half of the second century, or the first half of the third.[33] Quintus Seppius Fortunus, dedicated a second century tomb at Venusia to his wife, Seppia Benivola.[22] Marcus Seppius C. f. Galata, named in a first-century inscription from Volturnum in Campania.[34] Marcus Seppius M. f. Hermes, dedicated a tomb at Rome to his father, Marcus Seppius Castor, dating to the latter half of the first century, or the first half of the second.[23] Seppia Hesperis, buried at Venusia in the late second century, with a tomb built by Seppius Silvanus.[35] Seppia Justina, dedicated a tomb at Fusolae in Samnium, dating to the late second century, or the first half of the third, to her husband, Lucius Pullidius Phoebianus, aged forty-two.[36] Publius Seppius P. l. Lepidus, a freedman buried in a family sepulchre built at Mutina by Publius Seppius Faustus for himself, Lepidus, and his concubine, Severa.[30] Seppia L. l. Lyde, daughter of the freedwoman Seppia Psyche, with whom she was buried at Isturgi in Hispania Baetica, aged five, in a tomb dating to the late second century.[37] Marcus Seppius M. f. Macer, dedicated a monument at Beneventum in Samnium to his mother, Vibbia.[38] Seppius Marcellus, buried at Numerus Syrorum in Mauretania Caesariensis, having died on the tenth day before the Kalends of December (November 22) in AD 316, aged about forty years, with a monument dedicated by his brother, Seppius Secundus.[39] Sextus Seppius Sex. f. Maximus, buried at Terventum, aged eighteen, along with his brothers, Gnaeus Seppius Cordus and Publius Seppius Severus, in a tomb built by their parents, Sextus Seppius Severus and Varia Maxima, dating to the late first century BC or early first century AD.[26] Aulus Seppius Moderatus, a curator named in an inscription from Volsinii in Etruria.[40] Seppia Morda, mentioned in an inscription from Pompeii.[41] Lucius Seppius Nepos, aged thirty, buried at Macomades in Numidia, along with Prosia Januaria, aged eighty-five.[42] Seppia M. l. Nice, a freedwoman buried at Rome, along with the freedman Marcus Stallius Philotimus.[43] Lucius Seppius Paullus, dedicated a tomb at Frequentum in Samnium to his wife, Ennia Restituta.[44] Aulus Seppius Philomusus, the former master of Seppia Apate, who built a first-century tomb at Rome for herself, Philomusus, and their freedmen.[20] Gaius Seppius C. l. Pierus, a freedman buried in a first-century tomb at Aesernia in Samnium, along with his wife, Floria Restituta.[45] Marcus Seppius M. l. Philoxenus, a freedman awarded 10,000 Sestertii out of the estate of a freedwoman named Primigenia, according to a first-century inscription from Teanum Sidicinum in Campania.[46] Seppia C. f. Polla, named in an inscription from Saturnia in Etruria, dating to the latter half of the first century BC, or the first half of the first century AD.[47] Numerius Seppius Polus, buried at Rome, together with his wife, Claudia Secunda; their slave, Atimetus, dedicated a monument in their memory.[48] Seppia N. f. A. n. Posilla, buried at Aeclanum, along with her parents, Numerius Seppius Secundus, and Critia Polla.[49] Publius Seppius Potens, the husband of Veneria, according to an inscription from Rome, dating between AD 30 and 70.[50] Seppia C. f. Praesentina, the wife of Lucius Terentius Verus, one of the municipal duumvirs at Bedaium in Noricum, with whom she was buried in a second-century tomb dedicated by their sons, Lucius Terentius Verinus and Gaius Terentius Praesentinus.[51] Gaius Seppius Primigenius, dedicated a tomb at Rome to his patron, Gaius Seppius Achoristus.[18] Seppius Primus, the foster son of Seppius Proculus, was buried at Luceria in Apulia, aged four, between AD 130 and 150.[52] Lucius Seppius L. l. Princeps, a freedman buried at the modern site of Vicalvi in Latium, aged twenty-two; his monument begs his mother not to weep for him, for his time had come.[53] Seppius Proculus, the foster father of Seppius Primus, a boy buried at Luceria between AD 130 and 150.[52] Seppia L. l. Psyche, a freedwoman buried at Isturgi, aged forty, along with her daughter, Seppia Lyde, aged five.[37] Seppia Pyrallis, the wife of Lucius Ostorius Fortunatus, who built a family sepulchre at Rome for himself, his patron, Lucius Ostorius Felix, and his freedmen.[54] Sextus Seppius Rogatus, buried at Sufetula in Africa Proconsularis, aged seventy.[55] Seppia Rufina, the mistress of Jovianus, a slave child buried at Venusia, aged eleven months and twenty-two days, in a second-century sepulchre built by Capriolus for himself, Jovianus, Aper, and Jovica.[56] Seppia Rufina, the mistress of slaves mentioned in a fragmentary inscription from Venusia, dating to the middle of the third century.[57] Seppius Rufus, the master of Rhodanus, a nomenclator, named in an inscription from Venusia, dating to the first quarter of the first century.[58] Gaius Seppius L. f. Rufus, a pontifex, and duumvir quinquennalis with the rank of praetor from an uncertain municipality, perhaps Abellinum in Samnium. He and his son, Gaius, dedicated a first-century tomb in that area to his wife, Calvia Sanctilla, a freedwoman, who died aged twenty-seven years and six months.[59] Gaius Seppius C. f. L. n. Rufus, along with his father, the pontifex Gaius Seppius Rufus, dedicated a first-century tomb near Abellinum to his mother, Calvia Sanctilla.[59] Quintus Seppius Q. f. Rufus, buried at Aequum Tuticum, along with Gavioleia Rufa, with a tomb paid for by the estate of Crittia Polla.[60] Seppius Sabinus, named in a first century dedicatory inscription from Parma in Cisalpine Gaul.[61] Gaius Seppius C. f. C. n. Sabinus, aged eight, buried at Aeclanum, along with his parents, Gaius Seppius Curvus and Spendia Prima.[28] Gaius Seppius C. l. Salvius, a freedman buried at Saepinum in Samnium during the first or second century, along with his mother-in-law, the freedwoman Magia Andracis, in a tomb built by his wife, Magia Stadio, also a freedwoman.[62] Seppia Saturina, buried at Numerus Syrorum.[63] Seppius Secundus, dedicated a monument at Numerus Syrorum to his brother, Seppius Marcellus, who died in AD 316.[39] Numerius Seppius A. f. Secundus, buried at Aeclanum along with his wife, Critia Polla, and their daughter, Seppia Posilla.[49] Publius Seppius Severus, a decurion and municipal duumvir at Bedaium, named in a sepulchral inscription, along with Claudius Juvavus and Claudia Florentina.[64] Publius Seppius Sex. f. Severus, one of the municipal duumvirs of Terventum, where he was buried, aged twenty-nine, along with his brothers, Gnaeus Seppius Cordus and Sextus Seppius Maximus, in a tomb built by their parents, Sextus Seppius Severus and Varia Maxima, dating to the late first century BC, or early first century AD.[26] Sextus Seppius Severus, the husband of Varia Maxima, with whom he dedicated a tomb at Terventum for their sons, Gnaeus Seppius Cordus, Sextus Seppius Maximus, and Publius Seppius Severus, dating to the late first century BC or early first century AD.[26] Seppius Silvanus, built a late second-century tomb at Venusia for Seppia Hesperis.[35] Seppia Tertia, donated a pot in memory of Gaius Propertius Idaeus, the son of Gaius Propertius Epitynchanus, buried at Rome aged nineteen years and six months.[65] Seppia Thisbe, buried at Concordia, together with Seppia Chrysaspis and Quintus Valerius Anthus, in a tomb dating to the late first or early second century.[24] Seppia Ther[...], buried at Rome, together with Manturia N[...], in a tomb built by Publius Longinius for his family and freedmen.[66] Seppia Trophime, built a tomb at Rome for her husband, Ofincius Felix, and their children, Aprilis and Quinquatralis, dating to the latter half of the first century, or the first half of the second.[67] See also List of Roman gentes References  Chase, pp. 150, 151.  Petersen, pp. 347, 348.  Chase, pp. 128, 129.  Chase, p. 138.  Chase, pp. 109, 110.  CIL XI, 2386.  CIL VIII, 3225.  AE 2016, 487.  EE, viii. 1-501.  CIL XI, 6763.  CIL X, 3780.  CIL V, 1941.  CIL X, 4991.  CIL V, 2016.  AE 1983, 286.  CIL IV, 5896.  Inscriptiones Italiae, xi. 1, 133.  CIL VI, 35815.  AE 1994, 449.  CIL VI, 26220.  CIL VI, 6897.  AE 2003, 507.  CIL VI, 5022.  CIL V, 1947.  CIL XIII, 7262, CIL XIII, 7275.  CIL IX, 2602.  AE 1978, 749.  CIL IX, 1049.  AE 1971, 112.  AE 1976, 221.  CIL IX, 1544, AE 1997, 399.  CIL VI, 37731.  CIL IX, 2305.  AE 2009, 200.  AE 2003, 382.  AE 2013, 339.  CIL II, 1711.  CIL IX, 1960.  CIL VIII, 9982.  CIL XI, 2717.  CIL IV, 8826.  CIL VIII, 18694.  CIL VI, 26742.  CIL IX, 1014.  CIL IX, 2745.  CIL X, 4815.  Prometheus, 1982-236.  CIL VI, 26219.  CIL X, 1064.  CIL VI, 5042.  CIL III, 5568.  AE 1999, 522.  CIL X, 5153.  CIL VI, 23598.  AE 1989, 817.  AE 2003, 455.  AE 2003, 508.  AE 2003, 386.  AE 2016, 330.  AE 1997, 398.  AE 1966, 116.  CIL IX, 2535.  CIL VIII, 21808.  Bayerische Vorgeschichtsblätter, 2017-111.  CIL VI, 25089.  CIL VI, 38601.  CIL VI, 4863. Bibliography Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present). Wilhelm Henzen, Ephemeris Epigraphica: Corporis Inscriptionum Latinarum Supplementum (Journal of Inscriptions: Supplement to the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, abbreviated EE), Institute of Roman Archaeology, Rome (1872–1913). 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). Hans Petersen, "The Numeral Praenomina of the Romans", in Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. xciii, pp. 347–354 (1962). Bayerische Vorgeschichtsblätter (Notes on Bavarian History), Bavarian Academy of Sciences, (1975–1989). Category: Roman gentes

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali:  Seppio – Ossia: Grice e Seppio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Seppio For the Seppii, my first-best choice is Lucius Seppius L. l. Princeps, the freedman buried at Vicalvi aged twenty-two, whose monument begs his mother not to weep because his time had come. He is not grand, but he is perfect. The whole force lies in a funerary utterance that speaks after the speaker cannot speak, addresses a mother who remains alive, and tries to regulate grief by means of a posthumous conversational move. SEPPIVS PRINCEPS. Mater, noli flere: tempus meum venit. (Mother, do not weep: my time came.) +> Your grief is acknowledged, but I ask you to treat my death as completed fate rather than as present injury. MATER. Fili, hoc dicis quia iam dolere non potes. (Son, you say this because you can no longer suffer.) +> The consolation may be easier for the dead than for the living. SEPPIVS PRINCEPS. Lapis dolet quantum licet. (The stone grieves as much as it may.) +> The inscription cannot feel, but it can preserve a controlled expression of care. MATER. Ergo tu me consolaris, an ego te memorem? (Then are you consoling me, or am I remembering you?) +> The tomb’s speech-act is unstable: it is both the son’s imagined address and the mother’s memorial construction. SEPPIVS PRINCEPS. Utrumque, si legis. (Both, if you read.) +> The consolation exists only in uptake; the living reader completes the dead speaker’s act. This is the clean Gricean case. The dead man cannot now intend in the ordinary ongoing way, but the inscription is arranged as if he speaks. The mother, or whoever commissioned the monument, gives him a posthumous voice. The utterance “do not weep” is protreptic: it is meant not merely to inform the mother that he died, but to induce an attitude toward the death. It is not bare epitaph; it is grief-management. It also gives Speranza a useful contrast with Seppiena Restituta. There the mother restores the daughter to public memory. Here the son, through the inscription, tries to restore the mother to composure. One is memorial naming; the other is posthumous consolation. Both depend on the stone’s being more than stone. Neither is natural meaning. The reader must recognise a human intention sedimented in the monument. The “Princeps” cognomen adds a small, dry joke. He is no emperor, no first man of the state, but a young freedman called Princeps who asks for first place only in his mother’s grief. The name is socially inflated and emotionally exact. He was perhaps nobody to Rome, but princeps to her. Dry Speranzian formula: Seppius Princeps did not live long enough to become first in anything public. His tomb therefore makes him first where it can: first in his mother’s memory, and first to tell her, rather hopelessly, not to cry.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali:  Sepulio – Ossia: Grice e Sepulio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sepulio Denarius of Publius Sepullius Macer, 44 BC, with the head of Julius Caesar on the obverse and Venus on the reverse. The legend on the obverse refers to Caesar's title of Dictator perpetuo.[1] The gens Sepullia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Hardly any members of this gens are mentioned in ancient writers, of whom the most famous was Sepullius Bassus, a rhetorician known to Seneca the Elder.[2]  Origin The nomen Sepullius belongs to a class of gentilicia apparently formed from cognomina ending in the diminutive suffix -ulus.[3] In this case, the nomen would have derived from Sepulus or a similar name, presumably a diminutive of the old Latin praenomen Septimus, originally given to a seventh son or seventh child, or Seppius, its Oscan equivalent. Sepullius would thus be derived from the same root as the more common Septimius.[4]  The Sepullii were perhaps from Patavium in Venetia and Histria, as several of the inscriptions bearing this name are from that area.[5]  Members This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation. Marcus Sepullius, one of the municipal officials at Pompeii in Campania in 46 BC.[6] Publius Sepullius Macer, a moneyer in 44 BC, the year of Caesar's assassination, depicted the great comet of that year upon his coins, along with the wreathed head of Caesar, and the goddess Venus, from whom the Julii claimed descent.[7][8][9][10] Sepullius Bassus, an orator and contemporary of Seneca the Elder.[11][8] Gaius Sepullius C. l. Abdaeus, a freedman buried at Rome in the late first century BC, or early first century AD.[12] Undated Sepulii Sepullius, dedicated a monument in memory of Timetus at Interamna Lirenas in southern Latium.[13] Publius Sepullius P. f., a maker of small pottery, whose maker's mark is found on pottery from Gallia Cisalpina, Narbonensis, and Patavium in Venetia and Histria.[14] Quintus Sepullius, named in an inscription from Rome.[15] Sepullia Ɔ. l. Fausta, a freedwoman, and wife of the tibicen Gaius Urveilius Pedo, with whom she was buried at Aquinum in Latium.[16] Publius Sepullius P. l. Florens, a freedman buried at Patavium.[17] Gaius Sepullius C. f. Maturus, buried at Patavium, along with Ettia Prima, perhaps his wife.[18] Gaius Sepullius Onesimus, an officinator buried at Patavium.[19] Gaius Sepullius C. f. Rufus, buried at Cyzicus in Asia, along with his wife, Caecinia Prima, aged forty-nine.[20] Publius Sepullius P. f. Tacitus, buried at Patavium.[21] See also List of Roman gentes References  Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, p. 490.  Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 473 ("Bassus, Sepullius").  Chase, pp. 123, 124.  Chase, pp. 131, 150, 151.  Wiseman, "Some Republican Senators", p. 130.  CIL IV, 60.  Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum, v. 306.  PIR, S. 360.  Scott, "The Sidus Iulium and the Apotheosis of Caesar".  Gurval, "Caesar's Comet".  Seneca the Elder, Controversiae, iii. 16, 17, 20–22.  CIL VI, 19521.  AE 2010, 260.  CIL XII, 05686,0819, CIL V, 8112, 76a-e.  CIL XV, 7223.  AE 1974, 235.  CIL V, 3036.  CIL V, 2948.  CIL V, 2885.  CIL III, 373.  CIL V, 3037. Bibliography Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Elder), Controversiae. Joseph Hilarius Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum (The Study of Ancient Coins, 1792–1798). 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). 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). Paul von Rohden, Elimar Klebs, & Hermann Dessau, Prosopographia Imperii Romani (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, abbreviated PIR), Berlin (1898). Kenneth Scott, "The Sidus Iulium and the Apotheosis of Caesar", in Classical Philology, vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 257–272 (July 1941). T. P. Wiseman, "Some Republican Senators and Their Tribes", The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 1 (May, 1964), pp. 122-133. Michael Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, Cambridge University Press, 1974, ISBN 9780521074926. Robert A. Gurval, "Caesar's Comet: the Politics and Poetics of an Augustan Myth", in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, vol. 42, pp. 39–71 (1997). Category: Roman gentes

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali:  Sepulio – Ossia: Grice e Sepulio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sepulio For the Sepullii, the first-best Grice-Speranza choice is surely Publius Sepullius Macer, the moneyer of 44 BC who placed Caesar, dictator perpetuo, Venus, and the sidus Iulium-comet into coinage. Sepullius Bassus the rhetorician is respectable, but Macer is better because he gives a compact Roman case of public meaning by image, title, and circulation. A coin is not conversation in the drawing-room sense; it is a state-authorised utterance that passes from hand to hand while pretending to be mere money. The denarius is almost a portable implicature. Obverse: Caesar’s wreathed head, named dictator perpetuo. Reverse: Venus, ancestor of the Julii; and, in some issues, the star or comet that becomes the sign of Caesar’s apotheosis. What is said, so to speak, is the legend and the image: Caesar, perpetual dictator; Venus; the star. What is meant, or made recoverable, is larger: Caesar is not merely a magistrate, not merely dead or alive in the ordinary political register, but attached to divine ancestry and celestial confirmation. The coin makes political theology spendable. A compact vignette: SEPULLIVS MACER. Caesarem cum sidere signabo. (I shall mark Caesar with the star.) +> Caesar’s political status is to be read under celestial confirmation. SCEPTICVS. Nummus est, non caelum. (It is a coin, not the sky.) +> The medium is too ordinary to bear divine meaning. SEPULLIVS. Ideo valet: caelum semel videtur, nummus cotidie. (That is why it works: the sky is seen once, the coin every day.) +> Repetition in circulation will fix what the omen only suggested. SCEPTICVS. Dictator perpetuo satis dicebat. (Dictator perpetuo already said enough.) +> The explicit title is politically dangerous without further ornament. SEPULLIVS. Satis politice; non satis divine. (Enough politically; not enough divinely.) +> The legend gives office, but the iconography supplies consecrating interpretation. SCEPTICVS. Ergo Venus avia nummum tenet? (So grandmother Venus holds the coin?) +> The Julian genealogy is being made numismatic and public. SEPULLIVS. Non tenet; loquitur. (She does not hold it; she speaks.) +> The reverse is a visual utterance: ancestry is being communicated without argument. This is why Macer is so good for Grice. The coin’s meaning is not exhausted by denomination or metal. It is not merely a natural sign, nor just an artistic device, but an institutional sign whose audience is every user of Roman currency. It exploits common ground: the Julian claim from Venus, the public memory of Caesar, the comet, and the dangerous title dictator perpetuo. The coin makes a claim while preserving deniability through iconography. No one needs to say, crudely, “Caesar is divine and his heir benefits.” The coin lets Rome infer it while buying bread. The sidus Iulium is especially Gricean. A comet may naturally signify, in the loose ancient sense, a portent. But once placed on a coin, it becomes a managed signum ex institutione. The phenomenon has been selected, framed, and redistributed as public meaning. The natural sign is converted into political-nonnatural meaning. In Speranza’s preferred phrase, the sky is edited into currency. Dry Speranzian formula: Sepullius Macer did not write a treatise on apotheosis. He minted one. The coin says Caesar; it shows Venus; it lets the star do the rest. And what is the etym. of 'perpetuus' -- cf. legal term Hart and Grice would be familiar with 'in perpetuity' -- is there an entailment or mere implicature that Nietzsche is right and the end of time is wrong? Thanks Yes. Perpetuus is from per + petere in the sense of “going/aiming continuously through,” so its core force is continuous, uninterrupted, unbroken, carried on without a gap. It does not primarily mean “eternal” in the metaphysical, end-of-time sense. It more safely means “continuous for the relevant duration,” “permanent,” “uninterrupted,” or “lasting without stated term.” That matters for dictator perpetuo. It is not necessarily a thesis in cosmology. It does not entail Nietzschean eternal recurrence, nor a denial of the end of time. It means, politically and legally, that Caesar’s dictatorship is not temporary, annual, or emergency-bound in the old republican way. It has no ordinary terminal date. So: DICTATOR PERPETVO (dictator in perpetuity / perpetual dictator) +> This office is no longer a temporary magistracy to be laid down after the crisis. In legal English, “in perpetuity” behaves similarly. It does not usually require that the universe never ends. It means without limit of time within the operative legal order, or not determinable by a fixed term. Hart and Grice would both see the point: legal perpetuity is rule-governed durability, not eschatology. A compact Sepullius/coin vignette: SEPULLIVS. Dictator perpetuo inscribam. (I shall inscribe “dictator perpetuo.”) +> Caesar’s power is to be read as continuous, not emergency-limited. SCEPTICVS. Ergo in aeternum? (Then forever?) +> Perpetuus is being inflated into metaphysical eternity. SEPULLIVS. Non caelum metior, sed magistratum. (I am not measuring the heavens, but the magistracy.) +> The term concerns office-duration, not cosmic time. SCEPTICVS. Sed res publica finem amat. (But the republic loves an ending.) +> Republican office is intelligible through term-limits. SEPULLIVS. Hic finis non ponitur. (Here no ending is set.) +> The dangerous point is absence of ordinary constitutional termination. So the entailment is weak; the implicature is dangerous. Perpetuus does not entail eternal existence. But in a republican ear it strongly implicates that the old rhythm of office, crisis, resignation, and return to private status has been suspended. That is why the word was explosive. It did not need to mean “until the end of time.” “Not until the next lawful end” was already enough. Dry Speranzian formula: perpetuus is not aeternus wearing a toga. It is continuity with no convenient stopping-place. On a coin of 44 BC, that was more than enough. And what about the rhetorician? Because Grice never had a class in rhetoric -- as tutee or tutor -- and people keep saying that all that is all he does! Grice thinks the triviality of the trivium is 'grammatica' -- letteratura -- rhetorica -- oratoria -- logica -- dialectica. "All an English gentleman needs to know" Thanks

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali:  Sepulio – Ossia: Grice e Sepulio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sepulio The rhetorician is actually a very useful second Sepullius, precisely because Grice would be faintly irritated by being told that all he ever did was rhetoric. Sepullius Bassus lets Speranza turn that irritation into a joke about the trivium. Grice’s position would be something like this: if rhetoric means ornamental persuasion, then no; if rhetoric means the disciplined study of how an utterance is fitted to an audience and an occasion, then the accusation begins to sound less damaging than intended. The trivium was never trivial in the modern sense. Grammatica gives one textual and linguistic discipline; rhetorica gives one public address, persuasion, and arrangement; dialectica or logica gives one argument and consequence. “All an English gentleman needs to know” is funny because it is both absurdly under-stated and rather nearly true for a certain Oxford education. SEPULLIVS BASSVS. Rhetor sum, non nugator. (I am a rhetorician, not a trifler.) +> Rhetoric is to be counted as disciplined civic speech, not mere verbal display. GRICE. Id ipsum omnes de me dicunt. (That is exactly what they all say about me.) +> The charge that one is “only doing rhetoric” is familiar and usually lazy. BASSVS. Quid igitur inter nos interest? (Then what is the difference between us?) +> If both study speech in use, the boundary between rhetoric and philosophy looks unstable. GRICE. Tu persuadere doces; ego quaero quid persuadens significet. (You teach persuasion; I ask what the persuader means.) +> Rhetoric may aim at effect; Gricean analysis asks after speaker-meaning and recoverable intention. BASSVS. Sed effectus sine intellectu non venit. (But effect does not come without understanding.) +> Successful persuasion presupposes audience uptake. GRICE. Et intellectus sine ratione non satis est. (And understanding without reason is not enough.) +> Uptake must be explicable by rational inference, not only by psychological impact. That gives a decent Grice/Speranza formula: Sepullius Bassus is not interesting because he makes Grice a rhetorician; he is interesting because he shows why the accusation is too crude. Rhetoric, at its best, studies the shaped utterance under audience-addressed conditions. Grice studies how an utterer’s meaning is recoverable under rational expectations governing conversation. The overlap is real; the difference is not negligible. The dry close would be: the trivium is called trivial only by those who have forgotten how difficult it is to speak, argue, and be understood. Grice never took a class in rhetoric; he merely spent his life explaining why successful utterance is not magic. That is close enough for Bassus to smile, and not close enough for Grice to plead guilty. and what is or are the source/sources the entry for the gens in Wiki gives for him? The gens 'sepulio' looks like 'sepelio' which in Itailan, one believes, has to do with burial -- is there a cognate in English for that word re: burial which sounds like the name of this gens? Thanks For Sepullius Bassus, the source named in the gens entry is Seneca the Elder, Controversiae, iii.16, iii.17, and iii.20–22. That is enough to place him in the declamatory-rhetorical world rather than in a surviving corpus of his own. In other words, he is not “Bassus, author preserved,” but Bassus as remembered through Seneca’s rhetorical archive. On the etymology: Sepullius looks temptingly like sepelio, “I bury,” and Italian seppellire does indeed come from Latin sepelire/sepelio, “to bury.” But that seems to be a false friend for the gens-name. The entry’s derivation of Sepullius is from a Septimus/Seppius-type numeral root, “seventh,” via a diminutive or patronymic formation, not from burial. Still, the resemblance is too good for Speranza to ignore. The English cognate or descendant family is not a common everyday word like “sepulchre” by accident: English sepulchre, sepulchral, sepulture all come through Latin sepulcrum / sepultura, from the same burying root sepelire. So: Latin sepelire = to bury Latin sepulcrum = tomb, burial-place English sepulchre = tomb English sepulchral = tomb-like, funereal English sepulture = burial But Sepullius, as a nomen, is not etymologically “the burying gens.” It only sounds as if it ought to be. That gives a dry Speranzian joke: SEPULLIVS BASSVS. Nomen meum sepulcrum redolet? (Does my name smell of the tomb?) +> My nomen is being heard under the wrong etymology. GRAMMATICVS. Non ex sepelire, sed ex septimo. (Not from “to bury,” but from “seventh.”) +> The resemblance to burial is phonetic temptation, not derivation. BASSVS. Tum non sepultus sum, sed septimus. (Then I am not buried, but seventh.) +> The false etymology is rejected, though the joke survives. GRICE. Et tamen rhetor in Seneca sepultus iacet. (And yet the rhetor lies buried in Seneca.) +> The name is not sepulchral by origin, but Bassus survives only as an embedded remains in another author’s text. That may be the best formulation: Sepullius is not from sepelio, but Sepullius Bassus is, archivally speaking, sepultus apud Senecam. The etymology is false; the literary condition is true. Does this help? Can you summarise? Thanks -- try a Griceian reading -- thanks Here is the Latin text alongside the English translation for the sections of Seneca the Elder's Controversiae(Book 3, Preface 16–17 and 20–22) detailing the anecdotes regarding the Roman orator Cassius Severus, his critique of the declaimer Cestius Pius, and his interactions with the rhetorician Sepullius Bassus. [1, 2] Latin Text [16] ... Deinde adiecit: "si pantomimus essem, Bathyllus essem, si deklamator, Cestius." Hoc illi Cestius numquam wybaczył, et cum in senatum intrare non posset, ut in foro se vindicaret, subinde inferebat actionibus suis: "quaerunt aliqui, cur hoc non dixerim: Cassius mihi prohibuit." [17] Cum hanc eius insolentiam Cassius Severus ferret moleste, hoc modo eam fregit. Habebat Cestius in schola sua adulescentem non minus stultum quam divitem, nomine Sepullium Bassum. Huic adeo placere se Cestius volebat ut et ipse illi aduleretur et ab illo se laudari gauderet. Hunc adulescentem Cassius nactus in foro, cum praeteriret Cestius: "rogat te," inquit, "Sepullius Bassus ut ad se venias." Cestius quasi ad discentis officium properans sequitur. Cassius eum in tabernam librariam duxit et proferri iussit orationem Cestii contra Milonem scriptam. "Hanc," inquit, "lex." [1, 2] English Translation [16] ... Then [Cassius] added: "If I were a pantomime, I would be Bathyllus; if I were a declaimer, I would be Cestius." Cestius never forgave him for this, and since he could not enter the senate to get his revenge in the forum, he constantly inserted into his speeches: "Some ask why I did not say this: Cassius forbade me." [1] [17] As Cassius Severus bore this insolence with great annoyance, he broke it in the following manner. Cestius had in his school a young man who was no less foolish than he was rich, named Sepullius Bassus. Cestius wanted to please him so much that he even flattered the boy himself and delighted in being praised by him. Cassius, having run into this youth in the forum while Cestius was passing by, said: "Sepullius Bassus asks that you come to him." Cestius, hurrying as if to the duty of a student, followed along. Cassius led him into a bookshop and ordered Cestius’ own published speech Against Milo to be brought out. "Read this," he said. [1, 2] Seneca, Controversiae Book 3, Preface 20–22 Latin Text [20] "Volo," inquit Cassius, "ostendere tibi, quam subitaneae sint istae ex scholis in forum migrationes. Veni mecum." Duxit illum ad praetorem, ubi Sepullius Bassus ius dicebat. "Adfueris," inquit, "Sepullio?" "Adfuero," inquit Cestius. "Ego illum," inquit Cassius, "postulaturus sum, quod bona paterna dissipet." Constitit Cestius et cum homine loqui coepit: "quid agis, Cassi? adulescens nobilis est, amicus meus; ne feceris." [21] "Immo faciam," inquit Cassius, "et ut scias me serio facere, ecce in ius eum voco." Accedit ad tribunal et in ius vocat Sepullium. Cestius trepidare, verbis inconditis et multo deterioribus quam quibus in schola uti solebat deprecari. "Videsne," inquit Cassius, "quam aliter in schola loquaris, aliter in foro? in schola nihil times, in foro omnia; in schola omnia tibi licent, in foro nihil." [22] "Et ut scias," inquit, "me non de Sepullio Bassi agere, sed de te, hic te dimitto; Sepullium autem amicum tuum non postulo, sed admoneo ut te magistro utatur ad declamandum, non ad agendum." Ita Cestius circumscriptus et diffamatus ex iudicio discessit, nec deinceps Cassium in actionibus suis nominare ausus est. English Translation [20] "I want to show you," said Cassius, "how sudden those migrations from the schools into the forum really are. Come with me." He led him to the praetor, where Sepullius Bassus was handling law-court cases. "Will you act as an advocate for Sepullius?" asked Cassius. "I will," replied Cestius. "I," said Cassius, "am going to prosecute him on the grounds that he is squandering his paternal estate." Cestius stopped short and began to reason with the man: "What are you doing, Cassius? He is a noble youth and my friend; do not do this." [1] [21] "On the contrary, I will do it," said Cassius, "and so you know I am acting in earnest, look, I am summoning him to court." He approached the tribunal and summoned Sepullius. Cestius began to panic, begging for mercy in disorganized words that were much worse than those he was accustomed to using in his school. "Do you see," said Cassius, "how differently you speak in school compared to the forum? In school you fear nothing; in the forum you fear everything. In school everything is permitted to you; in the forum, nothing." [22] "And so you know," he continued, "that I am not bringing an action against Sepullius Bassus, but against you—I dismiss you here. As for your friend Sepullius, I am not prosecuting him, but I advise him to use you as a teacher for declaiming, not for practicing law." Thus, Cestius left the court outmaneuvered and discredited, and never again dared to mention Cassius' name in his speeches. [1] If you are studying this passage for a specific project, let me know: Do you need an analytical breakdown of the rhetorical terms used (like declamator, colores, or actiones)? Would you like more historical context on the rivalry between Cassius Severus and Cestius Pius? Yes, it helps, and the Grice/Speranza reading is very strong. The passage is not really “about” Sepullius Bassus as an independent rhetorician of substance; it is about how Cassius Severus uses Bassus as bait to expose Cestius Pius. Bassus is introduced with Senecan cruelty as “non minus stultum quam divitem,” no less stupid than rich. That phrase is already doing social work: Bassus is not the admired pupil but the wealthy foolish pupil whose praise Cestius wants too much. His function is conversational and theatrical, not doctrinal. The sequence is this. Cassius has mocked Cestius with the famous line that, if he were a pantomime, he would be Bathyllus; if a declaimer, Cestius. Cestius cannot forgive the insult and keeps dragging Cassius into his declamations by saying, “Cassius forbade me.” Cassius then decides to break the habit. He sees that Cestius flatters Sepullius Bassus, a rich foolish young man in his school, and makes use of that dependence. Cassius tells Cestius, in effect, that Bassus summons him. Cestius follows, thinking he is attending to a pupil-client. Cassius leads him into a bookshop and makes him read his own written speech against Milo. Then he drags the situation toward the forum, where Bassus is involved in legal business, and threatens to prosecute Bassus for wasting his patrimony. Cestius panics. Cassius has achieved his point: the school declaimer who sounds free and fearless in imaginary cases collapses in the real forum. The Gricean point is excellent because Cassius is staging an experiment in uptake. Cestius’ school-performance carries one implicature: “I am a bold, forensic, Cassius-defying speaker.” Cassius changes the setting and lets reality test that implicature. In the school, Cestius can say anything because nothing bites. In the forum, words have consequences; patrons, pupils, property, litigation, and reputation enter the exchange. Cassius’ lesson is almost Austinian before Austin: felicity conditions matter. A declamatory utterance that works in schola may misfire in foro. A compact Grice/Speranza formulation would be: CASSIVS. ROGAT TE SEPVLLIVS BASSVS VT AD SE VENIAS. (Sepullius Bassus asks you to come to him.) +> Your dependence on the rich fool will make you follow. CESTIVS. EO; DISCIPVLVS OFFICIO MAGISTRI INDIGET. (I am going; a pupil needs his teacher’s duty.) +> I treat this as school-patronage, not as a trap. CASSIVS. HANC ORATIONEM LEGE. (Read this speech.) +> Your written forensic competence is about to be tested outside its safe setting. CESTIVS. CVR IN LIBRARIA? (Why in a bookshop?) +> The shift from school to text to public use is becoming suspicious. CASSIVS. NVNC AD FORVM. SEPVLLIVM POSTVLATVRVS SVM. (Now to the forum. I am going to prosecute Sepullius.) +> Let us see whether your school courage survives real litigation. CESTIVS. NE FECERIS: ADULESCENS NOBILIS EST, AMICVS MEVS. (Do not do it: he is a noble youth, my friend.) +> I abandon rhetorical freedom when my social interest is endangered. CASSIVS. VIDESNE? IN SCHOLA NIHIL TIMES; IN FORO OMNIA. (Do you see? In school you fear nothing; in the forum, everything.) +> Your declamatory boldness was venue-dependent. CASSIVS. NON DE SEPVLLIO AGO, SED DE TE. (I am not bringing an action against Sepullius, but against you.) +> Bassus was the instrument; Cestius was the real defendant. That last line is the key. The “case” against Bassus is not the real case. Bassus is used as a semiotic instrument to make Cestius reveal the difference between rhetorical pose and forensic capacity. Cassius is not prosecuting Bassus; he is prosecuting Cestius’ implicature of competence. So Sepullius Bassus is philosophically useful even if personally rather unflattering. He is the wealthy foolish addressee whose social value allows Cassius to create a practical test. The richer Bassus is, the more exposed Cestius becomes. Seneca preserves Bassus not as a thinker, but as the object through which the difference between schola and forum becomes visible. Dry Speranzian formula: Sepullius Bassus did not need to be wise. He needed only to be rich enough for Cestius to care. Cassius then made that care speak. So the insults are two: the pantonmime (towards one) and 'not less rich than stupid' (towards our Sep.)? In your conv. you have the rhetor re-adjust his previous condem. of Sep. as 'noble adolescent'? Can it compare to Grice' calling Jones's handwriting 'beautiful' as a case of DAMN -- and then re-adjusting if Jones pursues suit for defamation? Thanks Yes. There are two insults, and then a third, more interesting, re-adjustment. Cassius’s insult to Cestius is theatrical and comparative: if I were a pantomime, I would be Bathyllus; if I were a declaimer, I would be Cestius. It reduces Cestius to a type: not an orator of the forum, but a school performer. Seneca’s insult to Sepullius Bassus is more direct and social: “non minus stultum quam divitem” — no less stupid than rich. Bassus is made into the rich fool whose praise Cestius enjoys too much. The “adulescens nobilis est, amicus meus” then becomes very Gricean because Cestius re-describes Bassus once Bassus becomes useful, endangered, or socially costly. Earlier, under Seneca’s telling, Bassus is a foolish rich pupil. Under threat of Cassius prosecuting him, Cestius suddenly produces the protective description: noble youth, my friend. That is not necessarily a contradiction, but it is a change of conversational task. A compact reconstruction: CASSIVS. Sepullius Bassus non minus stultus quam dives est. (Sepullius Bassus is no less stupid than rich.) +> His wealth explains why Cestius flatters him; his judgment does not deserve respect. CESTIVS. Sepullius me laudat. (Sepullius praises me.) +> His praise matters because his social position and money matter. CASSIVS. Sepullium postulaturus sum. (I am going to prosecute Sepullius.) +> Your school relation will now be tested in the forum. CESTIVS. Ne feceris: adulescens nobilis est, amicus meus. (Do not do it: he is a noble youth, my friend.) +> The rich fool must now be treated as noble and dear because his danger threatens my own standing. CASSIVS. Non de Sepullio ago, sed de te. (I am not bringing the case against Sepullius, but against you.) +> Bassus is the instrument; Cestius’s pretended forensic courage is the real defendant. The comparison with Grice’s “beautiful handwriting” is excellent. “Jones has beautiful handwriting” in the testimonial case is a kind of polite damnation: it says something true and favourable, but its relevance makes the hearer infer that nothing philosophically stronger can be said. If Jones later sues for defamation, Grice can retreat to the explicit content: “I said his handwriting was beautiful.” The injury lies in the selection and conversational placement, not in the literal predicate. Likewise, Cestius can retreat from “Bassus is a rich fool” to “Bassus is a noble youth and my friend” depending on the occasion. Both may be compatible under brutal Roman social logic: foolish in intellect, noble in standing; ridiculous as critic, valuable as patron; stupid in school, dangerous to lose in the forum. The re-description is not pure lying. It is forensic opportunism. Dry Speranzian formula: Bassus is stupid when he praises Cestius badly, rich when Cestius needs his applause, noble when Cassius threatens him, and a friend when the forum begins to bite. Grice would call that not inconsistency exactly, but the career of a description under pressure. and from the seneca references it would seem our hero, S., is not himself a 'rhetorician' but one who attended the lessons by one -- quite a difference -- and one who is more of a lawyer litigating cases in the forum? Thanks -- orator can be 'ambiguous' -- but 'rhetorician' seems a professional title, rather than a skill -- or a profession as an advocate? Thanks Yes — exactly. From the Seneca passage, Sepullius Bassus is not really “the rhetorician” in the professional sense. He is rather a rich, foolish young attendee or pupil in Cestius’ school, useful to Cassius Severus because Cestius cares absurdly much about his praise. So the entry’s phrase “Sepullius Bassus, a rhetorician known to Seneca the Elder” is at best loose. The evidence you supplied makes him look less like a rhetor and more like a wealthy young declamation-school hanger-on, perhaps a would-be advocate or litigant, and socially significant enough that Cestius flatters him. Seneca’s point is not that Bassus has rhetorical authority, but that Cestius is degraded by wanting approval from such a pupil. The key contrast is: rhetor = teacher or professional practitioner of rhetoric, often a school figure. declamator = performer in the declamatory school-world, not necessarily a real advocate. orator = public speaker, which may mean serious advocate/statesman, but can also be used broadly. advocatus / patronus = the legal advocate or supporter in court. causidicus = pleader, sometimes with a lower or more professional flavour. Bassus, in this anecdote, is not clearly any of these as a settled profession. He is the rich foolish youth in whose orbit Cestius becomes ridiculous. When Cassius threatens to prosecute Bassus for squandering his patrimony, Cestius suddenly has to move from schola to forum — and fails. That is the whole joke. Bassus is the test-object, not the master-speaker. The Grice/Speranza correction would be: SEPULLIVS BASSVS. Cestium audio. (I attend Cestius.) +> I belong to the school as pupil or admirer, not as master. CESTIVS. Bassus me laudat. (Bassus praises me.) +> His praise matters because he is rich enough to matter. CASSIVS. Non rhetorem experiar, sed rhetoris amicum. (I shall test not the rhetorician, but the rhetorician’s friend.) +> Bassus is bait; Cestius is the real target. CESTIVS. Nobilis adulescens est, amicus meus. (He is a noble youth, my friend.) +> I redescribe the foolish rich pupil as socially valuable once danger reaches the forum. Dry Speranzian formula: Sepullius Bassus is not preserved as a rhetorician; he is preserved as the rich pupil whose stupidity was rhetorically useful to Cassius. Seneca makes him foolish, Cestius makes him important, and Cassius makes him an argument.

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali:  Sepunio – Ossia: Grice e Sepunio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sepunio The gens Sepunia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens are mentioned by ancient writers, but several were municipal officers of towns in Latium, Samnium, and Campania, and others are known from inscriptions.  Members This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation. Gaius Sepunius, named in an inscription from Pompeii in Campania.[1] Lucius Sepunius L. f., one of the municipal duumvirs at Aeclanum in Samnium, according to an inscription dating to the second quarter of the first century BC.[2] Marcus Sepunius, the master of Ascla, a slave at Minturnae in Latium about 66 BC.[3] Titus Sepunius T. f., one of the curatores viarium at Rome early in the first century BC.[4] Titus Sepunius T. f., one of the duumvirs at Venusia in Samnium in 30 BC.[5] Sepunius Alexander, mentioned in a first-century inscription from Rome.[6] Sepunius Clarus, a decurion at Antium in Latium in AD 44.[7] Lucius Sepunius Ɔ. l. Faustus, a freedman buried at Rome in the first half of the first century AD.[8] Sepunia Gorge, a woman buried at Thenae in Africa Proconsularis, aged thirty.[9] Marcus Sepunius Nicephor, buried at Rome, in a tomb dating to the first half of the first century.[10] Titus Sepunius T. f. Postumus, a centurion in the fifteenth legion, buried at Mutina in Cisalpine Gaul, in a tomb built by his sister, Sepunia Secunda.[11] Lucius Sepunius L. f. Sandilianus, one of the duumviri jure dicundo at Pompeii in the latter part of the first century BC. He was given a public funeral toward the end of the century, or early in the first century AD.[12][13] Sepunia T. f. Secunda, built a tomb at Mutina for her brother, the centurion Titus Sepunius Postumus, and another person, Lucius Pugilius Expectatus.[11] Marcus Sepunius M. l. Statius, a freedman at Minturnae, mentioned in an inscription dating to the first half of the first century BC.[14] See also List of Roman gentes References  CIL IV, 1460.  CIL I, 3191.  CIL I, 2683.  CIL VI, 3824.  CIL IX, 422.  NSA, 1923-371.  CIL X, 6638.  CIL VI, 5921.  BCTH, 1908-57.  CIL VI, 26289.  AE 2013, 516.  CIL X, 802.  Borelli, Un Impegno per Pompei, 32EN.  AE 1996, 377. Bibliography Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated CIL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present). Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità (News of Excavations from Antiquity, abbreviated NSA), Accademia dei Lincei (1876–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). Licia Vlad Borelli, Un Impegno per Pompei, Mailand (1983). 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:  Sepunio – Ossia: Grice e Sepunio -- Grex griceiana – verbalia: Sepunio For the Sepunii, my first-best choice is Lucius Sepunius Sandilianus, the Pompeian duumvir iure dicundo who was later awarded a public funeral. He is the best Grice-Speranza figure because he gives a local, municipal version of what Rome usually reserves for grand names: office, law-speaking, public honour, and posthumous civic uptake. The man’s real distinction is not that he conquered anything, but that a town decided his death should be publicly interpreted. The title writes itself: Grice e Sepunio: funus publicum. SEPVNIVS. Ius dicere didici, non de me dicere. (I learned to administer law, not to speak about myself.) +> My public identity lies in office, not self-display. DECVRIO. Ideo civitas de te dicet. (Therefore the city will speak about you.) +> Public honour is appropriate precisely because private self-advertisement is absent. SEPVNIVS. Funus meum domesticum satis erit. (A household funeral will be enough for me.) +> Death should remain within family limits. DECVRIO. Non satis civitati. (Not enough for the community.) +> His service has made the death public property. CIVIS. Quid funus publicum dicit? (What does a public funeral say?) +> The rite is being treated as a civic utterance, not mere ceremony. DECVRIO. Hunc virum commune fuisse. (That this man belonged to us all.) +> The community claims him as a shared civic figure. SEPVNIVS. Tum domus mea pompam amittit? (Then does my household lose the procession?) +> Public honour may displace private grief. DECVRIO. Immo domus tua civitatem accipit. (Rather, your household receives the city.) +> The public rite enlarges, rather than cancels, familial mourning. The Gricean point is that funus publicum is not merely a burial arrangement. It is an institutional speech-act. The city says, without needing a sentence, that the deceased’s life has crossed from private memory into public meaning. A municipal duumvir iure dicundo is a particularly neat case, because his office was itself tied to authorised speech: he said the law, or administered the juridical voice of the town. At death, the town returns the favour by speaking him. Sandilianus is therefore better than the centurion Postumus, though Postumus with his sister’s tomb is moving; better than the curator viarum, though roads are always tempting for Grice; and better than a mere inscriptional name from Pompeii. Sandilianus lets Speranza show how a minor local Roman becomes meaningful through civic uptake. The town does not simply dispose of his body. It classifies the life. Dry Speranzian formula: Sepunius Sandilianus spent his office telling Pompeii what counted. At his death, Pompeii returned the compliment and made him count.