UT

 

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

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Utilio – Ossia: Grice ed Utilio – Grex griceiana – verbalia: Utilio H. P. GRICE E J. L. SPERANZA -- GREX -- VERBALIA: UTILIO The gens Utilia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Almost no members of this gens are mentioned in history, but a number are known from inscriptions.  Origin The nomen Utilius belongs to a large class of gentilicia originally formed from cognomina ending in the diminutive suffix -ulus and related suffixes.[1] The root, utilis, would have been bestowed on someone thought useful, helpful, capable, or suitable in some manner.[2]  Praenomina The praenomen found with the largest number of inscriptions of the Utilii is Gnaeus, which was common throughout Roman history, but only used by a minority of families. Other praenomina found in epigraphy include Lucius, Marcus, and Publius, each of which was common at all periods.  Members This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation. Gnaeus Utilius, the master of Antiochus, a slave named in an inscription from Cora in Latium, dating from the middle portion of the first century BC.[3] Gnaeus Utilius Cn. l. Eros, a freedman named in an inscription from Rome, dating from the first half of the first century.[4] Utilia Alce, dedicated a tomb at Rome, dating from the latter half of the first century, for her grandson, Quintus Plotius Celer, aged one year, five months, and seven days.[5] Gnaeus Utilius Januarius, dedicated a tomb at Ulubrae in Latium, dating between the middle of the first century and the end of the second, for his foster son, Marcus Asidonius Atticus, aged seven years, eleven months, and fourteen days.[6] Utilia M. l. Myrtale, a freedwoman, wife of the freedman Marcus Valerius Herma, and the mother of Valeria Septimina, for whom she and Herma built a second-century tomb at Ariminum in Cisalpine Gaul. The inscription naming this family may be a forgery.[7] Utilius, reportedly the lover of Faustina the Younger, whom Marcus Aurelius nonetheless advanced, is probably to be identified with Marcus Tutilius Pontianus Gentianus.[8][9] Lucius Utilius L. f. Sabinianus, a native of Fanum Fortunae, in Umbria, was a soldier in the twelfth urban cohort at Rome in AD 197.[10] Undated Utilii Utilia P. l. Hilara, a freedwoman buried at Rome.[11] See also List of Roman gentes References  Chase, pp. 122, 123.  Cassell's Latin and English Dictionary, s.v. utilis.  CIL X, 6514.  CIL VI, 12198.  AE 2001, 414  CIL X, 6491.  CIL XI, 528.  Julius Capitolinus, "The Life of Marcus Aurelius", 29.  PIR, vol. III, p. 491 ('U', No. 690).  CIL VI, 2384.  Ferrua, "Nuove Iscrizioni della Via Ostiense", p. 106. Bibliography Aelius Lampridius, Aelius Spartianus, Flavius Vopiscus, Julius Capitolinus, Trebellius Pollio, and Vulcatius Gallicanus, Historia Augusta (Lives of the Emperors). 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). Antonio Ferrua, "Nuove Iscrizioni della Via Ostiense" (New Inscriptions from the Via Ostiensis), No. 5a, in Epigraphica, No. 21, pp. 97–116 (1959). D.P. Simpson, Cassell's Latin and English Dictionary, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York (1963). Category: Roman gentes And for THIS gens? Thanks

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Utilio – Ossia: Grice ed Utilio – Grex griceiana – verbalia: Utilio The Utilii are delightful because, unlike the Ursii (bears), Urbanii (city folk), or Umbrii (Umbrians), their very name seems to derive from a moral and practical adjective:  utilis "useful," "serviceable," "helpful," "advantageous." [GREXv3 | Word]  For a Gricean, this is almost too good to be true. If one were inventing a Roman gens to embody the Cooperative Principle, one might well invent:  gens Utilia  the family of the Helpful Chaps. After all, Grice's conversational principle is not:  Be truthful.  Nor:  Be elegant.  Nor:  Be philosophical.  But roughly:  Make your contribution such as is required by the accepted purpose of the conversation.  That is astonishingly close to:  Be useful.  Or in Latin:  Esto utilis.   Indeed, among all these gentes, the Utilii may be the most naturally Gricean in nomenclature. Compare: Urseius  bear-like.  Urbanius  urban.  Umbrius  Umbrian.  Utilius  useful.  One can almost imagine Grice exclaiming:  "At last, a Roman family named after my maxim!"  (Ha.)  The most interesting member for our purposes is probably:  Gnaeus Utilius Januarius,  who built a tomb for his foster son, Marcus Asidonius Atticus, who died aged seven years, eleven months, and fourteen days. [GREXv3 | Word] The detail is moving because it concerns not strict legal kinship but social and personal connection. The Roman inscription says:  this child mattered to me.  That is already a communicative act. And communicative acts are Grice's territory.  Then there is the curious figure mentioned in the Historia Augusta:  a certain Utilius, reportedly a lover of Faustina the Younger, whom Marcus Aurelius nevertheless promoted. The identification is uncertain, and scholars commonly connect him with Marcus Tutilius Pontianus Gentianus. [GREXv3 | Word]  Now that is pure Roman conversational material. Whether true or false, the anecdote survives because it generates implicatures. The story says:  Marcus knew. Marcus advanced him anyway.  The hearer immediately begins inferring:  magnanimity? indifference? political necessity? slander?  The explicit statement is tiny; the inferential machinery enormous. Exactly the sort of thing that fascinated Grice.  But there is also an etymological point you may enjoy. The Latin adjective:  utilis  ultimately belongs to the family of:  utor, uti "to use."  Hence:  utilis = fit to be used, useful.  That is rather different from:  conveniens (fitting, suitable), or opportunus (opportune).  The Utilii preserve the idea of practical serviceability. And this takes us back to your previous reflections on conventio and the Cooperative Principle. Suppose a Roman jurist like Urseius Ferox asks:  Quid convenit inter partes? (What was agreed between the parties?)  Grice asks:  What contribution is useful to the conversational purpose?  The shift is subtle. The Roman begins with agreement. Grice begins with utility. Not utility in Bentham's sense. Utility within a shared rational activity. One might even say the Cooperative Principle is governed by:  utilitas conversationis (the usefulness of conversation).   A mock dialogue: Roman grammarian:  Cur Utilius vocatur? (Why is he called Utilius?)  Roman neighbour:  Quia utilis est. (Because he is useful.)  Grice:  "An excellent beginning."  Neighbour:  Ad quid? (Useful for what?)  Grice:  "For the purposes of the conversation."  At that point the Roman nickname and the Oxford principle unexpectedly coincide. Of all your recent gentes, I confess that Utilius may be the one Grice would have adopted most happily. Not because the family produced a jurist, a general, or a philosopher, but because its very name embodies the practical orientation of his theory. Conversation, after all, succeeds not merely by being true or elegant, but by being useful to the common enterprise. That is almost a literal translation of the spirit of utilis. (Ha.) And indeed, hence Grice's idea of a dossier: d lower-case delta: dossier or description -- the lover of Faustina -- Aurelio promoted him. Name: WHo cares: Utilio, Tutilio -- problem is: is there a Tutilia gens? Thanks Yes, and in this particular case Grice's notion of a dossier is very helpful. The anecdote in the Historia Augusta says that a certain Utilius was supposedly a lover of Faustina the Younger, but modern prosopographers generally identify this figure with Marcus Tutilius Pontianus Gentianus rather than with a member of the tiny gens Utilia. [GREXv3 | Word] A Gricean would immediately ask:  Which matters more? the name, or the dossier?  The dossier might be:  associated with Faustina, advanced by Marcus Aurelius, high-ranking senator, politically prominent.  If all those traits point to a known Tutilius, then "Utilius" in the source may simply be a corruption, abbreviation, or confusion. As Grice might say:  Proper names are often dispensable. The dossier does the referential work.  Indeed, this is rather close to what later Oxford philosophers discussed under descriptions, identification, and reference.  And yes, there certainly was a gens Tutilia. In fact the Tutilii are much better attested than the Utilii. The most famous members include:  Marcus Tutilius, Marcus Tutilius Lurco, and, in the imperial period, Marcus Tutilius Pontianus Gentianus,  the very person whom scholars tend to identify with the "Utilius" of the anecdote. [GREXv3 | Word] So from a prosopographical standpoint the choice is almost:  tiny obscure gens Utilia  or  well-attested senatorial gens Tutilia.  The dossier strongly favours the latter.  There is also a philological point. Latin inscriptions and manuscripts frequently confuse names differing by only a letter or two:  Utilius Tutilius  especially once transmission becomes indirect and medieval scribes enter the picture. A Roman jurist like Urseius Ferox might ask:  Quis est? (Who is he?)  The philologist replies:  Nomen incertum est; dossarium certius. (The name is uncertain; the dossier is more certain.)  (Ha.) And that, I suspect, is exactly the sort of case that would have amused Grice. The reference succeeds not because the proper name is secure, but because enough descriptive material survives to identify the individual anyway. In modern Oxford terms, the dossier outruns the name. And indeed, H. P. Grice was once offended when he was referred to by Gustav Bergmann, who was visiting Oxford, as 'yet another of them English futilitarians.' Tutilio, Utilio, Futilio. Thanks (Ha.) Yes, that sounds exactly like the sort of linguistic chain that would have amused both Grice and Speranza. We start with the respectable Roman possibilities:  Tutilius Utilius  and then an impatient Bergmannian voice from the back of the room allegedly mutters:  Futilius.  The joke is almost Roman in structure. For the dossier remains roughly constant:  Oxford philosopher, concerned with meaning, conversational niceties, ordinary language,  while the nomen shifts:  Tutilius → Utilius → Futilius.  A Gricean would immediately remark that reference survives despite nominal variation. After all, if the hearer successfully identifies:  "that Oxford fellow worrying about 'mean'"  then the communicative intention succeeds whether the label is:  Grice, Utilius, Tutilius, or Futilius.  This is very close to the point you were making earlier about dossiers versus names. The Roman jurists would often ask:  quis sit? (who is he?)  The answer is sometimes less dependent on the nomen than on the accompanying description. A Bergmannian dossier might read:  English philosopher, Oxford, ordinary language, conversation, meaning.  The referent is recovered before the surname is. (Ha.) There is also a nice Roman twist. Your Utilii derive, plausibly enough, from:  utilis useful, helpful.  The anti-Oxford caricature then transforms:  utilis into futilis.  A remarkably small phonetic step and an enormous evaluative one. Indeed, one could imagine a whole imaginary series of Roman gentes:  gens Utilia the Helpful Chaps;   gens Tutilia the Well-Protected Chaps;   gens Futilia the Chaps Whose Distinctions Nobody Else Understands.  And poor Grice, trying to explain implicature to undergraduates, finds himself honorary consul of the last. The irony, of course, is that Grice's own project was almost the opposite of futility. He spent years trying to explain why apparently trivial conversational details actually matter because they reveal the structure of rational cooperation. A Roman jurist might have asked:  quid convenit inter partes? (what was agreed between the parties?)  Grice asks:  "What did the speaker intend the hearer to recognize?"  To an impatient observer, both inquiries can look excessively fine-grained. To the participant, they govern the whole practice. Thus the Bergmannian sneer:  "futilitarian"  has exactly the form of many Roman cognomina: a nickname bestowed by opponents, which later scholars spend centuries analyzing. Quite possibly the highest honour an Oxonian can receive. (Ha.)

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Uttiedio – Ossia: Grice ed Uttiedio – Grex griceiana – verbalia: Uttiedio H. P. GRICE E J. L. SPERANZA -- GREX -- VERBALIA: UTTIEDIO The gens Uttiedia, occasionally written Uttedia or Utiedia, was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens are mentioned by Roman writers, but several are known from epigraphy. Uttedius Honoratus was governor of Mauretania Tingitana in AD 144, and an Uttiedius Afer was consul designate in an uncertain year.[1]  Origin The nomen Uttiedius belongs to a large class of gentilicia originally formed from cognomina ending in -idus. This type of nomen was so common that -idius and -edius came to be regarded as regular gentile-forming suffixes, and were applied to form gentilicia even from names that did not originally end in -idus.  Praenomina The praenomina found in the extant inscriptions of the Uttiedii include Sextus, Gaius, and Lucius, all of which were common throughout Roman history, as well as an example of the feminine praenomen Tertia.  Members This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation. Uttiedia Cleopatra, dedicated a tomb at Abdera in Thracia, dating between the late first century BC and the middle of the second century, for her infant son, Aristocritus, aged five months and five days.[2] Utiedius Allatus, mentioned in a graffito from Pompeii in Campania.[3] Uttiedia Advena, built a first-century tomb at Urvinum Mataurense in Umbria for her daughter, Uttiedia Syntrophis.[4] Uttiedia Syntrophis, buried in a first-century tomb built by her mother, Uttiedia Advena, at Urvinum Mataurense.[4] Titus Uttiedius Venerianus, an actor buried in a first-century tomb at Philippi in Macedonia, aged seventy-five, along with his wife, Alfena Saturnina, aged fifty-one.[5] Sextus Uttiedius C. f. Celer, a veteran of the Legio XV Apollinaris, buried at Savaria in Pannonia Superior, aged seventy, in a sepulchre built for Celer, the freedwomen Uttiedia Fusca and Valentia Repentina, and possibly several others, dating from the late first century.[6] Sextus Utiedius Sex. l. Narcissus, a freedman, built a sepulchre at Savaria for his daughter, Utiedia Carnuntina, dating between the middle of the first century, and the early part of the second.[7] Utiedia Sex. l. Carnuntina, a freedwoman buried at Savaria, aged twenty-five, in a tomb built by her father, Sextus Utiedius Narcissus.[7] Gaius Uttiedius C. l. Quartio, a freedman, and one of the Seviri Augustales named in an inscription from Forum Sempronii in Umbria, dating from the first half of the second century.[8] Uttedius Honoratus was governor of Mauretania Tingitana in AD 144. Uttedius Marcellus, a legate serving under Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus, governor of Africa from AD 163 to 164.[9] Undated Uttiedii Tertia Uttiedia C. f., buried at Urvinum Matuarense.[10] Uttiedius L. f. Afer, an augur and consul designatus in an uncertain year, was patron of the Roman colony at Carthage.[11][1] Lucius Uttiedius L. l. Beryllus, a freedman named in a sepulchral inscription from Rome.[12] Uttiedia Chryse, buried at Rome along with her husband, Lucius Uttiedius Venustus.[13] Sextus Uttiedius Philargurus, buried at Tuder in Umbria, along with the freedman Lucius Marius Demeter.[14] Uttiedius Secundus, along with his mother-in-law, Caesia Arescusa, dedicated a tomb at Rome for his wife, Caesia Calliope, aged thirty-six years, fourteen days.[15] Lucius Uttiedius Venustus, buried at Rome along with his wife, Uttiedia Chryse.[13] See also List of Roman gentes References  PIR, vol. III, p. 492 ('U', No. 692).  CIL III, 7379.  CIL IV, 8124.  AE 2005, 474.  CIL III, 6113.  AE 1972, 416.  AE 1972, 417.  CIL XI, 6126.  PIR, vol. III, p. 492 ('U', No. 691)  CIL XI, 6104.  CIL XIV, 3615.  CIL VI, 29616.  CIL VI, 29617.  CIL XI, 4727.  CIL VI, 34724. 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). Paul von Rohden, Elimar Klebs, & Hermann Dessau, Prosopographia Imperii Romani (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, abbreviated PIR), Berlin (1898). And from THIS gens? Thanks

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Uttiedio – Ossia: Grice ed Uttiedio – Grex griceiana – verbalia: Uttiedio The Uttiedii are unexpectedly rich, because they give us three themes beloved by your Grice-Speranza dossier:  names and identity, theatre and performance, public honour and institutional recognition.  And, unlike the Utilii, they actually rise into imperial administration. The obvious hero is:  Uttedius Honoratus, governor of Mauretania Tingitana in AD 144. [GREXv3 | Word]  The cognomen itself is attractive:  Honoratus "honoured."  One can almost imagine a Roman super-maxim:  Esto honoratus.  which would be as unhelpfully broad as Grice's:  "Be perspicuous (sic)."  For how exactly does one become honoured? By specific actions, just as one becomes perspicuous only through avoiding obscurity, ambiguity, disorder, and needless prolixity.  But for conversational purposes, I am more tempted by:  Titus Uttiedius Venerianus, the actor buried at Philippi at the age of seventy-five. [GREXv3 | Word]  Why the actor? Because actors are permanent embarrassments to straightforward theories of meaning. An actor says:  "I am Agamemnon."  without meaning:  "I am Agamemnon."  The utterance functions through a layered intentionality. Grice would instantly notice:  the actor utters the words; the audience knows he is acting; the audience knows he knows they know; yet communication succeeds.  The entire theatrical institution depends on recognized pretence. A Roman actor is therefore a splendid Gricean specimen.  There is also:  Uttiedius Afer, augur and consul designate, patron of the colony at Carthage. [GREXv3 | Word]  Now that is charming because it combines:  religion, politics, public interpretation.  An augur and our old friend Umbricius Melior the haruspex inhabit neighbouring conceptual worlds. The augur asks:  What do birds signify?  The haruspex asks:  What do entrails signify?  The Gricean asks:  What did the speaker signify?  The form of the question remains surprisingly stable.  But the nomen itself is intriguing. Unlike:  Utilius ← utilis,  or  Urseius ← ursus,  the root of:  Uttiedius  is opaque. One of those old Italic names which survived long after their immediate transparency had vanished. This recalls your earlier remarks on Grice's "dossiers." A name may lose its lexical meaning and remain referentially successful. One need not know what:  Uttiedius  originally meant to identify:  Uttedius Honoratus.  The dossier does the work. Exactly as with your:  Utilius/Tutilius/Futilius  series. The referent survives nominal instability.  I am particularly struck by:  Uttiedia Advena and Uttiedia Syntrophis. [GREXv3 | Word]  The names are almost allegorical.  Advena = newcomer, stranger.   Syntrophis Greek, suggesting shared upbringing or companionship.  One could almost imagine a lost Menandrian comedy.  And there is a final Gricean joke hidden in the nomen. You have just been discussing:  Utilius from utilis,  and Grice's concern with usefulness in conversation. Now we arrive at:  Uttiedius,  with no obvious lexical meaning available. One might imagine an Oxford undergraduate asking:  "What does Uttiedius mean?"  Grice:  "Nothing obvious."  Undergraduate:  "Then how does it refer?"  Grice:  "Ah. Now we are doing philosophy."  (Ha.) For the Utilii tempt us toward meaning. The Uttiedii force us toward reference. And that is a distinction Grice spent a great deal of time trying to keep before his audience. The meaning may disappear; the identification persists. A proper name can continue functioning long after its original descriptive content has become as obscure as the gens itself.