Explore the vast range of titles available.

Modern editors of Catullus all agree on the text of line 53. The manuscripts also agree on the line, the only difference being R transmitting mutantibus, while O and G transmit nutantibus. Nevertheless, a few scholars have in the past questioned the reading of nutantibus. As the lines quoted above illustrate, Catullus generally translates Callimachus’ poem closely. But neither of the words suggested in the manuscripts seems wholly to describe the rapid and vigorous movement of Callimachus’ κυκλώσας βαλιὰ πτερά, ‘having whirled its swift wings’. The reading of nutantibus is somewhat supported by Apuleius’ pinnarum nutantium (Met. 6.15.5). But there too the nodding, swaying and wavering sense of nutare does not seem to illustrate the hurried and rapid action of Jupiter's eagle. Additionally, the wording of the passage is sufficiently disputed to make it possible that nutantium is not the correct reading.

At Petron. Sat. 48.4 Trimalchio makes a famous boast about owning three libraries: tres bibliothecas habeo, unam Graecam, alteram Latinam. I have three libraries: one Greek, another Latin.

According to the manuscripts of On the Crown (18.260), Demosthenes mockingly claims that, as the youthful Aeschines led processions in his mother's mystery-cult celebrations, he was hailed by various old women as ἔξαρχος καὶ προηγεμὼν καὶ κιττοφόρος καὶ λικνοφόρος καὶ τοιαῦθ’ (‘leader and guide and ivy-bearer and bearer-of-the-winnowing-fan and the like’). Τhese are clearly special titles—Aeschines is not just one celebrant among many but a leading figure in the train of worshippers—and recent editors accordingly note that κιττοφόρος seems weak and follow Albert Rubens (‘Rubenius’) in printing instead κιστοφόρος (‘basket-bearer’), which Harpocration reports was read by some authorities here. κιστοφόρος appears to be supported by ΣF2 18.260 (296 Dilts) ὁ φέρων τὰς κίστας (‘the man who carries the baskets’), which is easily taken to confirm that Demosthenes meant that Aeschines stood out in the crowd of celebrants inter alia because he carried containers within which must have been sacred implements of some sort.

Thucydides, Diodorus and Plutarch describe the outbreak of war between Miletus and Samos in 441/440 b.c.e., ostensibly over possession of their smaller neighbour Priene, in similar ways (Thuc. 1.115-17; Diod. Sic. 12.27-8; Plut. Per. 25-8). What began as a local conflict over land escalated when Miletus appealed to Athens as hegemon of the Delian League. The Athenians ordered arbitration to resolve the conflict, but the Samians, probably concerned that the Athenians would side with the Milesians (Diod. Sic. 12.27.1), refused, which in turn led to war between Samos and Athens. Eight months later a coup at Samos started another war. When the Samians finally surrendered, the Athenians forced them to repay the cost of the siege (IG I2.293; Thuc. 1.117.3) and collected hostages (Thuc. 1.117.3).

ὥστε καθάπερ τοὺς ὑποκρινομένους, οὕτως ὑποληπτέον λέγειν καὶ τοὺς ἀκρατευομένους. Arist. Eth. Nic. 7.3.1147a22-4 In Attic Nights (= NA) 20.4, Aulus Gellius reports how his Athenian teacher, the Platonist L. Calvenus Taurus (fl. c. a.d. 145), advised one of his pupils to temper his devotion to stage actors and to turn his attention to the study of philosophy. Wishing to divert his (rich) student from associating with theatre people (hominum scaenicorum), Taurus assigned the daily reading of a specific chapter from Aristotle's Προβλήματα Ἐγκύκλια (= fr. 209 Rose). He sent his student an extract from the book, which Gellius quotes (in Greek): ‘Why are Dionysian artists mostly worthless people?’—the problem is still extant in the Aristotelian collection of Problemata physica that came down to us (Pr. 30.10.956b11–15). The explanation Aristotle suggested (in Gellius’ version) is that ‘these men are least familiar with reason and philosophy (λόγου καὶ φιλοσοφίας), since they devote most of their life to the necessary arts (ἀναγκαίας τέχνας), and because they are in an intemperate state (ἐν ἀκρασίαις) most of the time, sometimes even in difficulties (ἐν ἀπορίαις), both of which conditions cause meanness (φαυλότητος)’.

πέπλους τε νῆσαι λινογενεῖς τ’ ἐπενδύτας τε νῆσαι Canter : τε νίσαι Poll.A : τάνυσαι Poll.FS nêsai mantles and outer garments born of flax Greek has three verbs νέω: (A) ‘swim’, (B) ‘spin’ and (C) ‘heap up, pile’. The aorist infinitive of both (B) and (C) is νῆσαι. LSJ (followed by Ellendt) takes Sophocles, fr. 439 R. (from Nausicaa or Washing-women) to be an instance of νέω (B). Pearson comments: ‘νῆσαι is loosely used for ὑϕαίνειν. The process of spinning, being preparatory to that of weaving, was apt to be regarded as part of the same operation rather than as a distinct art … Soph. probably had in mind η 96 πέπλοι | λεπτοὶ ἐΰννητοι βεβλήατο, ἔργα γυναικῶν’ (cloth spread on the seats in the banqueting hall of the Phaeacian king Alcinous). Lloyd-Jones accordingly translates the fragment ‘to weave robes and tunics made of linen’.

In his description of India Strabo (after Eratosthenes) alludes to various Indian crops: in the rainy seasons (summer) the land grows flax, millet, sesame, rice and bosmoron, and in the winter – wheat, barley, pulse ‘and other edible crops with which we are unacquainted (καὶ ἄλλοι καρποὶ ἐδώδιμοι, ὧν ἡμεῖς ἄπειροι)’ (15.1.13, C 690). Later on in his survey, Strabo briefly refers to the cultivation of rice, where he relies mainly and specifically on Aristobulus of Cassandria, one of the companions of Alexander the Great in his campaign in the East. Aristobulus composed an account of Alexander's expedition and, in all likelihood, personally witnessed most of the details included in the fragments of his lost work (FGrHist 139). His descriptions are therefore highly valuable as reports reflecting one of the first encounters of the Greek culture with India.