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Elocvtio Novella

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Leofranc Holford-Strevens
Leofranc Holford-Strevens
Affiliation:
115 Kingston Road, Oxford
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Extract

The purpose of this note is to banish for ever from our histories of Roman literature the term elocutio nouella as a description of the style preached and practised by Cornelius Fronto.

Commenting on a speech recently delivered by the Emperor Marcus, Fronto declares (De eloquentia 5. 1 = p. 146. 13 van den Hout):

Pleraque in oratione recenti tua, quod ad sententias attinet, animaduerto egregia esse; pauca admodum uno tenus uerbo corrigenda; non nihil interdum elocutione nouella parum signatum.

The standard interpretation of the last clause is that given by Haines (ii. 81): ‘some parts here and there were not sufficiently marked with novelty of expression’. It is my contention that it means: ‘some parts here and there were insufficiently clear through new-fangled diction’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , May 1976 , pp. 140 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1976

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References

1 The application, of late-Victorian origin, seems largely but not wholly confined to English-speaking writers: e.g. W. Pater, Marius the Epicurean, c. 5; Mackail, J.W., Latin Literature, 235;Google ScholarBrock, M.D., Studies in Fronto and his Age, 109;Google Scholar A.S. Owen in his and H.E. Butler's edition of Apuleius' Apologia, p. xlvi; Duff, J. Wight, A Literary History of Rome in the Silver Age, 651 (2nd edn., p. 522);Google ScholarDalton, J.F., Roman Literary Theory and Criticism, 320;Google ScholarAtkins, J.W.H., Literary Criticism in Antiquity, ii. 343;Google Scholar J.W. Denniston in OCD, p. 313 (2nd edn., p. 381); R.G.C. Levens, ibid. p.372 (2nd edn., p.449); Marache, R., La Critique littéraire de langue latine et le d´veloppement du goût archaïsant au IIe siècle de notre ère, 135;Google ScholarPortalupi, F., Marco Cornelio Frontone, 38, 81, 112;Google ScholarGrube, G.M.A., The Greek and Roman Critics, 320;Google ScholarRose, H.J., A Handbook of Latin Literature3, 519 (eloquentia nouella!).Google Scholar

2 §18 = p. 154. 20 v.d.H. I should prefer to read {ac} commodatius in harmony with concinnius and congruentius; for commodatus cf. especially Quint. 10. 1. 17 ‘uox, actio decora, commodata ut quisque locus postulabit pronuntiandi … ratio’.

3 For obsoletus = tritus see Cic. 2 Verr. 5. 117, Sen. Contr. 4. pr. 9, Fronto eloq. 4. 12 = p. 146. 10 v.d.H., Gell. 16. 7. 4, 17. 2. 12.

4 Cf. Sidon. Ep. 4. 3. 3 ‘noua ibi uerba quia uetusta’–a compliment; Cic. Or. 12.

5 §3 = p. 146. 28 v.d.H.: ‘alterum proprium “comes”, alterum translatum “opifex”.’

6 Gellius also uses consignatus (1. 15. 12 1. 25. 8) and significans (1. 15. 17, 1. 25. 8, 17. 2. 11); the latter is employed by classics authors (e.g. Cic. Fam. 3. 12. 3 ‘acrius, apertius, significantius dignitatem tuam defendis sem’) and especially by Quintilian (e.g. 8. 2. ‘proprie dictum, id est, quo nihil inueniri possit significantius’).

7 Both in general thesis and in detail this admonition resembles Gel. 11. 7: the Frontonian semidoctus is recalled by Gellius' warning against (§3); his lack of taste is shared by the Gellian apirocalus (§7). The Atticists, too, who were trying to revive a bygone style as a whole rather than in flosculi, needed reminding– (Phiostratus V.S. 503)–that their ideal was (the to Aristid. Or. 30 Keil, lines 11–13).