Simichidas' self-presentation as a poet at Theocritus 7.37 is modelled on Apollo's self-presentation as a musician atHomeric Hymn to Hermes450. Through this allusion, in his own Dichterweihe as a bucolic poet Simichidas hints at the invention of the bucolic genre by Hermes. The reference is crafted so as to point self-reflexively to its status as reference; in particular, the expression καὶ γὰρ ἐγώ (‘I too’) of line 37 functions as an intertextual signpost. If Simichidas is a literary projection of Theocritus, the allusion has important implications for our understanding of his self-positioning within the poetical tradition.
The opus florentissimum mentioned at Aurelius Victor, Liber de Caesaribus 24, 5 is to be identified with the thermae Alexandrianae built by Alexander Severus. An emendation is put forward for the textual problem celebrio in the same passage.
quaeras forsitan satis anxie, studiose lector, quid deinde dictum, quid factum. dicerem, si dicere liceret; cognosceres, si liceret audire. sed parem noxam contraherent et aures et lingua[e] < … > illae temerariae curiositatis.
In spite of the reader's curiosity, the narrator will not break the secrecy of Isis’ mysteries. Precisely an act of curiositas had brought about Lucius’ transformation into an ass; at the end of the novel he demonstrates that he has learnt his lesson.
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