Gargilius Martialis: The Agricultural Fragments: 60 (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, Series Number 60)

Cambridge University Press, 4/2/2020
EAN 9781108499897, ISBN10: 1108499899

Hardcover, 402 pages, 22.2 x 14.6 x 3.2 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

In the third century CE, the North African polymath, soldier, and provincial official Q. Gargilius Martialis (died 260) wrote a treatise on the cultivation and medical use of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The agricultural part of this work survives in a fragmentary state in a single manuscript. Despite this impediment, the agricultural writings are noteworthy for the clear marks both of their meticulous research and of the application of independent judgement and experience. Gargilius furthermore presents his advice in a stylized and literary form that strives for elegance through the use of prose rhythm, rhetorical variatio, and figurative language. The fragments will be valuable for those interested in ancient agriculture, in Greco-Roman authorship on the technai or artes, and in the history and sociolinguistics of Latin. This volume offers a new edition and the first English translation of Gargilius' agricultural fragments as well as an introduction and full-scale commentary.

Introduction
I. Gargilius Martialis
Life and Work
II. Gargilius in the Agricultural Tradition
III. Structure and Method
IV. Understanding the Agriculture of De arboribus pomiferis
V. Language and Style
VI. Reception
VII. History of the Text
VIII. Previous Editions
IX. Conventions Adopted in This Edition, Translation, and Commentary
Text, Critical Apparatus, and Translation
Sigla
Text, Critical Apparatus, and Translation
Commentary
I. De cydoneis
II. De persicis
III. De amygdalis
IV. De castaneis
Appendices
I. The Latin Text Shared by N (De arboribus pomiferis) and the Manuscripts of Medicinae ex holeribus et pomis
II. Manure in the Agricultural Authors
III. Spelling Errors in the Manuscript.