Gallus

[Peter Pedant]

a few lines of his elegiacs were found a few years ago on a papyrus, and turned out to the oldest written Latin ever !

He was forced to commit suicide soon after the Battle of Actium (yup I am talking about a few years ago)

and his statues pulled down.

but but there is a photo of a base (of a statue) with an erasure, the name chiselled off.

can a latinist out there - or any one - I am not choosy - help me locate it

and anything else about Gallus and virgils eclogues 6 and 10

this request is not as off the wall as it sounds at first

thanks

[Hgrove]

You have put a bee in my bonnet... but no luck so far. The Gallus Papyrus I think is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk/POxy/papyri/vol50/pages/3554.htm

and I wonder if a curator there might know about the statue?

[Peter Pedant]

Thanks - the original I think is in the maw of the E National Museum in Cairo. The elegiacs were published in the J Roman Studies 1979, Nisbet and Anderson and this paper is now referred to sometimes as the New Gallus.

I came across a ref to Oxy 2820 and Gallus, but all this turned out to be, IMHO was a background report of the conditions following Actium.

also there seem to be a few papers saying it isnt him (Gallus) but these are in German

Thanks anyway. I am interested in anything else you dig up [pun intended]

[Peter Pedant]

a photo of the papyrus is here:

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Scriptorium/Class/MurgImgs/jrs1.html

top line is

tristia nequitia Lycori tua

[made him] sad by your careless ness, Lycoris

should anyone e interested

[Hgrove]

Peter, I would recommend thinking laterally: visit the Harvard University website (or other American uni) and find a Professor of Latin, e-mail them politely and ask them the question. They can be found here: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~classics/people/faculty.html

I'll bet anything they reply: I have tried once before with American academics and they are soooooo helpful; and then you can send them a thank you card c/o the faculty.

[Hgrove]

This subject is fascinating but hard to find anything significant...

this website mentions an inscription by cornelius gallus, now in the cairo museum: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/philae5.htm

mentioned here too: http://24.1911encyclopedia.org/G/GA/GALLUS_CORNELIUS.htm

This site has a bibliographic reference: http://www.fofweb.com/Onfiles/Ancient/AncientDetail.asp?iPin=ROME0698

[Hgrove]

This book might have details of the inscription or illustrations: Author Ross, David Oliver. Title: Gallus, Elegy and Rome. The following libraries have it: UCL, Queen Mary, Royal Holloway, King's College London. You could have fun searching in this search engine which can search all the academic library catalogues within the M25: http://www.m25lib.ac.uk/

Also copac; http://copac.ac.uk/ can search lots of library catalogues. I am sure the info you want is in a book somewhere.