Loeb Classical Library/L174/Bibliography

by Sextus Julius Frontinus

Bibliography

The editio princeps of the Strategemata was printed at Rome in 1487 by Eucharius Silber in the same book with Aelian, Vegetius and Modestus; this was reprinted in 1494 and 1497. In 1495 an edition appeared at Bologna containing the same works, and in the sixteenth century no fewer than ten editions were printed at Antwerp, Basel, Cologne, Leaden and Paris, in which Frontinus was either combined with Aelian, Vegetius and Modestus or was one of the authors represented in larger collections of examples of military achievements. In the seventeenth century six or seven editions appeared, including that of Tennulius (Leyden and Amsterdam, 1675), with notes and emendations, and that of Scriverius (Leyden, 1607), who was the first to unite the works of Frontinus in one volume. In his collection of treatises on military matters, which included the Strategemata, he incorporated also the De Aquis, De Re Agraria, De Limitibus and De Coloniis. He included also in this edition notes and comments of Stewechius and Modius. The edition of Keuchen (Amsterdam, 1661) also contains all these works; the Bipontine edition of 1788 and that of Dederich (Leipzig, 1855) contain the Strategemata and the De Aquis.

Oudendorp's edition (Leyden, 1731 and 1779) included notes and emendations of Modius, Stewechius, Tennulius, Casaubon, Salmasius, Gronovius and Scriverius. He consulted eleven codices in the preparation of his book, as well as the earlier editions, added copious notes of his own, incorporated in the volume Poleni's life of Frontinus,^[1] and provided the book with an index. The edition of Schwebel (Leipzig, 1772) contained Poleni's life of Frontinus and selected notes from previous works with some additions of his own.

The authoritative critical edition is that of Gundermann, (Leipzig, 1888). This contains, in addition to a full critical apparatus, a conspectus locorum, a fairly exhaustive list of references to the sources of the Strategemata.

Among the books and monographs dealing with various matters connected with the Strategemata, the following may be mentioned:

G. Gundermann, Quaestiones de Juili Frontini Strategematon Libris, Fleckeis. Jahrb. Supplementbd. 16 (1888), p. 315.
M. Petschenig, Sprachliches zu Frontins Strategemata, Philol. Supplementbd. 6 (1892), p. 399.
A. Eussner, Zu Frontins Strategemata, Blätter für das bayr. Gymn. vii. (1871), p. 84.
J. Zechmeister, De Iuli Frontini Strategematon Libris, Wien. Stud v. (1883), p. 224.
G. Hartel, Analecta, Wien. Stud vi. (1884), p. 98.
P. Esternaux, Die Komposition von Frontins Strategemata, Progr. Berlin, 1899.
F. Kortz, Quaest. Grammaticae de Julii Frontini Operibus Institutae, Diss. Münster, 1893.
H. Düntzer, Domitian in Frontins Strategemata, Bonner Jahrbücher, H 96/97 (1896), p. 172.
G. Grasso, Una quesitone di topogr. stor. ed un errore di Frontino tra le imprese di Filippo II di Macedonia, Rendiconti d. R. Istituto lombardo Ser. 2, vol. 31 (1898), p. 976.
A. Dederich, Bruchstücke aus dem Leben des Sextus Julius Frontinus, Zeitschr. für die Alterthumsw. 1839, pp. 834, 1077.
E. Fritze, De Iuli Frontini Strategematon Libro iv., Diss. Halle, 1888.
C. Wachsmuth, Rhein. Mus. xv. (1860), p. 574.
E. Wölfflin, Hermes, ix. (1875), p. 72.
F. Haase, Rhein. Mus iii. (1845), p. 312.
E. Hedicke, Hermes, vi. (1872), p. 156.
G. Gundermann, Comment. philol. Jen. 1 (1881), p. 83.
H. M. Connor, A Study of the Syntax of the Strategemata of Frontinus, Diss. Ithaca, 1921.
M. Schanz, Philol. xlviii. (1889), p. 674.

The editio princeps of the De Aquis is that of Pomponius Laetus and Sulpicius, brought out at Rome 1484–1492 in connection with Vitruvius, with whom this work of Frontinus was combined in most of the earlier editions. Then followed editions printed in Venice and Florence, 1495–1497, several^[2] editions in the sixteenth century, including that of Jocundus published at Florence in 1513, and again in 1522 and 1523, and three in the seventeenth century, one of which was the edition of Scriverius.^[3]

In 1722 Poleni^[4] brought out his elegant edition, which far surpassed all the preceding works. He used three manuscripts in its preparation, C and both Vaticans, and consulted former editions, using Jocundus as his base, but deferring to the codices in case of disagreement, except where the greater probability of Jocundus's reading won him to that. He claims that as an editor he forbore to make conjectures, unless driven to this by the most urgent necessity, which led to his being criticized for leaving many places unamended. He included much in the way of explanatory and illustrative material, being especially fitted to do this as a mathematician and a man of letters, appended a collection of imperial edicts concerning aqueducts, incorporated conjectures and notes of Opsopoeus, Scriverius, Scaliger and Keuchen, pruned out corruptions of copyists and editors, added a life of Frontinus, a prolegomenon and an index of matters treated there and in the notes. In the mathematical part of the work, in order to correct manifest errors, he recklessly changed numbers, disregarding the codex when he failed to understand the symbols, and using the system adopted by Metius^[5] in his calculations, whereas Frontinus must, with all antiquity, have used the system of Archimedes.^[6]

Other editions of the eighteenth century are the Bipontine (1788) and the Adler, printed at Altona in 1792. Dederich's edition (Wesel, 1841) included notes of Heinrich and Schultze. It is characterized by careless mistakes, bad judgment in the choice of readings, and a lack of intelligence in interpretation.

The authoritative critical edition is that of Bücheler (Leipzig, 1858). In preparing it he consulted C and both Vatican manuscripts, and aimed to retain the reading of the codex whenever possible. He has taken great pains to atone for the copyist's carelessness by indicating for each lacuna the exact number of letters to be supplied. He has also bracketed many conjectures which have crept into the text as glosses, and where he has admitted his own or others' conjectures, he has clearly marked them as such. His text differs in places from the reading of C as shown by the facsimile in Herschel's edition, where he has failed to note the divergence. This may be due to inaccuracies in his copy of C.

In 1899 Clemens Herschel visited the monastery at Monte Cassino and succeeded in securing a facsimile of C which stands in the front of his work, The Two Books on the Water Supply of the City of Rome. This work includes not only the translation of the De Aquis, but also several chapters treating of the measuring and distribution of water, water rights in Rome, the building of aqueducts, etc.

Among the important works relating to the study of the Roman aqueduct system, the first to mention is, of course, the epoch-making treatise of Rodolfo Lanciani, Topografia di Roma antica, i commentarii di Frontino intorno le aque e le aque dotti, silloge epigrafica aquaria, Memorie delle classe di scienze morali, stor. e filol. della accad. dei Lincei bol. 4 (1881), p. 315. Other books and monographs are:

A. Rocchi, Il diverticolo Frontin. all' acqua Tepula, Studi e docum. di storia e diritto 17 (1896), p. 125.
K. Merckel, Die Ingenieurtechnik im Altertum, Berlin, 1899.
L. Cantarelli, La Serie dei curatores aquarum, Bolletino della commissione arch. com. di Roma 29 (1901), p. 180.
M. H. Morgan, Remarks on the Water Supply of Ancient Rome, Transactions and Proceedings of the Am. Phil. Ass. xxxiii. (1902), p. 30.
Th. Ashby, Die antiken Wasserleitungen der Stadt Rom, Neue Jahrb. für das klass. Altertum 23 (1909), p. 246.
G. Gundermann, Berl. philol. Wochenschr. xxiii. (1903), p. 1450.
R. Lanciani, Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome.
J. H. Middleton, The Remains of Ancient Rome. (Vol. I., Vol. II.)
S. B. Platner, Ancient Rome.
C. E. Bennett, "A Roman Waring," Atlantic Monthly, 1902, p. 382.
Clemens Herschel, Lecture delivered before the Engineering Students of Cornell University, 1894.

 

Sigla

H = Codex Harleianus 2666.
P = Codex Parisinus 7240.
d = Codices (singly or collectively) of an inferior class.
C = Monte Cassino Codex
cod. Vat. = Codex Vatieanus 4498.
cod. Urb. = Codex Urbinus.
B = Bücheler.

1. Cf. p. xxxviii.
2. One at Basel in 1530, and at Strassburg in 1543 and 1550.
3. Cf. p. xxxv.
4. vir de Frontino optime meritus. B.
5. Adrien Metius (1571–1635) was celebrated for adopting the fraction 355/113 to represent the relation of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, this relationship having been previously indicated by mathematicians from the time of Archimedes by 22/7.
6. Cf. tables at end of book.