Opificio 9th May 2017

Prof. Reeve held a stimulating lesson, exemplary under the methodological viewpoint. The object of the discussion was a passage by Cicero (In Verr. II 4.128-129), in which Jupiter is called ‘Imperator’: in the text the term is translated into Greek οὔριος, which has a different meaning (‘favouring’, ‘propitious’). Starting from this problem, Reeve analyzed Cicero’s manuscript tradition and compared it with those of other passages, in which (depending on codices) Jupiter is called ‘Imperator’ or ‘Impetrator’, and with an epigraphic source where ‘Impetrator’ occurs (CIL VI 4 [1902] 30935).