A companion to late Antiquity

Most humor and laughter imply a social relationship, a connection between self and other. Just as one cannot tickle oneself, so, too, one can hardly tell oneself a joke or play a prank on oneself. A jocular event typically requires a minimum of two persons to succeed—or, for that matter, to fail. Although I shall not argue whether an event is funny if there is no one present to observe it, any adequate understanding of the dynamics of humor must include a social analysis.

Sociological Approaches to the Study of Humor

Languages show variations according to the social class of speakers and Latin was no exception, as readers of Petronius are aware. The Romance languages have traditionally been regarded as developing out of a 'language of the common people' (Vulgar Latin), but studies of modern languages demonstrate that linguistic change does not merely come, in the social sense, 'from below'. There is change from above, as prestige usages work their way down the social scale, and change may also occur across the social classes. This book is a history of many of the developments undergone by the Latin language as it changed into Romance, demonstrating the varying social levels at which change was initiated. About thirty topics are dealt with, many of them more systematically than ever before. Discussions often start in the early Republic with Plautus, and the book is as much about the literary language as about informal varieties.

Social Variation and the Latin Language

Contents Foreword by Robert Jewett Editor's Note Introduction Part 1: Introduction: From the Beginnings of Urban Roman Christianity to the Separation from the Synagogue Part 2: Topography Part 3: First Diachronic Section: General Information About Urban Roman Christianity Part 4: Second Diachronic Section: Prosopographic Investigation Part 5: The Fractionation of Roman Christianity Part 6: Final Remarks.

From Paul to Valentinus: Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries

A dwarf nova HV Vir was observed photometrically for eight nights during an outburst in 1992 April–May. The star showed two distinct types of periodic variation: (1) 82.20-min (0.05708 d) double-humped variation with decaying amplitudes during the early stage of the outburst, and (2) 83.80-min (0.05820 d) superhumps in later stages. We attributed the former to “early superhumps”, which are only seen in the earliest stage of WZ Sge-type outbursts. The superhump period and evolution of the superhumps, together with general characteristics of the light curve, make HV Vir a typical WZ Sge-type dwarf nova. HV Vir also showed a large increase of the superhump period during the superoutburst. Upon recognizing the WZ Sge-type nature of an object previously considered as a nova, we present a comprehensive list of candidates for WZ Sge-type dwarf novae and related systems.

William S. Anderson

Papers

The Anatomy of Satire

P. Ovidius Naso. Metamorphosen. Buch VI-VII

The Literary Guide to the Bible

Ovid "Heroides": XVI-XXI

Horace: Epistles Book II and Epistle to the Pisones ("Ars Poetica")