I DONI AGLI AMBASCIATORI (VAL. MAX. IV 3, 9)

Abstract

Thanks to the recent critical edition by John Briscoe, which includes the epitomes of Iulius Paris and Ianuarius Nepotianus, the nine books of the Memorable Deeds and Sayings by Valerius Maximus can now be philologically analyzed in a more exhaustive manner. Thus, in a wellknown passage, in which we are told that Roman ambassadors received as a prize the same gifts which they had obtained from King Ptolemy and already devolved to the public treasury, I provide a new reading of some dubious and obelised words, which have been subjected to much conjecture by both philologists and grammarians. My conjecture, in fact, provides a significant departure from previous suggestions, and is made in light of the text by Iulius Paris.