The Italian Papyri are a source of great importance for the study of variation and change in Late Latin for several reasons. The first is that they show a wide range of Latin stylistic levels that runs from the grammatically correct, even elegant, Latin of the culturally and socially higher contexts of some documents to the more colloquial, even humble, language of the more modest contexts with respect to the rank of peoples involved, their cultural level, and the type and function of the document. Another source of interest is that they bear witness to a considerable number of ‘submerged’ structures that are attested in Early Latin, disappear in texts of Classical Latin, and resurface in post-Classical and Late Latin. A third is that they preserve many structures that are forerunners of patterns occurring in the Romance vernaculars, either as first testimonies or as continuators of ‘submerged’ Latin forms. In this chapter a sociolinguistic method of investigation of the Italian Papyri is presented that combines consideration of the internal and external factors of variation and change. Some results are also presented that deal with the diachronic dynamics of Latin morphological and syntactic structures.

Chapter 16 provides an analysis of an important passage in Simplicius’ Commentary on Epictetus’ Manual. What functions can the (true) philosopher have in political and social life? Simplicius answers this question as concerning either a state or city which is good or one which is evil. In general, the philosopher should look to the moral wellbeing of others, seeking to ‘humanize’ them (i.e., to promote the virtues, the political virtues, of a good human being). With this in view, in a good state the philosopher will assume leadership functions, as described in Plato’s concept of political science. In a morally corrupt state there will be no place for the philosopher in politics. To preserve his integrity, the philosopher may have to go into exile, as Epictetus did, and Simplicius himself. Or if exile is not possible, the philosopher will try to act in a more limited (probably domestic) sphere, but without compromise.

Only two complete works on the philosophy of mathematics survive from Antiquity, Iamblichus’ De communi mathematica scientia and Proclus’ commentary on Euclid’s Elements Book I. Chapter 21 lists works by Proclus concerning mathematics and the sources he used in these works. Concentrating on Proclus’ commentary on Euclid, I describe his conception of the ontological status of the objects with which mathematics is concerned: these objects are originally concepts innate in human soul, forming part of its very nature, concepts which the mathematician then seeks to articulate, project, construct through various methods so as to constitute an elaborated science. I present also the distinctions made between the mathematical sciences and their methods, the importance of mathematics for other sciences (both superior and inferior to it), and Proclus’ relations with other mathematicians of his time.

Chapter 19 shows that the ideas described in Chapter 18 can be found in the writings of Julian the Emperor. Julian speaks of a hierarchy of laws, going down from divine paradigmatic laws to the laws of nature and to human laws (both universal and regional). I also describe Julian’s concept of the ideal legislator, how it relates to Iamblichus’ views, and I give an example of Julian’s legislation, that concerning funeral processions, and describe how this legislation is explained by Julian as relating to metaphysical principles.

This chapter deals with the unattributed Latin poem in hexameters preserved in P.Herc. 817 and known as the Carmen de bello Aegyptiaco (or Actiaco). It aims to further the discussion on this text by offering some insights on both the anatomy of the book-roll and the constitution of the text. Moving from the material features of the volumen, the first part of the paper attempts to cast light on the amount of text that survives and on that which was lost. Then, it focusses on the edition of the Carmen de bello Aegyptiaco in CLTP, discussing some textual problems which are still worthy of consideration. Finally, in its third part, the chapter deals with the content of the poem: special attention is paid to the main novelties emerging from the new reconstruction of the roll, with the twofold aim of better understanding the sequence of events displayed in the poem and outlining some future research perspectives.

The way in which Proclus’ Elements of Theology exemplifies metaphysical science as understood by Late Antique Platonists and as expressed in Proclus’ commentary on Plato’s Parmenides is examined in Chapter 27, which proposes an analysis of the propositions and demonstrations which open the book. I stress the idea that these metaphysical reasonings were regarded as ‘exercises’ of the rational soul, a training leading to a greater proximity to divine first principles.

Chapter 2 discusses fragments surviving from Iamblichus’ correspondence. This correspondence, which includes open letters destined for a wider readership, seems to have been collected for use in the philosophical schools. The collection contains letters which originally, I argue, were of different types. One type is that of an exhortation (a ‘protreptic’) to the study of a science, in this case dialectic. I compare this protreptic with that to be found in Iamblichus’ De communi mathematica scientia; both protreptics correspond to the rhetorical model for the praise of a science. Another type of open letter is that which proposes a ‘Mirror of Princes’ for the edification of people in power and their entourage. A third type to be found in the letters is a monograph which discusses a difficult philosophical question: the relation between fate and freedom. If addressed to a well-educated professional, perhaps a former student of Iamblichus, this letter could have had a wider circulation.

This introductory chapter serves as a methodological introduction to the significance of literary and documentary texts on papyrus as vital primary sources for linguistics, philology, and literary criticism, as well as for historical and juridical studies. These texts have typically been underutilised by classicists. However, recent re-examination of the available Latin and Graeco-Latin literary and documentary evidence, conducted as part of the ERC Project PLATINUM, has yielded significant results. These findings are briefly outlined here, with a particular emphasis on submerged and previously unknown Latin literature, and Roman wills as sociohistorical sources.

Chapter 26 discusses in more detail the concepts innate in the soul whereby soul can reason about what transcends reasoning. I describe the relations between words, concepts and things (in this case transcendent realities), as the later Platonists saw these relations, and argue that the rational soul does not simple ‘look’ at metaphysical concepts, as it were, but that they are known as part of the dynamic, productive operations of rational thought.

This chapter presents some up-to-date and further reflection on the Latin scrolls preserved in the library of Philodemus (c. 110–40 BCE) found in Herculaneum. The first part takes up the discussion on the better-known and more closely studied (due to its superior material condition) P.Herc. 817 (anonymous Carmen de bello Actiaco) and P.Herc. 1067 (Seneca the Elder, Ab initio bellorum civilium). The supplementary remarks proposed deal with the group of three rolls P.Herc. 78 (falsely assigned to the comic poet Caecilius Statius), P.Herc. 215 (anonymous), and P.Herc. 1475 (anonymous). We now have the benefit of new editions of all of them, completely redone and mostly reliable, insofar as is allowed by the desperately fragmentary source material.All of the Latin scrolls are from the period after Philodemus’ death. It is even possible that, besides the books written in the early Imperial period, there were also older literary texts, or even private or public documents that could have formed a part of the Piso Caesoninus family’s archives. To this day, unfortunately, no trace of either kind of text has come to light.

Latin ostraca were produced in multicultural environments such as Egypt and North Africa, where Latin was often in contact with other languages and scripts. As a result, they sometimes feature the phenomenon of allography, i.e. the use of an uncommon script for a specific language. A categorisation of allographic phenomena is proposed here: taking the sentence as a point of reference, a tripartition is advanced into ‘complete’, ‘partial’, and ‘occasional’ allography, which identifies phenomena acting respectively at the level of the entire sentence, single word(s), and single character(s). The analysis also takes into account background elements such as the competence of the scribes and the reasons that lead to these phenomena.

Plotinus provided an explanation of evil which was original and philosophically challenging. While deriving everything from one source, the absolute transcendent Good, Plotinus does not trivialize the phenomenon of evil or reduce it to human moral deviation, as do other philosophical and religious approaches, but traces evil back to a metaphysical principle, matter, the source of evil in the world and in human souls. In Chapter 11 I present Plotinus’ account of evil and discuss to what extent it can be defended against a series of criticisms formulated by Plotinus’ successors, in particular by Proclus.

In Chapter 3, the first book of Iamblichus’ work On Pythagoreanism, a book entitled On the Pythagorean Life, is placed in the context of Iamblichus’ advocacy of a revival of the ancient roots of Platonism in Pythagoreanism. An analysis of the book suggests that Iamblichus makes free use of rhetorical models of two kinds of speeches of praise, that of a hero (Pythagoras) and that of a science (Pythagorean philosophy). The work invites the reader to a study of Pythagorean philosophy by showing the exceptional nature of Pythagoras’ contribution to human welfare and the value of the sciences which he revealed. This protreptic function would be carried on in the second book, the Protrepticus, an exhortation to study philosophy in general and Pythagorean philosophy in particular; and in the third, the De communi mathematica scientia, a protreptic to mathematics. The following books introduced the four mathematical sciences, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy, and related arithmetic to physics, ethics and theology.

Chapter 6 gives a survey of ethical themes in Plotinus. It begins with happiness (eudaimonia) as life at its highest degree, the life of intellect of which human soul is capable. The affairs of bodily existence have no part in this life of intellect, which is a perfect, joyful, peaceful state. To reach this state, virtue is required. Two sorts of virtue are distinguished: the ‘political’ virtues and the ‘higher’ (or ‘greater’) virtues, as stages in assimilation to the divine life of transcendent Intellect. The affairs of our bodily life concern us as souls which have a need, a natural ‘appropriation’, to take care of bodily lives, ours and that of others. Action in this bodily existence should be guided by practical wisdom, a wisdom guided by ‘premises’, i.e., norms derived from theoretical wisdom. Finally, I indicate the variety of texts composed by Plotinus’ Platonist successors where ethical themes may be found.

The following notes are not intended as a full bibliographical update, but indicate rather some more recent relevant publications with some comments.

This chapter takes as its starting point the historiographical aspects of the editio princeps of the two papyri BGU II 611 and 628 and then sets out to investigate the legal profiles of the measures reproduced in them, both relating to judicial reforms carried out during the age of Claudius and later Nero. This investigation also allows us to make some considerations on the relationship between senatusconsulta and normative measures of the imperial chancellery.

One of the results of the PLATINUM Project was a re-evaluation of P.Mich. VII 430, a document dating to shortly before 115/116 CE, described by previous editors as ‘a collection of brief sayings’. Several of the textual remains are consistent with trochaic septenarii, a metre found in early Latin drama and significantly within the tradition of Latin verse maxims attributed to the late Republican poet Publilius the Syrian. This chapter discusses the content of the collection and compares it with other Latin gnomic collections that survive in medieval transmission, including Publilius, and several ancient gnomic collections ascribed to Seneca, Varro, and ‘Caecilius Balbus’.