CLASSICONORROENA, 4 portatur in sylvam cadaver recens, ubi frequentius hae bestiae vagari videntur, praesertim in nivibus altis: (aestate enim nil valent pelles) quo cognito per odorem, et apprehenso, vescitur, donec ventrem instar tympani extensum, inter arbores angustas, non sine cruciatu cogatur exonerare: sicque occupatum, lata dimissa sa gitta venator occidit. Este t alius modus huius bestiae capiendae, per trabes tenuissima chorda distinctas, ut eius levi motu, cadaver edendo stranguletur: vel etiam in effossas scrobes, seu cavemas obliquas, ut fame urgente cadavere immisso vescatur, incidens capitur. Aliaque via vix conceditur, uta cani bus apprehendatur, cum ungulas, dentesque, adeo acutos habeat, ut eius congressum formident canes, qui in ferocissimos lupos vires suas extendere solent [end of Grafeo's Epitome, p. 138]. Huic guloni in avibus magnis assimilantur harpyae, quae in solitudine iuxta mare Ionicum morantur, tam rabidae farnis, ut fere nullo cibo perhibeantur satiari. In marinis monstris ahunus cunctis aliis insatiabilior: cuius corpus extenditur, donec vomitu extenuet ventrem, prout Albertus et Vincentius attestantur. Ita et hippopotamus, fluvialis equus: qui naturali astutia inter arundines pedem vulnerando, saginam deponere novi t. impressaque complanare vestigia, ut venatores fallat insequentes, prout Plinius et Solinus dicunt. SAXO GRAMMATICUS ANO ENNIUS* by Fabio Stok, University of Salerno For the Middle Ages Ennius was little more than a name (for us it is somewhat more: a list of fragments). But not just any name: in Horace, Ennius is the poet et sapiens et fortis et alter Homerus (epist. 2,1,50); in Cicero (Arch. 22), in Ovid (ars 3,409-410) and in Jerome's Chronicon (a.Abr. 1850) he is a poet so great as to meri t a position in the sepulchre of Scipio; in an anecdote recounted by Cassiodorus, Ennius is a prized source ofVirgil' s, dum Ennium legeret [scii. Vergilius], a quodam quidfaceret inquisitus respondit: "Aurum in stercore quaero" (inst. 1,8). A name recurring so frequently, in different authors, could not but excite inter- est on the part of Medieval readers, as well as an ambition to track down his works: Adhelm ofMalmesbury (VII Century) cited 12 Ennius among the titles of the library of the abbey, but obviously knew only the name (see L.Bonhoff, Adhelm von Malmesbury, Dresden 1894, pp. 71 ss.); in the age ofthe Rennaissance Pomponio Leto boasted the possession ofEnnius' Annales, arousing the envy of the other Humanists (see A.J.Dunston, "A Student's Note ofLectures by Giulio Pomponio Leto", Antichthon l [1967], p. 92). Some ofthe attestations that I quote below hypothesised that the work could have been preserved in some codices originating in the Middle Ages and then lost, but this is a hypothesis that c an be disc arde d: at the time ofMacrobio (end ofiV Century) the work of Ennius had already been lost, quia saeculum nostrum ab Ennio et amni bibliotheca vetere descivit, multa ig- noramus, quae non laterent, si veterum lec- tio nobis esset familiaris (Sat. 6,9,9); Corippus (VI Century) drew on quotations of Macrobius and others, as Baldwin has recently shown (see B.Baldwin, "Corippus and Ennius", Illinois Class.Stud. 13 [1988], pp. 175-82). With the impossibility of tracking down the Ennius text, the Middle Ages remembered his name, recovering noticeable appraisals in the sources: Beda (VIII Century) quoted Ennius in De schematibus et tropis (p. 610,20 Rhet.Lat.Min. Halm) by Sedulius, Carm.Pasch. l, 136; Muadwin of Autun took his cue from Ovid (trist. 2,423-424 ), Carmina lusit item variis en maximus odis l Ennius, ingenuis scribens monimenta priorum; l Propterea in terris tenuit tum culmen honoris (ed. Dtimmler I p. 387, 11. 79-81); Theodulus (IX Century) from Mar- tianus Capella's distichum Ennianum (1,42), Adsint praecipue qui curantflorida Tempe, l Quos in distichii serie complec- teris, Enni (ecl. 285-286); Alan ofLille (XII Century), Illic pannoso plebescit carmine noster l Ennius et Priami fortunas intonat (Anticlaud. 1.5, ed. Wright), derives, for Forster, from Priscian, who quotes (gramm. II p. 97 ,}-9 Keil) Ennius' fragment ann. 17 Vahlen [= 14 Skutsch], cum veteroccubuit Priamus sub Marte Pelasgo (see R.Forster, "Zur Handschriftenkunde und Geschichte der Philologie", Rhein.Museum 37 [1882], p. 488); Alan probably also took account of the appraisal of Horace from ars 259-262 (and maybe also from ''fortunam Priami cantabo ... " from 137, which was, however, attributed by Horace to the scriptor cyclicus, and not to Ennius). The interest in Ennius allo w ed Ekkehartus IV, ab bot of Sankt Gal- len (XI Century) to save a couple of frag- ments from the Annales, extracting them from the tradition of Orosius. Again, Dante (XIV Century), for the response of Pyrrhus to the Roman ambassadors, cited (from Cicero aff. 1,38) Ennius's fragments 194- 201 Vahlen2 [= 363-365 Skutsch] (Mon. 2,9,8). In short: the interest of the Middle Ages in Ennius is recurrent, and runs through the entire culture of the Age. Saxo Grammaticus does not quote Ennius, as he does not almost none of the rest of his classica! auctores. But, it is starting from them that he constructs his own stylistic imprint, the lexis and the language of the Gesta Danorum. Recent studies have high- lighted the breadth of Saxo's cultura! back- ground, an d especially the refined technique with which he used his sources in the writing of the Gesta. In this regard Saxo reflects the culture of the French Renaissance of the XII Century: no biographical attestations remain, but it is by now accepted that he received his education in northem France, at Tours or maybe at Orléans. The nickname "Grammaticus" by which Saxo is known starting from the XV Century, is surely not misapplied- the name deriving perhaps from the Compendium Saxonis of 1345, Gesta Danorum quidam egregius grammaticus, origine Syalandicus, nomine Saxo conscrip- sit (ed. Gertz), in which, however, "gram- maticus" has the meaning of "Master of Latin Letters" and thus of "Latinist". Ennius is not quoted by Saxo, as I have already said, and he is not even indicated among the sources of Saxo, for example in the apparatus of Olrik and R(eder. Rather, Ennius is a source of Saxo' s, as we shall see, and is indeed the object of an undertaking of notable interest which reveals the refined strategy of composition this author has. Some clues to the interest shown in Ennius by Saxo have been noted by Karsten Friis- CLASSICONORROENA, 4 Jensen: at 2,1,8 (p. 39,3 Olrik-R(eder), urbs somno sepulta diripitur, the quotation of Virgil, Aen. 2,265, invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepultam, is probably mediated by the comparison with Ennius ann. frg. 292 Vahlen2 [= 288 Skutsch], nunc hostes vino domiti somnoque sepulti, proposed by Mac- robius, Sat. 6, l ,20, source of Saxo (see K.Friis-Jensen, Saxo og Vergil, Kll)benhavn 1975, pp. 43.84-85 and K.Friis-Jensen, Saxo Grammaticus as Latin P o et, Roma 1987, p. 89); otherquotations ofVirgil noted by Saxo are in Justin 43,4,7 and in Dudo of St-Quen- tin 1,4 (p. 131,10 Lair). Friis-Jensen notes again, in the Helga episode (6,6,7-12), the use of Virgil in a satiric mode, analagous with the degree to which Horatian exegesis (Ps.Acron on sat. 1,2,37-38) reveals the use that HoJace makes of Ennius ann. frg. 465 Vahlen [= 494 Skutsch] (see Saxo Gram- maticus as Latin Poet, p. 115). W e are talking about cases in which the presence of Ennius is indirect. The case that I am examining here sees the direct rework- ing of Ennius on the part of Saxo. Replying to his brother Hildigerus, beaten to death by him, Haldanus describes his own shield (it is a mise en abyme, in which the indication to the son killed by Haldanus mirrors the killing of the brother), cf. Gesta Danorum 7,9,15 (p. 204,19-26 Olrik- R(eder): ad caput affixus clipeus mihi Sueticus astat, quem speculator vernans varii caelaminis ornat et miris laqueata modis tabulata coronant illic confectos proceres pugilesque subactos, bella quoque et nostrae facinus spectabile dextrae multicolor pictura notat; medioxina nati illita conspicuo species caelamine constat, cui manus haec cursum metae vitalis ademit. Olrik and R(eder referto Ovid, met. 13,291, neque enim clipei caelamina novi t (Ulysses' words, in the armorum iudicium, on the boorishness of Ajax, incapable of appreciat- ing the decorations on Achilles' shield). Ac- tually Saxo takes into consideration as a priority Apuleius, who in Socr. 2 p. 6,19 Goldbacher quotes Ennius: ut ait Ennius, cliveo miris fulgoribus variata l caelamina (the fragment in generally placed in con- junction with the scenic fragments 215-216 13 CLASSICONORROENA, 4 V ahlen2, Quid noctis videtur? in altisono l Caeli clipeo, from Iphigenia, but the deriva- tion is not certain, see The Tragedies of Ennius, comm. by H.D.Jocelyn, p. 330). That this may be Saxo' s source, is shown by the contextual revision of Cicero, again in conjunction with an attestation ofEnnius, in Tusc. 3,44: vidi ego te adstante ope bar- barica l tectis caelatis lagueatis, l auro e bore instructa regi.fice (in this case from the Andromacha, :fhey are the scenic fragments 94-96 Vahlen ). The outline of the sources is completed by Martianus Capella, certain- ly assumed by Saxo, cf. l ,66: ex qua multi- coloribus notulis variegata p i c tura vernabat (and maybe also by Ilias Latina 630: accipit [scii. Aiax] insignem vario caelamine bal- teum). What is striking is the combination of two different attestations of Ennius. Saxo' s clipeus closely follows especially that of Ennius/ Apuleius, clipeus ... varii caelaminis (Saxo) l clipeo ... variata caelamina (En- nius/ Apuleius); secondarily Saxo could also have taken into account both Ovid and the Ilias Latina. The matching of En- nius/ Apuleius with Ennius/Cicero is clearly pressed for by caelatis, which re-echoes caelaminis from the other fragment (caelamen is quite frequent in Saxo: cf. for example 5,1,6, for the collar that Frotho gives to Gothwara, habebatnamque torques nexilia bullarum caelamina intersitaque regum simulacra). The context of En- nius/Cicero concems Priam' s royal palace, with its panelled ceilings chiselled in gold and ivory. Saxo's attention was probably caught by laqueatus, which he used (in this case only in the Gesta) for the decoration of the shield (forcing the sense a little: the term concems specifically the ceilings). But the contextual analogy may be noted: Saxo talks about an exotic clipeus, Sueticus, exactly as in Ennius/Cicero the Trojan royal palace is decorated ope barbarica. Also the more generai context of Ennius/Cicero, Priam's royal palace destroyed, appeared perhaps fitting to the context of the Gesta, as a fratricide. The undertaking does not come out of Saxo' s usual compositional technique: he 14 gives priority attention to lexical choice, but is guided frequently also by the analogy of contexts (see F.Stok, "Tecniche della imitazione/composizione in Saxo Grammaticus", in Tra contesto e testo. Studi di scandinavistica medievale, a cura di C.Santini, il Calamo, Roma 1994; see also F.Stok, "Die klassischen Vorbilder der Vita des Kanutus Lavard (Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, Buch XIII)", in The Audience of the Sagas II, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg 1991, pp. 287-96). But the case examined reveals, I would say, the breadth an d depth of Saxo' s familiarity with classica! texts. I t has been asked, in the past, to what extent Saxo may have depended on the authors he used, and if he may have drawn on epitomes, anthologies and the like. It seems likely, in reality, that Saxo had at his disposal most of the authors that he uses in the Gesta. But what is more important, in Saxo' s compositional technique, is especially the sure command he has of the vocabulary and narrative style of the classica! authors, an d the use he makes of them for the enrichment and refinement of his own poetic and narrative imprint. Finally, we are left with the comparison Saxo made between different fragments of Ennius. A singular undertaking, that seems to ha ve no precede n t in Medie val culture. T o fin d a collection of fragments of Ennius, w e have to wait until 1564, the year in which Henry and Robert Estienne (Robertus and Henricus Stephanus) published the Frag- menta poetarum Latinorum quorum opera non extant. Saxo, in some way, is a pioneer of the philological work of the modems. This is also a confirmation of the fact that Saxo really was grammaticus. * paper presented at a Round-Table Conference "Tbe Intertextual Joumey", Rome 9th November 1993.