Home page - digilibLT
Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale - Amedeo Avogadro Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Vercelli Regione Piemonte
  • Home
  • The project
  • News
  • Late antiquity on the web
  • Help
  • Contacts and feedback
  • Reserved area
  • DH Day 2021
English language Italian language
Large font size Default font size Small font size
Search

Find



  • Searchable works
  • Advanced search
  • Search the bibliography

Browse and download
  • Works
  • Authors
  • Bibliography
By date
  • II
  • III
  • IV
  • V
  • VI
  • VII
  • VIII
  • Uncertain date
  • All the authors
By name
    • A
    • B
    • C
    • D
    • E
    • F
    • G
    • H
    • I
    • L
    • M
    • N
    • O
    • P
    • Q
    • R
    • S
    • T
    • U
    • V
  • All the authors
Other resources
  • Modern studies on late antiquity
  • Canon of late-antique authors
  • Fonts and software to download
  • Download texts

Additional proponent

External link to the website of the Università degli studi di Torino

Cornelius Labeo

saec. III


The sparse notices that survive about Cornelius Labeo make him a mysterious author of uncertain dating: some scholars place him in the 1st or 2nd c. AD, while others - more realistically - propose the 3rd c. AD.  In the latter case, he would be treated as a member of the Neo-Platonic school, which flourished in the second half of the 3rd c. AD.  This is potentially confirmed by similarities (e.g. in theme and matters of doctrine) that are shared by Cornelius Labeo and Porphyry, a pupil of Plotinus who lived at Rome from 263-305 AD.

Although Labeo must have composed many works, only four can be named with certainty: 1) De fastorum libris.  This work must have demonstrated antiquarian interests, aiming to preserve details of Roman religion from the fierce attacks of Christian apologetics.  2) De disciplina etrusca.  In this treatise, Labeo tried to adapt Etruscan divinatory texts to a changed historical and social context, emphasizing in particular divination and chresmology.  3) De diis animalibus.  Here Labeo sought to yoke traditional Roman religion to eastern cultural elements, with the goal of bolstering older pagan cult by renewing its ideas. 4) De oraculo Apollonis Clarii.  This work may have offered an elaborate theological and philosophical commentary on a collection of oracles from the famous sanctuary at Klaros that showed traces of a monotheistic and syncretic outlook.  Its contents are perhaps related to Porphyry’s Philosophy from Oracles, but it shares many points of contact with Labeo’s other extant compositions on astrology and Etruscan divination.  Among other things, it has been maintained that the De oraculo aimed at introducing the god of the Jews - renamed ‘Iao’ - to the Olympian system.

In his compositions, Labeo undertook a salvage operation of antiquarian material from the authors of the Roman tradition (e.g. Cato, Varro, Verrius Flaccus) who would later be used by Macrobius, Servius, and John Lydus.  It has now been argued that the Orphic verses reported by Macrobius in the first book of the Saturnalia might go back to Labeo; some scholars have thus hypothesized that Labeo served as an intermediary source between Porphyry and Arnobius, but others have suggested - more prudently - that the Christian author relied on Labeo only for a few points of doctrine.  There is no doubt, however, that Arnobius - like Saint Augustine and the Fathers of the Church more generally - criticized Labeo for supporting paganism [G. Vanotti; tr. C. L. Caterine].

Title list
Testimonia et fragmenta (Cornelius Labeo)

Back to list
Bibliography
  1. Briquel, D. Cornelius Labeo et la réaction païenne
  2. Briquel, D. La religion étrusque à la fin de la période impériale: Tagès contre Jésus.
  3. Kroll, W. Die Zeit des Cornelius Labeo
  4. Mastandrea, P. Numenio 57 des Places e la cronologia di Cornelio Labeone
  5. Montero, S. La doctrina etrusca de los «dii animales»
  6. Teja, R. Actas XIV seminario sobre historia del monacato (1-4 de agosto de 2000): profecía, magia y adivinación en las religiones antiguas.
  7. Ternes, C.M. Mélanges offerts à Raymond Chevallier, 1. Présence des idées romaines dans le monde d'aujourd'hui

Creative Commons License This page licensed under Creative Commons Attribution - Non commercial - ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Release 2.22 - Made by Step srl