Aulus Gellius: Attic Nights, Volume I, Books 1-5

by Aulus Gellius, John Carew Rolfe (Translator)

Aulus Gellius (ca. 123-170 CE) is known almost wholly from his "Noctes Atticae, " 'Attic Nights', so called because it was begun during the nights of an Attic winter. The work collects in twenty books (of Book VIII only the index is extant) interesting notes covering philosophy, history, biography, all sorts of antiquities, points of law, literary criticism, and lexicographic matters, explanations of old words and questions of grammar. The work is valuable because of its many excerpts from other authors whose works are lost; and because of its evidence for people's manners and occupations. Some at least of the dramatic settings may be genuine occasions.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of "Attic Nights" is in three volumes.

Genres: History, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Classics

528 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Aulu-Gelle (en latin Aulus Gellius) est un grammairien et compilateur latin du IIe siècle, auteur d'un ouvrage d'érudition en vingt livres intitulé les Nuits attiques.

Reviews

[Evan Leach · Rating 3 out of 5]

”For whenever I had taken in hand any Greek or Latin book, or had heard anything worth remembering, I used to jot down whatever took my fancy, of any and every kind, without any definite plan or order; and such notes I would lay away as an aid to my memory, like a kind of literary storehouse, so that when the need arose of a word or a subject which I chanced for the moment to have forgotten, and the books from which it had taken it were not at hand, I could readily find and produce it.”
- Attic Nights, Preface.

The Attic Nights, the only known work of Aulus Gellius, is an eclectic hodgepodge of second century knowledge. Composed around 178 AD, the Nights collects Gellius’ thoughts on a wide range of subjects, including grammar, philosophy, history, and more. Deliberately unorganized, the Nights represent Geliius’ thoughts and notes gleaned both from his personal reading and from his interactions with the world around him.

The Nights contains 20 books, 19 of which have survived to the present day. This is a fairly long work, and many of the individual sections will not have much of interest for the average modern reader. Specifically, Gellius is deeply interested in the operation of the Latin language, and frequently tackles technical questions of grammar and word choice that are frankly uninteresting for the non-specialist. This seems to have been a popular topic for writers of Gellius’ era, but unfortunately these sections have not aged particularly well.

However, for readers willing to look past this, there is much of interest here. There are a lot of little sections here and there that shine a light onto nooks and crannies of Roman history and culture that I found interest. For example, Section XIV.2 contains a fascinating look at how the role of the judiciary was perceived in the Roman world. Special mention goes out to Gellius’ presentation of Androclus and the Lion, the earliest form of this charming story about an ex-slave and his unexpected friendship with a wild lion.



Even when Gellius drifts off into less engaging topics, I thought his style was always pleasant to read. I simply found Gellius likeable: his active mind and insatiable curiosity were infectious in the best of ways. Not a book I’m likely to re-read anytime in the foreseeable future, but I was happy to spend a few weeks drifting through Gellius’ Nights. 3 stars.

[Simon Goldenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

RIP Aulus Gellius you would've loved goodreads

[Louiza · Rating 5 out of 5]

FANTASTIC!!! I had to read the first book of this collection for a book discussion with the Kosmos Society for Classical Studies. I hadn't heard of the author before, and now I'm on a mission to make this wonderful ancient Roman author known. If you never read Attic Nights, the only surviving work by Aulus Gellius, you are missing out on a treasure!

Gellius is a linguist, historian, philosopher, literary critic, and a story teller. He has collected notes in all these subjects and he named his work Attic Nights because he started it during the nights of an Attic winter. In many of his notes, the works of people he mentions have not survived, so we only know of them because of him. Other stories, we might know them or have heard them without the knowledge that they were first recorded in writing by Gellius. For instance, many of us might know or have heard the story of Androcles & the Lion, but how many of us knew and connected this popular story with Aulus Gellius for its original source instead of Aesop?

Fascinating read! I absolutely love it! There are twenty books. I have now finished the first collection of books 1-5, and looking forward to uncover the treasures of the remaining fifteen.

[Green Lion]

A wonderful window into upperclass Roman imperial culture and thought; the pragmatism, the patriotism, the pronatalism, the preoccupation with grammar and exact precision of language (they would, perhaps, not be patient with our own impressionistic sprezzatura). On the other hand -- so very many disquisitions on specific grammar, etymology, or spelling; you could, probably, skip some of that. The picturesque little conversations and the brief anecdotes -- a pretty fun book. Essentially Gellius' commonplace book, and divided generally into sections of around 1-2 pages; perhaps if you like this you'll like Robert Burton, or some other compiler: maybe one day I'll dip deeper into Browne's Enquiries into Received Tenets.

[jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not everybody will love it, but I did. It's like a scrapbook, only of literary and grammatical anecdotes and pieces of interest, largely of Latin grammar and usage. Around the fascinations of Gellius, are strewn the fascinations of historians and lovers of things Roman and Greek.

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of random things a first-century Roman ought to know to seem educated is pretty hit-and-miss. His most common theme is grammar and etymologies of certain words, which doesn't do much for me. Aulus Gellius isn't a grammar Nazi-- he's generally defending against them-- so he's not rebarbative, but not much of his personality shows through one way or the other.

But it's easy, episodic reading, sort of like the Pickwick Papers, and there are plenty of things to enjoy, so I will probably read the other two volumes. This volume ended with the earliest telling of Androcles and the lion. I also enjoyed his quote from a lost play where the character laments how scheduled we've all become: "Confound him...who set up a sun-dial, to cut and hack my days so wretchedly into small portions!" He used to be free, but now "the town's so full of these confounded dials" that he can no longer eat whenever he wants, but has to wait for the proper hour.

[Mateusz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A splendid read for those interested in trivia on Latin grammar, word selection, usage and ethymology, the origins of certain stories, authors whose works did not survive, and various histories of antiquity. It strongly reminded me of Saturnalia by Macrobius, who sought to preserve sacred knowledge centuries later. However, while Macrobius undertook a titanic work of preservation, Gellius instead compiles notes of interest.

I can imagine him writing by the light of an oil lamp in one of Athens' villas, drawing from memory, overheard stories, and the scrolls in his possession. Among all the topics, I was most intrigued by the origins of the Aethyrs, the various stories of the winds, the tale of Androclus and the lion, the Arretine Oracles, Hannibal’s jest, bad counsel, the loyalty of animals (such as Alexander’s Bucephalus), the Sibylline Books, Solon’s advice on taking sides, and Xanthippe