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THE COMNENIAN BACKGROUND
TO THE ROMANS D'ANTIQUITÉ (*)
There are two purposes underlying the present paper. The first
to suggest that one of the factors regularly mentioned as a subsidiary
influence on the genesis of the romans d'antiquité was in fac
decisive element in their production ; that is, that these works w
sponsored by Eleanor of Aquitaine largely as a result of her
experiences during the Second Crusade. The second purpose is to
redefine possible areas of literary interaction between the Greek-
and Latin-based cultures of the mid-twelfth century.
Thèbes , Eneas, Troie - these three vernacular romans d'antiquité
are regularly classed together and herald the developed narrative
writings of the latter part of the twelfth century. They are linked, for
example, by their dependence on Latin epic or quasi-epic sources
and by their mixture of battle-scenes with episodes of love. All three
take as their setting the ancient world - the Thebes of Statius, the
early Rome of Virgil, the Troy of Dares and Dictys - and view it
through twelfth-century eyes. They mark a decisive stage in the
development of the romance, with their sustained narratives and
freely invented, carefully individualized characters - Lavinia in
Eneas , Partenopeus in Thèbes , or Briseida in Troie, to name but
three. Thèbes has with reason been called the first French roman ('),
and Eneas and Troie share the features which justify such a title.
(*) This paper was written during the tenure of a Visiting Fellowship at the
Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University, Canberra : it
has benefited extensively from the stimulating criticisms of those resident at the
time. I should like to thank the Director, Professor C. I. E. Donaldson, and his
staff for the many courtesies extended throughout my stay there. I am also
grateful, as always, to my husband for his advice.
(1) Lewis G. Donovan, Recherches sur te Roman de Thèbes (Paris, 1975),
p. 254.
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456 E. M. JEFFREYS
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D ANTIQUITÉ 457
(4) See, e.g., on Eneas , Raymond Cormier, One Heart, One Mind : the Rebirth
of Virgil's Hero in Mediaeval French Romance (Mississippi, 1973), pp. 81-93 ; D.
PoiRiON, "De Y Eneide à Y Eneas : mythologie et moralization", Cahiers de
Civilisation Médiévale , 19 (1976), 213-229. On Thèbes , Donovan, Recherches ,
pp. 17-30. On Troie, Constans, Troie , 6 : 235-263 ; for Benoíťs errors, ibid., 257,
or a very glaring example, Troie , lines 81-3, where "Sallustes ... Ot un nevo ...
Cornelius ert apelez" represents the name Cornelius Nepos.
(5) The classic study is Edmond Faral, Recherches sur les sources latines des
contes et romans courtois du Moyen Age (Paris, 1913), pp. 3-160.
(6) See H. Laurie, " Eneas and the Doctrine of Courtly Love", Modern
Language Review, 64 (1969), 281-294 ; Winthrop Weatherbee, Platonism and
Poetry in the Twelfth Century (Princeton, 1972), pp. 230-6 ; contrast Cormier, One
Heart, p. 183, who disagrees.
(7) E. Langlois, "Chronologie des Romans de Thèbes, ď Eneas et de Troie '
Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 66 (1905), 107-20; Faral, Recherches,
pp. 169-87 ; F. Guyer, "The Chronology of the Earliest French Romances",
Modern Philology , 26 (1928-9), 257-77 , and Idem, Romance in the Making (New
York, 1954).
(8) See, e.g., Cormier, One Heart, p. 21 ; John Fox, A Literary History of
France : the Middle Ages (London, 1974), p. 134.
(9) Margaret M. Pelan, L'Influence du " Brut " de W ace sur les romanciers
français de son temps (Paris, 1931), p. 15 ; E. Hoepffner, "LEneas et Wace'
Archivním Romanicum, 15 (1931), 248-69 and 16 (1932), 162-6; Giovanna
Angeli, L'Eneas e i primi romanzi volgari (Milan, 1971), p. 22.
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458 E. M. JEFFREYS
(10) E.g., O. Jodogne, "L-e caractere des œuvres antiques dans la littérature
française du xiie et xiiie siècles", in L ' Humanisme médiéval dans les littératures
romanes du XIIe au XIVe siècles (ed. A. Fourrier, Paris, 1964), pp. 55-83 ; J.
Frappier, "Remarques sur la peinture de la vie et des héros antiques dans la
littérature française du xne et du xnie siècle", ibid., pp. 13-51 ; G. Raynaud de
Lage, "Les romans antiques et la représentation de l'antiquité", Le Moyen Age , 16
(1961), 247-90.
(11) In addition to the works already cited, see, e.g., on Thèbes , J. Dufournet,
"La Thébaïde de Stace et le Roman de Thèbes", Revue des Langues Romanes , 82
(1976), 139-60 ; on Eneas , H. Laurie, "A New Look at the Marvellous in the
Eneas and its Influence", Romania , 91 (1970), 48-74 ; R. Cormier, "The Present
State of Studies on the Roman d Eneas ' Cultura Neolatina , 31 (1971), 7-39 ; John
A. Yunck, Eneas, A Twelfth Century Romance (translation, with an introduction
and notes) (New York, 1974) ; on Troie , R. M. Lumiansky, "The Story of Troilus
and Briseida according to Benoît and Guido", Speculum , 29 (1 954), 727-33 ; Idem,
"Structural Unity in Benoîts Roman de Troie ' Romania , 79 (1958), 410-24 ; A.
Adler, " Militia et amor in the Roman de Troie ' Romanische Forschungen , 72
(1960), 14-29. Donovan, Recherches , p. 14, promises future studies in both Troie
and Eneas.
(12) Troie , line 13468 ; cf. Constans, Troie , 6, pp. 188-91.
(13) Reto R. Bezzola, Les origines et la formation de la littérature courtoise en
occident , 3 : 1 (Paris, 1963), pp. 289-90.
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D ANTIQUITÉ 459
(14) Bezzola, Les origines , 3 : 1, pp. 271-2, quoting from L. Constans' edition
of Thèbes.
(15) Raynaud de Lage, Thèbes, 2, 148 (discussing lines 1575-9) and 2, 153 (on
lines 6273-4).
(16) Angeli, Eneas , pp. vii-viii ; Cormier, One Heart , pp. 29-77 ; Yunck,
Eneas, pp. 3-5.
(17) P. A. Becker, "Die Normannenchronik: Wace und seine Bearbeiter",
Zeitschrift für romanischen Philologie, 63 (1943), 481-59, repr. in Zur romani-
schen Literaturgeschichte (ed. M. F. Becker, 1967), pp. 466-95, and especially
"Die Reimchroniken und die antiken Romane", ibid., pp. 496-500.
(18) "Die Reimchroniken", p. 497.
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460 E. M. JEFFREYS
(19) W. L. Warren. Henry // (London, 1973), pp. 222-3, cf. pp. 219-20 on his
emphatic references to his grandfather.
(20) Ibid., p. 208.
(21) C. H. Haskins, "Henry II as a Patron of Literature", in Essays in Mediaeval
History presented to T. F. Tout (Manchester, 1925), pp. 71-7 ; U. Broich, "Hein-
rich II. als Patron der Literatur seiner Zeit", in W. F. Schirmer and U. Broich,
Studien zum literarischen Patronat im England des 12. Jahrhunderts (Cologne,
1962), pp. 33-4.
(22) Angeli, Eneas , pp. vii-ix ; Yunck, Eneas , pp. 38-40 ; Cormier, One Heart ,
p. 67 ; Broich, Studien , pp. 50-53, 92-93 ; Jodogne, "Remarques", p. 15.
(23) Broich, Studien, pp. 198-200.
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COM NENI AN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D ANTIQUITÉ 46 1
(24) Lejeune, "Le rôle littéraire", pp. 5-57 ; cf. Amy Kelly, Eleanor of
Aquitaine and the Four Kings (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), pp. 98-103, 155-67.
(25) J. F. Benton, "The Court of Champagne as a Literary Center", Speculum .
36 (1961), 551-91 ; Broich, Studien, p. 34 ; R. Lejeune, "La femme dans les
littératures françaises et occitanes du xie au xine siècles. Cahiers de Civilisation
Médiévale. 20 (1977). 201-18.
(26) E.g.. Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera (J. S. Brewer, J. F. Dimock and G. F.
Warner, 1861-91). 5 : 302-6 ; cf. Warren, Henry 11. pp. 206-17.
(27) See the comments by E. A. R. Brown, "Eleanor of Aquitaine : Parent,
Queen and Duchess", in Eleanor of Aquitaine, Patron and Politician (W. W.
Kibler, ed., Austin, 1976), pp. 9-34, especially p. 10 ; Warren, Henrv If. pp. 120-
1.583.
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462 E. M. JEFFREYS
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D ANTIQUITÉ 463
the project. Greenhill suggests that this inflow of cash, materials and
workmen was made available through the revenues from Aquitaine
which came to Louis VII on his marriage with Eleanor (31). The fact
that the ultimate source of the funds is not mentioned by Suger can
reasonably be explained by his uneasy relationship with Eleanor, a
disapproval shared later by the French court and its historians.
Greenhill accepts that the rebuilt St. Denis embodies Suger s concept
of the French kingdom, that it was a renovatio imperii Karoli
Magni ("), though looking to the Charlemagne of legend rather than
of history, the Charlemagne celebrated in Roland rather than by
Einhard, the Charlemagne who had made the first pilgrimage to
St. James of Compostella ("). She points out that the Dukes of
Aquitaine, amongst them Eleanor's father and grandfather, had had
much to do with the crusades in Spain and with the rise of St. James
of Compostella as a centre of pilgrimage ; her father, who had died
shortly before her marriage, was buried at the shrine (34). Eleanor
must have been aware not only of her family's actions but also of
the ideological implications that lay behind them. When, therefore,
on her marriage and removal to Paris, it became apparent that
similar ideas were current concerning St. Denis - that the rebuilt
abbey was to be considered a centre for pilgrimage with Carolingian
connotations - Greenhill suggests that Eleanor is likely to have been
a knowledgeable and enthusiastic supporter of the scheme ; and that
she provided funds and materials and fully comprehended the
ideological overtones. By this interpretation Eleanor in the early
years of her marriage with Louis is active in the internal politics of
the French kingdom, though no overt record of those activities
exists.
The argument put forward by Greenhill is suggestive, and very
nearly quite convincing. The weakest point is her reliance on
Schramm's interpretation of the Pseudo-Turpin. Hohler, as Green-
hill herself admits, has recently argued that this is a school-text
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464 E. M. JEFFREYS
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D'ANTIQUITÉ 465
(39) J. -J. Salverda de Grave, ed., Eneas: texte critique (Halle, 1891); cf.
Cormier, One Heart, pp. 70-1 19 and Yunck, Eneas, pp. 10-38.
(40) See Constantinos A. Patrides, The Grand Design of God (London, 1972),
pp. 1 -46 for a rapid survey of the background to world chronicles.
(41) Yunck. Eneas, p. 38 ; G. Raynaud de Lage. "Les romans antiques dans
l'Histoire Ancienne jusqu'à César", Le Moyen Age , 63 (1957), 267-309.
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466 E. M. JEFFREYS
(42) Gustave Cohen, Le roman courtois au XIIe siècle (Paris, 1 934) touches on
this, but not as fully as recent work would now permit.
(43) E. g ., Paul ZuMTHOR, Histoire littéraire de la France médiévale (Paris,
1954), p. 122.
(44) Anthime Fourrier, Le courant réaliste dans le roman courtois en France
au moyen âge (Paris, 1960), p. 252.
(45) See the comments by Frappier, "Remarques", p. 24.
(46) Faral, Recherches, pp. 307-88 ; cf. Laurie, "A New Look" (as in note 1 1),
pp. 48-74.
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D'ANTIQUITÉ 467
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468 E. M. JEFFREYS
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D'ANTIQUITÉ 469
This probably would have been the setting for the banquet at which
Louis was entertained.
It seems quite clear that Louis and his nobles were subjected to
the full ceremonial of the Byzantine court. Kinnamos stresses that
the French king was welcomed by the entire imperial family (which
at this time numbered at least a hundred) and all the state
functionaries, who escorted him to the palace with the honours
appropriate to his rank (58). Odo too is impressed by the ceremonial
and the banquet in which the visit culminated : Sic apparatu
mirifico, dapum deliciis ; voluptuosis iocorum plausibus aures et os et
oculos saliavit (59). In its heyday the treatment meted out to foreign
guests could be overwhelming ; one has only to remember the
reverberations in the later literature caused by Liutprand of
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470 E. M. JEFFREYS
(60) Liutprand of Cremona, Antapodosis , 6 : 5 (PL 136, col. 895); cf. the
bronze tree of Aimeri de Narbonne , whose roots are surely embedded in Liut-
prand's experiences (ed. L. Demaison, Paris, SATF, 1887, laisse 97).
(61) For the mechanical figures see Constantine Porphyrogennetos, De
Caerimoniis , 2 : 15 (ed. J. Reiske, Bonn, 1830, vol. 2, p. 567); their history is
discussed by G. Brett, "The Automata of the Byzantine Throne of Solomon' ",
Speculum, 29 (1954), 477-87.
(62) For a collection see W. Hörandner, Theodoros Prodromos : Historische
Gedichte (Vienna, 1974); further examples, from the work of "Manganeios"
Prodromos, are to be found in Bernardinello, De Manganis.
(63) F. Döi.ger. "Rom in der Gedankenwelt der Byzantiner", in Byzanz und die
europäischen Staatenwelt (Darmstadt, 1953), pp. 70-115.
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D ANTIQUITÉ 47 1
(64) Hörandner, Historische Gedichte , p. 320, poem 12, lines 12-15 : "Rejoice,
New Rome, at this entrance, since you have appeared as the head of the Old
Rome ; for if she bestows the bride and you the bridegroom, we all know that the
man is the head of the woman
(65) For a discussion of his identity, see W. Hörandner, "Marginalien zum
Manganeios Prodromos". Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, 24 (1975),
95-106.
(66) C. Neumann, Griechische Geschichtsschreiber und Geschichtsquellen im
zwölften Jahrhundert (Mannheim, 1888), p. 65.
(67) Neumann, Geschichtsschreiber , p. 61 ; extracts from the same incomple-
tely published poem are to be found in E. Miller, Recueil des Historiens des
Croisades , 2, Historiens Grecs (Paris, 1881), 758-9.
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472 E. M. JEFFREYS
(68) E.g. Hörandner, Historische Gedichte , p. 306, poem 18, 98 ff. : note the
reiterations of the name of New Rome in poem 1 and cf. poem 4, 41-2 and poem
16, 182.
(69) Much of this verse was composed in the fifteen syllable 'politicai' line,
which was used for ceremonial and propaganda, especially with imperial
associations ; see M. J. Jeffreys, "The Nature and Origins of the Political Verse",
Dumbarton Oaks Papers , 28 (1974), 73-77 on the various connotations of this
metre.
(70) Odo of Deuil, 3 : 58 : "Circumstante autem corona suorum, loquuntur
per interpretem".
(71) Paolo Lamma, Comneni e Staufer , 1 (Rome, 1955), 55 ; Chalandon, Les
Convienes , 2 (Paris, 1912), 209-10.
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D ANTIQUITÉ 47 3
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474 E. M. JEFFREYS
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D ANTIQUITÉ 475
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476 E. M. JEFFREYS
Epojç ßaadeug : La figura di Eros nel romanzo bizantino d'amore", Atti del-
l'Accademia di Arti di Palermo , ser. 4, vol. 33 (1973-4), part 2, fase. 2, pp. 243-97.
(85) A. Každan, "Bemerkungen zu Niketas Eugenianos", Jahrbuch der öster-
reichischen Byzantinischen Gesellschaft , 16 (1967), 101-17.
(86) The evidence is discussed by Hörandner, Historische Gedichte , pp. 22-32.
(87) N. A. Béès, "Manasses, der Metropolit von Naupaktos, ist identisch mit
dem Schriftsteller Konstantinos Manasses", Byzai itinisch- neugriechische Jahrbü-
cher, 1 (1928/9), 1 19-30.
(88) K. Horna, "Das Hodoiporikon des Konstantinos Manasses", Byzantini-
sche Zeitschrift, 13 (1904), 320.
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D'ANTIQUITÉ All
1 1 43 and before her death in around 1 152 (89) probably before 1150,
when she left Constantinople. Unless, therefore. Manasses was a
highly precocious young man, his date of birth is likely to have been
earlier than 1130. The romance in the political line should perhaps
be associated in time and patronage with Manasses' other work in
the political line, the Chronicle , and also assigned to the 1 1 40s, both
as works of Manasses' youth.
Niketas Eugenianos claims, in the monody he composed at the
death of Prodromos, that Prodromos had been his master (90). The
Paris manuscript of his romance states in the title that it was written
xará ßlfirjatv roū ßaxapizou (piXooórpou roū IlpoSpófiou ; In imitation
of the late Prodromos the philosopher. One may conclude that
Prodromos was no longer living - perhaps only recently dead -
when Eugenianos began his work, which presumably should thus
be dated after 1156-8. Though a title of this sort could only too
easily be a later addition, the other dating hints for Eugenianos'
literary activity that have been gleaned by Každan also point to the
late 1 150s (91).
The Eustathios Makrembolites who wrote the novel Hysmene
and Hysmenias is generally identified with the Makrembolites who
is the author of some riddles and the recipient of a letter in the
1 1 80s (92). This novel would therefore be considerably later than
the other three examples, and so would fall outside the present
discussion. However a re-examination of, for example, the evidence
for the identification of the addressee of the letter and the author of
the romance, in view of the known existence of other members of
the Makrembolites family (93), might well lead to the redating of the
romance : but I do not propose to venture into this question here.
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478 E. M. JEFFREYS
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D 'ANTIQUITÉ 479
(97) E.g., Marc. Gr., XI, 22, ff. 43v, 44r, 58' 63' 68' etc.
(98) Miller, Recueil, 2, p. 342, line 16.
(99) Hörandner, Historische Gedichte, pp. 320-1, poem 20.
(100) Neumann, Geschichtsschreiber, p. 60.
(101) Marc. Gr., XI, 22, f. 64r.
(102) Wendel, RE, 7 A2, cols. 1992 and 1985.
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480 E. M. JEFFREYS
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D ANTIQUITÉ 48 1
husband, Andronikos, the second son, Irene had been the wife of
the heir to the Empire. When Manuel, the youngest brother in the
imperial family, seized power in 1 1 43 on his father's death, Irene, as
mother of two sons one of whom was nearing military age, was
clearly a potential centre for discontent. It is plain that she was
imprisoned from 1143-4, and again in 1148-9 ; finally in about 1 1 50
she was allowed to leave Constantinople in the company of her son
John, who had recently been appointed governor of Sofia C06).
"Manganeios" Prodomos accompanied her, protesting bitterly ; his
are the only works concerning Irene that can be dated securely after
her departure into exile, and even these cease by 1151/2 007). Irene
would seem to have died in Sofia in 1 152 or shortly after. I have
found no evidence of imprisonment in the years 1 145-7, and it is at
this time that her most active patronage should perhaps be set -
though there is no evidence that she could not have acted as a patron
during her periods of imprisonment. In view of the popular
dissemination in later centuries of motifs from these novels, Irene's
patronage marks a decisive stage in the development of secular (and
less learned) littérature in Byzantium, and deserves fuller examina-
tion.
It is thus, I think, reasonably likely that by 1 1 47, when Eleanor of
Aquitaine paused at Constantinople, the novel had re-emerged in
Byzantium as a genre. The question asked earlier has been partially
answered. On chronological grounds alone the romans d'antiquité
of the mid-1 1 50s and after are most unlikely to have played any role
in the reappearance of the novel in Byzantium. But what of the
reverse, Byzantine influence in the West ? The sponsor of these
Greek novels was, I have argued, one of the senior ladies of the
Comnenian family and, even if regarded with some suspicion by the
Emperor, very likely to have been involved in a reception of the
French queen who accompanied the Crusading party. I have already
suggested that Eleanor's interest in the mythological history of
Europe could have been stimulated by the propaganda that she
(106) Marc. Gr., XI, 22, ff. 57r (Miller, Recueil, 2, p. 768, lines 124-41), 65v,
66r ; Papadimitriu, "Oi npóSpouoi" , pp. 123,1 27-8 ; Chalandon, Les Cornitene, 2,
213.
(107) Papadimitriu, "Oí flpoSpoßoi", pp. 116. 128.
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482 E. M. JEFFREYS
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COMNENIAN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D 'ANTIQUITÉ 483
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484 E. M. JEFFREYS
(113) The text is most conveniently available in E. Trapp, ed.. Digenes A krites :
Synoptische Ausgabe der atiesten Versionen (Vienna, 1971). The poem has given
rise to a large literature ; see the bibliography in Beck, Geschichte , pp. 63-97. On
the quotations from Achilles Tatius, see John Mavrogordato, Digenes A krites
(Oxford, 1956), p. 265.
(114) Tòv noÀe/iápxov ròv areppóv, mv véov tòv 'Axpiiijv (the mighty warrior, the
second Akritas) ; D. C. Hesseling and H. Pernot, ed.. Poèmes Prodromiques en
grec vulgaire (Amsterdam, 1910), Poem 3, line 400 y.
(115) Chai. an don. Les Conviene , 2, 426.
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COM NENI AN BACKGROUND TO THE ROMANS D ANTIQUITÉ 485
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486 E. M. JEFFREYS
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