Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17234/RadoviZHP.56.2
Croatia’s viri illustres and Appian of Alexandria (Summary)
Bruna Kuntić Makvić
Abstract
Appian, a historian of the second century AD, wrote his Roman History tracing the story of every war the Romans had waged, even against themselves, from the founding of Rome to Appian’s time. Due to the traditional 19th-century evaluation of ancient Greek and Roman literature, his work was generally undervalued until the last third of the 20th century. Reflections of this undervaluation are visible in Croatian reference literature to this day.
As a Greek from Alexandria, Appian wrote his Roman History in Greek. During the Middle Ages, knowledge of Greek in Western Europe was poor. Those interested in reading Appian’s History used the Latin translation by Italian humanist Piercandido Decembrio (first edition 1452).
The translation included the entire text of the second part of the ninth chapter, called the Illyrian Chapter from its content. Appian began by defining Illyricum and its borders from both Greek and Roman perspectives, gave an ethnogeographical overview, and mentioned inter-Illyrian conflicts, before turning to Roman military campaigns. When possible, he reported on the cause and outcome of each, as well as on the accompanying diplomatic activity. While discussing the movements of the army, he also provided valuable topographical data. The work is useful for both ancient history and historical geography.
For everyone researching the ancient history of the Croatian historical territory and/ or Illyrian history, Appian’s Illyrian Chapter is a desirable and indispensable source.
The Greek original of the Illyrian Chapter was lost, except for a few fragments, until David Höschel published the first edition of the original in 1599, based on a single Greek manuscript in the Augustan Library.
In two distant centuries, the 17th and 19th, translations of Appian’s Illyrian Chapter appeared from the pen of Croatian authors and were published in print, both times for the needs of historiographical research, both times in turbulent political circumstances and in connection with them. I have already had the opportunity to briefly present the translations and their qualities, to indicate which individuals collaborated on them and in what context (Kuntić-Makvić 1988b). Here I present in more detail the professional and scientific research procedures and the mutual communication of these researchers, and I show how the ancient Appian and his Illyrian Wars are woven into the Croatian history of the modern age.
In the 17th century, Appian’s Illyrian Chapter was the subject of intensive study by two Croatian scholars, Ivan Lučić and Stjepan Gradić. Due to his high quality approach to historical sources Ivan Lučić (Trogir 1604 – Rome 1679) is rightly considered the father of Croatian critical historiography. For his great Latin work De Regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae libri sex, intended for an international public (first edition Amsterdam 1666; the most correct ibidem 1668), he needed a correct version of Appian’s Illyrian Chapter. His Latin was excellent, and he knew the events Appian wrote about from other sources, so he was not satisfied with either Decembrius’ translation or Höschel’s edition of the original. He was searching the Vatican Library for a quality Greek manuscript of the Illyrian Chapter, and he found it. His friend Stjepan Gradić (Dubrovnik 1613 – Rome 1683), at the time the custos, later the head of Bibliotheca Vaticana, a poet and diplomat of the Holy See, who dealt with natural sciences, philosophy, philology and history, agreed with Lučić in his negative assessment of the printed edition and the Latin translation. At Lučić’s request, he compared the manuscript that Lučić had found with another Greek manuscript from the Bibliotheca Vaticana and with the printed edition, and confirmed that Lučić’s find was the most accurate version. He then translated Appian’s text into Latin. We know this from Gradić’s epistle to Lučić, which was printed in De Regno... together with Gradić’s Latin translation of the Illyrian Chapter. (Fig. 3 and Appendix 1).
Appian’s Illyrian Chapter was printed in De Regno... after a long and persistent search, after expert editing in which two top Croatian intellectuals from Dalmatia participated, two friends and collaborators on a political program that sought to unite Croatian lands under one authority that would respect their rights and rule for the benefit of their inhabitants.
In the 19th century, the first pair of scholars to collaborate on Appian’s Illyrian Chapter were Ljudevit Gaj and Ante Starčević. Linguist, writer, newspaper entre¬preneur and editor Ljudevit Gaj (Krapina 1809 – Zagreb 1872), as a politician was a lobbist for panslavic and illyrian ideology, an important figure of the early period of Croatian national revival. He needed Appian as a source for his historiographic work Dogodovština Ilirije velike. Also, Appian’s clear and concise compilation could have served, in accordance with Gaj’s efforts, for the political argumentation of the fictitious Illyrian historical unity and the historical right to the imagined Illyrian territory. For this reason, Gaj had acquired for his library both Decembrio’s translation and Höschel’s edition of Appian’s Greek original. In 1853, he lent them to Ante Starčević, so that he could translate Appian’s Illyrian Chapter for him. At that time, the theologian, philosopher and writer Ante Starčević (Žitnik near Gospić 1823 – Zagreb 1896) wrote poetry and plays, short stories, literary criticism, newspaper articles, translated ancient Greek poetry and participated in the work of cultural societies, especially Matica. He gradually abandoned his previous loyalty to the Illyrian project and formulated the doctrine of the future Croatian Party of Rights. In 1952, he fiercely publicly opposed the Serbian denial of the Croatian language, name, and ethnic identity.
He submitted the translation to Gaj on 20 January 1854. He translated only according to Höschel’s edition, having had no other. He compared his translation with Decembrio’s from Gaj’s library and found that they differed greatly. He suggested that there could have been differences between Appian’s original, which Decembrio worked from, and Höschel’s version. He believed that Appian’s text did not need commentary, since it was only for Gaj’s use. If Gaj had wanted to publish it anywhere, he would have added a few words or comments. We learn this from the letter that Starčević sent with the translation (Fig. 4, Appendix 2). We also learn from the letter that relations between Gaj and Starčević were tense, through no fault of Starčević’s, in his personal opinion. That is why he did not personally bring the translation to Gaj. From Starčević’s other writings we know that he valued Appian’s Illyrian Chapter as “a work that, if properly explained, would serve as the basis for the ancient history of those lands that are now held by Croats,” and we also know that he studied ancient history and wanted to write about it. Starčević was undoubtedly qualified for the work that Gaj entrusted to him on Appian’s text, not only because of his knowledge of classical Greek, but also because of his interest in and knowledge of ancient history.
Starčević’s translation of Apian’s Illyrian Chapter has survived in two printed editions and in one manuscript. Namely, in 1863, Gaj finally published, in Danica ilirska 16-18, with editorial corrections, the Starčević’s translation which he had received in 1854. The incomplete manuscript with these corrections has been preserved among the editorial files of Danica, which are kept in the National and University Library in Zagreb (R 4710 (4)). In the meantime, Starčević worked on Appian’s Illyrian Chapter and significantly changed the translation. This is evident from another publication in the same year, 1863, in the scholarly journal Arkiv za pověstnicu jugoslavensku. This assumes collaboration with the founder and editor of Arkiv, the third vir illustris, Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski (Varaždin 1816 – Puhakovac, Sveti Križ Začretje 1889). This historian, promoter of auxiliary historical sciences, founder of societies for the study of historical heritage, as a politician changed his preferences from South Slavic unity to loyalty to Austrian rule. Starčević never shared any of his political orientations. The same year that both of Starčević’s translations of Appian’s Illyrian Chapter were published, it was the third year since he was elected to the Croatian Parliament, and since the Croatian Party of Rights was founded. His intense political activity would earn Starčević the title of Father of the Fatherland. This same activity was probably the reason why he did not provide his translation with any preface or commentary.
The fourth notable public figure from the 19th century who was interested in Appian is Vjekoslav Babukić (Požega 1812 – Zagreb 1875) lawyer, linguist, editor and librarian, devoted follower of Illyrian ideology. In 1867, he received an invitation to the meeting of the Board of ‘Matica ilirska’ on April 5. On the back, he wrote a quote from Cicero about self-knowledge as a prerequisite for general knowledge, a valid and fulfilled human life. The invitation with the quote remained inserted in the then new edition of Appian’s Roman History, today in the National and University Library in Zagreb. Connecting Babukić’s devotion to Gaj’s Illyrian political project, Cicero’s thought that he probably prepared to quote at the meeting, the book of Appian’s History that he had in his hands, and the purposes of the Matica, we are free to assume that Babukić believed that Appian’s History should be translated into Croatian and printed.
The fact is that during the 19th century, the top intellectuals of northern Croatia, some of them hardened political opponents, swarmed around Appian’s Illyrian Chapter. The first two worked on an ancient and poor first printing of the original, and on an old and poor Latin translation. It can be inferred or proven that some of the five also worked on newer editions and translations in later times. All five are methodologically weaker than Lučić and Gradić in their choice to rely on printed editions, and in the simple way in which they were prepared to exploit the ancient source in their political or cultural-political competition, whether to promote the Illyrian or South Slavic model or to rise up against it. Although Ante Starčević participated in such use of Appian, he proved to be professionally aware when working on the translation of the Illyrian Chapter: he compared the original and someone else’s translation, he indicated that it was necessary to compare variants in the transmission of the original, he considered a historical commentary nece¬ssary, he formulated precisely what the source is suitable for. According to the sources reviewed, Starčević was flawless in distinguishing what really belonged to the ancient history of his homeland and what was ephemeral politicized fiction.
His translations of Appian’s Illyrian Chapter deserve a quality critical edition, and Appian as a historian deserves a qualification in Croatian reference literature that will correctly present the value of his work for Croatian history.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
330235
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2024.
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