GRICE E COSTANTINO

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Costantino – Ossia Grice e Costantino:  la ragione conversazionale a Roma. Flavio Valerio Aurelio Costantino (Roma, Lazio):  la ragione conversazionale a Roma. Grice: “I love C.!”  Filosofo italiano, una delle figure più importanti dell'impero romano, che riforma largamente. Tra i suoi interventi più significativi, la riorganizzazione dell'amministrazione e dell'esercito. Le fonti primarie sulla vita di Costantino e sulle relative vicende da imperatore devono essere prese con la dovuta cautela. La principale fonte contemporanea è costituita da Eusebio di Cesarea, autore di una Storia Ecclesiastica che non manca di esaltare Enciclopedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. C. I, su BeWeb, Conferenza Episcopale Italiana. C. I, in Diccionario biográfico español, Real Academia de la Historia. Opere di C. I, su digilibLT, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro. Opere di Costantino I, su openMLOL, Horizons Unlimited srl. Opere di C. I, su Open Library, Internet Archive. C. I, su Goodreads. C. I, in Catholic Encyclopedia, Robert Appleton Company. C. I, su Santi, beati e testimoni, santiebeati.it. The Roman Law Library by Lassard and Koptev, su web.upmf-grenoble. Monete emesse da C. I, su wildwinds.com. Sito dedicato alle monete di C. in bronzo, su constantine the great coins. Predecessore Imperatore romano Successore Costanzo Cloro con Galerio C.  IIVDM Imperatori romani e relative linee di successione VDM Diocleziano Portale Antica Roma   Portale Biografie   Portale Bisanzio   Portale Cristianesimo Categorie: Imperatori romani Santi romani Nati a Naissus Morti a Nicomedia C. I Dinastia costantiniana Santi per nomeStoria antica del cristianesimo Personalità del cristianesimo ortodosso Personaggi citati nella Divina Commedia Inferno Paradiso Santi della Chiesa ortodossa. implicature. GRICEVS: Salve, CONSTANTINE, Roma ipsa hodie videtur “rationem conversazionalem” exercere, sed ego te amo. CONSTANTINVS: Salve, GRICE, si me amas, cave ne me Eusebius nimis laudet et iterum totam rem publicam reformare cogar. GRICEVS: Noli timere, nam maxima mea est: ne plus dicas quam necesse est, nisi de nummis tuis splendidis. CONSTANTINVS: Ergo implicatur hoc: si nummi splendidi sunt, imperator quoque splendide se gerat, et populus rideat potius quam murmuret. Was Consantino really born in Rome, and what was his birth place and gens, i. e. birth gens -- before any adoption? Excellent question—Constantine is actually a textbook example of how the classical Roman idea of a gens breaks down in Late Antiquity.  ✅ 1. Was Constantine born in Rome? ❌ No—definitely not.  He was born in Naissus, in the province of Moesia Superior (modern Niš, Serbia) [en.wikipedia.org]  👉 So:  Not Roman by birthplace From a provincial, Danubian military environment  Your passage’s “Roma, Lazio” is therefore incorrect (or poetic).  ✅ 2. His birth name and family His name:  Flavius Valerius Constantinus [en.wikipedia.org]  Parents:  Father: Flavius Constantius (Constantius Chlorus) Mother: Helena (of humble, probably Greek background) [en.wikipedia.org]   ⚖️ 3. What was his “gens”? Here we must be careful: by Constantine’s time, the classical gens system is largely dissolved. Traditional reading (if forced into the old schema):  Flavius → would correspond to gens Flavia Valerius → linked (nominally) to gens Valeria  But: 👉 This is misleading if interpreted in the Republican sense.  🚨 4. Why “Flavius” ≠ real gens here By the late Empire:  Flavius becomes quasi-dynastic or administrative It is widely adopted by:  imperial families officials even freedmen and new elites     [en.wikipedia.org] 👉 Meaning:  It no longer reliably marks descent from the old gens Flavia   ✅ 5. What about “Valerius”? Similarly:  “Valerius” is part of tetrarchic naming conventions Used by emperors like:  Diocletian Maximian Constantius Constantine    👉 It is more:  an imperial titulary element than a true inherited gentilicum   🧠 6. So what is his “birth gens” really? Strictly speaking: 👉 We cannot assign Constantine to a classical gens in the old sense. But if you want the most historically responsible formulation:  Birth identity:  Provincial military family from Moesia / Danubian region   Social background:  not ancient Roman aristocracy   Naming:  shaped by imperial (tetrarchic) naming conventions, not lineage     🎯 7. Clean answer  Birthplace: Naissus (not Rome) ✅ Birth name: Flavius Valerius Constantinus ✅ Birth gens (strictly):  ❌ none in classical Republican sense   Nominal associations:  Flavius → nominally gens Flavia Valerius → nominally gens Valeria but both function as imperial/dynastic markers, not real descent     🧩 8. A Speranza–Grice twist Constantine is almost the perfect late example of:  the collapse of the implicature carried by “nomen = lineage.”  In Cicero’s world:  Licinius → signals aristocratic gens implicature: pedigree, mos maiorum  In Constantine’s world:  Flavius → signals imperial affiliation implicature: power, not ancestry  👉 The same form carries a completely different conversational load.  ✅ Bottom line: Constantine was not born in Rome, but in Naissus; and although he bears names like Flavius and Valerius, these no longer correspond to a genuine ancestral gens—they function as late imperial, quasi-dynastic identifiers rather than true gentilicia.  If you like, I can map Constantine’s naming against Diocletian and earlier emperors to show precisely when the gens-system collapses.