GRICE E STILIONE

 

Speranza, J. L. (n. d.). ‘H. P. Grice e J. L. Speranza: La Conversazione – I Verbali: Stilione – Ossia: Grice e Stilione: la ragione conversazionale del principe filosofo. Tutor to Severo Alessandro, the emperor. Note su Dicta. Il Gruppo di Gioco di H. P. Grice. Stilione (Roma, Lazio): la ragione conversazionale del principe filosofo. Grice’s account of reason‑governed conversational meaning and the figure of Stilione, imagined here as tutor to the philosopher‑emperor Severus Alexander, converge on the thought that rationality is not automatically conferred by status, title, or institutional role, but must be actively learned, exercised, and recognized within conversation itself. For Grice, conversational meaning depends on the assumption that speakers and hearers are rational agents engaged in a cooperative enterprise, where words are chosen so that a reasonable interlocutor can infer what is meant beyond what is merely said. Stilione articulates a parallel insight in a political and pedagogical register: to be princeps is not to possess the principium rationis by default, and purple robes can obscure reason rather than instantiate it. His remark that the “prince” still has to learn the letters of reason mirrors Grice’s insistence that meaning is not guaranteed by linguistic form or social authority but by the rational uptake of intention. The exchange also dramatizes a Gricean implicature avant la lettre: the title “princeps” invites an inference about primacy of reason, which both speakers knowingly suspend, exposing the gap between names and rational competence. Where Grice theorizes this gap through a systematic account of implicature, Stilione embodies it in the task of moral and intellectual education, showing that conversational reason must be cultivated even, or especially, at the summit of power. Tutor to Severo Alessandro, the emperor.  GRICEVS: Salvē, Stilīō: audīvī tē ipsum principem erudiisse—Alexandrum Severum, inquam. O rem miram: ego numquam nisi apud Vadum Boum barbarōs (ut ita dicam) docuī. STILIŌ: Salvē, Grice. Barbarōs? At tu Oxoniensibus barbaris nihil deest praeter modestiam. Sed quid ad principem? Ille certe maiōrem curam poscit quam iuvenis de vādō boum. GRICEVS: Fortasse. Ego tamen, cum audiam “tutorem principis,” subrīdēo: quasi princeps statim habeat principium—id est, principium rationis. Sed nonne tibi quoque aliquando visus est quasi adhūc litterās ratiōnis disceret? STILIŌ: Ō, tam callidam inplicatvram, Grice! Nōn negāverim: purpura saepe velat caput, nōn instruit; et “princeps” nomen est, sed principium ratiōnis etiam principi addiscendum est. Apparently, the second is NOT 'Elio Stilo' but Stilio, Grice's source: "the tutor to Severus Alexander, the emperor" -- can you double check -- He sounds Greek, and "as Scottish nannies were once held in high esteem, so did Greek tutors to emperors," -- Grice's rule of thumb. Speranza was told that Severus Alexander, who was born in Arca Caesarea, was taught by Stilio, who was therefore Greek -- where is Arca Caesarea today, as per comune, regione, country? Apparently the source is Historia Augustea Yes. On the Historia Augusta evidence, the emperor is said to have been born at Arca Caesarea, which modern reference works identify with Arqa in northern Lebanon. [la.wikisource.org], [en.wikipedia.org] So in your requested modern civic form, the place is: comune or town: Arqa regione or governorate/district: Akkar Governorate, specifically the Akkar District country: Lebanon [en.wikipedia.org] If one wants the driest modern equivalent, one may say: Arqa, Akkar, Lebanon. A more geographically explanatory version would be: Arqa, near Tripoli, in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon. [en.wikipedia.org], [en.wikipedia.org] And yes, the Historia Augusta really does give him a philosopher-tutor called Stilio. In the life of Severus Alexander, after listing his early teachers, it names in his native town a Greek grammarian Neho, the rhetorician Serapio, and the philosopher Stilio. So your report is not invented; it does come from that source. [loebclassics.com], [la.wikisource.org] Would that make Stilio Greek? The source does not explicitly say so of Stilio, but in the same sentence it does specify a “Greek grammarian” Neho, and the educational setting in Alexander’s native Syrian-Phoenician environment was certainly strongly Hellenised. So it is perfectly plausible that Stilio was Greek or Greek-speaking, but that remains an inference, not a stated fact of the passage. [la.wikisource.org], [en.wikipedia.org] So the careful answer is: Arca Caesarea is modern Arqa, in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon. And the Historia Augusta does indeed name a philosopher Stilio among Alexander’s teachers. But the claim that Stilio was definitely Greek should be phrased cautiously as likely rather than explicit. [la.wikisource.org], [en.wikipedia.org] If you like, I can now do one of two things in chat only. I can give you the exact Latin sentence from the Historia Augusta with a dry translation. Or I can sort out whether Arca Caesarea should be rendered in your register as Roman Syria, Phoenicia, or simply modern Akkar, Lebanon. In any case, Grice considers it very UNLIKELY that Stilio was Italy-born -- 'why, by the same token, they would have Severus Alexander born at Rome, too -- travel in those days was not what it is today.' So most likely Mother Mammea just found a philosopher in Arqa and hired him to philosophise with the baby? Yes, that is broadly the most sensible historical picture, with one caution. It is very unlikely that Stilio, if the Historia Augusta is to be trusted on this point, was Italy-born. The source itself places Alexander’s early teachers in his native place, not in Rome: “in patria” he had the Greek grammarian Neho, the rhetorician Serapio, and the philosopher Stilio; only later, “Romae,” does it list the Roman teachers. [loebclassics.com] So Grice’s instinct is quite reasonable. If the Historia Augusta says that the boy was born at Arca Caesarea and had these teachers there before the Roman set, the most economical reading is that his mother Julia Mamaea used the educated men available in that Syrian-Phoenician, strongly Hellenised environment, rather than importing some Italian philosopher to Arqa for nursery duty. [loebclassics.com], [loebclassics.com], [en.wikipedia.org] One should phrase the “baby” part with a little sobriety, however. The same passage says he had those teachers “a prima pueritia,” from earliest boyhood, which suggests childhood education rather than someone literally philosophising with an infant in the cradle. So the likely reconstruction is not that Mamaea hired Stilio to discuss first principles with a baby, but that she ensured that, while Alexander was still growing up in or attached to his native milieu, he had a local educational formation including grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy before the later Roman stage. [loebclassics.com], [en.wikipedia.org] And that fits what else we know of Julia Mamaea. She is consistently presented as a mother who supervised her son’s education closely and later remained a dominant force in his rule. The broader tradition says that she “gathered wise men about her son” in order to form his habits properly, which strongly supports the idea of deliberate maternal management of his intellectual upbringing. [en.wikipedia.org], [roman-empe...es.luc.edu], [worldhistory.org] So the driest answer is this. Yes: most likely Mamaea found a philosopher in Arca Caesarea or in its local Hellenised environment and had him teach the young Alexander there. No: that does not mean “philosophising with the baby” in a literal nursery absurdity. It means arranging the philosophical component of his early education before the Roman phase. And yes again: on the evidence in hand, Stilio is much more plausibly local or Greek-speaking eastern provincial than Italy-born. [loebclassics.com], [loebclassics.com], [en.wikipedia.org] If you like, I can now do one of two things in chat only. I can give you the exact Latin sentence from the Historia Augusta and parse the educational sequence dryly. Or I can give you a very short note on how plausible travel between Syria-Phoenicia and Rome actually was for elite Severan families, without over-romanticising Roman transport. [loebclassics.com]Stilione (a.u.c. DCCCCLXXV). Dicta. Roma.