THE DATE OF THE CAMPANIAN EARTHQUAKE A.D. 62 OR A.D. 63, OR BOTH ?
In a recent article ' Martine Henry has argued that we should take more seriously a passage of Philostratus (VA , 4.34) that describes the formation of a new volcanic island in the Aegean during Nero's reign. Here I am not concerned with the article's main thesis, but with the preliminary discussion (on pp. 174-179) of the date of the Campanian earthquake mentioned by Seneca and Tacitus. Henry brings fresh arguments to bear on this question, and challenges the prevailing opinion.
The relevant passages are the following :
Seneca nat., 6.1.2. Nonis Februariis hic fuit motus Regulo et Verginio consulibus, qui Campaniam, numquam securam huius mali, indemnem tarnen et totiens defunctam metu, totam 2 magna strage uastauit.
Tacitus, Ann., 15.22.2. Isdem consulibus gymnasium ictu fulminis conflagrauit, effigiesque in eo Neronis ad informe aes liquefacta, et motu terrae celebre Campaniae oppidum Pompei magna ex parte promit ,· defunetaque uirgo Vestalis Laelia, in cuius locum Cornelia ex familia Cossorum capta est.
The problem is that the consuls named by Seneca are those of A.D. 63, but Tacitus includes the earthquake among events of A.D. 62. The solution usually accepted is to delete the words Regulo et Verginio consulibus from Seneca on the grounds that they are a gloss. Then Seneca can be reconciled with Tacitus' date 3. However, Henry rejects this solution, and instead suggests that there was more than one major earthquake in the winter of A.D. 62-3. Tacitus refers to one that occurred in late A.D. 62, Seneca to another one on 5 February, A.D. 63.
1 L'apparition d'une He : Sénèque et Philostrate, un même témoignage, in AC, 51 (1982), pp. 174-192.
2 Ms. ? has toto, which the other Mss. omit : totam was conjectured by J. Chauvin, Bulletin des humanistes français, Tome I, no. 10, Paris, 1896, 156 (which I had not seen when I discussed the passage at CQ, 30 (1980), 192 : totam seems better than tanto).
3 See most recently C. Codoñer Merino, ed., Seneca, Cuestiones Naturales, Madrid, 1979, I, ix-x ; II, 78, n. 3 ; H. M. Hine, An Edition with Commentary of Seneca, Natural Questions, Book Two, New York, 1981 , pp. 41-43. The latter certainly, and probably the former, appeared too late for Henry to use it. G. Radke, Der Kleine Pauly, 4, 1021, leaves open the question of the true date.
