Quintus Valerius Soranus

Quintus Valerius Soranus (b. "circa" 140–130 B.C.?, [Conrad Cichorius, “Zur Lebensgeschichte des Valerius Soranus,” "Hermes" 41 (1906), p. 67; "American Journal of Philology" 28 (1907) 468.] d. 82 B.C.) was a Latin poet, grammarian, and tribune of the people in the Late Roman Republic. He was executed in 82 B.C. while Sulla was dictator, [T.R.S. Broughton, "The Magistrates of the Roman Republic", vol. 2, 99 B.C.–31 B.C. (New York: American Philological Association, 1952), p. 68.] ostensibly for violating a religious prohibition against speaking the arcane name of Rome, but more likely for political reasons. [Conrad Cichorius, “Zur Lebensgeschichte des Valerius Soranus,” "Hermes" 41 (1906) 59–68, remains the most thorough discussion of the evidence; English abstract in "American Journal of Philology" 28 (1907) 468.] The "cognomen" Soranus is a toponym indicating that he was from Sora. ["Oxford Latin Dictionary" (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1982, 1985 printing), entry on "Soranus," p. 1793.]

A single elegiac couplet survives more or less intact from his body of work. The two lines address Jupiter as an all-powerful begetter who is both male and female. This androgynous, unitarian conception of deity, [Jaime Alvar, “Matériaux pour l'étude de la formule "sive deus, sive dea",” "Numen" 32 (1985), pp. 259–260.] possibly an attempt to integrate Stoic and Orphic doctrine, has made the fragment of interest in religious studies. [Edward Courtney, "The Fragmentary Latin Poets" (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 66–68; Attilio Mastrocinque, "Creating One's Own Religion: Intellectual Choices," in "A Companion to Roman Religion", edited by Jörg Rüpke (Blackwell, 2007), p. 382.]

Valerius Soranus is also credited with a little-recognized literary innovation: Pliny the Elder says he was the first writer to provide a table of contents to help readers navigate a long work. [Pliny the Elder, preface 33, "Historia naturalis"; John Henderson, “Knowing Someone Through Their Books: Pliny on Uncle Pliny ("Epistles" 3.5),” "Classical Philology" 97 (2002), p. 275.]

Life and political career

Valerius Soranus was a friend of Varro and is mentioned more than once in that scholar's multi-volume work on the Latin language. [Marcus Terentius Varro, "De lingua latina" 7.31, 7.65, 10.70; Aulus Gellius, "Noctes Atticae" 2.10.3; Edward Courtney, "The Fragmentary Latin Poets" (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), p. 65.] Cicero has an interlocutor in his "De oratore" praise Soranus as “most cultured of all who wear the toga,” [Marcus Tullius Cicero, "De oratore" 3.43: "litteratissimum togatorum omnium".] and Cicero lists him and his brother Decimus among an educated elite of "socii et Latini"; [Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Brutus" 169.] that is, those who came from allied polities on the Italian peninsula rather than from Rome, and those whose legal status was defined by Latin right rather than full Roman citizenship. The municipality of Sora was near Cicero's native Arpinum, and he refers to the Valerii Sorani as his friends and neighbors. [Cicero, "Brutus" 169: "vicini et familiares mei"; Elizabeth Rawson, "Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), p. 34.]

The son of Valerius Soranus is thought to have been the Quintus Valerius Orca who was praetor in 57 B.C. [Giovanni Niccolini, "I fasti dei tribuni della plebe" (Milan 1934), pp. 430–431.] Orca had worked for Cicero's return to public life [Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Post reditum in senatu" 23.] and is among Cicero's correspondents in the "Epistulae ad familiares" ("Letters to Friends and Family"). [Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Epistulae ad familiares" 13.4 (= 318 in the chronological edition of Shackleton Bailey), 13.5 (= 319 SB), 13.6 (= 57 SB), 13.6a (= 58 SB); discussion in John Pairman Brown, "Israel and Hellas: Sacred Institutions and Roman Counterparts", vol. 2 (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1995), pp. 248–249.]

Cicero presents the Valerii brothers of Sora as well schooled in Greek and Latin literature, but less admirable for their speaking ability. [Cicero, "Brutus" 169: "non tam in dicendo admirabilis quam doctus et Graecis litteris et Latinis".] As Italians, they would have been lacking to Cicero's ears in the smooth sophistication ("urbanitas") and faultless pronunciation of the best native Roman orators. [Edwin S. Ramage, “Cicero on Extra-Roman Speech,” "Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association" 92 (1961) 481–494, especially pp. 487–488.] This attitude of social exclusivity may account for why Valerius Soranus, whose scholarly interests and friendships might otherwise suggest a conservative temperament, would have found his place in the civil wars of the 80s on the side of the popularist Marius rather than that of the patrician Sulla. [John Pairman Brown, "Israel and Hellas", vol. 2 (Berlin 1995), pp. 249–250.] It might also be noted that Cicero's expression of this attitude is double-edged: like Marius and the Valerii Sorani, he was also a man from a "municipium", and had to overcome the same obstructing biases that he adopts and expresses. [Elizabeth Rawson, "Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), p. 34 "et passim".]

In 82 B.C., the year of his death, Valerius Soranus was or had been a tribune of the people ("tribunus plebis"), a political office open only to those of plebeian rather than patrician birth. [Giovanni Niccolini, "I fasti dei tribuni della plebe" (Milan 1934), pp. 430–431.]

Execution

The fullest account of the infamous death of Valerius Soranus is given by Servius, who says he was executed for revealing the secret name of Rome: [Matthias Klinghardt discusses the religious case in “Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and Function in Ancient Religion,” "Numen" 46 (1999), pp. 43–45; see also H.S. Versnel, “A Parody on Hymns in Martial V 24 and Some Trinitarian Problems,” "Mnemosyne" 27 (1974), p. 374, especially note 44.]

“The tribune Valerius Soranus dared to disclose this name, according to Varro and many other sources. Some say he was haled in by the senate and strung up on a cross; others, that he fled in fear of retribution and was apprehended by a praetor [The "praetor" may be Pompey; see below.] in Sicily, where he was killed by order of the senate.” [Servius, "Commentary on the Aeneid" 1.277: "denique tribunus plebei quidam Valerius Soranus, ut ait Varro et multi alii, hoc nomen ausus enuntiare, ut quidam dicunt raptus a senatu et in crucem levatus est, ut alii, metu supplicii fugit et in Sicilia comprehensus a praetore praecepto senatus occisus est"; from the Perseus Project's [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Serv.+A.+1.277&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053 online edition] of "Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii", edited by George Thilo et Hermann Hagen (Teubner 1881).]

Servius's account presents several difficulties. Crucifixion was a punishment generally reserved for slaves in the Late Republic; [Smith, "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities", entry on "Crux," Bill Thayer's LacusCurtius [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Crux.html edition;] Elizabeth Rawson, "Sallust on the Eighties?", "Classical Quarterly" 37 (1987), pp. 175–176; K.M. Coleman, "Fatal Charades: Roman Executions Staged as Mythological Enactments," "Journal of Roman Studies" 80 (1990), p. 53 "et passim"; for full discussion, see M. Hengel, "Crucifixion in the Ancient World" (London 1977), especially "Crucifixion and Roman Citizens" and "The 'Slaves' Punishment," [http://books.google.com/books?id=UDEPFqTiQhUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:crucifixion+inauthor:Hengel&lr=&as_brr=0&sig=ACfU3U07z7qcHrYCD6nN3UI4URTj0X25xA#PPA51,M1 chapters 6 and 8.] ] Valerius Maximus, a historian in the early Principate, reckoned that the punishment should not be inflicted on those of Roman blood even when they "deserved" it. [Valerius Maximus, 2.7.12.] Moreover, a tribune's person was by law sacrosanct. ["Tribune" at [http://www.livius.org/to-ts/tribune/tribune.html Livius.org] ; fuller discussion of the tribunate at Smith, "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities", "Tribunus," Bill Thayer's LacusCurtius [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Tribunus.html edition.] .] Finally, it is unclear whether the ten tribunes should possess the knowledge of Rome's secret name, [“This name and the name of the tutelary deity of Rome had to be handed down from one generation of Roman priests and magistrates to the succeeding one”: Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law," "Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt" II 16.3 (1986), p. 2255, note 424. The story of Valerius Soranus, Linderski assumes, indicates that tribunes knew the name; the reasoning may be circular.] or in what manner Soranus would have publicized it. Among sources earlier than Servius, both Pliny the Elder and Plutarch note that Valerius Soranus was punished for this violation. [Pliny the Elder, "Historia naturalis" 3.65; Plutarch, "Roman Questions" 61. The late antique grammarian Solinus (1.4) also reports that Valerius Soranus was killed for profaning the name of Rome, connecting the act to the Roman goddess Angerona, whose cult statue depicted her with a sealed mouth.] It has been suggested that the name was revealed in his one work for which a title is known, the "Epoptides." The title, if interpreted as it sometimes is to mean "tutelary deities," offers an apt context. [Thomas Köves-Zulauf, "Die Ἐπόπτιδες des Valerius Soranus," "Rheinisches Museum" 113 (1970) 323-358. "Tutelary deities" is not the universal translation: see discussion under Literary Works.] But elsewhere Servius — so too Macrobius — implies that the name remained unrecorded. [Servius, "Commentary on the Aeneid" 1.277; Macrobius, "Saturnalia" 3.9; John Pairman Brown, "Israel and Hellas", vol. 2 (Berlin 1995), p. 250. The ancient sources on the violation make a distinction without, in the outcome for Soranus, a difference; some say the "arcanum" not to be revealed was the secret name of Rome, and others that of Rome's tutelary deity.]

Quintus Valerius Soranus has been identified with the Q. Valerius, described as "philologos" and "philomathes" (“a lover of literature and learning”), [Plutarch, "Life of Pompey" 10.4: φιλόλογος ἀνὴρ καὶ φιλομαθής.] who Plutarch says was a supporter of Marius. This man was put to death by Pompey in Sicily, [Conrad Cichorius, “Zur Lebensgeschichte des Valerius Soranus,” "Hermes" 41 (1906), p. 59; T.R.S. Broughton, "The Magistrates of the Roman Republic", vol. 2, 99 B.C.–31 B.C. (New York: American Philological Association, 1952), p. 68; Edward Courtney, "The Fragmentary Latin Poets" (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), p. 65.] where he would have accompanied Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, the Marian consul. [Jörg Rüpke, "Religion of the Romans", translated and edited by Richard Gordon (Cambridge: Polity, 2007) p. 133. Pompey also executed Carbo.]

In 1906, Conrad Cichorius published an article [Conrad Cichorius, “Zur Lebensgeschichte des Valerius Soranus,” "Hermes" 41 (1906) 59–68; English abstract in "American Journal of Philology" 28 (1907) 468.] that organized the available evidence for the life of Valerius Soranus and argued that his execution was a result of the Sullan proscription in 82. The view of his death as politically motivated has prevailed among modern scholars:

“His death was thus the result of being proscribed (as a supporter of Marius), and has nothing to do with religious issues of any kind. At the same time, we know that Soranus wrote works of a religious-antiquarian kind, as well as verse, and was often cited by Varro. This link with Varro must be the reason for associating the revelation of Rome's secret name with Soranus' violent death, for, as we saw, it is Varro whom Servius cites as his authority for linking the death with the revelation.” [Jörg Rüpke, "Religion of the Romans", translated and edited by Richard Gordon (Cambridge: Polity, 2007). p. 133; so too Stefan Weinstock, review of "Die Geheime Schutzgottheit von Rom" by Angelo Brelich, "Journal of Roman Studies" 40 (1950) 149–150; political and religious motives reviewed by John Pairman Brown, "Israel and Hellas", vol. 2 (Berlin 1995), pp. 249–250.]

But if Varro originated the story, his reasons are hard to tease out of the roiled politics of the Late Republic. Although Varro was the friend of Valerius Soranus, in the civil war of the 40s he was on the side of the Pompeians; Caesar, however, not only pardoned him, but gave him significant appointments. [For the development of the story of Valerius Soranus as a cautionary tale, see Trevor Murphy, “Privileged Knowledge: Valerius Soranus and the Secret Name of Rome,” in "Rituals in Ink: A Conference on Religion and Literary Production in Ancient Rome" (Stuttgart 2004), pp. 127–137.] The biases of the contemporary sources were not lost on Plutarch in his account of the killing: [Elizabeth Rawson, "Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), p. 105.]

“Furthermore, Caius Oppius, the friend of Caesar, says that Pompey treated Quintus Valerius also with unnatural cruelty. For, understanding that Valerius was a man of rare scholarship and learning, when he was brought to him, Oppius says, Pompey took him aside, walked up and down with him, asked and learned what he wished from him, and then ordered his attendants to lead him away and put him to death at once. But when Oppius discourses about the enemies or friends of Caesar, one must be very cautious about believing him.” [Plutarch, "Pompey" 10.4–5, Loeb Classical Library translation of the "Lives", vol. 5 (Cambridge University Press 1917), Bill Thayer's edition at [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Pompey*.html LacusCurtius] .]

Speaking the name could be construed as a political protest and also an act of treason, as the revelation would expose the tutelary deity and leave the city unprotected. [John Pairman Brown, "Israel and Hellas", vol. 2 (Berlin 1995), p. 250, citing Luigi Alfonsi, "L'importanza politico-religiosa della 'enunciazione' de Valerio Sorano," "Epigraphica" 10 (1948) 81–89.] This belief rests on the power of utterance ("evocatio") to "call forth" the deity, so that enemies in possession of the true and secret name could divert the divine protection to themselves. [Pliny says that the Romans practiced "evocatio" when they laid siege to a city, with the priests calling out the foreign god and promising him a greater cult among them ("Historia naturalis" 28.18). Macrobius even provides the charm of evocation used against Carthage ("Saturnalia" 3.9). The secrecy surrounding prayer formularies, particularly the correct names of gods, was characteristic also of Judaism, Egyptian syncretistic religion, mystery religions, and later Christianity. See Matthias Klinghardt, “Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and Function in Ancient Religion,” "Numen" 46 (1999) 1–52, pp. 43–44 on this case; also article on "Magic and Religion: The Name of God."] The intellectual historian of the Republic Elizabeth Rawson ventured cautiously that Soranus's "motive remains unclear, but may have been political." [Elizabeth Rawson, "Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), p. 300, note 12.] More vigorous is the view of Luigi Alfonsi, who argued that Soranus revealed the name deliberately so that the Italian municipalities could appropriate it and break Rome's monopoly of power. [Luigi Alfonsi, "L'importanza politico-religiosa della enunciazione di Valerio Sorano (a proposito di "CIL" I² 337)." "Epigraphica" 10 (1948) 81-89.]

Another interpretation of these events, worth noting despite its fictional context, is that of historical novelist Colleen McCullough, who melds political and religious motives in a psychological characterization. In "Fortune's Favorites", McCullough's Soranus “screams aloud” the arcane name because the atrocities committed during the civil war had rendered Rome unworthy of divine protection:

"Rome and all she stood for would fall down like a shoddy building in an earthquake. Quintus Valerius Soranus himself believed that implicitly. So having told air and birds and horrified men Rome's secret name, Soranus fled to Ostia wondering why Rome still stood upon her seven hills." [Colleen McCullough, "Fortune's Favorites" (HarperCollins, [http://books.google.com/books?id=lu22i2t94oIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Soranus+inauthor:Colleen+inauthor:McCullough&lr=&as_brr=0&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0 1994 edition] ), pp. 108 and 158.]

Literary works

thumb|250px|The Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, in a modern-era reimaginingThe single couplet that survives from Valerius Soranus's vast work as a poet, grammarian, and antiquarian is quoted by St. Augustine in the "De civitate Dei" (7.9) to support his view that the tutelary deity of Rome was the Capitoline Jupiter: [Arthur Bernard Cook, “The European Sky-God III: The Italians,” "Folklore" 16 (1905), p. 299.]

"Iuppiter omnipotens regum rerumque deumque

"progenitor genetrixque deum, deus unus et omnes …"

The syntax poses difficulties in attempts at translation, and there may be some corruption of the text. It seems to say something like "Jupiter All-powerful, of kings and the material world and of gods the Father ("progenitor"), the Mother ("genetrix") of gods, God that is One and All … ." Augustine says that his source for the quotation is a work on religion (now lost) by Varro, with whose conception of deity Augustine argues throughout Book 7 of the "De civitate Dei". The view of Varro, and presumably of Soranus, was that Jupiter represents the whole universe which emits and receives seeds ("semina"), encompassing the generative powers of Earth the Mother as well as Sky the Father. [Robert M. Grant, review of "Varros" Logistoricus "über die Götterverehrung ("Curio de cultu deorum")", dissertation by Burkhart Cardauns (Würzburg 1960) in "Classical Philology" 57 (1962), p. 140; Elizabeth Rawson, "Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), p. 300, especially note 12; Jaime Alvar, "Matériaux pour l'étude de la formule "sive deus, sive dea"," "Numen" 32 (1985), pp. 259–260.] This unitarianism is a Stoic concept, and Soranus is usually counted among the Stoics of Rome, perhaps of the contemporary school of Panaetius. [Eduard Zeller, "A History of Eclecticism in Greek 'Philos'," translated by S.F. Alleyne (Kessinger, 2006, originally published 1883), p. 74; Michael von Albrecht et al., "A History of Roman Literature: From Livius Andronicus to Boethius", vol. 1 (Brill, 1997), p. 504, translated from "Geschichte der römischen Literatur: von Andronicus bis Boethius" (1992).] The unity of opposites in deity, including divine androgyny, is also characteristic of Orphic doctrine, which may have impressed itself on Stoicism. [Edward Courtney, "The Fragmentary Latin Poets" (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 66–68; Attilio Mastrocinque, "Creating One's Own Religion: Intellectual Choices," in "A Companion to Roman Religion" (Blackwell, 2007), p. 382, pointing out that the "Hymn to Zeus" of Cleanthes presents a similar view of the the god, and that Laevius, a likely contemporary of Valerius Soranus, held that Venus was both female and male (according to Macrobius, "Saturnalia" 3.8.3).]

The couplet may or may not come from the "Epoptides". The title is mentioned only in Pliny, and none of the known fragments of Soranus can be attributed to this large-scale work with certainty. [Nicholas Horsfall, “Roman Religion and Related Topics,” review of Thomas Köves-Zulauf, "Kleine Schriften" (Heidelberg 1988), "Classical Review" 41 (1991) 120-122.] Soranus's innovation in providing a table of contents [An innovation admired by Pliny the Elder, preface 33, "Historia naturalis".] — most likely a list of "capita rerum" ("subject headings") at the beginning — suggests that the "Epoptides" was an encyclopedic or compendious prose work. [Elizabeth Rawson, "Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), p. 51; John Henderson, “Knowing Someone Through Their Books: Pliny on Uncle Pliny ("Epistles" 3.5),” "Classical Philology" 97 (2002), p. 275.] Alternatively, the "Epoptides" may have been a long didactic poem. Soranus is known to have written didactic poetry and is likely to have been an influence when Lucretius chose verse as his medium for philosophical subject matter. [C. Joachim Classen, “Poetry and Rhetoric in Lucretius,” "Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association" 99 (1968), p. 115; "Lucretius and Callimachus, " in "Lucretius", edited by Monica R. Gale, Oxford Readings in Classical Studies (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 329.]

The most extensive argument regarding the "Epoptides" is that of Thomas Köves-Zulauf. [Nicholas Horsfall called the 33-page essay on a non-extant work "something of a tour de force," in “Roman Religion and Related Topics,” "Classical Review" 41 (1991) 120-122.] Much of what can be conjectured about the work derives from the interpretation of its title. The Greek verb ἐποπτεύω ("epopteuo") has the basic meaning of "to watch, oversee" but also "to become an ἐπόπτης ("epoptes", "initiate," feminine "epoptis" and plural "epoptides")," the highest grade of initiate at the Eleusinian mysteries. [Liddell and Scott, "A Greek-English Lexicon" (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1843, 1985 printing), entry on ἐποπτεία and related words, p. 676; Trevor Murphy, “Privileged Knowledge: Valerius Soranus and the Secret Name of Rome,” in "Rituals in Ink" (Stuttgart 2004), p. 133.] Köves-Zulauf argued that Soranus's "Epoptides" was an extended treatment of mystery religions, and the title is sometimes translated into German as "Mystikerinen." The classicist and mythographer H.J. Rose, on the contrary, insisted that the "Epoptides" had nothing to do with initiates. [H.J. Rose, “Latin Literature for Italian Children,” "Classical Review" 51 (1937) p. 229.] Elizabeth Rawson held with "Initiated Women"; [Elizabeth Rawson, "Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), p. 34, note 85.] the Loeb Classical Library offers "Lady Initiates"; [H. Rackham's translation of Pliny's "Natural History" (Harvard University Press, 1991).] Nicholas Horsfall is satisfied with "The Watchers". [Nicholas Horsfall, noting that the word's only other occurrence in Latin is from Cornutus, in “Roman Religion and Related Topics,” "Classical Review" 41 (1991) 120-122.]

Köves-Zulauf maintains that the "epoptides" of the title represent the Stoic conception of female "daimones" who are guardians of humanity, such as the Hours ("Horae") and the Graces ("Charites"). Soranus integrates this concept, he says, with the "Tutelae", ancient Italic protective spirits. The crime of Soranus was thus to reveal in this work the name of the "Tutela" charged with protecting Rome.

Passages in Varro's "De lingua latina" show Soranus also to have taken an interest in etymology [An aspect of Roman antiquarianism. For instance, Aulus Gellius, citing Varro, gives Valerius Soranus's equivalence of current Latin usage of the Greek word "thesauri" with the Old Latin "flavisae" ("Attic Nights" 2.10).] and other linguistic matters. [Varro, "De lingua latina" 7.31 and 10.70]

Annotated bibliography

* Alfonsi, L. "L'importanza politico-religiosa della enunciazione di Valerio Sorano (a proposito di "CIL" I² 337)." "Epigraphica" 10 (1948) 81-89. Argues that Valerius Soranus should be identified with Valerius Aedituus, a poet from the circle of Lutatius Catulus, [This identification is not widely agreed upon, though both E. Badian, "From the Gracchi to Sulla (1940–59)," "Historia" 11 (1962), p. 222, note 94, and E. Gabba, "Politica e cultura in Roma agli inizi del I secolo a. C.," "Athenaeum" (1953), p. 259f. (as cited by Badian) are willing to entertain the possibility.] and that he revealed the name of Rome to disrupt the exclusivity of the Roman aristocracy and enable the participation of the Italic communities. [Abstract translated from "L'Année philologique".]

* Brown, John Pairman. "Israel and Hellas", vol. 2. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1995, [http://books.google.com/books?id=WB-C_5qUZs4C&pg=PA249&dq=Soranus+intitle:israel+intitle:and+intitle:Hellas&lr=&as_brr=0&sig=ACfU3U0AU2ql5-S4H3yO_QGGWiT9A3zhSg#PPA246,M1 pp. 247–250] on Valerius Soranus.

* Cichorius, Conrad. “Zur Lebensgeschichte des Valerius Soranus.” "Hermes" 41 (1906) 59–68. The most thorough biographical reconstruction. English abstract in "American Journal of Philology" 28 (1907) 468.

* Courtney, Edward. [http://books.google.com/books?id=YPMRG8ZLbvsC&pg=PA65&dq=valerius+soranus+varro+siciliy+inauthor:Courtney&lr=&as_brr=0&sig=ACfU3U2NZZZzXcnqspzA2xDmYudE9q_Lvw “Q. Valerius (Soranus).”] "The Fragmentary Latin Poets." Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, pp. 65–68. ISBN 0-19-814775-9 Edition with commentary and biographical note. Courtney refrains from identifying some recognized fragments of Soranus's work as poetry and thus omits them. See Funaioli and Morel following.

* Funaioli, Gino. "Grammaticae romanae fragmenta", vol. 1. Leipzig: Teubner, 1907. Testimonia and fragments of Valerius Soranus's grammatical works, [http://books.google.com/books?id=K6QNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA77&dq=Soranus+intitle:Grammaticae+intitle:Romanae+intitle:fragmenta&lr=&as_brr=0 pp. 77–79.]

* Horsfall, Nicholas. “Roman Religion and Related Topics.” Review of Thomas Köves-Zulauf, "Kleine Schriften", ed. Achim Heinrichs (Heidelberg 1988). "Classical Review" 41 (1991) 120-122.

* Klinghardt, Matthias. “Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and Function in Ancient Religion.” "Numen" 46 (1999) 1–52. On the case of Valerius Soranus, pp. 43–45.

* Köves-Zulauf, Thomas. "Die "Ἐπόπτιδες" des Valerius Soranus." "Rheinisches Museum" 113 (1970) 323-358. Reprinted in the author's "Kleine Schriften", ed. Achim Heinrichs (Heidelberg 1988). Argument summarized under Literary works.

* Morel, Willy, with Karl Büchner and Jürgen Blänsdorf. "Fragmenta poetarum Latinorum epicorum et lyricorum praeter Ennium et Lucilium". 3rd edition. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1995. Contains fragments of Valerius Soranus not presented in Courtney.

* Murphy, Trevor. “Privileged Knowledge: Valerius Soranus and the Secret Name of Rome.” In "Rituals in Ink: A Conference on Religion and Literary Production in Ancient Rome" (Stuttgart 2004), [http://books.google.com/books?id=UPqfe5vGHAIC&pg=PA127&dq=Soranus+intitle:rituals+intitle:in+intitle:ink&lr=&as_brr=0&sig=ACfU3U1oPge03CRT0vW3NLzKQatwL1PONQ pp. 127–137.] ISBN 3515085262 Rehearses sources for "nomen" transgression, with a stated interest in the significance of the story rather than its historicity. Some misapprehensions in handling primary source material.

* Niccolini, Giovanni. "I fasti dei tribuni della plebe." Milan 1934. Section on Valerius Soranus, pp. 430–431.

* Rüpke, Jörg. "Religion of the Romans". Translated and edited by Richard Gordon. Cambridge: Polity, 2007. ISBN 0745630146 Discusses the case of Valerius Soranus [http://books.google.com/books?id=aDlNfUeeuIYC&pg=PA133&dq=Soranus+intitle:Religion+intitle:of+intitle:the+intitle:Romans&lr=&as_brr=0&sig=ACfU3U1QV5ZfDLuE9iltMdr4SabxK_SneA (p. 133)] in his consideration of Rome's tutelary deity.

* Weinstock, Stefan. Review of "Die Geheime Schutzgottheit von Rom" by Angelo Brelich. "Journal of Roman Studies" 40 (1950) 149–150. Passing consideration of the likely political character of Valerius Soranus's execution, valuable mainly because of Weinstock's "auctoritas".

References