Second-Century CE Lexicography: Genre or a Literary Current of Language, Politics, and Social Dynamics?

Abstract This paper discusses Greek and Latin lexicography and its literary and socio-cultural manifestations during the second century CE. I argue that Imperial lexicography had an actualized social existence that went beyond the recording of lemmata. More specifically, I maintain that lexicographers used their works not only as technical records and manuals but to legitimize (or not) linguistic forms alongside social phenomena. Additionally, other authors of the High Empire modulated the essence of linguistic idiosyncrasies and incorporated them into literary genres beyond lexica; they thus considered issues of identity and belonging against the backdrop of lexical propriety. This contribution closely studies Moeris and Phrynichus as well as Lucian and Aulus Gellius to show how lexicography transcended literary genre to become a modus dicendi vivendique.