Nisi modum epistolici characteris excederem : Jerome and epistolary brevitas

Jerome’s quoting epistolary brevitas in letter 26 to Marcella could betray his knowledge of Origen’s letter to Julius Africanus on the canonicity of the book of Daniel. This hypothesis is supported by a lexical similarity, which should not be regarded as coincidental. Moreover, it would fit very well with what we know of Jerome: in the years prior to 393, before the Origenian controversy broke out, he made many efforts to fashion himself after Origen, making the Alexandrian the hero of the letters collected in the ad Marcellam liber. This is why he may reasonably have exploited Origen’s epistolary self-propaganda in order to fashion himself as a champion of scriptural philology, and to present himself – so to say – as an ‘origenized’ Jerome.