--- You wrote:
In the case of Vergil, it seems clear (assuming we identify the person
named as the poet) that Horace in Odes I.3 calls Vergil Vergil. So perhaps
it is as simple a thing as what people called these writers in ancient times.
I doubt that the Romans consistently called all people by
This one isn't quite so obscure. I believe that the i spelling came to be in
the 5th century AD (http://www.bartleby.com/65/ve/Vergil.html), when the Aeneid
was used as a sort of magic 8-ball. People would randomly open the Aeneid and
interpret the first line upon which their eyes fell. The
