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Military Virtue in Roman Rhetorical Education University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2015 Military Virtue in Roman Rhetorical Education Anthony Edward Zupancic University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Other English Language and Literature Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Zupancic, Anthony Edward, "Military Virtue in Roman Rhetorical Education. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2015. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/3491 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Anthony Edward Zupancic entitled "Military Virtue in Roman Rhetorical Education." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. Janet M. Atwill, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Lisa King, Russel Hirst, Edward Caudill Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Military Virtue in Roman Rhetorical Education A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Anthony Edward Zupancic August 2015 Dedication quae illi litteris, ea ego militando didici This dissertation is dedicated to those future leaders who will inspire, develop, and prepare those who will serve our country in times of war and peace. !ii Acknowledgments I would like to take this opportunity to thank Colonel Michael Stoneham, who provided an unparalleled model of leadership and professionalism for me and so many other officers and Colonel Scott Krawczyk, whose confidence and trust in me are the reasons that I have been able to accomplish so much. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Janet Atwill. For three years she spent an enormous amount of time encouraging my pursuits and deepening my appreciation for antiquity. She constantly urged me out of complacency and inspired me to go well beyond that which was required. I read Latin because of her. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my loving wife Michelle, who, without question, did everything she could to make this possible. I am realizing my dreams only because she has been with me in every adventure. She is a wonderful mother and an even better partner in life. !iii Abstract This dissertation examines the connection between rhetoric and military culture in the early Roman Empire. Despite obvious references to the military and martial virtues, little scholarly attention has been directed to exploring the possibilities located within this connection. This dissertation is an alternative cultural history of rhetorical theory and pedagogy that draws on close reading and philology, as well as performance and metaphor theory. In building on the cultural history of Rome, I introduce a concept of “military virtue” that expands on understandings of the Roman notion of virtus (virtue) found in recent scholarship. Since virtue in the ancient world is both embodied and enacted, military virtue, as this dissertation presents it, is informed by theories of performance and gender. Since tradition is propagated through education, I will also explore the rhetorical education system at Rome during the late Republic and early Empire giving special attention to how teachers modeled a certain culturally accepted character for their students. In addition to the physical models of teachers, students interacted with historical, mythical, and cultural models of character through rhetorical exercises. Through close readings and philological analyses of culturally important texts such as the epics of Homer, the Aeneid, and Roman historians, this dissertation will show instances of military virtue and explore the ways it was habituated through rhetorical education. Along with the physical work of rhetorical education, military virtue can also be found in rhetorical treatises. By using metaphor theory and close reading to examine the conceptualization of rhetoric as martial in Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria and the anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium, I will show how, even at the level of theory, military virtue and character informed a cultural understanding of what an orator should be. This dissertation speaks to several conversations about ancient Roman !iv culture and the history of rhetoric, including discussions of virtue, education, ethics, and the importance of rhetoric as a sustaining or disruptive cultural force !v Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................1 Summary of Chapters ...................................................................................................4 Chapter 1: Character, Virtue, and the Heroic Tradition ...........................................................11 Background and Introduction .......................................................................................11 Methodology ................................................................................................................12 The Heroic Tradition ....................................................................................................16 Earned Character through Performed Virtue ...............................................................19 Culture, Gender, and Virtue .........................................................................................29 Towards Military Virtue ...............................................................................................36 Chapter 2: All I Learned, I Learned from Soldiering: Military Virtue at Rome ......................38 Action and Habit: How Virtue Exists ..........................................................................42 Aret" and Virtus: Distinguishing Greek and Roman Action ......................................46 The Four Cardinal Virtues and the Military Commander ............................................56 Conclusion: The Crisis of Military Virtue in the late Republic ...................................63 Chapter 3: Models of Character, Teachers of Language ..........................................................66 The Traditions of Early Roman Education ..................................................................66 The Pedagogue: Leading the Student in Learning .......................................................81 Literature and Customs: The Grammaticus and the Grammar School .......................83 The Rhetorician: The Living Voice of Virtue ..............................................................89 !vi Chapter 4: Progymnasmata: What Would Achilles Do? ..........................................................94 Introduction to the Progymnasmata .............................................................................94 Chreia and a Conversation with the Past ...................................................................101 Refutation and Confirmation: Interacting with Epic Figures ....................................104 Prosopopoeia: Bringing Life to Tradition ..................................................................109 The Work of the Progymnasmata ...............................................................................116 Chapter 5: Defending Character: The vir fortis in Declamation ............................................118 Roman Declamation as Exercise and Performance ...................................................118 The Figure of the Vir Fortis in Declamation ..............................................................124 The Hero Without Hands: Virtue, Action, and Responsibility ...................................126 Claiming Military Virtue: Arms and Hero .................................................................131 The Responsibilities of a Soldier: Becoming a Hero by Defending Tradition ..........133 The Naturalness of Military Virtue and the Compulsion to Serve .............................139 Chapter 6: The Orator is a Warrior: Metaphor in Rhetorical Theory .....................................147 Adversarial Metaphors ...............................................................................................154 Arming Metaphors .....................................................................................................159 Orator as Commander Metaphors ..............................................................................164 A New Understanding of “Argument is War” ............................................................172 Chapter 7: Rhetoric as Leadership at Rome ..........................................................................174 Commanding the Body and Leading Corps ...............................................................182 Building a Self-Confident Leader ..............................................................................187 !vii Rhetorical Prudence and Leadership .........................................................................192
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