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From Autothanasia to Suicide FROM AUTOTHANASIA TO SUICIDE FROM AUTOTHANASIA TO SUICIDE Self-killing in Classical Antiquity Anton J.L.van Hooff First published 1990 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc. 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. © 1990 Anton J.L.van Hooff All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Van Hooff, Anton J.L. From autothanasia to suicide: self-killing in classical antiquity. 1. classical world. Suicide I. Title 362.2 ISBN 0-203-03293-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-22550-3 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-04055-8 (Print Edition) Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Van Hooff, Anton J.L. From autothanasia to suicide: self-killing in classical antiquity Anton J.L. van Hooff. 00 p. cm. Translation from Dutch. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-415-04055-8 1. Suicide—Greece—History. 2. Suicide—Rome—History. I. Title. HV6543.H66 1990 362.28’0938–dc20 89–70139 CIP Andreae, Claudiae, Mirjam, causis vivendi CONTENTS List of illustrations ix List of figures x Prologue xi Less than an animal, mightier than a god xii Part I Phenomena of Self-Killing 1 1. CASUS MORIENDI 3 A. What’s in a case? 5 B. What’s in a number? 8 C. The peaks of Republican and Mythical suicide 10 D. Barbarians, Greeks, Romans 14 E. The lower classes show the way out 16 F. Virtus of women 21 G. Virgins as a risk-group 22 H. Ancient Werthers? 26 I. An old crone 29 J. Failing powers and resolution among old men 33 2. MODI MORIENDI 40 A. Starvation: inedia 41 B. Romana morte: weapons 47 C. Seeking the hand of another: provocation 54 D. Fire as an exotic means 57 E. Medicine by way of poison 59 F. By all manners of death: varia et exotica 62 G. The rope of ghastly death 64 H. Whereas the bridge is available, jumping 73 I. The meaning of the method in the ars moriendi 77 vii CONTENTS 3. CAUSAE MORIENDI 79 A. Despair: desperata salus 85 B. Forced into a free death: necessitas 94 C. A proof of madness: furor 96 D. Grief: dolor 99 E. The curse of the suicide: exsecratio 106 F. No longer being who you used to be: pudor 107 G. Guilt: mala conscientia 120 H. Old and full of years: taedium vitae 122 I. Unbearable suffering: inpatientia 123 J. Devotio and fides 126 K. Showing off: iactatio 129 L. The ancient paradigm of self-killing 130 Part II Experience of self-killing 133 4. SUICIDE IN WORDS AND TEXTS 135 A. Suicidium, a non-word 136 B. Rhetorical, dramatic and humorous exploitation 141 C. Direct evidence for self-killing on stones and paper 150 5. EXPERTS, LAW-GIVERS AND ARTISTS 157 A. Experts: doctors, astrologers and an interpreter of dreams 157 B. A last tribute to a suicide? 160 C. Suicidium as an institution and a confession 166 D. The image of self-killing 173 Part III Reflections on self-killing 179 6. PHILOSOPHERS AND THEOLOGIANS 181 A. Self-killing as a private act 183 B. Self-killing in the polis-community 185 C. Self-killing and the cosmopolis 188 Appendix A: 960 cases of self-killing 198 Appendix B: Profile of ancient self-killing 233 Appendix C: Suicidal vocabulary of Greek and Latin 243 Notes 251 Bibliography 283 Index 289 viii ILLUSTRATIONS Between pages 178 and 179. 1 A Gaul kills himself having slayed his wife first. 2 The Dacian king Decebalus stabs himself when the victorious Romans approach his hiding place, segment of Trajan’s column. 3 Decebalus on an earthenware cup from Gaul. 4 Thisbe throws herself on the sword with which Pyramus has stabbed himself shortly before; fresco in the house of Octavius Quartio in Pompeii. 5 Dido stabs herself on top of the pyre; from the Virgilius Vaticanus. 6 Detail of Dido’s suicide in the Virgilius Vaticanus. 7 Croesus on the pyre. 8 Ajax fixes his sword in preparation for his suicide. 9 Ajax on his sword. 10 Lucretia as a Christian heroine of chastity. 11 Seneca dying in a bath; painting by P.P.Rubens. 12 Despair depicted as a hanged individual; fresco by Giotto in the Arena Chapel in Padua. 13 The impatient man throws himself on his sword; detail of the illustration for the rubric Patientia in the Orbis Sensualium Pictus by Comenius. ix FIGURES 1.1 Distribution of datable cases over the periods of antiquity 12 1.2 Methods and motives of the young 29 1.3 Methods and motives of the old 35 2.1 The proportions of the various methods 42 2.2 Methods of men and women compared 44 3.1 The proportions of the various motives 85 3.2 Motives of men and women compared 86 x PROLOGUE This study about a sinister but ‘vital’ theme had its origin several years ago when I gave some lectures about the theme for branches of the Netherlands Classical Association (Nederlands Klassiek Verbond). It was much helped by a working-group I conducted at the University of Nijmegen consisting of advanced students in Ancient History in the autumn of 1983: Peter Beelen, Tim Dijkstra, Ad Franken, Steef Geurden, Fred Hendriks, Léon Hermse, Elena Janner, Burgie Koopman, Harry de Korte, Kiek Offermans and Marc van der Velde laid the foundations for the collection of cases and helped to develop the interpretations of the facts. Several colleagues who heard of my ‘hobby’ told me about interesting cases and literature: in this respect I have to thank my colleagues in the Department of Classics in Nijmegen: A.Bastiaensen, L.de Blois, J.- J.Flinterman, A.Kessels, P.Leunissen and W.van Loon. P.van Minnen and H.S.Versnel in Leyden and E.Eyben (Leuven-Belgium) drew my attention to some interesting literature. The Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O.) contributed to this study by conferring a travel grant which enabled a stay at the Fondation Hardt in Vandoeuvres-Geneva during the spring of 1988. My British colleague in Classics Teacher Training at Durham University, Richard Smith, undertook the painstaking task of removing Dutchisms and outright faults from my English. In June 1989 I enjoyed the hospitality of his home and the discussions we had then were very helpful in clarifying many ideas. Finally, many thanks are due to Mariken van Groenestijn, dimidium animae vitaeque meae, who critically and conscientiously read the first Dutch draft and helped considerably to improve the work in style and thought. xi LESS THAN AN ANIMAL, MIGHTIER THAN A GOD If there really was a single and perfect god, would he be able to do absolutely anything? When the Homeric pantheon was being replaced by monotheistic ideas, ancient philosophy came across this tricky theological problem. Homer’s Olympic gods had overcome the manifest limitations of human existence; in accordance with the Homeric epithet easy living they were unacquainted with the toiling of man. As always living they were not to fear death. But after the idea of a single god had got a firm footing, the omnipotence which had to be accorded to the god—ho theos—remained a disturbing attribute. Christian theologians who conformed to ancient thinking later will wonder whether God is able to undo what has been done: can he bring back an ex-virgin to her former integrity? Before that, in the first century AD, Pliny discovers tragedy in God’s almightiness: But the chief consolation for nature’s imperfection in the case of man is that not even for God are all things possible—for he cannot, even if he wishes, commit suicide, the supreme boon that nature has bestowed on man among all the penalties of life (Natural History 2,27)1 According to this ancient view at least in one respect man is mightier than god. But is man obedient to nature, physis, when using this superdivine power? The argument that suicide is not ‘in accordance with nature’, physei, was advanced by Flavius Josephus among many other considerations which prompted him to renounce suicide when he and other Jewish fighters had hidden themselves from the Romans in a cavern under Jotapata. During his whole remaining life he was vexed by self- criticism and reproaches from his fellow-Jews: why had he not shared the heroic end of his comrades? During the Jewish War Massada had not been the only instance of collective self-destruction That is why self- killing plays such a conspicuous part in the books Josephus wrote in xii LESS THAN AN ANIMAL, MIGHTIER THAN A GOD Greek as a favourite of the Flavian emperors2 Most comprehensive is the speech Josephus put into his own mouth at Jotapata. In that apologia pro vita he uses very diverse arguments against self-killing which have been borrowed from Jewish as well as ancient thinking: it is not allowed to tear apart body and soul. Falling in action brings honour, but self- destruction is a cowardly and outrageous act. A suicide is like a pilot who fearing a tempest sinks his own ship before the storm.
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