DOCSLIB.ORG

ENNIUS' ANNALS Poetry and History

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information ENNIUS’ ANNALS Poetry and History In the context of recent challenges to long-standing assumptions about the nature of Ennius’ Annals and the editorial methods appro- priate to the poem’s fragmentary remains, this volume seeks to move Ennian studies forward on three axes: first, a re-evaluation of the literary and historical precedents for and building blocks of Ennius’ poem in order to revise the history of early Latin literature; second, a cross-fertilization of recent critical approaches to the fields of poetry and historiography; third, reflection on the tools and methods that will best serve future literary and historical research on the Annals and its reception. With different approaches to these broad topics, the fourteen papers in this volume illustrate how much can be said about Ennius’ poem and its place in literary history, independent of any commitment to inevitably speculative totalizing interpretations. is a Professor in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an expert in histori- ography and an editor and translator of Latin texts. She has published on Tacitus (Histories [Cambridge, ], Agricola [], Annals []) and Caesar’s Civil War (a monograph, with Will Batstone [], an Oxford Classical Text [], and a Loeb Classical Library edition []). is a Professor in the Department of Classical Studies and M. Mark and Esther K. Watkins Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an expert on Latin poetry who focuses on epic and related genres. He is co-editor, with Dee Clayman, of a forthcoming history of Classical literature and is a former President of the Society for Classical Studies and current editor of the American Journal of Philology. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information ENNIUS’ ANNALS Poetry and History CYNTHIA DAMON University of Pennsylvania JOSEPH FARRELL University of Pennsylvania © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information University Printing House, Cambridge , United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, th Floor, New York, , USA Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, , Australia –, rd Floor, Plot , Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – , India Anson Road, #–/, Singapore Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/ : ./ © Cambridge University Press This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data : Damon, Cynthia, – editor. | Farrell, Joseph, – editor. : Ennius’ Annals : poetry and history / edited by Cynthia Damon, Joseph Farrell. : New York : Cambridge University Press, . | Includes bibliographical references and index. : (print) | (ebook) | (hardback) | (paperback) | (epub) : : Ennius, Quintus. Annales. : . (print) | (ebook) | /.–dc LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/ LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/ ---- Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information in memoriam E. Courtney, – G. N. Knauer, – © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information Contents List of Contributors page ix List of Abbreviations xi Introduction: History and Poetry in Ennius’ Annals Joseph Farrell and Cynthia Damon Hybrid Ennius: Cultural and Poetic Multiplicity in the Annals Patrick Glauthier History, Philosophy, and the Annals Virginia Fabrizi The Gods in Ennius Joseph Farrell Allegory and Authority in Latin Verse-Historiography Thomas Biggs Reading Ennius’ Annals and Cato’s Origins at Rome Jackie Elliott Looking for auctoritas in Ennius’ Annals Cynthia Damon Ennius’ Annals as Source and Model for Historical Speech Lydia Spielberg vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information viii Contents Ennius and the fata librorum Sander M. Goldberg How Ennian Was Latin Epic between the Annals and Lucretius? Jason S. Nethercut Livy’s Ennius Ayelet Haimson Lushkov Ennius’ Annals and Tacitus’ Annals A. J. Woodman Ennius and Lucilius: Good Companion/Bad Companion Brian W. Breed Ennius’ Annals as Historical Evidence in Ancient and Modern Commentaries Jessica H. Clark Commenting on the Annals: Steuart, Skutsch, and Ennius Christina Shuttleworth Kraus Afterword Mary Jaeger Works Cited General Index Index Locorum © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information Contributors is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Georgia. . is Professor of Classics at the University of Massachu- setts, Amherst. . is Associate Professor of Classics at Florida State University. is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. is Cultore della Materia in Classical Philology at the University of Pavia. is Professor of Classical Studies and M. Mark and Esther K. Watkins Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. is Assistant Professor of Classics at Dartmouth College. . is Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA. is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Texas, Austin. is Professor of Classics at the University of Oregon. is Thomas A. Thacher Professor of Latin at Yale University. ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information x List of Contributors . is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of South Florida. is Assistant Professor of Classics at UCLA. is Basil L. Gildersleeve Professor of Classics, Emeritus at, the University of Virginia. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information Abbreviations AUC Ab urbe condita Blänsdorf see Morel and Bu¨chner in the list of Works Cited CA Powell, J. U. (ed.) . Collectanea alexandrina: Reliquiae minores poetarum graecorum aetatis ptolemaicae, – , epicorum, elegiacorum, lyricorum, ethicorum. Oxford: Clarendon Press D–K Diels, H. and Kranz, W. (eds.) –. Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. th ed. vols. Berlin: Weidmann DS refers to the text of Servius Danielis, also called Servius Auctus, cited from Thilo–Hagen and/or Murgia and Kaster EGP Laks, A. and Most, G. W. (eds., transl.) . Early Greek philosophy. vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Enn. Scaen. citations of Ennius’ dramatic fragments refer to FRL , TrRF, and/or Vahlen Festus citations refer to page numbers in Lindsay FGrHist Jacoby, F. (ed.) –. Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (FGrHist). vols. in . Leiden: Brill FRHist Cornell, T. J. (ed.) . The fragments of the Roman historians. vols. Oxford University Press FRL – Goldberg, S. M. and Manuwald, G. Fragmentary republican Latin: Ennius. vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press GL Keil, H. (ed.) –. Grammatici latini. vols. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner xi © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48172-4 — Ennius' Annals Edited by Cynthia Damon , Joseph Farrell Frontmatter More Information xii List of Abbreviations Goldberg– Goldberg, S. M. and Manuwald, G. Manuwald Fragmentary republican Latin: Ennius. vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Recommended publications
  • The Epic Vantage-Point: Roman Historiographical Allusion Reconsidered

    The Epic Vantage-Point: Roman Historiographical Allusion Reconsidered

    Histos () – THE EPIC VANTAGE-POINT: ROMAN HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ALLUSION RECONSIDERED Abstract: This paper makes the case that Roman epic and Roman historiographical allusive practices are worth examining in light of each other, given the close relationship between the two genres and their common goal of offering their audiences access to the past. Ennius’ Annales will here serve as epic’s representative, despite its fragmentary state: the fact that the epic shares its subject-matter with and pre-dates most of the Roman historiographical tra- dition as we know it suggests that the poem may have had a significant role in setting the terms on which the two genres interacted at Rome; and what the first surviving generation of its readers, as principally represented by Cicero, have to say about the epic rather con- firms that suggestion (§I). Points of contact between the genres on which the paper focuses are: extended repetition of passages recognisable from previous authors (§II); allusion that is contested among the speakers of a given text (§III); citation practices (§IV); and the recur- rence of recognisable material stemming from the Annales in the historiographical tradition’s latter-day, when all sense of that material’s original context has been lost, along with its ability to generate new meaning (§V). n this paper,1 I consider how reading Ennius’ Annales can shed light on the extent to which allusion, as it operates in historiography, is differentiable I from allusion in other genres. David Levene has made the argument that historiography
  • Faunus and the Fauns in Latin Literature of the Republic and Early Empire

    Faunus and the Fauns in Latin Literature of the Republic and Early Empire

    University of Adelaide Discipline of Classics Faculty of Arts Faunus and the Fauns in Latin Literature of the Republic and Early Empire Tammy DI-Giusto BA (Hons), Grad Dip Ed, Grad Cert Ed Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy October 2015 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................... 4 Thesis Declaration ................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. 6 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 7 Context and introductory background ................................................................. 7 Significance ......................................................................................................... 8 Theoretical framework and methods ................................................................... 9 Research questions ............................................................................................. 11 Aims ................................................................................................................... 11 Literature review ................................................................................................ 11 Outline of chapters ............................................................................................
  • TRADITIONAL POETRY and the ANNALES of QUINTUS ENNIUS John Francis Fisher A

    TRADITIONAL POETRY and the ANNALES of QUINTUS ENNIUS John Francis Fisher A

    REINVENTING EPIC: TRADITIONAL POETRY AND THE ANNALES OF QUINTUS ENNIUS John Francis Fisher A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY RECOMMENDED FOR ACCEPTANCE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS SEPTEMBER 2006 UMI Number: 3223832 UMI Microform 3223832 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 © Copyright by John Francis Fisher, 2006. All rights reserved. ii Reinventing Epic: Traditional Poetry and the Annales of Quintus Ennius John Francis Fisher Abstract The present scholarship views the Annales of Quintus Ennius as a hybrid of the Latin Saturnian and Greek hexameter traditions. This configuration overlooks the influence of a larger and older tradition of Italic verbal art which manifests itself in documents such as the prayers preserved in Cato’s De agricultura in Latin, the Iguvine Tables in Umbrian, and documents in other Italic languages including Oscan and South Picene. These documents are marked by three salient features: alliterative doubling figures, figurae etymologicae, and a pool of traditional phraseology which may be traced back to Proto-Italic, the reconstructed ancestor of the Italic languages. A close examination of the fragments of the Annales reveals that all three of these markers of Italic verbal art are integral parts of the diction the poem. Ennius famously remarked that he possessed three hearts, one Latin, one Greek and one Oscan, which the second century writer Aulus Gellius understands as ability to speak three languages.
  • Introduction: Medea in Greece and Rome

    Introduction: Medea in Greece and Rome

    INTRODUCTION: MEDEA IN GREECE AND ROME A J. Boyle maiusque mari Medea malum. Seneca Medea 362 And Medea, evil greater than the sea. Few mythic narratives of the ancient world are more famous than the story of the Colchian princess/sorceress who betrayed her father and family for love of a foreign adventurer and who, when abandoned for another woman, killed in revenge both her rival and her children. Many critics have observed the com­ plexities and contradictions of the Medea figure—naive princess, knowing witch, faithless and devoted daughter, frightened exile, marginalised alien, dis­ placed traitor to family and state, helper-màiden, abandoned wife, vengeful lover, caring and filicidal mother, loving and fratricidal sister, oriental 'other', barbarian saviour of Greece, rejuvenator of the bodies of animals and men, killer of kings and princesses, destroyer and restorer of kingdoms, poisonous stepmother, paradigm of beauty and horror, demi-goddess, subhuman monster, priestess of Hecate and granddaughter of the sun, bride of dead Achilles and ancestor of the Medes, rider of a serpent-drawn chariot in the sky—complex­ ities reflected in her story's fragmented and fragmenting history. That history has been much examined, but, though there are distinguished recent exceptions, comparatively little attention has been devoted to the specifically 'Roman' Medea—the Medea of the Republican tragedians, of Cicero, Varro Atacinus, Ovid, the younger Seneca, Valerius Flaccus, Hosidius Geta and Dracontius, and, beyond the literary field, the Medea of Roman painting and Roman sculp­ ture. Hence the present volume of Ramus, which aims to draw attention to the complex and fascinating use and abuse of this transcultural heroine in the Ro­ man intellectual and visual world.
  • Imitation of Greatness: Alexander of Macedon and His Influence on Leading Romans

    Imitation of Greatness: Alexander of Macedon and His Influence on Leading Romans

    Imitation of Greatness: Alexander of Macedon and His Influence on Leading Romans Thomas W Foster II, McNair Scholar The Pennsylvania State University Mark Munn, Ph.D Head, Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies College of Liberal Arts The Pennsylvania State University Abstract This paper seeks to examine the relationship between greatness and imitation in antiquity. To do so, Alexander the Great will be compared with Romans Julius Caesar and Marcus Aurelius. The question this paper tries to answer concerns leading Romans and the idea of imitating Alexander the Great and how this affected their actions. It draws upon both ancient sources and modern scholarship. It differs from both ancient and modern attempts at comparison in distinct ways, however. This paper contains elements of the following: historiography, biography, military history, political science, character study, religion and socio-cultural traditions. Special attention has been given to the socio-cultural differences of the Greco-Roman world. Comparing multiple eras allows for the establishment of credible commonalities. These commonalities can then be applied to different eras up to and including the modern. Practically, these traits allow us to link these men of antiquity, both explicitly and implicitly. Beginning with Plutarch in the 1st/2nd century CE1, a long historical tradition of comparing great men was established. Plutarch chose to compare Alexander the Great to Julius Caesar. The reasons for such a comparison are quite obvious. Both men conquered swaths of land, changed the balance of power in the Mediterranean and caused many to either love them or plot to kill them. Scholars have assessed this comparison continuously.
  • Reading Death in Ancient Rome

    Reading Death in Ancient Rome

    Reading Death in Ancient Rome Reading Death in Ancient Rome Mario Erasmo The Ohio State University Press • Columbus Copyright © 2008 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Erasmo, Mario. Reading death in ancient Rome / Mario Erasmo. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8142-1092-5 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8142-1092-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Death in literature. 2. Funeral rites and ceremonies—Rome. 3. Mourning cus- toms—Rome. 4. Latin literature—History and criticism. I. Title. PA6029.D43E73 2008 870.9'3548—dc22 2008002873 This book is available in the following editions: Cloth (ISBN 978-0-8142-1092-5) CD-ROM (978-0-8142-9172-6) Cover design by DesignSmith Type set in Adobe Garamond Pro by Juliet Williams Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI 39.48-1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents List of Figures vii Preface and Acknowledgments ix INTRODUCTION Reading Death CHAPTER 1 Playing Dead CHAPTER 2 Staging Death CHAPTER 3 Disposing the Dead 5 CHAPTER 4 Disposing the Dead? CHAPTER 5 Animating the Dead 5 CONCLUSION 205 Notes 29 Works Cited 24 Index 25 List of Figures 1. Funerary altar of Cornelia Glyce. Vatican Museums. Rome. 2. Sarcophagus of Scipio Barbatus. Vatican Museums. Rome. 7 3. Sarcophagus of Scipio Barbatus (background). Vatican Museums. Rome. 68 4. Epitaph of Rufus.
  • Cicero's Influence on Our Perception of Republican Tragedy

    Cicero's Influence on Our Perception of Republican Tragedy

    Roman Tragedy—Ciceronian Tragedy? Cicero’s Influence on Our Perception of Republican Tragedy Petra Schierl Of the tragedies written in Rome in the third and second centuries BC only fragments survive in the form of quotations by ancient authors.1 By far the larg- est number of fragments has been preserved in lexicographical works of the imperial period, in Nonius’ De compendiosa doctrina and in Festus’ epitome of Verrius Flaccus’ dictionary De verborum significatu. Both adduce quotations to illustrate the meaning of a word, often citing no more than a single verse. Arguably, the richest source of knowledge about Republican tragedy, how- ever, is Marcus Tullius Cicero. His writings abound in quotations from com- edy and tragedy, attesting to a lifelong engagement with early Roman drama.2 While the number of fragments from Republican tragedy which have come down to us through his works is relatively small, Cicero quotes the longest and most substantial passages of the major tragic writers, Ennius (239–169 BCE), Pacuvius (c. 220–130 BCE) and Accius (170-c. 80 BCE).3 Ennius may serve as an example: Cicero is the source for 30 out of 216 fragments, that is of 14 per cent of the extant fragments from Ennian tragedy; however, citing 135 out of 402 verses, he preserves 34 per cent of the tragic remains of Ennius.4 Since he fre- quently omits the name of the authors whose works he cites, he transmits 78 out of 180 fragmenta adespota from Republican tragedy.5 With 17 and 18 verses respectively, the lament from Ennius’ Andromacha (23 TrRF) and the speech of 1 Goldberg (2007: 582) justly emphasizes this aspect when he observes: “Our knowledge of tragedy includes not just the fragmentary texts, but the whole texts that preserve them: the history of its art comes wrapped in the history of its reception.
  • Funerary Ritual and Urban Development in Archaic Central Italy by Jennifer Marilyn Evans a Disser

    Funerary Ritual and Urban Development in Archaic Central Italy by Jennifer Marilyn Evans a Disser

    Funerary Ritual and Urban Development in Archaic Central Italy By Jennifer Marilyn Evans A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classical Archaeology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor J. Theodore Peña, Chair Professor Christopher Hallett Professor Dylan Sailor Professor Nicola Terrenato Professor Carlos Noreña Spring 2014 Copyright 2014, Jennifer Marilyn Evans Abstract Funerary Ritual and Urban Development in Archaic Central Italy by Jennifer Marilyn Evans Doctor of Philosophy in Classical Archaeology University of California, Berkeley Professor J. Theodore Peña, Chair This dissertation examines the evidence for burial in archaic Rome and Latium with a view to understanding the nature of urban development in the region. In particular, I focus on identifying those social and political institutions that governed relations between city‐ states at a time when Rome was becoming the most influential urban center in the area. I examine the evidence for burial gathered primarily from the past four decades or so of archaeological excavation in order to present first, a systematic account of the data and second, an analysis of these materials. I reveal that a high degree of variation was observed in funerary ritual across sites, and suggest that this points to a complex system of regional networks that allowed for the widespread travel of people and ideas. I view this as evidence for the openness of archaic societies in Latium, whereby people and groups seem to have moved across regions with what seems to have been a fair degree of mobility.
  • Pliny Does Not Write History (Ep

    Pliny Does Not Write History (Ep

    A Curious Case: Pliny Does Not Write History (Ep. 5.8) Jonathan J. Price Pliny the Younger admired historians and historical writing. In his letters he praises History‘s virtues, values a freedman who can read history well, and above all, feels unbounded esteem for his friend Tacitus, who had gained fame while still alive for his published historical researches.1 Pliny‘s most elaborate appreciation of historiography is contained in Ep. 5.8, a letter of 105-106 CE2 addressed to Titinius Capito, who had urged Pliny to write history himself. Pliny responds to Capito by lauding history-writing as the surest means to fame and affirming his desire to take up the task, but his convoluted and confusing explanation of the reasons for his delay amount to a decisive rejection of ever writing history. The letter has been variously understood as a serious contemplation on historiography, a document of angst about his status in Rome‘s literary world, a bid to make himself the subject of history, an urbane ‗polite refusal‘ to write history.3 This paper, offered in honor of my friend and colleague Hannah Cotton,4 will argue that the letter is a subtle but demonstrative rejection of history-writing which both reflects and comments on the state of Roman historiography in Pliny‘s generation. Pliny‘s correspondent, the equestrian Cn. Octavius Titinius Capito, was a generous literary patron and the host of a well-known salon, apparently an arbiter of taste in Rome in the early second century CE.5 After a military career, he served as procurator ab * I would like to thank Werner Eck for helpful criticism.
  • Parentum Dedecus: Hannibal’S Hatred and Memories of Defeat in Silius Italicus’ Punica

    Parentum Dedecus: Hannibal’S Hatred and Memories of Defeat in Silius Italicus’ Punica

    Parentum dedecus: Hannibal’s Hatred and Memories of Defeat in Silius Italicus’ Punica Silius’ Punica depicts the rise and fall of Hannibal, but the shadow of Rome’s first conflict with Carthage still looms large. Hannibal’s hatred for Rome is tied to the impact of the First Punic War, while the war’s explicit emergence in Book 6 suggests the futility of the Carthaginian invasion. Moreover, it is within these moments of the epic that Silius engages with the legacy of that war as the primary narrative of Latin epic poetry, stretching back to Naevius’ Bellum Punicum (late third century BCE). Although the Republic’s most renowned epicist to tackle the Second Punic War, Quintus Ennius, takes the field of battle at Punica 12.387-414 (Casali 2006), I suggest that Silius engages with the First Punic War’s epic legacy in a more diffuse and subtle program of allusion. A Carthaginian war cry shaped by the First Punic War is felt as early as Silius’ first characterization of Hannibal. At 1.60-63, he relates that Hannibal is inspired and tormented by Juno and the shame of his father’s loss in the earlier war (for Hannibal, see Stocks 2014). Silius even adds the explicit resonance of the First Punic War to this marked scene of martial motivation: …his super, aevi / flore virens, avet Aegates abolere, parentum / dedecus, ac Siculo demergere foedera ponto. The Aegates Islands were the site of the final Carthaginian defeat at sea during the earlier war, and they stand throughout the epic as a symbol for Carthage’s new mission – damnatio memoriae (cf.
  • Speaking of Kings and Battle: Virgil As Prose Panegyrist in Late Antiquity

    Speaking of Kings and Battle: Virgil As Prose Panegyrist in Late Antiquity

    Speaking of Kings and Battle: Virgil as Prose Panegyrist in Late Antiquity Revised from a paper given to the Virgil Society on 9 March 2013* Ware Virgil’s influence on late antique encomiastic poetry is well known: less so is the nature of his influence on prose encomia. Focusing on the 4th-century corpus of thePanegyrici Latini,1 this article will explore the role assigned to Virgil in imperial prose panegyric of late antiquity. The orators of late antiquity acknowledge Virgil asmagnus poeta and cite him directly, particularly to evoke battle scenes, while also drawing on his work generally for poetic language and epic phrasing. As poeta Romanus, Virgil was the greatest authority on all matters relating to imperium, and as the writer of the canonic Roman epic, Virgil was viewed as a master-panegyrist. Certain passages were particularly relevant to praise of the emperors’ numinous power, so that lines from the prophecy of Anchises, or the description of Jupiter’s lofty abode, were revisited and reworked by successive panegyrists. The encomiastic impact of such passages is further reinforced by supplementary references to Virgil, as well as intratextual allusion within the corpus, and citations from encomiastic passages by other authors. As a result, a type of Virgilian “micro-allusion” may be observed, in which a short phrase or even a word or two is enough, within the encomiastic context, to suggest a Virgilian reference. This paper will summarise the relationship between epic and panegyric as it was understood in late antiquity, and examine the use of Virgilian allusion in the Panegyrici Latini, showing in particular how the panegyrists’ approach to Virgil is consistent with that of contemporary scholars and literary critics.
  • Sallust's Histories and Triumviral Historiography

    Sallust's Histories and Triumviral Historiography

    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2012 Sallust's Histories and Triumviral Historiography Jennifer Gerrish University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Classics Commons Recommended Citation Gerrish, Jennifer, "Sallust's Histories and Triumviral Historiography" (2012). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 511. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/511 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/511 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Sallust's Histories and Triumviral Historiography Abstract This dissertation explores echoes of the triumviral period in Sallust's Histories and demonstrates how, through analogical historiography, Sallust presents himself as a new type of historian whose "exempla" are flawed and morally ambiguous, and who rejects the notion of a triumphant, ascendant Rome perpetuated by the triumvirs. Just as Sallust's unusual prose style is calculated to shake his reader out of complacency and force critical engagement with the reading process, his analogical historiography requires the reader to work through multiple layers of interpretation to reach the core arguments. In the De Legibus, Cicero lamented the lack of great Roman historians, and frequently implied that he might take up the task himself. He had a clear sense of what history ought to be : encomiastic and exemplary, reflecting a conception of Roman history as a triumphant story populated by glorious protagonists. In Sallust's view, however, the novel political circumstances of the triumviral period called for a new type of historiography. To create a portrait of moral clarity is, Sallust suggests, ineffective, because Romans have been too corrupted by ambitio and avaritia to follow the good examples of the past.