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4. POETRY and POLITICS at the GAMES of DOMITIAN Alex Hardie

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4. POETRY and POLITICS at the GAMES of DOMITIAN Alex Hardie 4. POETRY AND POLITICS AT THE GAMES OF DOMITIAN Alex Hardie 1. Introduction Domitian founded two festivals, the quinquennial Capitolia at Rome and an annual event in honour of Minerva on his Alban estate. The latter lapsed after his death, but the Capitolia retained their place among the sacred festivals of the Greco-Roman world and were cel- ebrated until late antiquity. By any standards the Capitoline festival was a major politico-cultural innovation at Rome, yet until the appear- ance of Maria Letizia Caldelli’s admirable L’Agon Capitolinus in 1994 it attracted little sustained scholarly interest.1 One reason for this analytical neglect may lie in the paucity of archeological remains associated with the Capitolia. Domitian certainly gave his new foun- dation a well-defined monumental context, in the form of a Stadium and Odeum in the Campus Martius, but the visible remains are modest (Suet. Dom. 5).2 By contrast, the Alban site of the Minerva festival, including the theatre where the literary events took place, is well preserved at the modern Castel Gandolfo. One aim of this chapter will accordingly be to relate the games to their respective settings in Rome and the Alban hills. I shall also offer an account of the place of both festivals within the cultural politics of the later Flavian era and a re-assessment of what Statius has to say about his own participation as a competitor in the Latin poetry events. 1 Caldelli (1994). Summary treatments in Friedländer (1968b) 264–8; Lana (1951) 145–60; Robert (1970) 6–27; Hardie (1983) 46–7; Coleman (1986) 3097–100; Jones (1992) 103–5. 2 Colini (1938) 264–6; Colini (1943). In referring to Domitian’s Stadium and Odeum, I use the Latinised spellings; otherwise, stadion and odeion. For the termi- nology, see Meinel (1979) 25–9. 126 2. The Capitolia A generation earlier, Nero too had founded two new festivals, the Iuuenalia (in 59 ) and the Neronia (60 ). The former were staged at a private theatre built next to his new (also private) Circus Gai et Neronis on the Vatican (Plin. HN 37.19); for the latter, a quinquen- nial event on the Greek model, Nero built a gymnasium and baths in the Campus Martius immediately west of the area where the Stadium and Odeum were later to be placed (Suet. Nero 12.3; Cass. Dio 62.21; Tac. Ann. 14.17.3; Philostr. V A 4.42). Nero’s legacy impinged directly on the Flavians. Vespasian’s sons shared the con- temporary enthusiasm for musical and rhetorical performance that the emperor and his festivals encouraged among the Roman upper classes.3 Domitian was tutored by a distinguished performer on the Greek festival circuit, the father of P. Papinius Statius.4 Born in 51 , he would have been too young to witness the first Neronia and to hear the Laudes Neronis with which Lucan, aged 20, won the Latin poetry crown on that occasion.5 But he might well have witnessed the second Neronia in 64/65 and he will certainly have been aware of Nero’s performances as citharoedus (‘a cithara player’), his com- petitive ‘victories’, and his triumphal return from Greece as Periodonikes.6 If Nero was a ‘premature philhellene’, Domitian at least had the benefit of his unsuccessful example, as also of reactions to his efforts to set up a Greek festival at Rome (Tac. Ann. 14.20.1).7 Within Nero’s complex motivation, the need to appeal to the cultural iden- tity of the Greek east must have played a part, but he was also dri- ven by a strong desire to prove his personal ability in competition.8 Domitian, himself a poet who had recited in public, gave up the latter practice after his accession and allowed it to be understood that he had done so in order to devote himself to the burdens of office (Quint. Inst. 10.1.91; Suet. Dom. 2.2; Tac. Hist. 4.86; cf. Mart. Epigr. 5.5.7; Val. Flacc. 1.12–14; Sil. Pun. 3.619–21; Stat. Achill. 1.16–17).9 3 Sullivan (1985) 33. For Nero’s literary circle, see Sullivan (1985) 31–9. 4 Hardie (1983) 6–8, 11; Coleman (1988) xv; Jones (1992) 12–13. 5 Griffin (1984) 157–8. 6 Griffin (1984) 160–3; Kennell (1988) 239–51. For the second Neronia, see Bolton (1948) 82–90; Malavolta (1978) 395–415. 7 ‘Premature’: Syme (1982) 20 (= Syme [1988] 11). 8 Griffin (1984) 208–20. 9 Bardon (1968) 280–4..
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