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THE ANNOUNCEMENT Final The Announcement: Tacitus' Dialogus De Oratoribus as the Prelude to His Annales The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Glen, Leonie. 2016. The Announcement: Tacitus' Dialogus De Oratoribus as the Prelude to His Annales. Master's thesis, Harvard Extension School. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33797296 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The Announcement: Tacitus’ Dialogus de Oratoribus as the Prelude to His Annales Léonie Glen A Thesis in the Field of Classical Civilizations for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies Harvard University May 2016 Abstract This paper investigates the chronological, contextual, and literary placement of the Dialogus de Oratoribus, a work by the Roman historian Tacitus. The work is atypical for this author, and scholars tend to situate it amongst his earlier works, the Agricola and Germania, both written shortly after the death of the emperor Domitian in 96 CE. Why did Tacitus write a dialogue on the merits and decline of public oratory, deliberately mod- eled on Cicero, and give it a dramatic date of 75 CE, six years into the “happy” reign of the emperor Vespasian? What is the significance of the characters and their positions? Why does the debate end not only without resolution, but even with a flourish of contra- dictions? This study uses the letters of Pliny the Younger to establish a call-and-response between the two authors and thereby establish a terminus post quem for the Dialogus of 108-109, or contemporary to Book 9 of Pliny’s Epistulae. Tacitus’ use of Ciceronian in- tertext, referents, and historical context helps to situate the Dialogus in theme and tone as closer to the mature disillusionment of the Annales. The Dialogus’ character of Vipstanus Messalla not only acts as a bridge from Tac- itus’ Histories to the Dialogus, but, more importantly, by his kinship with one of the most infamous delatores (imperial prosecutorial informants), Messalla acts as a bridge between the Dialogus and the Annales; both works share an atmosphere of menace and fear atten- dant upon acts of speech. ! Lastly, this paper examines Tacitus’ concern with his own literary placement and the gloria that only the written word can achieve. Does this glory come only with risking one’s life to speak the truth? The trial of the historian Cremutius Cordus, in Annales 4, speaks to that concern, and the speech of Cremutius in the senate triggers a comparison with the historian’s depiction in an early work by Annaeus Seneca, his Consolatio ad Marciam, a “letter” written to Cremutius’ daughter. Seneca is a pivotal figure in the Neronian hexad of the Annales, and his name is strangely absent from the various cata- logues of authors and orators in the Dialogus. Curiatius Maternus of the Dialogus, a tragedian, the man who announces that his Thyestes will say whatever his Cato has left out, acts as a metonym for tragedy and champion of the written word and thus connects the Diaolgus to the Annales further. His literary relationship to Seneca, a tragedian and Stoic philosopher, tutor and victim of the emperor Nero, becomes increasingly clear and compelling if one examines Annales 14 as a tragedy with close paralells to the praetexta Octavia and Seneca’s Oedipus. A look at the suicide scenes and last words of Seneca, the poet Lucan (nephew of Seneca), the author Petronius, and Thrasea Paetus, the Stoic and biographer of Cato, will close the study. Throughout, a close look at diction, semantics, and other narratological devices will work to establish a strong connection between the Dialogus and the Annales and thus cement the Dialogus’ placement as not only the penultimate work of Tacitus, but an announcement for his upcoming grand finale, the Annales. ‘Is it your opinion, Winston, that the past has real existence?’ — George Orwell, 1984. !v Dedication This paper is dedicated to all who speak truth to power, especially when Big Brother is watching. !vi Acknowledgments I would like to thank Professor Richard F. Thomas for rekindling the student in me. His enthusiasm for sharing not only the joy but the relevance of the Roman authors continues to inspire me to try to do the same for my students. I would also like to thank, most belat- edly, Professor Richard Tarrant for taking the time to read Tacitus with me as an under- graduate; while I recognized it as exceptional then, it was a privilege that I have come to appreciate more and more. And I cannot leave out two good friends, Professor Heather Cox Richardson and Jonathan M. Myers, for offering their unflagging support and editor- ial expertise. Maximas vobis gratias ago. !vii Table of Contents Dedication ………………………………………………………………………. vi Acknowledgments ………………………………………………………………. vii I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 1 Background ………………………………………………………………… 5 Tone ……………………………………………………………………….. 17 Seneca and Tragedy ……………………………………………………….. 19 II. Pliny and the Argument against an Early Date ….…………………………….. 24 General Overview ………………………………………………………… 24 A Bit about the Dialogus …………………………………………………. 24 Previous Scholarship Regarding the Date of the Dialogus ……….………. 25 Pliny and Tacitus: Call-and-Response …………….……………………… 30 The Prosecution of Marius Priscus by Pliny and Tacitus: Ep. 2.11 … 31 The Panegyricus ………………..………………………………… 38 Epp. 7 …………………………….………………………………. 46 Ep. 7.20, to Tacitus ………………..……………………………… 48 Epp. 7 (cont.) ………………………………………………………. 52 Epp. 8.7 and 9.10 — a Response to the Dialogus? ……………..…… 54 Ep. 9.7 …………………………………………………….……….. 58 Ep. 9.27 …………………………………………………..………. 59 !viii III. Cicero as Contextual Link between the Dialogus and the Annales …..……… 66 Why Cicero? ……………………………………………………………… 66" Overview ………………………………………………..………………….. 66 In the Cubiculum of Maternus …………………………………………….. 70 The Dialogus and Cicero ……………………………………………..…… 73 Parallels within the Dialogus and Three Works of Cicero: de Oratore, Brutus, Orator ……………………………….……………………. 76 Maternus’ Cubiculum, Revisited …………………………………. 79 Notable Distinctions ……………………………………… 79 Close Reading of Maternus’ Peroratio …………………………………… 83 Cicero as Ambiguous Referrent …………………………………………… 87 Close Reading of Aper’s Speech at Dial. 17 ………………………. 88 IV. Vipstanus Messalla and Triangulation …..…………………………………….. 94 Overview ………………………………………………………………….. 94 The Paradox of Messalla: Pliny, Delatores, and Stoics …………………… 95 The Relationship Between Messalla and the Delator Regulus ……….….. 100 Histories 4.40-42 ..………………………………………………… 100 A Quick Overview ..………………………………………. 101 The Proceedings .………………………………………………….. 102 Curtius Montanus’ Speech against Regulus at Histories 4.42 ..…… 104 Eprius Marcellus, Vibius Crispus, and Helvidius Priscus ..……….. 106 Connection with Dialogus, Pliny, and Chronological Relevance …………. 111 !ix Pliny and Regulus ………………………………………………….. 112 More Call-and-Response Between Tacitus and Pliny ……………… 115 V. The Dialogus and Cremutius Cordus: Annales 4 and Forward .……………..…… 117 Overview …………………………………………………………………….. 117 Annales 4 and the Genesis of the Delator ………………………….….…….. 117 Annales IV. 31-35: Cremutius Cordus and the Dialogus ..………………….. 119 Annales IV. 32-33 — A Second Proem to the Annales ……………… 119 Allusions to Sallust ………………………………………….………. 121 Gloria ……………………………………………………………….……….. 122 Tacitus and Authorial Anxiety? ……………………………….……… 123 The “Second Proem” and the Dialogus …………………………………….. 127 The Oratio of Cremutius Cordus …………………………………………… 132 Cremutius Cordus and Seneca’s Consolatio ad Marciam (Dial. 6) ………… 144 Food and Power, Food and Tragedy ………………………………… 148 Seneca, Cremutius, and the Long View …………………………….. 150 Portents and Disease in the Consolatio and the Annales …………………… 152 Eyes on the Audience ………………………………………………………. 157 Tacitus’ Final Reflections on the Duty of the Historian …………………….. 163 Books of Wisdom …………………………………………………… 166 VI. Seneca, Maternus, and the Neronian Books …………………………..………… 171 Overview …………………………………………………………………….. 171 Maternus’ Domitius: the Octavia? …………………………………………. 177 !x Annales 14 and the Octavia …………………………………………………. 182 Seneca and Nero: the Paired Speeches ……………………………………… 195 Books 15 and 16: Deaths of Authors, Authorial Legacy ……………………. 204 Death of Seneca …………………………………………………….. 204 Lucan and Petronius ………………………………………………… 207 Death of Virtus Ipsa …………………………………………………. 209 VII. Summary and Conclusion ………………………………………………… 211 Appendix: Definition of Terms …………………………………………….…… 218 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………… 225 !xi Chapter I Introduction Walter Benjamin, Thesis IX Mein Flügel ist zum Schwung bereit, ich kehrte gern zurück, denn blieb ich auch lebendige Zeit, ich hätte wenig Glück. (My wing is ready for flight, I would like to turn back.If I stayed timeless time, I would have little luck.) Gerherd Scholem, ‘Gruss vom Angelus’ A Klee painting named ‘Angelus Novus’ shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contem- plating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and
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