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Collegiality and Ambition in the Tales of Early Rome Mnemosyne Supplements Monographs on Greek and Latin Language and Literature

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Collegiality and Ambition in the Tales of Early Rome Mnemosyne Supplements Monographs on Greek and Latin Language and Literature Legendary Rivals: Collegiality and Ambition in the Tales of Early Rome Mnemosyne Supplements Monographs on Greek and Latin Language and Literature Executive Editor G.J. Boter (VU University Amsterdam) Editorial Board A. Chaniotis (Oxford) K.M. Coleman (Harvard) I.J.F. de Jong (University of Amsterdam) T. Reinhardt (Oxford) VOLUME 372 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/mns Legendary Rivals: Collegiality and Ambition in the Tales of Early Rome By Jaclyn Neel LEIDEN | BOSTON Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Neel, Jaclyn. Legendary rivals : collegiality and ambition in the tales of early Rome / by Jaclyn Neel. pages cm. — (Mnemosyne supplements : monographs on Greek and Latin language and literature, ISSN 0169-8958 ; volume 372) Summary: “In Legendary Rivals, Jaclyn Neel argues for a new interpretation of the foundation myths of Rome. Instead of a negative portrayal of the city’s early history, these tales offer a didactic paradigm of the correct way to engage in competition. Accounts from the triumviral period stress the dysfunctional nature of the city’s foundation to capture the memory of Rome’s civil wars. Republican evidence suggests a dif- ferent emphasis. Through diachronic analyses of the tales of Romulus and Remus, Amulius and Numitor, Brutus and Collatinus, and Camillus and Manlius Capitolinus, Neel shows that Romans of the Republic and early Principate would have seen these stories as examples of competition that pushed the bounds of propriety”—Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-27269-9 (hardback : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-28185-1 (e-book) 1. Rome (Italy)—History—To 476—Sources. 2. Rome (Italy)—Civilization—Sources. 3. Competition (Psychology)—History—To 1500—Sources. 4. Tales—Italy—Rome. 5. Legends—Italy—Rome. 6. Mythology, Roman. 7. Rome (Italy)—Folklore. I. Title. DG69.N33 2015 398’.3293763—dc23 2014029734 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0169-8958 isbn 978-90-04-27269-9 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-28185-1 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. For Saba and Sabta, Liza and Max, and Grandma, who taught me the power of ambition. ∵ Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 Setting the Stage 3 Doubling in Rome 5 Methodologies 11 Dyadic Rivals 14 Situating the Problem 18 Sources and Historicity 19 Plan of the Argument 23 2 Birds 25 Ennius 27 The Fragment 33 The End of the Contest 45 Cassius Hemina 49 Conclusion 53 3 Invective 54 Romulus and Republican Politics 60 Catullus 62 Sallust, [Sallust], and Cicero 65 Plutarch 70 Dionysius, Livy, and Late Republican Fragments 73 Cicero 77 Horace 82 Conclusion 87 4 Rites 89 The Lupercalia 91 The Lupercalia of 44 98 The Parilia 103 Quirinus 113 Conclusion 117 viii contents 5 Art 119 Republican Depictions 120 Augustan-Era Depictions 124 Castor and Pollux 134 Conclusion 137 6 Walls 140 Dionysius and Livy 142 Vergil 149 Propertius 152 Ovid 158 The Fasti 159 The Metamorphoses 169 Trogus 170 Conclusion: Romulus and Remus 173 7 Parallels 175 Romulus and Titus Tatius 176 Amulius and Numitor 181 Brutus the Liberator and Other Founders of the Republic 190 Conclusion 205 8 Tyrants 207 Manlius Capitolinus and Camillus 207 Regnum 220 The Rival-less Rector 225 Conclusion 233 Conclusion 236 Works Cited 242 Index 272 Acknowledgments One often reads that acknowledgments are the most pleasant part of writing a book; less often, that they are among the most difficult. It is inevitable that over the course of a lengthy project one collects debts. I hope that here I have listed all of them, and sincerely apologize to anyone who feels misremembered. This book grew largely out of my doctoral dissertation, which was super- vised by Andreas Bendlin, Christer Bruun, Bjorn Ewald, and Jarrett Welsh. I thank Andreas and Jarrett in particular for patiently answering streams of emails, both before and after the defense. Hugh Mason, who was originally appointed to the committee ex officio and whose duties ended partway through its work, retained an interest in my project far beyond what was required of him. Similarly, I am grateful for Matt Roller for his thought-provoking com- ments as an external examiner. A number of colleagues and friends have read the manuscript in whole or in part as it progressed from dissertation to book: Jeremy Armstrong, Cillian O’Hogan, Amy Russell, Donald Sells, and Jessica Westerhold read chapters or portions thereof; Becca Sears spent far too much of her vacation offering me a primer on literary theory; and Mary Beard, who read the entire manuscript with lightning speed and her usual acuity (although I suspect that she will still advise me to enjoy a problem). Any faults that remain in this work are due to my own stubborn persistence. I would also like to thank my departmental colleagues in History and in the Classical Studies Programme at York University, who have been consistently welcoming and supportive over the past two years, and the Interlibrary Loan staff at Scott Library, whose promptness in fulfilling every request has never failed to amaze me. I have presented parts of this work in various stages of completeness: at the annual meetings of the Classical Association of Canada in Vancouver, Halifax, and London, Ontario; at the annual meetings of the American Philological Association (now Society for Classical Studies) in San Antonio, Seattle, and Chicago; at works-in-progress meetings of the Collaborative Programme in Ancient History at the University of Toronto and at York University; at a Department of Classics Seminar at the University of Toronto; to members of the Department of Classics at Florida State University and UCLA; and as a research presentation in the Department of History, York University. I thank all audience members for their attention and their comments, and have indicated individual contributions in the notes where appropriate. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewer for Brill, whose comments encouraged me to rethink x acknowledgments several aspects of the work, and to Brill’s production team, especially my editor Tessel Jonquière, for guiding me through the publication process. Finally, I am grateful to my family and friends, especially my cousin Debbie, who read the entire manuscript for fun (!), Tamar, Tarley, and Ariane. I am also grateful to my immediate family: to my sisters Dana and Caroline, my parents, my grandmother, and my aunt Liza. All of them have been happy (or at least willing) to watch me practice presentations, rehearse drafts, or simply talk out my ideas. But I am most in debt to two people who are not relatives and who therefore had no obligation to listen. Alexa, who probably learned more about both academia and ancient history than she ever wished to know; and Chris, who read every draft, checked every translation, and has lived with Romulus, Camillus, and Brutus almost more than with me—thank you. Introduction In the wake of World War I, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler established a shoe- making company that would employ the majority of citizens in their small town. The brothers pooled their collective resources—both financial and intellectual—to make the company a success. And it was, at least for a little while. In spite of disagreements, Hitler, or even Rudolf’s arrest and imprison- ment by Allied forces, the company thrived. And then something changed. There was an argument, a division of assets, and a “divorce”.1 The duo disbanded their company, Gebrüder Dassler, and established two competing businesses in its place. The feud divided their family and their town, and was not fully resolved even after the deaths of the siblings in the 1970s or the public reconciliation in 2009.2 (For those who are concerned, the second companies—Adidas and Puma—are doing quite well.) This type of competition, in which two former collaborators are torn apart by the desire to control their joint enterprise, is one we rarely hear about. Our culture embraces teamwork and celebrates the solitary genius; we frown upon disputes and betrayal. To a certain degree, so did Rome’s. But as I will argue in this book, a not insubstantial chunk of Rome’s mythic history was devoted to this very narrative: the unraveling of collegiality in the face of immense pres- sures and desires to succeed. The most obvious example of such competition in Roman myth is the saga of the founders Romulus and Remus. But this book is only partly about them. Many scholars have patiently worked at the Gordian knot of the twins’ story, and I make no claim to have sliced through it in the pages that follow. Indeed, my argument rests upon the notion that the goal of tales like Romulus and Remus’ was to inspire conversations, debates, and speculation. My goal, in turn, is to analyze the destructive increase in competition during the Republic as viewed through Roman mythology.
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