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Imperial Representation Andtopics of Deconstruction

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Imperial Representation Andtopics of Deconstruction chapter 3 Imperial Representation and Topics of Deconstruction 1 Military Actions: From Peace to Inactivity, from Victory to Hypocrisy 1.1 Recoding Peace and Victory One of the emperor’s main roles and one of his main topics of representation was as military leader. Not only the soldiers, but also the senate and people expected the Roman emperor to fulfil this role, which could be expressed in different media, such as nomenclature, coins, statues and buildings, and lit- erature. A literary account of what exactly was expected of the emperor as military leader is provided by Tacitus’ contemporary Pliny the Younger. From his image of Trajan in the Panegyricus we get a glimpse of the ideal military leader: he loves peace (Plin. Pan. 16.1) but terrifies enemies (Plin. Pan. 12.1) and is victorious in bloody battles (Plin. Pan. 12.1); he is modest about his success and does not care too much for triumphs (Plin. Pan. 16.1). He is admired by his own men (Plin. Pan. 13.1) and behaves like a fellow soldier (Plin. Pan. 13.1; 15.5), but also guides the troops and knows what they need (Plin. Pan. 13.2–3), while preserving the discipline of the army (Plin. Pan. 18.1).1 Just as Pliny’s Panegyricus participates in the discourse on Trajan’s military virtues, panegyrical literature on Nero and Domitian is part of the correspond- ing discourses on them and reflects their historical forms of representation in the military sphere. The historical Nero and Domitian provide us with two very different ways to incorporate military actions in imperial representation.2 Nero never set much emphasis on military achievements during his reign. Accord- 1 Pliny succeeds in depicting Trajan both as superior and equal to his soldiers, both as impe- rator and as commilito (cf. Rees 2001, 154–156). See also the description of Vespasian as a model for military leadership in this sense in Tac. Hist. 2.5.1: Vespasianus acer militiae anteire agmen, locum castris capere, noctu diuque consilio ac, si res posceret, manu hostibus obniti, cibo fortuito, veste habituque vix a gregario milite discrepans (“Vespasian, who was passionate on campaigns, headed the army on the march, chose the camping-ground, opposed the enemies by night or day through his planning, and, if need be, the sword. He ate what he could get, and dressed almost like a common soldier”). 2 See the comparison of Nero’s and Domitian’s military virtus in their imperial representation in Bönisch-Meyer et al. 2014a, 439–442. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004407558_006 56 chapter 3 ingly, panegyrical literature praises his time as an era of peace.3 And military virtue is presented as outdated in the contemporary Laus Pisonis.4 The Flavian Domitian, by contrast, made military success, especially against the German tribes, the most important element of his imperial representation, which is reflected for example in his coins and their legends, as well as in his use of the innovative title Germanicus.5 Lots of literary accounts, especially Martial’s books 7 and 8, but also Silius Italicus, Statius, Quintilian, and Frontinus, praise his military actions and triumphs, as well as building endeavours such as the equus Domitiani that express his military virtues.6 These different ways of rep- resenting Nero’s and Domitian’s military actions as positive or neutral call for different strategies of deconstruction in the critical discourse: Nero’s relatively rare military actions are not interpreted positively as signs of a peaceful era, as is done in the panegyrical discourse, but are re-coded as inactivity; Domitian’s military endeavours are re-coded as fake success without real achievements. Given that imperial historiography in general did not consider peace to be a desirable good per se, it would have been a possible strategy for Tacitus to pick up Neronian panegyrics and to criticize Nero’s times as too peaceful.7 3 Cf. p.88–91 on the motif of the aurea aetas in Neronian literature. The second Carmen Ein- sidlense, however, puts some emphasis on the military aspect, or on the peace following war, probably reacting to events in Britain. It describes Nero as Apollo ruling over the world (iam regnat Apollo, Carm. Einsidl. 2.38), and hence as comparable to the Olympians (see Schubert 1998, 418). 4 See Laus Pisonis 22–25 with Rilinger 1996, 142–143. 5 The Flavians legitimated their dynasty by military success and added imperator to the nomen- clature of the princeps (see Leberl 2004, 49). See Seelentag 2004, 116–121 and Witschel 2006, 103; 114–115 for military elements in Domitian’s imperial representation. The coins associate Domitian with Victoria (see Leberl 2004, 46; cf. Leberl 2004, 45–46 on the Cancelleria Relief with a personification of Victoria) and depict him as invincible (see Leberl 2004, 72). Domi- tian triumphed over the Chatti in 83CE and 89CE and had coins minted with the legend Germanicus (in 83CE) and Germania capta (in 84CE), cf. Lund 1988, 209. For the title Ger- manicus see also Leberl 2004, 48, and e.g. Mart. 2.2 and 5.2.7. 6 Domitian’s military conduct in the year 70CE is depicted positively by Flavius Josephus as surpassing his age and befitting his father (Joseph. BJ 7.85–88; see also 4.646; 654). On pan- egyrical literature about Domitian’s martial conduct (including Frontinus’ Strategemata) cf. Charles 2002, 29–30: Frontinus started to criticize Domitian only after his death in his work De aquae ductu urbis Romae. See also Leberl 2004, 143–167; 245–265. For the equus Domitiani see Seelentag 2004, 338–341; Leberl 2004, 37. Statius gives us a literary account of it (Stat. Silv. 1.1), and Martial (8.44.7) may refer to it too. 7 War offered opportunities to achieve honours for soldiers, generals, principes, and Rome itself. It was also an established idea in Roman historiography that foreign enemies keep internal morals to a higher standard (cf. Sall. Cat. 10 on the fall of Carthage and its negat- ive effect on society as a watershed for Roman history). Peace could therefore generally be regarded as having negative effects on Roman power and virtues. For suspicions about peace.
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