Deconstruction and the Construction of Memory

chapter 8 Deconstruction and the Construction of Memory 1 Typologies of Bad Emperors 1.1 Nero and Domitian Recalling Julio-Claudian Emperors In the previous chapter we saw how the techniques that Dio uses to decon- struct, i.e. to reshape to negative effect, Nero’s and Domitian’s imperial repres- entation are not applied exclusively to these two emperors—he uses them for other emperors as well. And these techniques are not the only device that pro- duces the impression of unity and continuity in Dio’s work.1 Dio also creates unity by explaining things from a contemporary point of view and by includ- ing both prolepses (foreshadowing) and analepses (flashbacks), which connect different reigns.2 Additionally, Dio establishes explicit or implicit typologies of emperors from the beginning of the principate to his own times. Similarities in literature may, of course, be based on similarities in reality. But it is the decision of each writer how much to underline or ignore them. The figures of Nero and Domitian are part of the typologies that Dio creates: they both recall emperors who ruled before them, mainly Caligula and Tiberius.3 Before we study these similarities between emperors more closely, we should underline that topoi are not blindly applied to every bad emperor in the same way.4 They are, rather, used differently for different figures and their use also depends on the historical facts about the emperor in question. Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Commodus, Caracalla, and Elagabalus have enough in com- 1 Cf. Schulz 2019a, 313–315 for questions and devices that characterize Dio’s Roman History as a whole. 2 For example, there is a reference to Vespasian in the depiction of Caligula’s rule (59.12.3). In the context of the triumphal honours given to Agricola by Titus, there is a reference to Domitian, who will later have him killed (66.20.3). Pertinax is mentioned in the war under Marcus Aurelius, in which he excels (72[71].3.2); the reader later understands better why the enemy knows him already (74[73].6.1). For proleptic references to contemporary history in earlier periods see: 40.14.4 (on the Parthians in Dio’s time); 51.17.3 (Egypt under Octavian and Septimius Severus); 55.23.7 (legions in Augustan times and under Septimius Severus); 58.14.1 (Sejanus compared to Plautianus); 68.31.2 (Hatra under Trajan and Septimius Severus). 3 Cf. Pelling 1997, 117 for Dio’s “taste for common and typical traits rather than individual and idiosyncratic”. 4 Cf., more generally, Dunkle 1971, 19: “these rhetorical commonplaces can express some truth about tyranny.These terms are not entirely meaningless if they are employed analytically and responsibly, not just to make narrative or fictitious speeches more colorful and sensational.” © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004407558_013 250 chapter 8 mon to be recognizable as the type of bad emperor, but they also have enough individual traits not to get mixed up.5 Dio’s depiction of these emperors may be compared with modern advertising, which on the one hand has to draw on established patterns of persuasion, but on the other hand has to distinguish itself from these patterns in order to be recognizable. Advertisements and Dio’s images of bad emperors have to achieve the highest possible degree of both variety and redundancy.6 The aspect of redundancy allows the reader to recog- nize patterns, the aspect of variety gives the emperor an individual twist. We should therefore not conceive of a topos as a meaningless pool of literary motifs that is simply applied to any text. Topoi and stereotypes draw on certain patterns of interpretation that are fixed in a society. These patterns have a high interpretative power.7 Several topoi in the account of Nero recall Caligula.8 Like Nero after him, Dio’s Caligula is enthusiastic about and spends enormous sums of money on actors, the theatre, and horses (59.2.5; 59.13.5). He wishes to perform as a dancer and actor on stage (59.29.6), and is not willing to play his role as emperor or even as human being (καὶ πάντα μᾶλλον ἢ ἄνθρωπος αὐτοκράτωρ τε δοκεῖν εἶναι ἤθελε, 59.26.8). He is extremely cruel (59.10.2–3). Just as Nero does later, he urgently asks the leading men of the senate to come to him—not to talk about politics, but to dance for them (59.5.5). Like his nephew, he will not accept it if people do not attend his performances in the theatre (59.7.5). Dio also depicts the beginnings and ends of Caligula’s and Nero’s reigns in similar ways. Caligula’s behaviour towards the senate at the beginning of his reign foreshad- ows Nero: Caligula at first aims at a good relationship with the senate (59.6.1–7), just like Nero. The plan to murder Caligula is carried out when he announces once more that he will perform as a dancer and in a tragedy (59.29.6). Dio explicitly compares Caligula to Nero and to Tiberius. Tiberius was less bad than Caligula, since he had at least kept power in his own hands (59.5.1– 2). Caligula, by contrast, was ruled by charioteers and gladiators, and was the slave of actors and others connected with the stage (Γάιος δὲ ἤρχετο μὲν καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἁρματηλατούντων καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ὁπλομαχούντων, ἐδούλευε δὲ καὶ τοῖς ὀρχησταῖς καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις τοῖς περὶ τὴν σκηνὴν ἔχουσι, 59.5.2). Nero later follows in the steps 5 That these misdeeds are highly individual is mirrored in the fact that a list of vices in Dio, as presented in Kuhn-Chen 2002, 165–172, helpful as it is, does not capture exactly what Nero and Domitian are reproached for. 6 See Bense 1982, 313 for this definition of modern advertising. 7 On the function of stereotypes and typological motifs in Dio cf. Gleason 2011, 59; 78. Cf. de Blois 1999, 267: “Clichés were a means for getting a grasp on and interpreting reality.” 8 That Nero recalls Caligula is prominently pointed out later by Eutropius and Orosius: Eutr. 7.14.1; Oros. 7.7.1..

Load more