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Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16259-4 — Models from the Past in Roman Culture Matthew B. Roller Frontmatter More Information i MODELS FROM THE PAST IN ROMAN CULTURE Historical examples played a key role in ancient Roman culture, and Matthew Roller’s book presents a coherent model for understand- ing the rhetorical, moral, and historiographical operations of Roman exemplarity. It examines the process of observing, evaluating, and commemorating noteworthy actors or deeds, and then holding those performances up as norms by which to judge subsequent actors or as patterns for them to imitate. Th e model is fleshed out via detailed case studies of individual exemplary performers, the monuments that commemorate them, and the later contexts – the political arguments and social debates – in which these fi gures are invoked to support particular positions or agendas. Roller also considers the boundar- ies of, and ancient alternatives to, exemplary modes of argumenta- tion, morality, and historical thinking. Th e book will engage anyone interested in how societies, from ancient Rome to today, invoke past performers and their deeds to address contemporary concerns and interests. MATTHEW B. ROLLER is Professor of Classics at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of two earlier books: Constructing Autocracy: Aristocrats and Emperors in Julio- Claudian Rome (2001) and Dining Posture in Ancient Rome: Bodies, Values, and Status (2006). Apart from exemplarity, he is interested in aristocratic competi- tion in the early Roman Empire, and in the younger Seneca’s moral philosophy. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16259-4 — Models from the Past in Roman Culture Matthew B. Roller Frontmatter More Information iii MODELS FROM THE PAST IN ROMAN CULTURE A World of Exempla MATTHEW B. ROLLER Th e Johns Hopkins University © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16259-4 — Models from the Past in Roman Culture Matthew B. Roller Frontmatter More Information iv University Printing House, Cambridge CB 2 8 BS , United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314– 321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06- 04/ 06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107162594 DOI: 10.1017/ 9781316677353 © Matthew B. Roller 2018 Th is publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2018 Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. ISBN 978- 1- 107- 16259- 4 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URL s for external or third- party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16259-4 — Models from the Past in Roman Culture Matthew B. Roller Frontmatter More Information v For Sebastian © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16259-4 — Models from the Past in Roman Culture Matthew B. Roller Frontmatter More Information vii Contents List of Illustrations page x Acknowledgments xi List of Abbreviations xiv Map of the Principal Monuments and Sites Discussed in Th is Book xvi Introduction: Th e Work of Examples 1 0.1 Why Th is Book? 1 0.2 An Example of a Roman Exemplum 3 0.3 A General Model of Roman Exemplarity 4 0.3.1 Action 5 0.3.2 Evaluation 6 0.3.3 Commemoration 6 0.3.4 Norm Setting 8 0.4 Supplemental Comments on the Model 8 0.5 Th ree Cultural Dimensions of Roman Exemplarity 10 0.5.1 Th e Rhetorical Dimension 11 0.5.2 Th e Moral or Ethical Dimension 13 0.5.3 Th e Historiographical Dimension 17 0.6 Th is Book’s Contribution 23 0.7 Plan of Th is Book 26 1 Horatius Cocles: Commemorating and Imitating a Great Deed 32 1.1 Introduction: Horatius as Exemplary Exemplum 32 1.2 Commemorating the Great Deed: Horatius’ Monuments 36 1.2.1 Th e “Path of Cocles” 37 1.2.2 Th e Pons Sublicius 37 1.2.3 Wound to the Hip or Leg 38 1.2.4 Cognomen and Eye 42 1.2.5 Medallion 43 1.2.6 Statue 48 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16259-4 — Models from the Past in Roman Culture Matthew B. Roller Frontmatter More Information viii viii Contents 1.3 Normative Horatius: Standard- Setting and Imitation 53 1.4 Rhetorical and Moral Dynamics of the Horatius Exemplum 63 2 Cloelia: Timelessness and Gender 66 2.1 Introduction: Cloelia as Imitator of Horatius 66 2.2 On Timelessness: Monumental Encounters between Past and Present 71 2.3 Th e “Manly Maiden” 77 2.4 Cloelia’s Statue 87 2.5 Judging Morals, Typicality, and Uniqueness across Time 93 3 Appius Claudius Caecus: Positive and Negative Exemplarity 95 3.1 Introduction: Appius “Live” 95 3.2 Livy’s Appius: Exemplary Performance in artes urbanae 97 3.3 Appius’ Monuments: Deceptive, Contradictory, and Double- Edged 110 3.3.1 Via Appia, Aqua Appia 111 3.3.2 Temple of Bellona 113 3.3.3 Elogium from the Forum Augustum 116 3.3.4 Blindness and Cognomen 119 3.3.5 Speech Against Peace with Pyrrhus 122 3.4 Appius and His Descendants: Case Studies in Familial Exemplarity 125 3.5 One Hundred Hands, for Better or Worse 132 4 Gaius Duilius: Exemplarity and Innovation 134 4.1 Introduction: Change in an Exemplary Framework 134 4.2 Duilius as Naval Victor: Performance and Commemoration 135 4.3 Th e Rhetoric of the primus 139 4.4 Augustan Teleology: Duilius as Precursor 147 4.5 Moral Improvement and Moral Decline: Models of Change over Time within Exemplarity 153 4.6 Obscure Monuments and Evaluations: Hints of Historicism? 156 5 Fabius Cunctator: Competing Judgments and Moral Change 163 5.1 Introduction: On Changing One’s Mind 163 5.2 Rumores vs. salus: Th e Complex Morality of Delay 166 5.3 Gloria through cunctatio: Th e Paradoxes of Fabian “Delay” 174 5.3.1 Cunctator 175 5.3.2 Winning without Fighting 178 5.3.3 Gloria 180 5.4 Post, magis, nunc: Fabius Revalued 183 5.5 Having One’s Own “Fabian Moment:” Exemplarity through the Looking Glass 187 5.6 Traces of a Diff erent Fabius 193 6 Cornelia: An Exemplary matrona among the Gracchi 197 6.1 Introduction: On Becoming “the Mother of the Gracchi” 197 6.2 Mater Gracchorum as Name and Exemplum 199 6.3 Cornelia’s Statue and the Politics of Porticos 213 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16259-4 — Models from the Past in Roman Culture Matthew B. Roller Frontmatter More Information ix Contents ix 6.4 Cornelia Gracchorum and Octavia as Exemplary Augustan Matrons 221 6.5 Mater Gracchorum after Augustus 226 6.6 Communicative and Cultural Memory: Th e Case of Cornelia’s Sons 229 7 Cicero’s House and “Aspiring to Kingship” 233 7.1 Introduction: Doing Battle through Exempla 233 7.2 Th e Elite domus and Social Power 236 7.3 “Aspirants to Kingship” and Similar Malefactors 238 7.3.1 Spurius Maelius 239 7.3.2 Spurius Cassius 243 7.3.3 Marcus Vaccus 246 7.3.4 Marcus Manlius 247 7.3.5 Marcus Fulvius Flaccus 250 7.4 Clodius and Cicero on Cicero as “Kingship Aspirant” 251 7.5 Th e Exempla of Fulvius and Catulus: Demolished Houses as Moral Palimpsests 259 8 Conclusion: Exemplarity and Stoicism 265 8.1 Seneca’s Exempla 265 8.2 Th e “Misjudgment” Critique 266 8.3 Th e “Insuffi cient Evidence” Critique 275 8.4 Exempla and praeceptor 283 8.5 Exemplarity in Stoic Garb 287 Bibliography 290 Index Locorum 313 General Index 317 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16259-4 — Models from the Past in Roman Culture Matthew B. Roller Frontmatter More Information x Illustrations Map 1 Map of central Rome, including monuments and sites ranging from the middle Republic to the early imperial age page xviii Figures 1.1 Medallion of Antoninus Pius, 140– 4 ce . Reproduced from W. Froehner, Les m é daillons de l’Empire romain depuis le r è gne d’Auguste jusqu’ à Priscus Attale (Paris: 1878), 60. 45 4.1 Denarius of Octavian, mid 30s–early 20s bce . Roman Imperial Coinage 1 2 (1984) no. 271. Photo Eric Kondratieff . 150 6.1 Base of Cornelia statue, photo by author. 215 x © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16259-4 — Models from the Past in Roman Culture Matthew B. Roller Frontmatter More Information xi Acknowledgments Th is book had its beginnings in a seminar on “Tiberian Literature” led by Martin Bloomer, which I attended in (I think) 1990 as a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley.
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  • Excellence Redefined: the Evolution of Virtus in Ancient Rome

    Excellence Redefined: the Evolution of Virtus in Ancient Rome

    Excellence Redefined: The Evolution of Virtus in Ancient Rome A thesis submitted to Miami University Honors Program in partial fulfillment of the requirements for University Honors with Distinction by Emily J. Trygstad May 2010 Oxford, Ohio i Abstract While there has been extensive academic research for over a thousand years in the field of Classics, it is impressive to note just how much research still needs to be done. For my thesis, I plan to take some of my own personal academic interest and channel it into a largely understudied topic: the evolution of the Roman value of virtus, and the effects that this change produced in Roman society. Virtus, which was in many ways held to be the paramount quality an ancient Roman male could possess, was initially expressed through an assertion of martial prowess. No simple translation for this ideal exists, however; “bravery” or “manliness”, while sometimes used, do not fully render the complex importance of virtus. Historian Myles McDonnell sums the notion up best: “the relationship... between virtus and all the other things the Romans valued – liberty, property, family, and fatherland – is one of dependence. Virtus embraces all that is good because it is virtus that guards and preserves all that is good” (McDonnell, 32). Over the course of time, however, history sees virtus make a gradual shift as an ideal manifested through military distinction to a more liberal celebration of “excellence”, not dissimilar from the Greek notion of‟αρετή. While most classicists and historians alike seem to agree that the ideal did indeed evolve over time, the study of what caused this shift has only barely been explored.